||| 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.”

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