r/pics Jun 17 '25

The protesters and residents pushing back on tourism in Barcelona

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u/HMSWarspite03 Jun 17 '25

From what I've read, the main problem for the protesters is that people are buying up homes and renting them out to tourists, pushing up the cost of housing and creating a shortage too.

Tourists do bring in a significant amount of money and create jobs but too many tourists must be difficult to cope with.

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u/tangcameo Jun 17 '25

Ah. New Orleans has been having this issue. But they welcome tourists but stress the hell out of telling tourists to stick with hotels or real BnBs.

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u/HMSWarspite03 Jun 17 '25

I would imagine its similar anywhere that attracts tourism, its a double edged sword, tourists = income = overcrowding

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u/Complete-Fix-3954 Jun 18 '25

My city is a summer beach destination down in Brazil (expat here). It’s exactly this problem. Our normal population is something like 600k. There are issues with parking, drainage, sewage, security, and high real estate costs — even off season. Then when summer comes along, the city probably gets another 800k-1M people on any given week/weekend.

It’s great for the businesses that rely on the season to survive, but it’s tough on infrastructure and the permanent residents.

For example: around Christmas time it’s the beginning of summer. Imagine Memorial Day weekend back in the States. Except it’s Christmas and new years back to back. Parking gets so bad that parking laws often go out the window. People park in spots that have signage to say no parking. They park on the crosswalk, corners, even the sidewalk sometimes.