‘Summer will be monstrous’: Barcelona wrestles
with revival of mass tourism
As visitors return after easing of Covid curbs, talk
of diversification of Spanish city has been drowned out by sound of ringing
tills
Stephen
Burgen in Barcelona
Thu 16 Jun
2022 12.00 BST
“Barcelona
is for sale but not to the people who live here,” says Silvia Mateu, who has
lived in the seafront neighbourhood of Barceloneta for 47 of her 61 years.
For two
years Barcelona underwent a forced experiment caused by the Covid pandemic.
Visitor numbers that hovered near 30 million suddenly dropped to zero.
For many
citizens, the emptying out came as a blessed relief as they rediscovered parts
of the city that had been rendered no-go areas by mass tourism.
But at the
same time, dozens of bars, restaurants and shops went out of business,
prompting an overdue debate on the need to diversify the economy.
The city
has had some success in attracting startups, especially in technology
industries, which deem the city on Spain’s Mediterranean coast as a cheaper and
more attractive option than Paris or Berlin. However, since tourists returned
in Easter talk of diversification has been drowned out by the sound of ringing
tills.
The
hospitality sector, which suffered more and longer than any other during the
pandemic, is understandably delighted. Businesses that survived the lockdowns
are plotting a path out of the debt they took on. But not everyone is happy.
“We don’t
want life to be like it was in the pandemic but it also gave us a chance to see
that there were other possibilities without massive tourism,” says Martí Cusó,
who lives in the Gothic Quarter, the city’s busiest tourist area.
“My barrio is so saturated with tourists it’s
impossible to meet someone in the street or for children to play or even to get
a good night’s sleep,” he says. “These two years of the pandemic have been hard
but it’s also a missed opportunity to rethink the city.”
Jordi
Rabassa, the councillor for the Ciutat Vella district, which encompasses the
Gothic Quarter, agrees.
“We haven’t
done what was needed to bring about a profound and real change to the economic
model,” he recently told the elDiario.es news site.
“I have
been arguing for a more localised economy but I’ve been swimming against the
tide. We have to work to ensure that the past two years haven’t just been a
mirage.”
Fermín
Villar is president of the Friends of La Rambla, a tree-lined, pedestrianised
street synonymous with mass tourism.
“You can’t
fix Barcelona without fixing La Rambla,” he says, pointing out that the
majority of shops and bars simply do not cater to residents. “We can’t tell a
bar how much to charge for a beer, but without the cooperation of the private
sector there’s little we can do,” he says.
His
comments cut to the heart of the problem: the many vested interests that depend
and even thrive on mass tourism do not want anything to change, while those who
do want change often lack the authority to affect decision-making.
For
example, Ada Colau, the mayor, wants to restrict the number of cruise
passengers who disembark on any given day. She claims that of the 3.1 million
who arrived in 2019, 40% spent less than than four hours in the city.
Cruise
tourists, she says, visit the same sites every time and tend not to put much
money into the local economy. The port of Barcelona, however, is outside of her
jurisdiction.
The other
category of tourist that riles residents is young people who flock to the city
for its warm weather, beaches, nightlife and festival scene.
Colau is
targeting them with an attempt to clamp down on an estimated 6,000 unlicensed
tourist apartments but is hampered by a supreme court ruling that allows
websites to advertise illegal apartments.
Xavier
Marcé, the city councillor responsible for tourism, wants hotels to charge more
to attract wealthier clientele, but it is not in his gift to set pricing
levels.
Mateu
scoffs at the authorities’ repeated claims that they want to attract “quality”
tourism.
“What we have in Barceloneta is booze tourism,” she
says. “They don’t go to museums, they are not here to learn about our culture.
“Last
summer, it was hell. Everything was shut but people still came for the weekend
and they had botellones [outdoor drinking parties] on the beach and in the
street.”
Some of
those partying were locals but the majority were tourists, many escaping
tighter Covid restrictions in other countries. “Now everything’s open and it’s
worse – the weekend begins on Wednesday.”
A recurring
complaint is that most tourists visit the same small areas, which is why Marcé
wants to see visitors more widely dispersed.
But Cusó
says this is a distraction. “This is just a way of avoiding the topic,” he
argues. “Even if tourists do visit other areas, they’ll still come to the
Gothic Quarter and Park Güell. It’s not about where people go or whether they
are rich or poor, it’s about having a city that is less dependent on tourism in
the first place.”
Mateu
insists she is not anti-tourist, per se. Rather she wants a tourism model that
prioritises civility, and puts a stop to visitors keeping local people awake
all night and urinating on their doorstops.
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Already
there have been flashpoints and conflict in Barceloneta and elsewhere this
year. With accommodation booked out for July and August, she sees a difficult
summer ahead.
“It’s worse
than ever and it’s only June; this summer is going to be monstrous,” she says.
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