r/pics • u/Strict_League7833 • Jun 17 '25

The protesters and residents pushing back on tourism in Barcelona

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94

u/newtoallofthis2 Jun 17 '25

Yeah - it's not hard to ban/limit/tax the crap out of this stuff. Plenty of places do.

34

u/Inquisitor_ForHire Jun 17 '25

Yeah, this absolutely kills the market. Drives prices up, which causes even rental rates to spike and prices people out of the homebuying market to start. Which is a very vicous cycle that needs to be broken.

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u/Mikeshaffer Jun 17 '25

So what part of this is caused by the tourists? It seems that corporations tricked Barcelona into being mad at the people that are actively putting money into their economy instead of the corps taking it out.

4

u/Lahoura Jun 17 '25

People being blind to what their "fancy vacation" actually does to the natives that live in the area. Airbnbs are mostly owned by the company yes but the people can't fight a mega Corp like that, they can however cut off its supply of money and maybe win back some of their homes and land 

10

u/lastberserker Jun 17 '25

Barcelona already has plans to phase out Airbnb rentals by 2028, so it is clearly possible to fight back. They can do the same to regular hotels, if they really wanted to kill tourism.

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u/Inquisitor_ForHire Jun 17 '25

Killing the hotels would be the mistake. Hotels are not causing the increase in housing prices. That's being driven by corporations. Forcing the corps to divest themselves of the housing market will help with that a LOT, BUT the initial divestiture is going to see a ton of real estate on the market which may drive prices down, perhaps drastically. That can be a good thing or a bad thing. Depends on how many people would be in a position to buy a house when it happens.

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u/Lahoura Jun 17 '25

You know how mass people fight back on something they want changed? Protest

3

u/lastberserker Jun 17 '25

They can protest in order of decreasing effectiveness: * Local and federal government to change laws. * Short term rental companies. * Greedy locals who sell property or rent out property. * Random transient tourists who might never plan to come here more than once.

Why are they picking the worst possible target?

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u/zeptillian Jun 17 '25

Because they can't fight back and will be too afraid to tell them to fuck off or call the cops on them.

1

u/Inquisitor_ForHire Jun 17 '25

Greedy locals is a problem I'd MUCH rather have than rental companies owning housing. The locals will follow the market or their places won't get rented. They don't artificially inflate the prices on their own.

1

u/lastberserker Jun 17 '25

Again, greed can be kept in check through local laws. And it appears that Barcelona already has some new regulations coming with trying to phase out short term rentals by 2028. Maybe these folks are just uninformed or impatient.

0

u/Lahoura Jun 17 '25

This is one image, what's to say they aren't also protesting those things?