'Anti-tourism' protesters use water guns to drench foreign visitors at restaurants in Barcelona

By James Reynolds and Nishan Chilkuri and David Averre 23:20 06 Jul 2024, updated 12:06 08 Jul 2024

• Were you sprayed by protestors? Contact james.reynolds@mailonline.co.uk 

Thousands of protestors marched through central Barcelona this evening, waving placards and squirting holidaymakers with water guns in the latest expression of anger at perceived overtourism in Spain.

Under the slogan 'Enough! Let's put limits on tourism', some 2,800 people - according to police - marched along a waterfront district of Barcelona to demand a new economic model that would reduce the millions of tourists that visit every year. 

Protesters carried signs reading 'Barcelona is not for sale,' and, 'Tourists go home,' before some used water guns on tourists eating outdoors at restaurants in popular tourist hotspots. Chants of 'Tourists out of our neighbourhood' rang out as some stopped in front of the entrances to hotels.

Barcelona's rising cost of housing, up 68 percent in the past decade, is one of the main issues for the movement, along with the effects of tourism on local commerce and working conditions in the city of 1.6 million inhabitants. 

Rents rose by 18% in June from a year earlier in tourist cities such as Barcelona and Madrid, according to the property website Idealista. For years, the city has worn anti-tourist graffiti with messages such as 'tourists go home' aimed at visitors some blame for the rising prices and shaping of the economy around tourists.

Barcelona's mayor, Jaume Collboni, announced a plan in June to phase out all short-term lets by 2028, an unexpectedly drastic move by the authorities who seek to rein in soaring housing costs and make the city liveable for residents.

But many still feel not enough is being done to balance the needs of tourists, who bring millions to the city each year, with those of locals.

'Local shops are closing to make way for stores that do not serve the needs of neighbourhoods. People cannot afford their rents,' said Isa Miralles, a 35-year-old musician who lives in the Barceloneta district.

'I have nothing against tourism, but here in Barcelona we are suffering from an excess of tourism that has made our city unliveable,' said Jordi Guiu, a 70-year-old sociologist.

The northeastern coastal city, with internationally famous sites such as La Sagrada Familia, received more than 12 million tourists last year, according to local authorities.

To combat the 'negative effects of mass tourism', the city council run by the Socialist Jaume Collboni announced 10 days ago that it was banning tourist apartment rentals - there are now more than 10,000 - by 2028 so that they can be put back on the local housing market.

The announcement could lead to a legal battle and is opposed by an association of tourist apartments who say it will just feed the black market.

The Barcelona protests come after similar demonstrations in tourist hotspots such as Malaga, Palma de Mallorca and the Canary Islands.

The second most visited country after France, Spain received 85 million foreign visitors in 2023, an increase of 18.7 percent from the previous year, according to the National Statistics Institute.

The most visited region was Catalonia, whose capital is Barcelona, with 18 million, followed by the Balearic Islands (14.4 million) and the Canary Islands (13.9 million).

Furious locals who orchestrated mass anti-tourism protests across the Canary Islands earlier this year issued another warning to British travellers this week as they vowed to target 'main holidaymaker areas' over the summer break.

Again, they aired their frustrations that not enough had been done to answer their calls. 

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets of Tenerife on April 20, with roughly 200,000 protesters thought to have taken part in mass demonstrations across the island archipelago. 

The protests, organised by various groups including 'Friends of Nature of Tenerife (ATAN)' aimed to discourage foreign holidaymakers while also compelling councils to introduce new legislation aimed at protecting the islands from the effects of an ever-expanding tourism industry. 

But the groups claim their demands have fallen on deaf ears and as a result are gearing up for another explosive demonstration.

'We have decided to take to the streets again. This time we will take to the streets in the very centre of this development model: in the main tourist areas,' a statement from ATAN read.

'We ask people to continue fighting from every corner of the islands against this unjust model that is destroying our lives and our territory.'

The campaigners claim that the huge influx of tourists to the island is causing major environmental damage, driving down wages and squeezing locals out of cheap affordable housing, forcing dozens to live in tents and cars instead.

One female protestor at the march in April held up a sign which read: 'Fourteen million tourists a year but 36 per cent of Canarians at risk of poverty.' 

In Malaga, southern Spain, more than 15,000 tourists massed in the streets at the end of June to air their frustrations.

'We feel like strangers in our own city,' banners paraded in the march read.

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The demo was organised by the Malaga Tenants Union, with the backing of nearly 50 organisations including Greenpeace and Oxfam.

The demonstrators ran under the rallying cry: 'Malaga to live in, not survive in.'

Again, locals raised concerns about overtourism transforming their local communities to meet the needs of visitors at the expense of residents.

'We're not going to allow Malaga to become a theme park emptied of local residents. We're not going to allow shops to be replaced by franchises, pavements with terraces and rents with eviction letters,' organisers said.

Earlier this year stickers were plastered over the front of tourist apartment blocks in Malaga with messages in Spanish saying: 'F*** off from here' and 'Stinking of Tourists.'

Graffiti telling tourists to 'go home' - as well as blunter language - has become commonplace in sun-dappled Mediterranean resorts across Spain, Greece and elsewhere.

And in a bid to stop tensions from overspilling, some local authorities have tried to touch up the image of their constituencies with policies looking to deter boozy Brits.

New rules in Magaluf ban drinking in the street and buying alcohol from grocery stores after 8.30pm - with fines of up to €1,500 (£1,350) or rising to €3,000 (£2,550) for more serious behaviour breaches.

Drink limits have also been introduced at all-inclusive hotels in the notorious tourist hotspots of El Arenal, Playa de Palma in Mallorca, and Sant Antoni in Ibiza in a bid to clamp down on reckless drunken behaviour.

In 2022, the Balearic island of Mallorca also introduced a dress code, putting a ban on tank tops without straps, swimwear, football kits and accessories bought from street vendors (like gold chains and glow-in-the-dark hats) in bars and restaurants. 

And smoking was also banned on a number of beaches, following policies introduced in Barcelona in 2022 in an apparent attempt to clean up the image and appease locals.

Many top tourist destinations have trialled innovative new measures to control the flow of visitors as they battle backlash from residents.

In April, a town in Japan set up a 65ft screen to block off views to Mount Fuji in a bid to deter tourists from gathering at a picturesque spot.

Also in April, Venice became the first city in the world to charge an entry fee for day-tripper tourists, aimed at reducing the number of short-stay visitors who cause unmanageable congestion in peak times.

The 'tourist tax' has been controversial, with several residents' committees and associations planning protests to coincide with the launch in Italy. 

Reps argue the fee will not fix the fundamental issues but only cloud the city's public image.

Under the new rules, a fee will be charged to tourists passing through the city without staying overnight.

Authorities hope this might help manage the flow of some 30 million tourists drawn in by the city's history and romantic canals each year. 

But violent clashes broke out in April as demonstrators took to the streets.

Some met with police in riot gear in the narrow lanes of the city as emotions boiled over.

'I can tell you that almost the entire city is against it,' suggested Matteo Secchi, who leads residents' activist group Venessia.com. 

'You can't impose an entrance fee to a city; all they're doing is transforming it into a theme park. This is a bad image for Venice … I mean, are we joking?'

Federica Toninello, head of the ASC association for housing, suggested the council hadn't 'really understood the consequences' of mass tourism in Venice.

'For a start, €5 will do nothing to deter people. But day trippers aren't the issue; things like the shortage of affordable housing are… 

'What we need are policies to help residents, for example, making rules to limit things like Airbnb,' he said, as reported by The Guardian.