Anti-tourism protests: Barcelona misfire

Barcelona, Miguel de Cervantes’s “archives of courtesy, shelter of the foreigners”, has changed in the four centuries since he wrote that memorable description in Don Quixote. Recently, the city of Antonio Gaudi, Pablo Picasso and one of the world’s best-known football clubs showcased a unique — and troubling — response to the overwhelming number of visitors it gets every year: At a massive rally last weekend, organised to draw attention to the problem of over-tourism, several protestors chanting “tourists go home” used squirt guns to drench unsuspecting diners at al fresco restaurants.

Poorly conceived as this particular form of protest was, it also had the wrong target in its crosshairs. For years — since before the pandemic, in fact — Barcelona residents have complained about their beautiful city becoming unlivable due to overcrowding, skyrocketing rents and the soaring cost of living. These are serious issues, but are tourists — who contribute up to 14 per cent of the city’s GDP and on whom about 1,50,000 local jobs are dependent — really to blame for this? If squirt guns are to be used as tools of protest, they are better aimed at local authorities who, through poor or no regulation and laws that prioritise tourists over locals, have contributed to stoking resentments.