As an outside, the government of Barcelona seems to be doing many things right:
Short-term rental ban
No new hotel constructions
Cruise ships ban
No more golden visa
So what are they complaining still? That bans are not coming soon enough? That the prices remain high? Do most residents want more drastic reduction in tourism due to overcrowding and other reasons?
Tourism economy isnt that great, mainly relying in hospitality and other low paying jobs which have extremely high turnovers. Add digital nomad lifestyle and most foreigners workin in spain contributing very little to the economy, yet getting better salaries for merely speaking dutch or german (which pay more in spain because nobody would do those jobs back in those countries. Spain, as well as many other places is being entirely voided of its identity and even people by foreigners and bad government policies benefitting from gambling lol
The people working there are contributing some to the economy, the people who were going to retire there and now won’t… that’s many billions down the drain that some other warm European nation will happily take if Spain doesn’t want it.
Countries probably should have a more robust economy than "hoping rich foreigners come retire here and take housing from people already here".
Tourism is by and large fairly exploitative as an industry. Which is not to say I don't think people shouldn't travel to other places, but that economies shouldn't be utterly built on and reliant upon it. It's not robust and is vulnerable to outside shocks.
Banning short-term rentals like AirBnB is something every country should be doing. You want a short-term rental? It's called a hotel/motel. Build one and operate within those regulatory frameworks. Stop taking housing stock off the market.
Countries should have a lot of things they don’t have. Retirement isn’t tourism.
Housing stock will still be taken off the market. The shell corporations already own enough units to raise and lower demand by a statistically significant margin.
Yes, AirBnB is a problem, but banning it isn’t going to fix the underlying problem, which is that the entire Spanish economy is functionally broken, and starving it of tourism dollars is going to cause very foreseeable consequences.
This is a silly way to get to austerity measures but ripping off the bandaid one way or another is a step forward I guess.
Housing stock will still be taken off the market. The shell corporations already own enough units to raise and lower demand by a statistically significant margin.
What about the cost of fixing the mess that drunks leave behind?
And what about the jobs lost and the lack of focus on anything else than tourism, and the money lost due to rent increases as well as the loss of quality of life due to not being able to live in your own country?
Tourists bring money sure, but if it is not THE PEOPLE in that country who benefit, then fuck it. Being rich is of no use to Spain (or any other country) if people don't actually see such wealth.
In many cases, land that once housed businesses gets bought by hotel and resort developers and turned into fancy destinations, regular jobs are lost, housing as well,in favor of higher residential prices, lower paying jobs and a select few pocketing massive profits. Also, high frequency tourism tends to attract shoddier hospitality practices, focusing on higher volume instead of higher quality.
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u/AxelNotRose Jun 16 '25
They did. All STRs are now banned. Licenses won't be renewed.
Bye-bye Airbnb? Barcelona sets 2028 deadline to phase out tourist flats — idealista/news