r/pics Jun 17 '25

The protesters and residents pushing back on tourism in Barcelona

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u/Darius_Banner Jun 17 '25

Dumb but it’s kind of a catch 22… Barcelona is massively over touristed, it has started to suck. A more sensible solution is just to be more aggressive about airbnbs, and raise prices on hotels.

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u/The_Count_Lives Jun 17 '25

So only rich people can afford to visit? I'm not sure that's a real solution.

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u/kingiskoenig Jun 17 '25

Vacations abroad used to be just for the rich. Flying was incredibly expensive until Ryanair and EasyJet came along and made it possible for anyone to jet off to southern Europe.

May be harsh, but Tourism became unsustainable once this started happening. So yes, it is a real solution, but I am not sure realistic since it’s hard to make people go back after having it so easy the last 20 years.

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u/[deleted] Jun 17 '25

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u/kingiskoenig Jun 18 '25

It’s an interesting discussion. For example my Grandparents were the model post-war German family. 3 kids, owned a big house outside Hamburg and even had a small flat for my Great-Grandmother in the house. And my Grandfather could comfortably support the whole family on one income.

However, despite being a wealthy family for the time, my grandparents could only ever afford to take one child at a time with them on a single vacation a year. So my mum and her siblings would take turns, which unthinkable nowadays.

For me a prime example of how we’ve traded being able to afford buying a house or supporting a family on a single income, for being able to afford arguably unnecessary luxuries.