Is anybody avoiding booking holidays to Spain due to the demonstrations?

[SmileLady]

I added this on holidays board but no responses yet...

Just wanted some advice. I have only been to Spain 3 times in my 46 years. Times 1 &2 were educational trips when I was a student. But last year as a family we went to Mallorca for the first time in October and really enjoyed it. We stayed in a hotel, rented a car and did loads of day trips. The weather was terrible but we made the most of it.

We are a family of 7 (2 adult children, 3 younger kids, and us, of course). However, we are being put off by the demonstrations. We thought this time, we could maybe fly into Madrid, spend a few days in a B&B seeing the sites, and maybe get a train to Valencia and stay somewhere for a few days. Older children may not come straight with us, depending on work/sports.

However, DH now says we should respect the Spanish and not go if they don't want tourists.

Just to clarify, our ethnic origin is a very popular tourist island in the Med, and DH and I grew up working in the tourist industry, as did both our families. So I have seen the effect of limited tourism on the economy of an area.

Anyway, am I mad to still plan this trip?

And how do the locals in Barcelona, squirting people with water pistols know if your using chains or shopping in independent stores etc?

Good point!

How do they know you are even a tourist?

There is a running joke in my family as I always get asked for directions five minutes after arriving anywhere.

Yes, quite. We stayed in an AirBnb in Croatia which was half the house and the family lived in the other bit, separate entrances, pool and privacy and all that. Out of town and used the restaurants and shops in the local village as well as the independent ones in town. The money definitely went to locals and not to plutocrats. Seems like the hotel chains don't like the competition, and spread anti self-catering apartment propaganda to me.

This is the same for me. Where ever I go people think I'm a local. Spanish,Italian,Turkish,Greek, etc. I was born and grew up in. Tourist Hot spot (small.village that was heaving in summer) but I only knew who wasn't a local as we knew all the locals. But in a huge city how would you know?

They don't; I presumed you were asking because you were concerned about sustainable tourism, not just to avoid being targeted.

I didn't ask. I don't go abroad very often. 3 times in 15 years. But we are thinking of going next year.

I've never used an air b&b in my life though

My dp is half Italian and he looks very Mediterranean (I normally look like a boiled lobster, so it's a giveaway if I am with him) and he always gets spoken to in local dialect whereever he goes abroad

It's weird as I have been hold I look "very British" in some places as well, and my ancestry is very boringly English, but have been asked for directions while on holiday all round Europe and the Middle East. I do tan easily and have sort of olive skin but very much on the blonde spectrum of colouring at the hazelnut end, hazel eyes, with blonde hairs on my arms and legs.

I remember also having a conversation once with a man on the train who absolutely insisted I was of Italian heritage, though I think he was just flirting!

I suppose if you go a long way back we are all part Roman...

@Thursdaygirl you can avoid being like the woman we saw recently in a small traditional French bar in a seaside town (think equivilent of a rural "old man" pub in the UK) who threw a strop because she ordered an Aperol Spritz in English and the bar man didn't understand her so she just ordered it again in English, but more loudly.

Or the people who huffed and puffed as they hadn't bothered to learn what that sign in the window of more traditional French bars and restaurants saying "pas de CB" means.

'So can you advise how I should modify my holiday behaviour?'.
That's asking, surely?

Is Greece next?
https://dailywrap.uk/santorini-locals-urged-to-stay-home-amid-tourist-surge,7052854064740481a
(Apologies for the iffy source - this is all over the equivalent of the red-tops in German speaking nations and not a jot of it in the UK media.)
Utter madness either way.

Santorini has been in the British media today. Cruise ships seem to be the problem.

So has Portugal.

I agree. And that wasn't me.

Ah, my apologies.

It was me that asked that question (how should I modify my holiday behaviour). We're a quiet couple in our 50s, we like quiet days by the pool. or we'll hop on a bus and visit a local town/beach etc, then in the evenings we like to try the local restaurants. Other than to cease travelling, how can I make our presence less upsetting to the locals? I was being slightly sarcastic though, because an earlier poster had urged me to 'travel mindfully', which I thought was quite patronising.

in 2010 when all the Brits had their second homes repossessed

Eh? Could you link to this story? I had a google but couldn’t find anything. What happened in 2010?

In 2008 there was a global financial crash. There are parts of the world where there are/were high levels of British second home ownership, including some parts of Spain. Due to global financial crash of 2008, there were high numbers of properties repossessed by banks well into the second decade of the 21st century. I can't speak for the prices of the properties between 2008-2009 and after 2011 but, as a snapshot of the general housing situation, I can confirm that an average one bed property which was repossessed and sold by a bank in 2010 in Tenerife was between 20k and 70k depending on the location.

I see. Thanks. It’s just the way you phrased it made it sound, to me, at least, like a government initiative to stop Brits having second homes. I didn’t realise you were describing an effect of the global financial crisis.

No, they have initiatives to stop Brits (and everyone else) owning second homes there including raising non-residential property taxes/VAT and taxing all income from renting the property vs gross/net profit. The former was rolled out this April, the latter when Britain left the EU. I am yet to see what sort of an effect this is likely to have alongside turning away tourists. So far, the property prices continue to grow so there is clearly still demand.

For those saying it is even slightly better to stay in a none chain hotel, rather than an air bnb owned by a local, how? Hotels take up a lot of land, and stop affordable rental accommodations being built. Yes, they create jobs, but there are too many, helping add to the housing problem. The air bnb we are staying in is half of a local's home (a house split in half, with two separate entrances. It is expensive, and couldn't be an affordable longterm rental for a local. It would likely be sitting vacant, and dilapidated otherwise. Surely money going toward a local who pays taxes is better.

It’s expensive because tourists are prepared to pay high rents because it’s only for a week or two.

If there was no demand by tourists, rents would fall.

No, it is expensive because it is huge, with a lot of facilties. It would be expensive regardless. Even a bit cheaper, it still wouldn't have a large audience. I don't think staying in a hotel that takes loads of land up, that could have affordable housing on that appealing to a bigger amount of people, is any better at all, in solving the housing crisis. It is the large company owned air bnbs that are the issue imo.

Also, in my city, these AirBnBs ARE family homes, and the landlords know they can get loads more charging weekly in the summer season, but they won’t fill it in the winter.

Their solution is allowing families to stay September - June and then forcing them out in the summer! I think they get away with it because this counts as a “short term” let still of under a year. Horrible practice.

It depends on the cost and size, as I have stated where i am staying wouldnt appeal to a large demographic. Would you propose hotels that take up space that could house many local people more affordably are better to stay at?* *Should I have gone to one of those, and left this empty. The host would struggle to get long term renter, whether a little cheaper or not. Are you against any tourism whatsoever?

We spent a long weekend in Barcelona six weeks ago and I’ve just returned from 10 days on the costa brava. We saw no problems at either location and were treated with respect. There was nothing different from how it always is. We go to Spain every year. I would still go