Barcelona hates Tourists....?

[AnnMeredithPerkins]

www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/barcelona-locals-hate-tourists-why-reasons-spain-protests-arran-airbnb-locals-attacks-graffiti-a7883021.html

Surely without tourist money they would be in a bit of a hole? I get they have too many tourists and its making it expensive, but should they really be making visitors angry with their graffiti and beach protests?

If i saw this picture about a place i was planning to visit - i'd change my mind

From the article above
"Imagine you’re walking down the street in the city you’ve been dying to visit for months, or even years. You’re in a good mood because you’re on holiday; the sun seems to shine brighter than usual and life feels good. But then you turn a corner and stumble upon a piece of graffiti that reads: “Tourist you are the terrorist".

You ignore it, attributing it to some angry guy with a sad life who probably doesn’t get out all that much. But a few metres ahead you see another troubling line: “All tourists are bastards”.

A few steps further on: “Stop destroying our lives!” And after that: “Why call it tourist season if we can’t shoot them?”

... and I don't even mind if the tourists go around not speaking English, either. I don't care if London attracts tourists who don't have the socio-economic and leisure wherewithal to take a crash-course in the English language and take a load of pre-holiday classes in UK culture. I don't care if they are not already steeped in the culture of the UK before they come to London and if they keep their foreign habits and behave in slightly 'loud' ways while they're here.

Seriously, there's a whole class thing going on with the whole "Tourists aren't welcome - travellers are - and those who respect 'our' culture." What does 'our' culture mean, anyway?

As the signs in Regent Street say: London is welcoming.

I have to stop posting on this thread but ...

You know, sometimes I do get a bit frustrated when I'm walking along and another group of tourists stop right in front of me. And I come to a screeching halt. And then I kind of look at what they're looking at ... and I suddenly feel incredibly warm towards them, that they've come all this way because they want to visit my city. And they like it.

It's actually quite cool.

And I have to say, in the wake of the attacks of recent years, I actually feel a real warmth that they're here. I was so saddened that so many visitors were caught up in recent events.

Tourists are humans. There is something really, really wrong with people who want to add violence and hate to the world.

I know some people in Vietnam who refuse to talk to tourists and while I think they are a bit snobby, as they even thought I was a tourist when I was working there so they didn't talk to me for 10 months I have seen my fair share of really rude and ignorant tourists. One of these people was A foreigner himself. I always tried to help the tourists who really needed it as I speak Vietnamese and understand the culture very well I think it's important to respect the local culture and the people. So if a tourist was in genuine need of help or wanted to learn more, I was very willing to tell them things or show them where to go or translate for them what someone was saying.

Thanks lalalonglegs. We have to. Our rent is going up again in September, it's just crazy. I think we'll see out the kids school for 1 more year maybe and then move up or down the coast or over the Ronda.

Our first apartment here is now a holiday/airbnb let now.

DH is Spanish but during tourist season I don't speak if we're walking in public because I'm so embarrassed of my English accent.

We were in our local park last weekend and a guy was there with his daughter. He has lived here his entire life. He said he's moving because of it. It's so sad.

Tourists are humans. There is something really, really wrong with people who want to add violence and hate to the world.

That's all very Miss World but the people who live in these places are humans too. I completely understand their frustration at being priced out of their own city or their apartment being surrounded by an ever changing procession of noisy and inconsiderate weekenders.

I live in a tourist city and have sympathy with Barcelona. The City I live in is a short stop on a coach trip ( no cruise ships thank god!!) on a day tour of England which isn't London.

It means the traffic is rammed from
8am with coaches parking haphazardly all over the place - ignoring the actual coach park. The people on the coaches then do a 1 hour bus or walking tour, take a few selfies and get back in the bus to the next destination. They don't seem to shop - no-one carries bags or fills up restaurants.

The walking tours often have groups of 30/40 people stopping randomly and taking up the whole pavement. I've been sworn at 3 times in the last 2 days for leaving my office while someone was taking a photo of the building. It didn't seem to occur that I was at work and on my way to a meeting.

It can be frustrating and there are regular complaints in the local paper about it. It's a tiny fraction of what people in Barcelona have to put up with.

catfromjapan - I think the difference in London (where I also live ) is that it is (a) much bigger than Barcelona/Venice etc so much more able to absorb millions of visitors (b) for the most part, residents don't live in the most popular tourist areas so aren't as bothered by crowds of tourists cluttering up the place (c) we are far less reliant on tourism income.

I have also visited Venice in the past few years and was quite frightened when all the light suddenly disappeared from the street I was on and what appeared to be a large office flock started moving across the lagoon ahead of me. Cruise ships should definitely be banned from there. However, I think the accommodation situation in Venice is very complex - lots of people don't want to live there because it is hugely inconvenient and doesn't have - and hasn't had for a very long time - much of a community. Imagine only being able to buy at the supermarket the amount you can easily carry home. Imagine trying to cope with hump-backed bridges every few yards if you have children in a pushchair or have mobility problems. Imagine that a huge proportion of the buildings don't have lifts. Imagine needing emergency services during an "acqua alta" surge when all the boats come to a standstill as the high water makes it impossible to get under the canal bridges. Imagine trying to get building work done on your crumbling damp apartment when every nail and bag of cement needs to be brought in by barge etc etc.

Venice. I think bad things about Venice. I read Michael Dibdin's 'Dead Lagoon' years ago and I have to say it put me right out of sympathy with the anti-tourism brigade.

I do think that Venice is a weird fetish object in the modern psyche. I think my thoughts about Venice are actually too inflammatory to post on Mumsnet.

Yes. I'm not sure that all of Venice's 'problems' would be solved by simply reducing tourists.

The Michael Dibdin book is pretty good, to be honest. And it has a pacey, crime-solving plot around which the debate about tourism is hung.

Right. I'm thread-hogging, so I'm going to go and make my idle hands do some work.

thecatfromjapan you speak much sense

lalalonglegs is absolutely right. London is completely different. Even so I work near a major tourist site and getting in and out of the tube station and walking along the pavement are impossible at this time of year.

It's like anything:
Fine in moderation
OK if it doesn't really affect you
More bearable if there is understanding and respect.

A quick google tells me 20 million people visited Venice in a year, 19 million came to London and Barcelona had 9 million tourist in 2016 up from 3 million in 2000.

Venice has 55 000 inhabitants as opposed to London's 8.8 million. Quite the difference, so of course London managing better.

The numbers are staggering.

Oh and apparently the Barcelona number is tourists saying in hotels, I would imagine AirBnB add quite considerably to that.

Poor Barcelona. We left in 2005 because rents were going up faster than wages. When we visit we stick to Gracia, everywhere else is just rammed!

There is nothing nicer than getting back on the train at Estacio de França and breathing a big sigh of relief.

I hate Airbnb.

I have been visiting Barcelona every year since 2002 and the increase in tourists is absolutely incredible.
I did stay in an AirBNB once and is was being sublet to us as the renter worked out of the U.K..I camps totally see why the residents were pissed off having their building turned into a lhotel ( ours wasn't the only one).
I would say it is too busy now. Too many queues, too many people, tables too close together everywhere. It must be a nightmare to actually live there.
I have always disliked Venice. It felt like Disney for adults back in the 80''s.
Sooner the Middle East is safe to go back to the better.

I live in an extremely touristy area of London, where 70% of my apartment block is AirBnB'd. I hate it. The tourists seem to think it's a hotel, take drugs in the lobby, have huge parties, and it has obviously driven up rents.

I listened to an interesting program on radio 4 about our government encouraging the 'shared economy', like AirBnB. It seems they are completely ignoring the negatives that it brings to the city. We need to be more like Berlin and restrict it.

Totally understand why Barcelona is being driven crazy.

They don't hate tourists- they hate AIRBNB. Speculators buying apartments to let out on AIRBNB is leaving residents with nowhere to live.

Barcelona is not a resort. It is a real city. And the lives of the people who live there should take precedence. Without them Barcelona would not be Barcelona!

Barcelona had 9 million tourist in 2016 up from 3 million in 2000.

Wow! No wonder the city is having trouble adjusting.

The most shocking figures are the 70 000 daily visitors to Venice, when the inhabitants are only 55 000.

It sounds unbelievable and it seems unbearable.
I almost hope I got my figures wrong.

AirBnB takes absolutely no responsibility for the listings, the say they are just a platform for people who want to rent to advertise to those who want to stay.