Barcelona battles too many tourists

Barcelona, I love you. You’re traditional yet so stylish, inspiring and delicious. Oh, the shopping! Oh, Gaudi’s architecture! Oh, the street life!  And therein lies the problem. It has become a victim of its own success. Quality of life is so diminished, residents are fed up and something must be done.

“The way of life for all Barcelonans is seriously under threat,” aspiring mayoral candidate Ada Colau Ballano said last year. She won the municipal election in June, becoming the city’s first woman mayor. The left winger is now expected to address the ugly side of tourism in the third most visited city in Europe.

Barcelona has 1.6 million residents, yet now draws nearly 8 million visitors annually. Half a dozen cruise ships a day disgorge thousands of visitors all at once. No wonder Barcelonans feel overrun, as if they’re living in a theme park. Tourists behaving badly – noisy drunkenness, relentless crowds, illegal tourists apartments and the proliferation of hotels diminishing traditional urban communities are just some of the problems.

Waiting hours in line to see Antoni Gaudi’s Parc Güell or Casa Mila or the spectacular church Sagrada Familia isn’t fun for visitors either, as I recently discovered. I kept wondering if there was a slightly less busy day, and realised there wasn’t.

But visitors also bring in €12bn a year and support an estimated 100,000 jobs.

Mayor Ballano rose to prominence after helping to organize the Platform for People Affected by Mortgages (PAH) movement in Barcelona in 2009, to defend citizens against evictions caused by the collapse of the Spanish property market. Now, preserving the integrity of Barcelona’s urban communities is a key issue for her.

Price of tourism
is too high

Catalan Patricia Cuni is a blogger at MadAboutTravel who also works for international travel company SkyScanner in Edinburgh, Scotland. She took me for a stroll down Las Ramblas and showed me some of the city’s most beautiful architecture apart from the obvious sights. Her views (in a fabulous Spanish-Scottish accent) echo those of disgruntled residents.

“As someone that has lived all her life in Barcelona and seen the city blossom and grow in popularity as a tourist destination, I can tell that the amount of visitors that the city has during high season (from April to end of September) is a bit too much for such a tiny place. I understand perfectly all the good things that tourism brings to the Spanish/Catalan economy. I reckon that most tourists come to my city in search of wonderful architecture, amazing food and a unique lifestyle but that has a price (a bit too high) for residents.”

She doesn’t want to see residents driven out, the way Venetians have been in Italy. Small businesses are at the heart of traditional neighbourhoods, and any denigration has an impact. The Global Financial Crisis hit small businesses hard from 2008 and some have never recovered. Badly-behaved tourists don’t help. The Devour Barcelona foodie tour is socially aware and takes customers to traditional Gràcia patisseries (like this one pictured below), tapas bars, product markets and stores. No gaudy, trashy stuff here. The tour company is mindful of the integrity of Barcelona urban communities and obviously as keen to respect and preserve traditions as locals are. The tour was a revelation  – no better method to taste local life up close and personal.

We are not
Eurodisney

Locals avoid some of the most beautiful parts of town because they feel like a theme park, a little bit like a historical Eurodisney. The years of strolling down Las Ramblas are gone since now they have been taken over by cheap and bad restaurant terraces with overpriced dishes. The times of going for a walk in Park Güell are also gone, as now you have to pay a fee to enter (yes, neighbours of the area still get free entrance and locals can register in the city council to gain free access on a certain date, but it’s not the same) because tourists were damaging the property and it was too costly for the town hall to mantain. Neighbours in Barceloneta, Barri Gotic and Gracia are sick of party-goers that use Barcelona as their weekend 48-hour party city. I guess the trick would be to find a good balance between a livable city and a touristy one.”

 Everyone is a tourist at some point in their life. Rather, we have to regulate the sector, return to the traditions of local urban planning, and put the rights of residents before those of big business.”

I stayed in Gràcia, where architecture and communal meeting places are little changed over several centuries. What I love about Greece I also love about Spain – traditional and social lives are as visible as hearts worn upon sleeves. Vibrant Verdi Street was a joy to visit with my Airbnb host Ana who introduced me to her enterprising friends. I explored there every day and always found something new to surprise me. There was no greater joy than eating pastries and drinking chocolate and coffee in one of the squares, where locals hang out and neighbours gather to chat. Maybe I was fortunate, but I didn’t encounter plagues of tourists.