It rarely happens that in a street protest there are almost more police than protesters. In the case at hand, a concentration against tourism in Barcelonathis peculiar situation has arisen, with dozens of Mossos creating a cord around the Pedrera and agents of the Urban Guard controlling accesses and streets. Perhaps the effect of the Mercè festivities had something to do with it… There have been a hundred people who have become flesh on Passeig de Gràcia to claim the decrease in ‘outsiderism’ in the city, a plague, they say, that drives out the neighbors and aggravates the climate crisis. Despite the safety device, the corrugated Antoni Gaudi building it was just the meeting point. From there, a short ‘tour’ through Provença, Rambla Catalunya and the Concepción passage to finish at the Barcelona Tourism Headquarters, which is unrecognizable. This has been the international day of tourism for the people of Barcelona who had nothing to celebrate.
The organizers are part of the SET network (Southern Europe against Touristization), where they share a crusade with citizens of cities such as Genoa, Lisbon, Naples, Ibiza, Venice, Córdoba, San Sebastián or Madrid. They speak of an “unsustainable situation aggravated by the climate, economic and energy crisis”, and make claims that go beyond the evils linked to tourism: they reject the extension of the El Prat airport or the port of Barcelona, demand abandoning any pretense of organizing major events such as the winter games or America Cup and they claim to stop any urban or real estate operation that has to do with visitors. they also want increase the tourist tax by 50% Y dissolve Turisme de Barcelonaan organization, they denounce, that works with public funds but that basically is “a lobby that watches over private interests“.
The “surrender” of the ‘commons’
Daniel Pardo, of the Assembly of Neighborhoods for Tourism Degrowth, has been in charge of pushing the cart with the demonstration equipment (ladder, amplifier, stickers, banners…). He was, therefore, the ideal person to summarize the essence of the summons. He admits, from the outset, that they do not have the magic solution, that what they are looking for is “to open the debate on the city model”. Something, he says, that he has missed on the part of the government of Barcelona en Comú: “They have been a big disappointment. At first they were excited, but the decline has been constant. In addition, they have ceded the issue of tourism in the PSC..., a clear surrender“.
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They want to eliminate cruise ships -“progressively”, they concede-, reduce the supply of rooms in hotels and tourist apartments and “stop depending on a vulnerable economy that also evict people from their homes“. They have summed up all this, in addition to reading a manifesto, with a round escrache on the Barcelona Tourism Headquarters, whose facade has become a huge banner against the body itself. ‘The city for those who inhabit it‘, ‘no to the expansion of the airport’, ‘climatic emergency’ or ‘no neighbor outside the neighbourhoods’ are some of the slogans that have been stuck to the building. On both sides, by the way, Mossos and Urbana agents, who have observed from a prudent distance. Being a narrow passage with only two exitsany intervention would have had an uncertain end.
state of concern
In the municipal barometer of May 2017tourism sneaked into the top of the citizen concernsdisplacing the issues that usually occupy this position, such as the almighty insecurity, unemployment and the family economy or access to housing. When Ada Colau assumed the mayor’s office, in June 2015, only 5.3% of Barcelonans pointed to the outsiders as the main evil of the city. Two years later they were 19%. Last May they were only 6.1%. There is no doubt that Barcelona has once again filled with foreigners this summer, that congresses will again bring thousands of people throughout the year, that cruise ships will match 2019 figures and that hotels and tourist apartments will fight to seasonally adjust tourism. They will have in front of these neighbors. And it remains to be seen what attitude the government takes that comes out of the May 2023 elections.