SanFranDan

Barcelona residents say tourism is a bigger problem than poverty as new mayor ramps up efforts to introduce a cap on visitors

• Barcelona conducted a poll asking residents to name city's problems
• Of those polled, 5.3 per cent said tourism is the biggest problem
• It edged poverty, which was identified by 5.1 per cent of respondents

By Chris Kitching for MailOnline Published: 07:48 EST, 11 July 2015

Barcelona residents are so fed up with their city being overrun by holidaymakers that some believe tourists are worse than poverty.

Mass tourism has been a major complaint from locals and prompted the city’s mayor to propose a tourist cap, while some sights have gone as far as banning large groups.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/tr...-visitors.html

cblaisd

Per http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...-how-post.html will send this to the appropriate destination forum with a permanent re-direct in Travel News.

cblaisd
Moderator, Travel News

SimonB77

The pictures in the article are VERY misleading. The article itself is quite misleading as well. At least it points out that unemployment at 31.9 is the cities biggest concern.

How would they "cap" the number of visitors into the city? The biggest question is, with all the immigrants, how do you figure out who is visiting and who actually lives there? Which is why I'm surprised immigration wasn't on the list as big concerns.

In any case here is the other side of the story:

Catalonians 'fear' Colau's Barcelona reforms

Koby

Easy: the visitors are the ones that will happily pay 100s of Euros per night for (legal or illegal) rental apartments in the city. The immigrants are the ones that can’t find any decent place to live in the city itself, because they can never compete with the prices paid by the visitors. (The same goes for all Barcelona residents, not just immigrants.)

SimonB77

This is true however a very difficult way to enforce the policy. Perhaps an easier way would be to spot those with fanny packs and water bottles.

Palal

If venice can't do it, and it's on a peninsula (or island, depending on your perspective), neither can BCN

Oaxaca

Given that about 70% of visitors are domestic / EU, it would be very difficult to cap visitors by law. They could only persist with the initial direction, restrict licensing of new hotels, reduce cruise traffic etc. None of that would prevent the rise of Airbnb etc.

Barcelona is to some extent a victim of its own success, the population is relatively small for the number of visitors it attracts, and the geography means they are concentrated in a pretty small area.

The centres of cities no longer being affordable for locals is an issue that affects major cities the world over, hardly a unique problem for Barcelona. Although this case is somewhat more ideological, visitors have increasingly been a soft target for local policiticians in Europe in the last 5 years, easy to blame/target those who have no vote in your election...

Alex71

"5.3 per cent of respondents said tourism is the biggest problem facing the city. It ranked behind unemployment and working conditions (31.9 per cent)"

Makes it pretty clear that only very few of the responders see tourism as the biggest problem, whereas many more appreciate the jobs the tourism industry is creating.

It would nevertheless not surprise me to see some restrictions to certain tourist segments, e.g. through legislation that would limit appartment rentals through Airbnb.

slawecki

5.3%. that's one in 20. that is very small number. what about the economy? what about the tourists in rome,venice, wash dc?