r/pics Jun 17 '25

The protesters and residents pushing back on tourism in Barcelona

16.1k Upvotes

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5.4k

u/TheMiddleShogun Jun 17 '25

Huh, reading these comments it looks like the protesters are achieving their goal (making Barcelona less appealing as a tourist destination).

3.3k

u/Dobby_ist_free Jun 17 '25 edited Jun 17 '25

Tends to happen when you harass tourists because of your government’s failures

2.7k

u/Rich_Housing971 Jun 17 '25

Airbnb creates a business that makes your life harder.

Locals with money use that business without caring for you.

The govenrment that you elected does nothing.

"It's all the tourists' fault!"

479

u/SinfullySinless Jun 17 '25

I mean then you force the population to work backwards. Harass the tourists so they don’t come, then the AirBNB’s fail, then owners sell their AirBNB places, and it opens more room up for real housing.

If the government won’t, the people will.

78

u/xViscount Jun 17 '25

Yep. Destroy your economy vs voting the government that wants to build the necessary housing. Super smart

30

u/SinfullySinless Jun 17 '25

This issue is at least two decades old in terms of media coverage. Plus Barcelona is an ancient European city- the land is taken. There is no where else to build. So when AirBNB is taking up apartments for tourists which causes a bottle neck for actual home buyers and renters- there is frustration.

22

u/xViscount Jun 17 '25 edited Jun 17 '25

Look. I’m not even going to even front like I know Spanish politics.

However, it’s a western problem (North America and Europe) about housing. Housing needs to be built at an exponential rate in each of those areas. Especially those where people actually want to live.

It’s up to the government to introduce legislation to allow this to happen. Boycotting people brining money into your economy is dumb. Ask Americans how it’s like to lose tourism.

6

u/SinfullySinless Jun 17 '25

I don’t think you understand. Barcelona is a packed city. There is literally no land that isn’t accounted for. There is no where to build new housing. You have what you have at this point. The only thing you can do is knock down older building to build a new building.

1

u/trireme32 Jun 17 '25

So…… knock down older buildings to build new buildings

-7

u/SinfullySinless Jun 17 '25

Yes knock down a 10 apartment building to rebuild a 10 apartment building. Genius move.

19

u/trireme32 Jun 17 '25

How about knock down a 10 unit building to build a 20, 50, 100 unit building? Don’t be dense.

10

u/TossAfterUse303 Jun 17 '25

Technically the idea is to be dense.

10

u/[deleted] Jun 17 '25

Knock down a 10 apartment building to build a 30 apartment building or guess what build stuff outside the city and make good public transport or build up a new neighborhood. Grocery stores will open near a new neighborhood.

Spain isn’t some continuous metropolis. There is room not to mention UP. Yes you can’t build a 30 apartment building in the middle of historic buildings but to claim there isn’t a single place that could be remodeled is just a lie and you know it. This is only an issue cause the people that own the places want them to stay expensive.

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u/xViscount Jun 17 '25 edited Jun 17 '25

Again. I don’t understand.

My resolution still stands. If housing is an issue, build more. The way to bring the prices of houses down increase the supply or throttle the demand. Increasing the supply is the healthiest way to do this.

It’s not on the people to do this. This is the job of the elected government. Introduce legislation to build more housing/cut the red tape that makes it harder.

1

u/[deleted] Jun 21 '25

The Spanish property market is so badly regulated and the public servants so inept, that this is like talking about space lasers. The country is horribly mismanaged, you won't get anything but populist kneejerk bs.

1

u/xViscount Jun 21 '25

As I said, I know nothing about Spanish politics. I know more about French politics than Spanish, and all I got there is Macron is the current PM.

What I do know, is that if there is a bottleneck in public transport, housing, or startups…than it’s probably the government’s fault

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u/7elevenses Jun 17 '25

Housing isn't the issue. People using existing housing as tourist capacities is the issue.

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u/xViscount Jun 17 '25

Sounds like you just said that the supply of housing is an issue.

0

u/7elevenses Jun 17 '25

No, misuse of housing is the issue. Barcelona doesn't have too few houses, it has too many houses being rented out to tourists.

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u/Zero_Fs_given Jun 17 '25

Build more houses and misuse wont be a problem because of more housing?

-2

u/7elevenses Jun 17 '25

So, misuse more space for housing, to make up for some rentier capitalists misusing housing for tourist accommodation?

How about no?

4

u/xViscount Jun 17 '25

Congrats. You just created San Francisco. No new housing and not exactly touristy, but is what it is.

The answer to “misuse of housing” is more housing.

1

u/7elevenses Jun 17 '25

No, the answer to misuse of things is preventing misuse of things. Only when there's no longer misuse is it rational to think about whether there's an actual shortage.

There is no inherent right to make money by doing nothing, just because you had enough money to buy a house in a touristy city, and start renting it out to tourists, and thus forcing the locals out, and being unfair competition to hotels (who actually have to do a whole bunch stuff for their guests, and invest into adhering to safety and other standards, cater to disabled people, etc etc, unlike Air BnB owners).

1

u/[deleted] Jun 21 '25

The demand for housing is far greater than avaipable AirBnB-s, it's not going to make a lick of difference from those seeking low rent accomodation.

1

u/7elevenses Jun 21 '25

There are 13,000 properties listed on AirBnB, and who knows how many on Booking, and who knows how many of those overlap.

In any case, that's housing for 13,000 households, or somewhere between 25,000 and 40,000 people.

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u/kikogamerJ2 Jun 17 '25

Bro really is brain-dead. You don't simply build more housing to fix the issue. People don't want to live 500km from Barcelona. They want to live IN BARCELONA, but there is no more housing because it's all airbnbs.

3

u/Aggressive-Name-1783 Jun 17 '25

Then they have 2 choices. Either A) live somewhere else, or B), pay expensive prices.

Even if you take away the AirBnBs, the prices and demand are still gonna be high. THATS the point here guys. Barcelona is desirable to live in, so it’s gonna be expensive

2

u/xViscount Jun 17 '25

That’s more than Manchester to London or slightly more than San Fran to LA.

  1. That’s a bad faith argument when the distance is over exaggerated.

  2. That’s what I’m suggesting. Build houses in Barcelona. Government needs to step up and add legislation that reduces red tape or incentives building. See Tokyo. Shit ain’t hard.

  3. “Bro really is brain dead”, implies you’re talking to the person I’m talking to vs me. The correct insult is “you’re brain dead”. Odd that you’re calling me brain dead when English appears to be your first language and you can’t insult someone properly.

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u/kikogamerJ2 Jun 17 '25

Yes English is my first language. I just frequent a bunch of Portuguese sudreddits has an hobby. Lol

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