Thousands have protested against mass tourism and its consequences in Barcelona, Spain’s most-visited city. Around 2,800 demonstrators recently marched through the Catalan regional capital under the slogan “Enough! Let’s set limits to tourism.” The participants chanted slogans such as “Tourists, go home; you are not welcome.”
Image: Paco Freire/ZUMA Press Wire/Imago ImagesSquirting tourists with water guns
Local anger is rising. They are demanding restrictions on the tourism industry, which has caused a rise in real estate prices, environmental pollution, traffic congestion, general overcrowding and a water shortage. The healthcare system is also overloaded due to the growing number of visitors.
Image: Bruna Casas/REUTERSFight against short-term rentals
Barcelona is more popular than ever. As more and more apartments have been converted into vacation homes, rents have risen by 68% over the past decade, according to the dpa agency.
Image: PAU BARRENA/AFPOut for vacation apartments
Barcelona has announced measures to combat the housing shortage. A few weeks ago, the city council announced that it would no longer allow vacation apartments for tourists from 2028. Instead, the more than 10,000 vacation apartments will be made available to permanent tenants once more. However, landlords are threatening to legally challenge the measure.
Image: Nacho Doce/REUTERSProtests against mass tourism in Malaga
Dissatisfaction with mass tourism is not only widespread in Barcelona but throughout the country. In recent weeks, Thousands of people have also demonstrated in Andalusia to express their discontent. In Malaga, around 25,000 people took to the streets, where the housing shortage is at the heart of the protests.
Image: Jesus Merida/ZUMA Press Wire/Imago Images”One more tourist, one less neighbor”
With more than 12,000 legally registered vacation homes, Malaga is only just behind Madrid and Barcelona in Spain. In addition, many private accommodations for tourists in Málaga, as elsewhere, are allegedly operated illegally.
Image: Jesus Merida/ZUMA Press Wire/Imago ImagesCruise tourism undesirable in Cadiz
In Cadiz, also in Andalusia, hundreds of people gathered in the historic center to protest mass tourism. “The city has become an amusement park,” a 26-year-old demonstrator complained in an interview with AFP. Numerous cruise ships dock in the port city every year.
Image: Bildagentur-online/Boyungs-McPhoto/picture alliance Mallorca residents take to the streets
In Mallorca, anger was also directed at drunkards and partygoers. Behind a banner with the slogan “Mallorca is not for sale,” thousands of families, students and seniors marched through the streets.
Image: JAIME REINA/AFP/Getty ImagesSpain expects record tourism
According to the Spanish Statistics Institute (INE), more than 85 million tourists from abroad came to Spain last year, more than ever before. Experts expect even more international guests this year, so the protests are certain to continue.
Image: Jordi Boixareu/Imago Images Revenue streams from tourism often insufficient
Tourism is often the number one source of income for cities and regions across Europe. According to estimates by the European Union (EU), tourism accounts for about 10% of the bloc’s gross domestic product (GDP), with some 12.3 million people employed in the sector.
However, “these are abstract figures,” said Sebastian Zenker, an expert for tourism and marketing at the Copenhagen Business School. He explained that local residents gained nothing from this revenue if rents rose along with it, if properties became unaffordable, or if restaurants charged prices only tourists could afford. To curb this, he said, locals needed to have a sense that things were balanced.
He said that although many people did earn some income from tourism, only a few were able to make good money, let alone a living, as most wages were too low.
In Portugal, the minimum wage is €4.85 ($5.25) per hour. In Spain, it is €6.87. Italy does not have a minimum wage at all.
Tenerife: Locals say mass tourism has reached breaking point
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Where does the money go?
Where does all the money go that travelers to Mediterranean countries spend? According to Paul Peeters, who researches sustainable tourism and transport at Breda University of Applied Sciences in the Netherlands, a large part of it goes to airlines, major hotel chains, international companies, and the cruise industry.
When it comes to calculating tourism cash flows, the mode of transportation selected can prove a decisive factor. People on cruises usually sleep and eat aboard. People who buy vacation packages and book flights, hotels and meals through large providers rarely spend much money on the ground.
However, they do contribute to pollution and consume valuable resources such as water, thereby adding to the burden on locals, which can exacerbate the feeling of inequality and fuel tensions between visitors and locals.
“All actors are aware that they want tourism,” Zenker said. “But the question is, ‘How?’, and, ‘What kind?'”
Demarketing, rules and bans
In many places, politicians have started to take action. In Amsterdam, the construction of new hotels has been banned, for example. The city has also tried to get a handle on party and drug tourism with targeted demarketing campaigns — strategies which reduce the demand for a certain product among specific target groups.
In Lisbon and Palma de Mallorca, the rental market has long outpaced the residents’ needs and economic realities. Authorities are now attempting to curb this development. For example, new licenses for renting out property via online platforms such as Airbnb are no longer being issued. Palma is also imposing time limits on renting out properties to tourists.
In Barcelona, people have taken to the streets to protest against touristsImage: Emilio Morenatti/AP/picture alliance
Barcelona is taking a more drastic approach: The Catalan city has announced that licenses for renting out around 10,000 holiday flats will expire in 2028. The idea is to take some pressure off the housing market in a city where rents have risen by more than 60% in the past 10 years.
Cruise ships are also facing more restrictions and higher fees. Large ships have not been allowed to dock in Venice’s center since 2021, and Amsterdam is planning to introduce similar restrictions by 2026. This is meant to not only limit the number of tourists who enter the city, but also reduce air pollution.
Promotion of ‘high-quality’ tourism
Like Amsterdam, Mallorca is also trying to shake off its image of being a party destination. Overall, the island wants to attract fewer tourists, but it prefers those who are willing to spend money. But is the promotion of so-called “high-quality tourism” really the solution?
No, says Macia Blázquez-Salom, a geography professor and activist who lives in Palma de Mallorca. She told DW that focusing on luxury tourism would just exacerbate inequalities.
“Party and beach resort tourism is limited to specific locations, it basically works like a factory,” she explained. That meant that the direct impact of these toursits was limited to a small part of the municipalities on the island.
She said that better-off tourists had higher expectations, consumed more water, tended to take more short trips, and could also buy property if necessary. She explained that this boosted “gentrification and real estate speculation,” which had a much more direct impact on the lives of local residents.
From 2026, Amsterdam is banning cruise ships (here in Barcelona) from docking. Venice banned them in 2021. Image: Jordi Boixareu/ZUMA Wire/picture alliance Growth is no longer an option for locals
Much of the tourism sector continues to think only in terms of growth. Record numbers of visitors are welcomed to tourism hotspots every year. But for many locals in Barcelona, Venice and Palma, more growth is no longer an option. What can be done?
Peeters said that one approach would be to keep the number of tourists at a level that cities and municipalities could still cope with. He said that ecological and social factors should play a central role in this.
But this would require corresponding agreements with airlines and port authorities, whose financial models are mostly geared toward overcapacity, and thus further growth.
This article was translated from German.
Source link : https://amp.dw.com/en/locals-bear-the-brunt-of-mass-tourism-in-southern-europe/a-69619068
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Publish date : 2024-07-10 18:08:48
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