Activists have fired water pistols at a tour bus outside one of Barcelona‘s top attractions in a protest against overtourism. Video shows protesters shouting “tourists go home” as they block the bus and squirt water at it in a road near La Sagrada Familia on Sunday (April 27).
A demonstrator told the Reuters news agency: “We are here because we are fed up that tourism is always on top of this economic model.” Campaigners are demanding the holiday hotspot ends its reliance on tourism, calling for the city’s “detouristification”. A banner reading “Turn off the tourist focus” was draped across the front of the bus, which was also plastered with stickers reading “tourism kills the city”.
An unnamed protester told Reuters that activists had staged the protest because they were fed up with the way tourism was viewed as a priority in the city’s economy.
Ginny Morrison, who was visiting Barcelona from the US, said cruise ships were part of the problem, with passengers “inundating” Barcelona.
She added: “You can’t hardly move in some areas and, as I’ve said, I’m part of the problem.”
Organisers, Asembly of Neighbourhoods for the Decrease in Tourism, said 24 people were arrested and warned of a larger protest on June 15.
The group posted on X that it would aim to put an end to the “tourist fire” sweeping the planet and “initiate once and for all the essential socio-economic transformation of the territories it exploits”.
Popular tourism destinations in southern Europe have been the scene of popular protests since visitor numbers soared after the end of travel restrictions brought in during the COVID pandemic.
Some locals complain tourism has pushed up housing costs, damaged the environment and fails to pay workers adequately. Others argue the tourism industry drives their economies, generatin growth and jobs.
Tourism accounts for 14% of the city’s economy and supports 150,000 jobs, according to Mateu Hernández, director of the Barcelona Tourism Consortium.
Protest groups that joined Sunday’s protest said in a statement: “Our territories are not for sale… it is urgent to put limits on the growth of tourism, in demanding a change of course and in pointing out the path of tourism de-growth as a way out.”
It was not the first time locals in Barcelona fired water pistols at tourists. Angry Spaniards squirted travellers in the streets last summer as tensions erupted.
Mr Hernández told reporters in January that the city was worried about the perception that there are too many tourists in Barcelona.
He challenged the idea the city doesn’t want tourists, in remarks reported by CNN Travel.