Spaniards are struggling to cope with overtourism

In Barcelona's residential Gràcia neighbourhood known for its quaint squares, Txema Escorsa feels he is being left behind. The friendly faces of neighbours in his apartment building have been replaced by a non-stop flow of hard-partying foreigners, and his teacher's salary can't keep pace with the rising rent.

"It is tough for me to imagine what to do next," he told The Associated Press in the living room of his two-bedroom apartment. "If I leave, will I be contributing to Barcelona losing its essence that comes from its locals? But there comes a time when I'm fed up." Escorsa, 33, is just one of many residents who believe tourism has gone too far in the city famed for Antoni Gaudi's La Sagrada Familia basilica and the Las Ramblas promenade, running roughshod over communities and exacerbating a housing crisis.

It's not just a Spanish problem. Cities across the world are struggling with how to cope with overtourism and a boom in short-term rental platforms, like Airbnb, but perhaps nowhere has surging discontent been so evident as in Barcelona, where protesters plan to take to the streets on Sunday.

Similar demonstrations are slated in several other Spanish cities, including on the Balearic islands of Mallorca and Ibiza, as well as in the Italian postcard city of Venice, Portugal's capital Lisbon and other cities across southern Europe — marking the first time a protest against tourism has been coordinated across the region.

A poll in June 2022 found just 2% of Spaniards thought housing was a national problem. Three years later, almost a third of those surveyed said it is now a leading concern. (Both polls were of 4,000 people, with a margin of error of 1.6%) Spaniards have staged several large protests in Barcelona, Madrid and other cities in recent years to demand lower rents. When thousands marched through the streets of Spain's capital in April, some held homemade signs saying "Get Airbnb out of our neighborhoods."

Last year, Barcelona seemed to reach a tipping point when a rally in favor of "degrowing tourism" ended with some protestors shooting water pistols at unsuspecting tourists. Images of those incidents went around the world, and more such scenes are expected on Sunday.

"It is very likely the water pistols will be back," said Daniel Pardo, one of the organizers of the Barcelona protest. "In fact, we encourage people to bring their own." Spain, with a population of 48 million, hosted a record 94 million international visitors in 2024, compared with 83 million in 2019, making it one of the most-visited countries in the world. It could receive as many as 100 million tourists this year, according to studies cited by Spain's economy minister.

Spain's municipal and federal authorities are striving to show they hear the public outcry and are taking appropriate action to put the tourism industry on notice, despite the fact it contributes 12% of national GDP.

Almost two-thirds of those who took part in a poll conducted last year in Barcelona said tourist apartments led to bothersome behavior. Two months later, the city stunned Airbnb and other services who help rent properties to tourists by announcing the elimination of all 10,000 short-term rental licenses in the city by 2028.

A survey by Spain's public opinion office last year showed more than three-quarters of respondents favored tighter regulations on tourist apartments. Spain's left-wing government approved regulations making it easier for owners of apartments to block others from renting to tourists in their building, as well as approving measures to allow cities like Barcelona to cap rents. And last month, it ordered Airbnb to remove almost 66,000 holiday rentals from the platform which it said had violated local rules. Spain's Consumer Rights Minister Pablo Bustinduy told AP that the tourism sector "cannot jeopardize the constitutional rights of the Spanish people," which enshrines their right to housing and well-being.

Carlos Cuerpo, the economy minister, said in a separate AP interview that the government is aware it must tackle the unwanted side effects of mass tourism. "These record numbers in terms of tourism also pose challenges, and we need to deal with those challenges also for our own population," Cuerpo said.

The short-term rental industry believes it is being treated unfairly.

"I think a lot of our politicians have found an easy scapegoat to blame for the inefficiencies of their policies in terms of housing and tourism over the last 10, 15, 20 years," Airbnb's general director for Spain and Portugal, Jaime Rodríguez de Santiago told the AP. "If you look at the over-tourism problem in Spain, it has been brewing for decades, and probably since the 60s."

He says hotels are still the leading accommodation for tourists. In Barcelona, hotels accounted for 20 million tourists in 2024, compared with 12 million who used homes, according to local data.

Rodríguez de Santiago notes the contradiction of Barcelona's Mayor Jaume Collboni backing the expansion of the city's international airport - announced this week - while still planning to wipe out the tourist apartments.

That argument either hasn't trickled down to the ordinary residents of Barcelona, or isn't resonating. Escorsa, the teacher in Barcelona, doesn't just oppose Airbnb in his home city; he has ceased to use it even when traveling elsewhere, out of principle. "In the end, you realize that this is taking away housing from people," he said.