Spain “Tourists go home！” Residents of popular tourist destination Barcelona use water guns on tourists． Rising rents due to overtourism are the trigger
7/21 (Sun) 13:12 fnn Prime Online In Barcelona, Spain, local residents are now expressing their discontent as overtourism threatens their lives.
“Water gun attack” on tourists
In Barcelona, a popular tourist destination in Spain, local residents are holding colorful water guns and spraying water. Some are shouting and clapping.
The person at the end of the gun is a tourist. The tourist was sprayed with water and quickly left the scene.
Is this a local festival? All we could hear was a voice shouting, “Tourists go home! Tourists go home!” In fact, this was an “angry demonstration” by the residents.
Famous for the World Heritage Site “Sagrada Familia,” Barcelona is one of the world’s leading tourist destinations, with approximately 26 million tourists visiting in 2023.
Right now, in Barcelona, the negative effects of too many tourists, so-called overtourism, are threatening the lives of local residents.
In Japan, overtourism has become a problem, especially in famous tourist destinations such as Kyoto, but in Barcelona, it has escalated into demonstrations as residents’ lives are threatened. In particular, the number of private lodging facilities aimed at tourists has increased, accelerating the housing shortage and rising rents, and local residents have begun protesting. They have been spraying tourists with water guns. The mayor of Barcelona has announced measures such as raising tourist taxes and limiting the number of passengers on cruise ships. (From the July 15 broadcast of “It!”) It!
Meanwhile, in Japan, the price of rice, a staple food, has skyrocketed due to inbound tourism. In other countries, it wouldn’t be surprising if riots broke out.
Or rather, how much time and money do people in the world have to travel? The world is booming, and the countries that are complaining about inbound tourism are the ones that aren’t riding that wave.
>>26 Japanese people used to go on a lot of trips to see the sights too. They bought a lot of branded goods and were frowned upon. But that didn’t mean they had that much income.
With the Paris Olympics coming up, I’ve had more opportunities to watch videos showcasing the streets of Paris. I’m envious of how few people there are in Paris. Even 20 years ago, when there weren’t that many tourists in Japan, there were still too many Japanese people alone. I don’t think a declining population is a bad thing.
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