this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2024
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Protesters in Barcelona have sprayed visitors with water as part of a demonstration against mass tourism.

Demonstrators marching through areas popular with tourists on Saturday chanted “tourists go home” and squirted them with water pistols, while others carried signs with slogans including “Barcelona is not for sale.”

Thousands of protesters took to the streets of the city in the latest demonstration against mass tourism in Spain, which has seen similar actions in the Canary Islands and Mallorca recently, decrying the impact on living costs and quality of life for local people.

The demonstration was organised by a group of more than 100 local organizations, led by the Assemblea de Barris pel Decreixement Turístic (Neighborhood Assembly for Tourism Degrowth).

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[–] tlou3please@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago

I'll just start by saying I found your comment very interesting and insightful and I've learned a lot about the local challenges so thank you for taking the time to educate me. I still stand by my core argument but I appreciate your account and it was an interesting read.

What I would add is that I think it's very easy to fall into the trap of judging all tourists by the loud ones. The vast majority are just trying to get some time away and enjoy some time abroad and do so respectfully. I'd respectfully disagree that they're the minority. Yeah, certain places get more tourists because the flights are cheap. Well, times are tough and I think less well-off people also deserve a holiday. It's not really their fault if some places are more affordable than others.

Vacant holiday homes is a massive problem here as well, especially in regions like Cornwall and the Lake District. And also London, where the ultra wealthy of the world essentially use the city as a bank account to store their wealth. Personally I'm in favour of taxing the hell out them to disincentivise the practice and bring down house prices for genuine residents and families. But much like the tourism situation we've been discussing, it's such a huge source of income for the country that I don't envision this really happening. As much as I'd like it to.

It's the job of politicians to resolve the systemic issues (though I don't pretend to know how). If they don't have a strong enough mandate to do so then, well, that's democracy isn't it? I say this as someone who about a week ago won the first vote of their adult voting life after a decade and a half living under a conservative government who I can't stand. By all means campaign and protest to support your cause for the next vote, but I continue to condemn the type of protest shown in the original post. I don't think it's right to form a mob around perceived-foreigners, chant at them and spray water at them - which is my core point I wanted to originally make.