Mass tourism is ‘out of control’ and ‘killing’ Barcelona but holidaymakers aren’t solely to blame and attacking them with water pistols isn’t the answer, say residents after diners were drenched by ‘hypocritical’ activists

Radical anti-tourist protests led by ‘hypocritical’ activists which have seen holidaymakers attacked with water pistols have divided Barcelona, but residents say this isn’t the answer to solving the issue that is ‘killing’ their city.

The rowdy demos in Spain‘s second city are part of a wave of increasingly fraught protests across the country’s mainland and islands against the ever rising tide of tourism.

Tourists in Barcelona have been forced to cower and flee from restaurants and bars on the famous La Rambla as they were taunted and fired at with water.

The reaction to the high profile demo has been divisive among residents.

Some support the protests and are calling for further demonstrations to force authorities into taking action to reduce tourism which they said was ‘killing’ local neighbourhoods and forcing residents out as companies cashed in by converting buildings into tourist flats.

Demonstrators put a symbolic cordon on a bar-restaurant window during a protest against mass tourism on Barcelona’s La Rambla alley

Protesters squirted water guns at tourists eating in popular spots in the city. The Catalan capital received more than 12 million tourists in 2023 and expects more in 2024

However, others say it’s unfair and cruel to target individual tourists when the real problem is investors buying up property for holiday lets.

Manuel Román Campos, 49, a translator who lives in Barcelona, did not support drenching tourists.

‘I don’t think it is really fair to blame and annoy individual tourists for this global problem. We were all tourists at one time or another. But let’s not overdo it. It was water pistols during a demonstration, not a real attack,’ he said.

‘I am against this demonstration but the problems we face due to mass tourism are much bigger because they mean people cannot live in their own towns.

‘Mass tourism is killing the neighbourhoods, here in Barcelona, as well as throughout the world.

He added: ‘But our real enemies are vulture funds that buy whole buildings no matter who lives there and slowly throw tenants out. 

‘It is not as simple as saying there is ‘tourism phobia’ in Barcelona and we hate tourism. No, what we hate is the huge corporations taking away our neighbourhoods and our lives.’

Catherine Newton, 51, a teacher who is from Edinburgh but who has lived in Barcelona for 22 years, said tourism was ‘out of control’.

‘I have watched tourism grow every year and the situation is out of control. Local people cannot afford to live in their own city,’ she said.

‘The hotel and the tourism industry make billions every year and should reinvest in the city by example investing in social housing. There needs to be a long term solution to reduce tourism so local people can claim their city back.’

Catherine Newton, 51, a teacher who is from Edinburgh but who has lived in Barcelona for 22 years, said tourism was ‘out of control’

Ariadna Coten, 56, economist, called for Spanish authorities to take action to reduce tourism

Helena Roura, 31, a voice actor, said: ‘I think this was a necessary protest to show nationally and internationally the problem that we have had for some time in Barcelona’

Joan Manel del Llano, 46, biologist, said: ‘I support the demonstration against mass tourism and I hope there are many more. What is at stake is the future of the city’

Ariadna Coten, 56, economist, called for Spanish authorities to take action to reduce tourism.

‘I think it was necessary to demonstrate against mass tourism and its effects on the people who live here,’ she said.

‘The total inaction of authorities meant people went out on the streets to show they are sick of it. But it is also happening in Palma, Malaga and the Canary Islands where their population is demonstrating against an industry which we are suffering from.’

Helena Roura, 31, a voice actor, said: ‘I think this was a necessary protest to show nationally and internationally the problem that we have had for some time in Barcelona.’

‘The impossibility of affordable housing, the robbery that is renting, the evictions and the pollution which we suffer are shameful. 

‘Even more shameful is that they call us ungrateful. What idiot would be grateful for this?’

Joan Manel del Llano, 46, biologist, said: ‘I support the demonstration against mass tourism and I hope there are many more. What is at stake is the future of the city.’

Others called for diverting tourists from the city centre.

Jordi Miras Llopart, 47, communicator and cultural manager, said: ‘Barcelona is one of the most visited cities in Europe but tourism has saturated some areas which affects the heritage and the quality of life of some of its citizens and tourists. 

‘To improve the situation, we must diversify tourism to other parts of the city and other parts of Catalonia.’

A restauranteur, who did not want to give her name, told Mailonline: ‘I would say 90% of these protesters are hypocritical as they all go on holidays.

Demonstrators hold a sign reading ‘Barcelona is not for sale’ during a protest against mass tourism on Barcelona’s Las Ramblas alley on July 6

Thousands of people are protesting in downtown Barcelona against the city’s tourist overcrowding earlier in July

Protesters in Barcelona have told tourists that they are not welcome in the city

‘A huge majority of Spaniards do not think the same as these protesters. It is the political mismanagement that is to blame and anti-tourist feeling is easy to stir. ‘

Mateu Hernández, director general of the Barcelona Tourism, said the demonstration was a ‘failure’.

‘In other places tens of thousands demonstrated in the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands and Malaga. Here there were only 2,800,’ he said.

‘And a minority of protesters behaved themselves in a shameful way. They behaved in a hostile way in a city which is friendly to tourists.’

Mr Hernández said a survey among 2,000 people carried out by the Barcelona Council last year found 71% said they thought tourism was ‘beneficial’ for the city. However, 23% said it was bad for the city.

One restaurant owner called the demonstrators ‘hypocrites’ as they all go on holiday like other tourists.

The demonstration in Barcelona earlier this month comes amid a spate of protests in popular tourist destinations like the Canary Islands, Majorca, Malaga, Cadiz and Madrid against the tourist industry, which accounts for 13% of Spain’s GDP.

Under the slogan ‘Less Tourism, More Life’, protesters staged another protest in Majorca on Sunday.

Twelve million people visited the Catalan capital last year.

Canary Island natives protest as they call for a rethink of the island cluster’s tourism policies

Thousands of people demonstrate against tourism policies on the island of Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain on April 20, 2024

Barcelona’s mayor, Jaume Collboni, announced a plan in June to phase out all short-term lets by 2028, an unexpectedly drastic move by the authorities who seek to rein in soaring housing costs and make the city liveable for residents.

He said the city has a ‘firm’ commitment to limit mass tourism, including by introducing a tourist tax and turning more than 10,000 tourist flats into into residential buildings.

Earlier this months, under the slogan ‘Enough! Let’s put limits on tourism’, some 2,800 people – according to police – marched along a waterfront district of Barcelona to demand a new economic model that would reduce the millions of tourists that visit every year.

Protesters carried signs reading ‘Barcelona is not for sale,’ and, ‘Tourists go home,’ and chants of ‘Tourists out of our neighbourhood’ rang out as some stopped in front of the entrances to hotels.

Barcelona’s rising cost of housing, up 68 percent in the past decade, is one of the main issues for the movement, along with the effects of tourism on local commerce and working conditions in the city of 1.6 million inhabitants. 

In the Canary Islands, 50,000 people took to the streets of Tenerife in April to protest against tourism on the island.

Demonstrators were seeing brandishing ‘you enjoy, we suffer’ placards, claiming that the huge influx of tourists to the island is causing major environmental damage, driving down wages and squeezing locals out of cheap affordable housing, forcing dozens to live in tents and cars instead.