||| FROM THE STRAITS TIMES |||
LONDON/ZARAGOZA, Spain – For the past few months, tourists in certain areas of Spain have found fewer welcome mats and more hostility. Anti-tourism graffiti loops across buildings, and tens of thousands of people have protested this year against unsustainable mass tourism.
Over the weekend in Barcelona, locals’ anger over housing shortages, overcrowding and the cost of living was tangible – and wet.
Residents of the Catalan capital took to the streets on July 6 with water guns, squirting them at diners eating al fresco.
About 2,800 people demonstrated, the police said, a figure that some organisers said was an undercount. Some carried signs with messages like “tourists go home” and “you are not welcome,” and doused families at restaurants.
“Spraying someone with water is not violent,” said Mr Daniel Pardo Rivacoba, who helped lead and organise the protest.
“It’s probably not nice,” he added, “but what the population is suffering every day is more violent.”
Ms Rosario Sanchez, a high-ranking Spanish tourism official, condemned the protests. She argued that the citizens were “not saying ‘no to tourism’,” but instead looking for changes that addressed their quality of life.
“Spain is one of the safest tourist destinations that exist,” she wrote in an email. “Specific incidents with tourists are reprehensible uncivil behavior that has nothing to do with the reality of our country.”
The headlines could drive people away and hurt the tourism industry, which is core to Barcelona’s economy, said Mr Christian Petzold, the director of BCN Travel, a tour operator in the city. Tourism accounts for 14 per cent of Barcelona’s gross domestic product and about 150,000 jobs, according to data from the City Council.
The protesters and their supporters say that the demand for short-term housing is exacerbating an increasingly unaffordable rental market. The mayor, Mr Jaume Collboni, announced plans in June to get rid of all short-term housing by late 2028.
He called it the city’s “largest problem.”
Mr Petzold suggested that some of the anger was misplaced, citing a high number of expatriates and digital nomads, who bring higher salaries to the competitive rental market.
“These people have more impact on the city and everything than the actual tourists,” he said. “This blame on the tourists is a bit cheap.”
Like Barcelona, like the San Juans… this being the end result of local resident’s taking matters into their own hands after having exhausted, over time, all civil and legal means of redress, and having their elected leaders continuing to turn their heads and ignoring their pleas, while observing the ongoing degradation of their community’s environment, natural resources and social well-being by governmental policies that ignore all anecdotal evidence, and spin the numbers in such a fashion that allows them to continue promoting mass tourism.
What do you call it when elected leaders in over-touristed areas commit to slowing the industry down by eliminating the majority of short-term Airbnb type rentals from the equation?
A GOOD START!
This is why I support the limits on short-term rentals that were established under the leadership of Council member Cindy Wolf. Others may disagree that they were too stringent, or not stringent enough, but the core fact is that SOME kind of limits needed to be established on what has been appropriately labelled “overtourism.” Thank you, Cindy, for your leadership on this issue, which your predecessor in office could never have ginned up the courage to address.
Question to our fabulous restaurant owners… would you be able to sustain business – with say – 1/3 less tourists? Do local residents dine regularly enough to make up the difference? Would they support you more in the future if we dropped 1/3 of the tourist economy?
Artists and galleries – same questions?
How many businesses would have to close and move off island?
If I did not rent 3/4 of my home to visitors – I would definitely have to sell and move. I would be very sad to go since I love our community. I agree that we don’t need more new residents coming to Orcas to work from home in our rentals … we do need tourism however, unless every one of us wants to begin supporting our local economy 30% more than we currently do. For some of us it might require an 80% increase to do our part.
Does anyone want to hire me to work from a computer while I travel to care for parents …so I can shut down my business of airbnb? I need to pay property taxes, insurance, utilities, and a bit of gas and grocery money please.
The people who want airbnb to end must not care about artists or chefs. Help me understand. Are you willing to replace the loss of income for businesses? For me? Our ferry system is a huge deterrent for travelers currently
.. maybe we just avoid fixing that situation.
“If you ask the right questions the answers don’t matter.”
C’mon Wendy. Nobody said we don’t need tourism… yawn. Nobody said that tourism isn’t important to the county. Nobody said they didn’t like tourism. Nobody is saying shut down the restaurants. What I would say within the narrow framework that you offer is that when the number of restaurants that are operating are in check with both the seasonal and full time population, they don’t need another restaurant opening up down the block… they don’t need more competition.
The debate is over whether to continue letting tourism grow. It leads to the question of how much is enough? The overwhelming majority of islanders that have responded to past surveys as well as the recent Destination Management Plan have stated that we have enough. There’s a fine line between tourism that benefits a community and tourism that degrades a community with the neighborhood that you live in Wendy being a prime example of the latter. Your neighborhood is one of the most densely packed Airbnb neighborhoods in San Juan county… it has reached saturation. You may look at it only in terms of dollars, but It’s not healthy for the environment, it degrades the quality of community, and it has wreaked havoc upon our failed long-term rental housing market, and affordable home market. It’s not balanced, and yes, I for one, in this regard, would like to see less.
Tourism that is in check with our resident population and our sensitive environment is a healthy ecosystem. Tourism that runs it and is driving it into the ground is not. If you want to talk about how much tourism is costing you, realize that as a tourism-based economy grows so does the need for more tourism infrastructure and increased infrastructure related maintenance costs… as well as increased depletion of our natural resources, our critical resources, and the degradation of our natural environment, and our ecological systems, with each of these negatively affected our quality of life.
I have to put in a word for Wendy here, who has singlehandedly done more to help local Islanders find housing than any agency of the County. In terms of renting out part of her own home as an Air BNB, that is a distinction that should have been and should still be made in the VR regulations. Full-time residents who rent out rooms or single guest houses on their property should never have felt threatened by proposed VR limits. It’s the non-resident owners and the permits running with the land that make VR permits an investment value; and that hasn’t changed with arbitrary caps on the numbers of VRs. Clearly, balancing our tourist-driven economy with preservation of our quality of life is an issue that hasn’t been solved, and one that our candidates for County Council need to address.
Appels and oranges– nobody is taking away from the efforts of those that are helping to offset the shortcomings of SJC’s lack of rental housing, efforts that I might remind you, are needed as a result of SJCs continued over reliance on a tourism-based economy which has created an overabundance of short-term rentals and second homes.
“In terms of renting out part of her own home as an Air BNB, that is a distinction that should have been and should still be made in the VR regulations.”
There is nothing in the regulations that prohibit the short-term rental of rooms out of ones house.
“Full-time residents who rent out rooms or single guest houses on their property should never have felt threatened by proposed VR limits.”
In a county facing over-tourism all tourist lodging should have limits.
“It’s the non-resident owners and the permits running with the land that make VR permits an investment value; and that hasn’t changed with arbitrary caps on the numbers of VRs.”
The very fact that short-term vacation rentals make a residential use into a profit making machine in itself makes short-term rentals both more desirable, while also raising their value. The limits on short-term rentals are not “arbitrary.” They were decided upon island-by-island with input from stakeholders all across the board.
Michael …
I don’t just rent out a room or two in my house. I rent out 3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths, laundry, kitchen, livingroom, deck, and entry – all privately self contained with my permit in order to afford to keep my property. I live in a bedroom aith a bathroom and have a side entrance.
Has tourism hurt you personally?
My rental used less water and electricity than when it was my family home. The ferry system has been a tourist deterrent for awhile now. During covid people bought up rental properties to use as full time homes in order to move out of the big cities. I don’t believe they all became airbnb homes. Do you have actual facts on your assumptions? I would love to see the documentation.
I don’t want over tourism either … but I do believe in good balance. MANY locals would lose their businesses, employments, and livelihood without our visitors. When I moved to Orcas in 2006 – I came to raise a family here – not as a tourist. I was impressed by how gracious people were with the visitors. Young people would come to experience island life while earning an income and visitors would return year after year …some becoming residents too.
We are not Nantucket nor are we anything like Hawaii. We are a caring community with beauty and love all around. I hope you can find more joy in sharing what we love.
We have rentals. We do.
Wendy–
“Has tourism hurt you personally?”
Yes. But it’s not all about me, and it’s not about the moment. It’s about us, about the common good, and about the long term health and welfare of our island communities. But you knew this.
“My rental used less water and electricity than when it was my family home.”
Why is this? Was it not renting, or, by comparison, were your family heavy water users and they moved out? Paul Kamin’s water study showed that permitted vacation rentals in Eastsound used more water than traditional family homes, much more. My friends who rent both short term and long-term homes tell me that, relatively speaking, their short-term renters use more water than their long-term renters do, much more. Heck, when I’m on vacation and am staying elsewhere, (and am not being charged for the utilities), I tend to unwind after spending 8 months conserving resources, and I find myself taking long relaxing showers, long hot baths, and I use the hot tub like there’s no tomorrow, much more so than I do here on a regular basis… it’s endemic with tourism. People are here to have a good time, (all except your short-term renters I guess… perhaps they’re the world’s most conservative utility users, I dunno). The question again, is, “why is this?”
“The ferry system has been a tourist deterrent for awhile now.”
O.K. But, that doesn’t change the long-term outlook of SJC in terms of growth and tourism. We shouldn’t have to rely on a dysfunctional ferry system to keep things in check. We should be able to rely on responsible government and reasonable growth & tourism policies in order to avoid the pitfalls of overtourism, and tourism related growth.
“During covid people bought up rental properties to use as full time homes in order to move out of the big cities.”
Are you sure? The Center of economic and business research San Juan County profile shows that during the Covid pandemic that even though property prices went up, home sales dipped drastically. What is true is that people moved into their 2nd homes during Covid in order to escape the big cities, and that both the legal and illegal short-term rental business was booming during the pandemic. There were also some who rented out their vacation rentals illegally during the shutdown… also to people that were escaping the big cities.
“I don’t believe they all became airbnb homes.”
Nobody said that they did.
Do you have actual facts on your assumptions? I would love to see the documentation.
Yes, but seriously, I’m not going to waste my time going through the voluminous amounts of data that I’ve gleaned from attending meetings, engaging with the various county departments that are relative to the subject (the county council, the visitors bureau, the planning commission, etc.), reading books on the subject, sitting in study groups, looking at news reports and studies conducted around the world, reviewing SJC’s housing needs assessments, Comp. Plans, public surveys and third party consultant reports over the years in order to appease your lack of knowledge on the subject. Let me ask instead, where have you been? Wait, let me answer that for you– the closer one is to the money making side of tourism the less they seem to know about it’s negative affects on small communities. In other words, if you don’t know both sides of this issue by now it’s because you don’t want to know. This is an issue that’s been going on for decades, and there’s an abundance of information out there in regards to both the upsides as well as the downsides to tourism, and the effects that it has had on SJC.
Do you think somehow that San Juan County is immune to the negative side of tourism, or of reaching a state of overtourism? As a realtor you should know better than others that short-term vacation rentals have been drivers of the local housing market, and also stressors on the long-term rental and the affordable housing markets. You said you would love to see some information in regards to this? How much would you love to see it? Would you love to see it enough to bother going to your Google search engine and looking for yourself. Or going to the county portal and doing the same? I didn’t think so. This is happening virtually everywhere, and there are many communities (some as close as Anacortes) that have done their homework and have made great strides in reigning in tourism by limiting lodging.
“I don’t want over tourism either … but I do believe in good balance.”
You do live in a bubble. What is it that you see in terms of “good balance” that’s happening in SJC at this moment in time? Affordable housing? The availability of long-term rental housing? The cost of living? Median income? Living wages? Diversity? I’ve heard you say it all before, “Our environment is pristine.” No, it isn’t. “This is the most beautiful place in the world.” No it isn’t.” We have the cleanest air in the country.” No we don’t.
“MANY locals would lose their businesses, employments, and livelihood without our visitors.”
Stop it Wendy, you’re like a stuck record. There’s absolutely nothing about what I’ve said that can be even remotely attributed to that line of thinking.
“I was impressed by how gracious people were with the visitors.”
I personally don’t know anybody who isn’t. I’m gracious to the tourists too. I find some of them interesting and I often find myself engaging with them. I’ve even let some of them stay at my place… for free of course.
“We are not Nantucket nor are we anything like Hawaii.”
There are many similarities in the San Juans and the places that you mention, (as well as Aspen, Martha’s Vineyard, Telluride, Austin, Lake Tahoe, Jackson Hole, and yes, even Barcelona), as well as many other places that suffer from overtourism. But, we are the San Juans, and possibly unlike Nantucket and Hawaii there are many people here that are determined to keep pressure on our elected leaders to remind them that in spite of the extractive industries that some represent, (real-estate and vacation rentals)… that the San Juans are not for sale.
“We are a caring community with beauty and love all around.”
O.K. That’s one of the reasons why I moved here for many years ago.
“I hope you can find more joy in sharing what we love.”
Unlike your misdirected assertion, there is no joy lacking in my life Wendy. Unlike some, I’m able to chew bubble gum and walk at the same time… that is, to observe reality and keep both my sanity and my sense of happiness in spite of the fact that I’m watching the loss of the greatest attributes of what the community I love has. I don’t have to turn a blind eye to what’s going on in order to be happy. I find my spirituality in the solitude, and in the beauty of nature, and in our shared sense of community (you know, that which we used to have more of, and the reasons why I moved here for many years ago, and that which the San Juans are losing rapidly due to overtourism and growth). As always, it’s a lot of people against a lot of money. It’s easier perhaps to see this when you come from an area that has gone through this like I did, or when you lose the job you love by a cheesy realtor selling the property to Oprah’s people, as I also did a few years back.
Your shallow assertions remind me of the pro-property rights doctor from New York City, (a psycho therapist I believe), that used to frequent the Orcasonian and make comments to folks in response to their comments following articles like the one above. In doing so I recall that one of his favorite euphemisms was, “the haters,” done so in an effort to label people who’s opinions differed from his own within a limited framing. Was this an accurate assessment of those who disagreed with him? Of course not. It was just an attempt to misdirect the issue, and minimize the argument coming from those that he disagreed with.