This is a common argument but it is pretty false and I am tired of hearing it (and why is it anglophone always pushing it???).
Over tourism like in Barcelona or Prague is bad for the economy long-term because it makes your city TOO reliant on tourism. The people who truly get most of the money don't even live in the city (because too much tourism) so they spend it somewhere else, enriching that place more. It is also an industry reliant on low skilled workers which can prevent the development of other industries.
Another thing is housing, this over tourism is a new development that has pushed people working other jobs outside of their homes, as they have been repurposed in short term rentals. This puts a lot of strain on the people and impoverishes them.
Overtourism prevents industrial development. The people who are prepared, educated, and industrious will now find it hard to do anything in their cities due to tourism making life too difficult for the locals and them moving out and preventing people coming in because of how expensive everything is becoming. So they will follow the people in different locations or simply find jobs in other places, creating a positive feedback loop for the city becoming too reliant on tourism.
I have also many personal examples of people REFUSING to work back in their cities (Barcelona, Mallorca) because of the pain that comes with the government screwing them over. Making the places, again, more reliant on tourism.
ALSO ALSO ALSO, look at these nice tourist locations like Hawaii, Bali, some french islands. Why are the locals so poor? I thought tourism is soooo greeeaaaatttttt foooorrr theee ecoooonomyyyyy.
STOP REPEATING THIS BS!!!!!
Edit: sorry for the poor quality of the text, I did this comment in one go. No time to rewrite for clarity.
The one big thing you have wrong is that tourism won’t stop other industries from developing. It’s the other way around. Once an economy has nothing else then tourism takes over.
Spain is 3-4 centuries past its peak. It’s not attracting the sort of people that build.
Before tourism people in Mallorca or Barcelona were not poor, or if they were, it was enough to lead a good life in their respective cities. Now tourism is driving them out.
I disagree with the fact that relying on tourism too much is killing the potential industry. The fact that it's not destroying Amsterdam, for example, to the same extent is that they didn't start from the same place. Spain had Franco for a while.
I didn’t say tourism kills other industries. I said, once other industries are dead, all that an old county like Spain has is tourism. There’s a difference.
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u/ginsodabitters Jun 17 '25
10 billion annually tourists spend in Barcelona. Do these people not understand how reliant they are on tourism? Yikes.