5 ms·

> Anti-tourist graffiti has begun to appear, with “No tourists past this point” painted on a street in the old city and “Why call it tourist season if we can’t

• Oletros 9y ago
  > This is shocking when Barcelona is a city that earns a sizable chunk of revenue from tourism. Yes, some people earn a sizable chunk, but I highly doubt that common people benefits from it.
  • toehead2000 9y ago
    Yep thats how economics works. If the tourists aren't paying you directly then you're just being screwed.
  • oriol16 9y ago
    not sure why this is downvoted when it's perfectly reasonable
• moonbug22 9y ago
  That sign has been there for at least a decade. Cap pis turistic.
• faragon 9y ago
  Anti-tourist movement in Barcelona is a minority, mainly from extreme-left parties and activists from Catalan nationalist parties. I live in Barcelona, and I'm ashamed of those xenophobic acts. My guess is that over 90% of Barcelona population don't endorse such xenophobic attitude. Despite being affected personally, e.g. because of tourism flat rental makes generic rental to have huge price increases (15% year to year increase (!)), I'm not against tourism, because tourism also means less unemployment, and most people having a better situation. Also, having people from around the world willing to visit the city where I live is amazing, and I'm very proud of it. Being Spain still recovering from the long, huge, and terrible financial and housing bubble crisis since 2007, I'm terrified with those radicals blaming the tourists for a problem that should be fixed by local rulers. In my opinion, the major of Barcelona city (not the province), Mrs Ada Colau (former radical-left activist) should put her efforts into increasing housing offer, so the demand-offer reaches a reasonable equilibrium (e.g. fiscal discounts for empty flats put in the rental market, fiscal discounts for building flats in former industrial places that are like ghost neighborhoods, etc.). From my side, you're very welcome to visit Barcelona as tourist, as worker, or as whatever you want while you do more good than harm :-)
  • ilamont 9y ago
    Thank you for sharing this perspective. It's easy to assume the extreme but vocal views of a small minority represent the views of the population at large.
    • faragon 9y ago
      Yes, that was my concern: a small but radical movement willing to steal the voice of the majority. You're welcome :-)
  • kafkaesq 9y ago
    Is it "extreme left", "xenophobic" or even "anti-tourist" to actually enforce pre-existing requiring that flats be properly licensed in order to serve as short-term rentals? If 90% of the population is, in fact, against such legislation, then it should be pretty easy to get it overturned.
  • deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  • dnautics 9y ago
    It's kind of crazy because I suspect a large portion of the tourist crowd (especially those from the us) would probably sympathize with Catalan separatism.
    • faragon 9y ago
      I hope not. In my opinion, the Catalan separatist movement is clearly not democratic (despite using agitprop equaling self-determination to democracy, which is a fallacy), and often, xenophobic ("Spain robs us"). I hope that once the economy gets fully recovered, nationalist people will go back to a more rational position.
      • oriol16 9y ago
        stop spreading political bullshit in a technology forum. Better go back to El Pais