Spain's Toxic Tourism: Is mass tourism killing Barcelona and Ibiza?
The nation is on track to overtake France as the world's most visited country with around one hundred million international visitors expected this year.
But you may be met with a hostile reception.
Protests and blockades against mass tourism have sprung up across the country with furious locals demanding action to quell the massive hordes of tourists taking over their cities and homes.
On Foreign Correspondent Europe Bureau Chief Mazoe Ford travels to two of the major hotspots - Barcelona and Ibiza.
She finds a housing crisis, that many blame on Airbnb and other holiday rentals.
She meets essential workers and people servicing the tourism industry who have been priced out of their homes.
Others lament their very way of life is being destroyed by the tourists wanting a slice of Spanish life.
For them, tourists are loving Spain to death.
While tourism is critical to the Spanish economy, employing more than three million people, many are asking is the cost of such success too high?
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ABC News
10 hours ago
- ABC News
Spain's Toxic Tourism: Is mass tourism killing Barcelona and Ibiza?
If you're dreaming of a summer in Spain, you're not alone. The nation is on track to overtake France as the world's most visited country with around one hundred million international visitors expected this year. But you may be met with a hostile reception. Protests and blockades against mass tourism have sprung up across the country with furious locals demanding action to quell the massive hordes of tourists taking over their cities and homes. On Foreign Correspondent Europe Bureau Chief Mazoe Ford travels to two of the major hotspots - Barcelona and Ibiza. She finds a housing crisis, that many blame on Airbnb and other holiday rentals. She meets essential workers and people servicing the tourism industry who have been priced out of their homes. Others lament their very way of life is being destroyed by the tourists wanting a slice of Spanish life. For them, tourists are loving Spain to death. While tourism is critical to the Spanish economy, employing more than three million people, many are asking is the cost of such success too high?
ABC News
a day ago
- ABC News
How the dream Spanish holiday became a nightmare for locals
The official signage in Barcelona encourages everyone to enjoy the city, but graffiti dotted around Spain's second biggest city has a different message aimed squarely at visitors. In English, it says: "Tourists go home." It's a sentiment that sums up the summer for thousands of Spanish locals who have had enough of the visitors swamping their towns. From the mainland to the idyllic islands of the Spanish coast, mass protests have broken out against what locals call "mass tourism". They say the huge number of summer holiday-makers are overwhelming their neighbourhoods, pushing up the price of housing and forcing them out. In Barcelona, humble water pistol has become a symbol of their resistance and images from some rallies, of locals spraying tourists, have gone viral. But the crowds keep coming. Spain is expecting a record 100 million international travellers this year, which puts it on track to overtake France as the world's most visited country. Foreign Correspondent went to some of Spain's tourism hotspots to meet the locals who say their home is being loved to death. Tourism is a big economic driver for Spain. It's the country's main source of income and employs 3 million people. But those who make a living from tourism have told Foreign Correspondent that tourism can make it hard to live. Alicia Bocuñano, a taxi driver on Spain's famous party island Ibiza, says despite working 12-hour shifts sometimes seven days a week she's struggled to find housing. "Everything you are seeing, all these buildings and all these apartments, are for tourists," Alicia explains as we drive around her island home. Ibiza is experiencing a profound housing shortage, exacerbated by a post pandemic tourism boom and a growing number of apartments being converted to holiday lets, such as Airbnb listings. Many locals now say they are priced out. When Alicia went looking for a rental apartment for her and her 11-year-old son Raul, she was blindsided by a demand to pay six months' rent up-front. "The problem is that I can't pay the 14,000 euro deposit. After having worked so much, for so many hours and for so many years, I feel powerless," she said. Makeshift camps have been popping up across the island and many of the residents are workers. Alicia has ended up living in one of them, but she has sent her son to stay with relatives. "It's very difficult, this, but I am very strong. I will continue to fight and I will continue giving my best for my son and for myself," she said. "My message to tourists is simply that they should see the reality that is happening here, they should know that while they are being welcomed here we are being forgotten." The authorities on Ibiza say they have begun regulating and reducing holiday apartment listings to free up housing for locals, but the people Foreign Correspondent spoke to said they're yet to see homes become available. Higher paid essential workers such as nurses, police officers and teachers say they can't find housing on Ibiza either. High school teacher Juanjo Bonnin, 58, shares an apartment with two other teachers because none of them can afford a place of their own. "We civil servants have a good salary ... a liveable wage, [yet] here and now there is no housing that teachers can afford," Juanjo said. "On Ibiza, we have jobs but no one wants to come here, not police officers, judges, doctors, nurses or teachers because the prices are outrageous." In Barcelona, neighbours living alongside one of the main tourist attractions, Park Güell, are so fed up with the large volume of tourists in the area, they have begun staging weekly blockades at the road leading up to the park. "The feeling of being in a place constantly overcrowded with tourists is suffocating and stressful," said Barcelona local Eva Vilaseca. "And it ends up generating anger, frustration and this kind of visceral hatred towards tourists." Eva has been going to the Park Güell blockades, as well as the larger protests, with her four-year-old son Jan, because she's worried they will have to move away. "I'm a single mother, I live alone with my child in Barcelona, and I'm very afraid because my lease has to be renewed next year and I want to be able to continue living in my neighbourhood. "If they raise the rent, aside from not being able to afford it, I won't just have to leave my neighbourhood, which means taking my child out of his school, but I'll have to leave Barcelona entirely." To address the housing shortage, Barcelona City Council has come up with a controversial plan to ban all short-term holiday apartments by 2028. It claims this will free up 10,000 homes for local people. "We believe we have to try to do several measures in order to improve the [availability of] housing," Deputy Mayor Jordi Valls told Foreign Correspondent. "First production, then more land, incentivise the private sector to invest in social housing and affordable housing, and the other is banning tourist apartments. "Tourists are welcome in the city but the tourists have to understand we have to manage this situation … and the only way to control the tourists is to control the offer, because probably the demand is unstoppable." Some apartment owners are taking legal action because they believe they have been unfairly targeted. Airbnb told Foreign Correspondent it believes it has been made a "scapegoat". "Barcelona has made short-term rentals and Airbnb, I believe a very convenient excuse for some of the problems that they have in the city," Airbnb's director general for Spain Jaime Rodríguez de Santiago said. "The reality, if you look at the numbers, is that eight out of 10 tourists in Barcelona don't stay in short-term rentals, they stay in hotels. "But obviously there's been a storytelling unfolding around this narrative of whether short-term rentals are the culprit for the over tourism issue." Housing isn't the only concern for locals who are angry about mass tourism. They say the huge influx of visitors is also putting enormous pressure on infrastructure such as health, transport, waste and water systems. Protests have been held about damage to the natural environment too. Laura San Miguel, an environmental activist who was born and raised on Ibiza, thinks most visitors don't appreciate the island's beauty. "I think we're very lucky we've got beautiful beaches, coves, cliffs, beautiful seaside and it is very forested," she said. "[But] it's so very crowded and there is a steady deterioration of natural places. "In the busiest days of the summer, we more than double the population of the island in one single day and that is many, many days consecutive." A big concern for Laura is the growing number of yachts dropping anchor along the coast, damaging marine life in Ibiza's crystal-clear waters. Few realise just below the surface is one of the largest meadows of the sea grass posidonia in the world, which is part of a UNESCO World Heritage site. "When they pull out the anchor they pull the sea grass with it, so we are finding that it's dying off in many places because of this. It's not replacing itself fast enough," Laura said. She still thinks tourism is good for Ibiza's economy but believes there should be limits. "We are not against tourism, we recognise it as an important thing and we are open and happy to have tourism. But why not put a top, a maximum of tourists in a season?" In a statement, the Spanish government said it did not believe the country had a problem with mass tourism, and it was not considering introducing any caps on numbers. "The tourism sector is one of the most important sectors for the Spanish economy and one of its main drivers of growth, especially after the pandemic," the statement said. Most visitors Foreign Correspondent spoke to were conscious of the anti-tourism backlash but hadn't had any unpleasant encounters with angry locals during their stay. "I heard about the protests before we came … but we love this country and we bring income to this country and we add to their GDP," said one tourist from China. "We don't see any antagonism as much as you hear about," said another from North America. "I mean, we see the graffiti, but that's part of the charm of the town, I think." Aleix Fors Laguna, an e-bike tour guide in Barcelona, often jokes with his friends that he "works for the enemy". But he doesn't believe tourists are to blame, rather politicians who are not managing the flow of visitors effectively. Even so, there are things tourists could do to be better guests. "First, learn a bit of Spanish and Catalan so that we know we are interested in our language, and second, buy in local places," he said. He added that he would never support spraying water pistols at tourists, or shouting at them to "go home", but he understood why many of the city's residents felt that way. "We are not your playground, we are a city like yours. A city with workers, with people enjoying their time off, and it of course gets difficult if there are so many people," he said. "But we have plenty of culture to share with you and we are pleased to do that. As long as you're willing to respect it." Watch Spain's Toxic Tourism on Foreign Correspondent tonight at 8pm on ABC TV and ABC iview.
ABC News
2 days ago
- ABC News
Short-term rental advocates say restrictions hurt tourism, not help housing
Advocates of short-term rentals say regulations in the sector are shifting the blame away from governments and towards property owners. Short-stay rentals, typically associated with websites like Airbnb and Stayz, have drawn criticism for taking properties away from the long-term rental market. In other parts of the world, jurisdictions are putting restrictions on short-stay accommodation, including in New York City and Barcelona, amid housing shortages. But research from the University of South Australia has claimed restrictions and bans have done little to help housing stocks. Tourism expert and study author Peter O'Connor said jurisdictions that had banned short-stay accommodation failed to see any meaningful growth in housing access. He said the main consequence was limiting tourism accommodation, in turn increasing prices. "If you reduce the number of short-term rentals which are available, one of the things you do is make it more difficult for tourists to find accommodation," Professor O'Connor said. "Here in Australia, tourism is our number one service export and it has a lot of knock-on effects in terms of the local community and spending in bars, restaurants and shops." A South Australian parliamentary committee is looking into the short-stay accommodation sector, including possible regulations on short-stay rentals. Wendy Roeters owns two homes in Mount Gambier which she rents out for short stays. She said the sector was needed in regional areas where workers travel and stay for extended periods and where there were fewer large hotels. "For companies, the short-term stays are the better option," she said. "You get a lot of people for the hospital, like doctors and nurses. I've just had a nurse stay for three weeks. "You'll have work crews who might be working on construction who might be doing it for a period of six months." Ms Roeters added it was unfair to penalise short-stay property owners for there being a wider shortage of housing. "I can understand that the government wants housing, but that's not the responsibility of people that have a property, that's the government's responsibility," she said. Property reform advocacy group Grounded produced its own report into the short-stay sector in Australia, released in June. It found the profits on short-term rentals were 81 per cent more than if the property was placed on the long-term market in 13 of Australia's busiest tourism towns. Grounded managing director Karl Fitzgerald said it was clear short-stay accommodation was impacting local housing supply. "It's more supply coming out of the long-term rental market and out of the ownership market," he said. "When government is talking about supply on every front, it's strange that Airbnb is not considered as a factor. Mr Fitzgerald said a plan to limit the growth of short-stay accommodation would be more effective, such as a "cap and trade" scheme, which would give licenses to property owners. "That's where having at least a licensing system that regulates the growth and the supply and perhaps caps it and reduces it over time until there's enough funding to channel some of the profits away from Airbnb," he said. "Use that money to fund long-term affordable housing under a community land trust model." Professor O'Connor argued short-stay accommodation had become a "quick fix" for governments in favour of more complicated plans to ease the housing crisis. "It's a lot easier for a state government or a council to introduce a regulation that limits the number of short-term rentals than it is to introduce some way of encouraging the building of new houses," he said. South Australian Greens MLC Robert Simms is leading the state's parliamentary committee into short-stay accommodation. He agreed the sector was not solely to blame for the state's housing crisis, but said it still needed regulation. "I think there's no doubt that short stay is here to stay, but the question is whether or not we've got the balance right," he said. "It is concerning that people might be running a property that is, in effect, a business, and yet they might be paying at the same rates as their neighbour who is living in a private residence. "That doesn't really seem fair, and that's why I think there's a level of community interest in the idea of regulation of the sector."
