Spaniards flip water pistols on guests to protest mass tourism

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 high locations. Whereas a number of 1000’s rallied in Mallorca within the greatest gathering of the day, lots of extra gathered in different Spanish cities, in addition to in Venice, Italy, and Portugal’s capital, Lisbon.

“The squirt guns are to bother the tourists a bit,” Andreu Martínez stated in Barcelona with a chuckle after spritzing a pair seated at an outside café. “Barcelona has been handed to the tourists. This is a fight to give Barcelona back 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 folks. Barcelona hosted 15.5 million guests final 12 months wanting to see Antoni Gaudí’s La Sagrada Familia basilica and the Las Ramblas promenade.

Martínez says his hire has risen over 30% as extra residences in his neighborhood are rented to vacationers for short-term stays. He stated there’s a knock-on impact of conventional shops being changed by companies catering to vacationers, like memento outlets, burger joints and “bubble tea” spots.

“Our lives, as lifelong residents of Barcelona, are coming to an end,” he stated. “We are being pushed out systematically.”

Round 5,000 folks gathered in Palma, the capital of Mallorca, with some toting water weapons as effectively and chanting “Everywhere you look, all you see are tourists.” 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 properties are diverted to the short-term rental market.

A whole lot 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 lodge beds within the lagoon metropolis in entrance of two just lately accomplished constructions, one within the well-liked vacationer vacation spot’s historic middle the place activists say the final resident, an aged girl, was kicked out final 12 months.

‘That is beautiful’

Protesters in Barcelona blew whistles and held up do-it-yourself indicators saying “One more tourist, one less resident.” They caught stickers saying “Citizen Self-Defense,” in Catalan, and “Tourist Go Home,” in English, with a drawing of a water pistol on the doorways of accommodations and hostels.

There was rigidity when the march stopped in entrance of a big hostel, the place a bunch emptied their water weapons at two employees positioned within the entrance. In addition 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 buying boulevard the place the protest began. They acquired a squirt or two, however she stated it was really refreshing given the 83 diploma Fahrenheit (28.3 levels Celsius) climate.

“That’s lovely, thank you sweetheart,” Wanda stated to the squirter. “I am not going to complain. These people are feeling something to them that is very personal, and is perhaps destroying some areas (of the city).”

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 combating how to deal with mass tourism and a increase 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 1000’s marched by means of the streets of Spain’s capital in April, some held do-it-yourself indicators saying “Get Airbnb out of our neighborhoods.”

Spanish authorities are striving to indicate they hear the general public outcry whereas not hurting an business that contributes 12% of gross home product.

Final month, Spain’s authorities ordered Airbnb to take away nearly 66,000 vacation leases from the platform that it stated had violated native guidelines.

Spain’s Shopper Rights Minister Pablo Bustinduy advised The Related Press shortly after the crackdown on Airbnb that the tourism sector “cannot jeopardize the constitutional rights of the Spanish people,” which enshrines their proper to housing and well-being. Carlos Cuerpo, the economic system minister, stated in a separate interview that the federal government is conscious it should deal with the undesirable unwanted side effects of mass tourism.

The boldest transfer was made by Barcelona’s city corridor, which surprised Airbnb and different companies who assist hire 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 drive on Sunday, the place folks held up indicators saying “Your Airbnb was my home.”

‘Taking away housing’

The short-term rental business, for its half, believes it’s being handled unfairly.

“I think a lot of our politicians have found an easy scapegoat to blame for the inefficiencies of their policies in terms of housing and tourism over the last 10, 15, 20 years,” Airbnb’s common director for Spain and Portugal, Jaime Rodríguez de Santiago just lately advised the AP.

That argument both hasn’t trickled all the way down to the abnormal 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 end, you realize that this is taking away housing from people,” he stated.