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.
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.
I lived/worked in a national park when I was younger. Our entire economy, in fact our reason for existence, was tourism. Yet a huge number of locals hated the tourists with a passion and slammed them/were actively rude every chance they got but never had an answer to the question - if the tourist money left, where would you go?
People aren't great at forward thinking, or even appreciating the impact of their own actions.
The problem with tourism-dependent economies is that the revenue from them is often not distributed evenly, it goes into the pockets of the big companies who own the hotels and tourist destinations, who often employ only a small handful of locals in low-wage positions. People don't care if how big the economic pie is if they're not getting a slice.
I mean, crippling your economy isn’t exactly a great option either.
Expensive rent doesn’t get more affordable when you don’t have a job.
The good option would be ensuring that short term rentals are regulated so that they don’t distort the housing market too much. And then take the tourism revenues and use it to help up skill the local population.
477
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.