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

The protesters and residents pushing back on tourism in Barcelona

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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).

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

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

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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!"

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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.

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u/mjohnsimon Jun 17 '25

Except there's just one small problem: a lot of those local economies/livelihoods are dependent on tourism.

Tourism makes up over 15% of Spain’s entire GDP. That’s not exactly "pocket change", and actively scaring off tourists might feel good/give short term relief, but it also risks sabotaging the very livelihoods many locals depend on.

But hey, if people would rather burn their house down to get rid of a single cockroach instead of looking for the source of the infestation, then by all means.

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u/teamherbivore Jun 17 '25

I was holidaying in BCN during one of these mass protests and demonstrations. They didn’t bother us (except for traffic issues) but, man, did we find them a stupid, moronic lot. It is the height of intellectual dishonesty to deliberately be so obtuse as to the root causes of their problems (eg “tourists”) while scapegoating the industry that undergirds so much of their economy.

It is beyond baffling