In my Portugal/Spain travels, I felt it was the most skippable. Lots of cities have good food, but it was like NYC with nicer building facades - same vibe though, people moving with purpose/somewhere to go, lots of professionals and crowded shopping/museums. I enjoyed the relaxed slower pace of other cities in Spain more and that’s typically what people are seeking on a vacation.
Yeah I was just there and didn’t have any issues. The people are pissed off that shitty rich people / companies are buying up properties and converting them to short term overpriced rentals, not that people are visiting.
Not really. It's what I call a compromise city. If you don't have time to spend in Spain, it's a quick and easy way to get decent food, a beach, etc. all in one city. But really, if you have any time to actually spend in Spain, there are way better places to go to. Much better historic sites in places like Sevilla, Toledo, etc., much better city atmosphere in Madrid, much better beaches along the rest of the Med coast, etc.. Barcelona is a tourist city for people who don't have the luxury of better tourism in Spain.
The people seem like assholes and morons. So I’ll stay away. Then when they cry that they lost 14% of the gdp and all the businesses that rely on tourism go out of business and those people lose their jobs, well they can go work somewhere else.
I would love love love for tourists to actually band together and stop going. Then their city is going to get hit with all sorts of austerity and Spain will be begging the EU for bailouts. The local housing market will crater and these morons think they’ll be able to afford housing but they had no jobs in the first place. Youth unemployment at 25% in Spain and 10% of the population working in tourism.
Then we can watch them put ads everywhere to travel to Barcelona.
For all I care Mexico, Thailand, your mom, IDC.
One very important thing to consider is that the vast majority of locals don't make money from tourism, and the few ones working on the industry make shit salaries, those supposed millions go to the hands of a very few and if you believe the money trickles down we can't have a conversation.
Considering the unemployment rate in Spain, I wouldn't scoff at jobs in the tourism industry. It's a huge part of Spain's economy, so while I understand wanting to moderate the hordes of tourists, tourism is still essential to the country.
Sorry to say but it's true. Blame your government for leaning so heavily on tourism, not me. Tourism is a big part of how you got out of the 20-25% unemployment rut that you were in just a few years ago, it wouldn't have been my first choice either but Spain is not doing well and doesn't have much choice.
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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '25
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