Spaniards packing water pistols blame impact of mass tourism for housing crunch
Spaniards packing water pistols blame impact of mass tourism for housing crunch
Water guns are back squirting at unsuspecting tourists in Barcelona. About a thousand Spaniards marched to demand a rethink of an economic model they believe is fueling a housing crunch and erasing the character of their city on Sunday.
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.
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.”
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Dude I live in Tenerife born and raised, the "south" of the island which is what we call the tourist part and I mean spring break mixed with old retired perople... they have ghettos and communities just with germans, just with russians, jsut with british....
The issue salaries are shit here because the status quo wants it to remain like that despite protests, we have the climate so all efforts go into hotels, services and takin as much money from those tourists that make 3x as much as we do.
And ever since like the early 2000's they started bit by bit buying cheap (for them) and making entire spaces full foreign communities, with their own bars, supermarkets... nobody speaks spanish there NOBODY! you go into a small 7/11 in some areas in Los Cristianos or Las Chafiras and ask for something adn they look at you like YOU re foreigner
Now to sum to that then the BOOM of temp tourists renting happened and it made everything even worse.