Güell Park, Barcelona
From tourist spot to the point of rupture: Tourism has led Barcelona to the limit and Catalans are reacting in strength.
Last weekend, hundreds of activists spoke into the streets of Barcelona in protest against mass tourism in the city. Shouted for the tourists who filmed them, “Come home!” and “are killing Barcelona!”.
Perplexed couples, sitting in the cafes through the city streets, received squirt water pistols – In a gesture it has been.
In April 2024, near the Holy Family in Barcelona, a tourist bus was blocked, hit with water pistols, and on its front was put a track to say “Let’s erase the fire of tourism”.
It was a protest that called the attention against the suffocating domain of tourism over the city, underlining the growing tensions between the touristrification processes and a increasingly vocal reaction.
Barcelona became synonymous with social resistance Against the negative impacts of predatory and extractive tourism, but it is not alone: popular destinations such as the Canary Islands, Malaga and the Balearis Islands also recorded massive protests against the excesses of tourism in the last year.
People are abundantand the message is literally written on the walls-tourist apartments graffiti with the slogan “tourists go home have become an almost omnipresent image in many Spanish cities.
However, Tourists are not the guiltybut the excessive dependence on tourism, which over several decades has expelled numerous residents of its homes and neighborhoods.
As international trips recovered after the confinements of COVID-19, Barcelona and other Mediterranean cities saw tourists return to remarkable numbers. This led to a growing social agitation, as local communities felt increasingly frustrated with the way Tourism remodeling urban spaces in their damage.
The concerns of residents range from dwelling and work insecurity even environmental damage.
A privatization of public space It is also an important issue in Barcelona, aggravated by events of great visibility such as the Formula 1 Grand Prix, which brings few benefits to local residents.
Evolution Activism
Barcelona Anti-Treism activism dates back to the mid-2010s, when neighborhoods such as Barceloneta began to challenge the role of tourism on. Since then, groups such as the neighborhood assembly for tourism decrease (ABDT) have opposed the policies that foster the excessive dependence of the tourist economy.
ABDT notoriously prefers the term “touristification” to “overcrowding.”
According to the group, the concept of “overcrowding” runs the risk of depoliticizing the issue, presenting it as a simple problem of too many visitors. Instead, they say, problems are the result of structural inequalities linked to capitalist accumulation, the extractive nature of tourism, and a sector that channels community wealth to private hands.
What distinguishes this current vacancy of activism from the previous ones is the transition of a frontal opposition to organized and constructive proposals.
Num, activists presented a manifesto with concrete measures to reduce economic dependence on tourism and promote a transition to an eco-social economy.
The main requirements included:
- The end of public subsidies to tourism promotion;
- regulation of short -term leases to prevent housing loss;
- the reduction of cruise ships traffic;
- and the improvement of labor conditions with fair salaries and stable working hours.
The manifesto also appealed to the diversification of the economy beyond tourism, the reconversion of tourist infrastructure for social use and the development of precarious workers support programs.
Marginalized groups are the most affected
Anti-taverism activism is often devalued by those who have interests in the sector, being labeled as “TourismFobia” or “Nimbyism” – A desire to protect your own area from unwanted developments (derived from the acronym in English “not in my back yard”which in Portuguese means “not in my backyard”).
These labels ignore the fact that tourism -centered economies mainly affect marginalized groups with little political powersuch as tenants, migrants, precarious seasonal workers and young people without representation.
Social movements in the Mediterranean cities internalized this reality, widening anti-tailism activism to also address governmental inadequate in the face of the housing crisis, labor rights, climate cation and the defense of public space.
These movements face the complex and interconnected challenges of touristification, including the social division of labor, gender inequalities and capital concentration. Are, above all, living proof that many residents want to give priority to the community well-being instead of economic growth.
Both political and academic decision makers are short when it comes to responding to protesters’ concerns.
Current policies aim above all to manage visitors or transport, rather than waging tourism growth or addressing power imbalances. This limited approach fails to solve deep causes of the problem and only perpetuates inequalities.
Beyond urban transformations, the dependence on tourism in relation to the precarious work It is a pressing issue. Many jobs in the sector are poorly paid, unstable and highly seasonal.
Instead of seeing protests as punctual or unique unmarks, we must understand them as part of broader struggles for social justice.
Rethinking urban tourism means reimaginating cities as spaces where residents can prosper, not just survive. For this, it is necessary to face the deep inequalities that are at the center of the tourism processes.
