Tourism chiefs in Barcelona blasted protesters who took to the streets to vent their fury at the impact of tourism, as authorities voiced concern about how such unrest could harm the country’s €100 billion-a-year industry.
It comes after thousands of locals took the streets last Saturday to speak out about the pressures on housing they believe are caused by overtourism in the coastal city.
Signs reading “Tourists go home,” and “Barcelona is not for sale,” were on display as residents marched through local tourist hotspots, GB News reports.
Diners at restaurants in the area were also squirted with water pistols, amid chants of, “Tourists out of our neighbourhood”, according to the outlet.
On Friday, Spain’s tourism minister, Jordi Hereu, said the demonstration was “reprehensible” after reporting by foreign media shook the tourism sector and sparked fears that Spain’s reputation as a top tourist destination could be affected.
However, he said believed that the scenes had been exaggerated by overseas news outlets.
Meanwhile, Jorge Marichal, the president of Cehat, the Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodation, agreed that the protesors were “not very intelligent”, The Times reports.
Marichal told the outlet the image created by the demostration was “totally opposite to the reality, simply based on the actions of people who are not in their right mind”.
Meanwhile, Manel Casals, general director of the Barcelona Hotels Guild, acknowledged that everyone should have the right to protest, but that “any kind of violence” was unacceptable.
“And I don’t mean violence as in punching someone, but I mean invading the physical space of another person,” he continued. “That was the unacceptable part of the demonstration.
A small number of the of the 2,800 or so demonstrators had squirted water pistols at visitors, shouted slogans including “tourists go home” to diners in the city centre and taped up entrances to venues.
But though aggressive actions of a minority may have muddied the message of the march, the frustration among locals over housing pressures is keenly felt.
Many residents have grown frustrated as the price of rent as well as groceries and essentials surges.
Over the past decade the cost of housing in Spain has rocketed by 68 per cent, as Barcelona sees a rise in tourist rentals.
Seasonal hospitality workers and local people now struggle to find afforable accommodation around tourist hot spots, and unmanageable costs have meant even homeowners are struggling.
Analysis by Eurostat, the European Union statistics agency, previously found that 44.8 per cent of Spaniards who rented their homes were at risk of poverty as property costs were higher than earnings.
Rent in Barcelona is more expensive than ever, according to El Pais. In the third quarter of last year, an apartment in the city was found to cost around €1,171 per month, on average.
But Casals insisted that the city is moving in the right direction. “Barcelona has been managing its tourism well for 10 years, and there are things that have improved, changed and evolved,” he argued.
“The fact that there were so few people at the demonstration on Saturday is a reflection of how we are improving this management. Is there still more to do? No doubt.
“Will these people continue to demonstrate? Probably, because there is a part of the population who protests because they are anti-capitalist, or they complain just for the sake of complaining.”