A protester with a water gun takes half in a protest towards overtourism in Barcelona, Spain on Sunday.
Pau Venteo/AP
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Pau Venteo/AP
BARCELONA, Spain — Protesters used water pistols towards unsuspecting vacationers in Barcelona and on the Spanish island of Mallorca on Sunday as demonstrators marched to demand a rethink of an financial mannequin they consider is fueling a housing crunch and erasing the character of their hometowns.
The marches had been a part of the primary coordinated effort by activists involved with the ills of overtourism throughout southern Europe’s prime locations. Whereas a number of hundreds rallied in Mallorca within the largest gathering of the day, a whole lot extra gathered in different Spanish cities, in addition to in Venice, Italy, and Portugal’s capital, Lisbon.
“The squirt weapons are to hassle the vacationers a bit,” Andreu Martínez mentioned in Barcelona with a chuckle after spritzing a pair seated at an outside café. “Barcelona has been handed to the vacationers. It is a struggle to offer Barcelona again to its residents.”
Martínez, a 42-year-old administrative assistant, is one in all a rising variety of residents who’re satisfied that tourism has gone too far within the metropolis of 1.7 million individuals. Barcelona hosted 15.5 million guests final 12 months desperate to see Antoni Gaudí’s La Sagrada Familia basilica and the Las Ramblas promenade.
Martínez says his lease has risen over 30% as extra residences in his neighborhood are rented to vacationers for short-term stays. He mentioned there’s a knock-on impact of conventional shops being changed by companies catering to vacationers, like memento retailers, burger joints and “bubble tea” spots.
“Our lives, as lifelong residents of Barcelona, are coming to an finish,” he mentioned. “We’re being pushed out systematically.”
Vacationers sit in a restaurant as individuals protest towards overtourism within the Balearic island of Mallorca, Spain on Sunday.
Joan Mateu Parra/AP
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Joan Mateu Parra/AP
Round 5,000 individuals gathered in Palma, the capital of Mallorca, with some toting water weapons as nicely and chanting “In every single place you look, all you see are vacationers.” The vacationers who had been focused by water blasts laughed it off. The Balearic island is a favourite for British and German sun-seekers. It has seen housing prices skyrocket as houses are diverted to the short-term rental market.
Lots of extra marched in Granada, in southern Spain, and within the northern metropolis of San Sebastián, in addition to the island of Ibiza.
In Venice, a few dozen protesters unfurled a banner calling for a halt to new resort beds within the lagoon metropolis in entrance of two just lately accomplished constructions, one within the standard vacationer vacation spot’s historic heart the place activists say the final resident, an aged girl, was kicked out final 12 months.
‘That is pretty’
Protesters in Barcelona blew whistles and held up home made indicators saying “Another vacationer, one much less resident.” They caught stickers saying “Citizen Self-Protection,” in Catalan, and “Vacationer Go Residence,” in English, with a drawing of a water pistol on the doorways of motels and hostels.
There was stress when the march stopped in entrance of a giant hostel, the place a bunch emptied their water weapons at two employees positioned within the entrance. Additionally they set off firecrackers subsequent to the hostel and opened a can of pink smoke. One employee spat on the protesters as he slammed the hostel’s doorways.
American vacationers Wanda and Invoice Dorozenski had been strolling alongside Barcelona’s important luxurious procuring boulevard the place the protest began. They acquired a squirt or two, however she mentioned it was truly refreshing given the 83 diploma Fahrenheit (28.3 levels Celsius) climate.
“That is pretty, thanks sweetheart,” Wanda mentioned to the squirter. “I’m not going to complain. These individuals are feeling one thing to them that could be very private, and is maybe destroying some areas (of town).”
There have been additionally many marchers with water pistols who did not hearth at bystanders and as an alternative solely used them to spray themselves to maintain cool.
Crackdown on Airbnb
Cities the world over are battling how to deal with mass tourism and a growth in short-term rental platforms, like Airbnb, however maybe nowhere has surging discontent been so evident as in Spain, the place protesters in Barcelona first took to firing squirt weapons at vacationers throughout a protest final summer season.
There has additionally been a confluence of the pro-housing and anti-tourism struggles in Spain, whose 48 million residents welcomed report 94 million worldwide guests in 2024. When hundreds marched by the streets of Spain’s capital in April, some held home made indicators saying “Get Airbnb out of our neighborhoods.”
Demonstrators bang pots and shout slogans throughout a protest towards mass tourism in Lisbon on Sunday.
Armando Franca/AP
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Armando Franca/AP
Spanish authorities are striving to point out they hear the general public outcry whereas not hurting an trade that contributes 12% of gross home product.
Final month, Spain’s authorities ordered Airbnb to take away virtually 66,000 vacation leases from the platform that it mentioned had violated native guidelines.
Spain’s Client Rights Minister Pablo Bustinduy informed The Related Press shortly after the crackdown on Airbnb that the tourism sector “can’t jeopardize the constitutional rights of the Spanish individuals,” which enshrines their proper to housing and well-being. Carlos Cuerpo, the financial system minister, mentioned in a separate interview that the federal government is conscious it should sort out the undesirable unintended effects of mass tourism.
The boldest transfer was made by Barcelona’s city corridor, which surprised Airbnb and different companies who assist lease properties to vacationers by saying final 12 months the elimination of all 10,000 short-term rental licenses within the metropolis by 2028.
That sentiment was again in power on Sunday, the place individuals held up indicators saying “Your Airbnb was my house.”
‘Taking away housing’
The short-term rental trade, for its half, believes it’s being handled unfairly.
“I feel plenty of our legislators have discovered a straightforward scapegoat in charge for the inefficiencies of their insurance policies by way of housing and tourism over the past 10, 15, 20 years,” Airbnb’s common director for Spain and Portugal, Jaime Rodríguez de Santiago just lately informed the AP.
That argument both hasn’t trickled all the way down to the atypical residents of Barcelona, or is not resonating.
Txema Escorsa, a trainer in Barcelona, would not simply oppose Airbnb in his house metropolis, he has ceased to make use of it even when touring elsewhere, out of precept.
“In the long run, you notice that that is taking away housing from individuals,” he mentioned.
