Water pistol attacks on Barcelona tourists? I’m just surprised it hasn’t happened sooner
The sight of demonstrators using water pistols on tourists at a café in Barcelona over the weekend is undoubtedly unsettling and hard to defend. However, the real surprise is that such incidents haven't occurred more frequently.
The water pistols were part of a protest by around 3,000 individuals (according to police estimates, although organizers claimed a higher number) against the adverse effects of mass tourism in the city. This followed similar protests in Malaga, Mallorca, and Tenerife, driven by local frustrations over the impacts of growing tourism on housing, transportation, and community services.
These tensions highlight the darker aspects of tourism, which has been aggressively promoted and eagerly sought by many locations to boost their economies. The national economies of several Mediterranean countries have become significantly dependent on it.
In Spain, over 85 million international visitors annually contribute about 11.6% of the GDP and 10% of the jobs. In Greece, the figures are even higher, with tourism accounting for 18% of GDP and more than one-fifth of the workforce. In the Maldives, tourism supports a staggering 33% of the economy.
Yet, tourism can also have detrimental effects, overwhelming and harming the places and communities it relies on. I have always empathized with those bearing the brunt of these negative impacts. A particularly poignant image that has stayed with me is from a documentary over 30 years ago, showing an elderly woman in Cyprus who became disoriented in her hometown—not due to dementia but because her once-familiar seaside village had suddenly transformed into a sprawling holiday resort.
This year in Spain, tourist numbers, which were already problematic in Barcelona in 2019, have surged again to record levels after a brief lull during the COVID years. This influx has not only led to extreme overcrowding during peak season but has also started to displace local residents from the housing market, as properties are more lucratively rented out to tourists. Anecdotally, I've noticed the growing number of key safes attached to doors in tourist areas across Europe, indicating that these homes are being rented to vacationers rather than permanent residents.
Of course, the impact varies across different destinations, and we shouldn't be too quick to judge. Tourists are often blamed for Venice's woes; indeed, earlier this year, the city introduced a daily charge of €5 to manage visitor numbers and boost civic revenue. However, in my view, Venice's real threat is its physical vulnerability. A city built on a lagoon's mud foundation will always struggle against the elements.
Tourism has arguably been crucial to Venice’s survival and preservation over the last 300 years. When its trading economy dwindled in the 18th century, Venice reinvented itself as a pleasure destination, attracting wealthy tourists with its unique beauty, licensed gambling, and numerous courtesans. Without tourism, Venice might be in a far worse state today, though the number of permanent residents continues to decline.
Turning back to Spain and the broader Mediterranean in 2024, it’s not the individual tourists' fault if a city or resort is overwhelmed and unable to manage its infrastructure. However, such surges are challenging to control, and there are actions individual tourists can take to help. We can choose when and where to travel, avoiding pressure points to give these destinations time to manage their issues.
Few people want to vacation in places under significant strain. Spain has many other cities that don't face the same pressures as Barcelona. Valencia, for example, is a far more attractive destination with only about two million tourists annually, compared to Barcelona's ten million. Madrid handles its visitors more effectively, and there are numerous other wonderful cities to explore, such as Salamanca and Segovia. Perhaps it’s also time to reconsider trips to Majorca, Ibiza, Mykonos, and Santorini, especially during peak season. The world is vast, and we should explore more widely, viewing it not as succumbing to intimidation but as spreading our love of travel more broadly.
