'Bring your water pistols': Barcelona braces for tourism demo
Demonstrators are set to hit the streets of the Catalan capital this weekend with instructions to bring their water pistols with which to spray holidaymakers, as part of day of mass tourism protests in Spain and other southern European countries.
Spain’s anti-protest season is ready to restart this weekend, with demonstrators in Barcelona preparing to take to the streets with water pistols (again) in the Catalan capital.
In 2024, protestors in Spain’s second city gained international news coverage when a small group of them sprayed tourists with water pistols.
The demonstration was part of a wider, year-long wave of anti-tourism protests across Spain to demand greater controls on the tourism industry and, in particular, protest its inflationary impact on the housing market.
Average rents in Spain's major cities, islands and coastal resorts have skyrocketed in the post-pandemic period, with a surge in the number of short-term tourist accommodation rental platforms like Airbnb blamed by many.
READ ALSO: What to expect from the mass tourism protests across Spain in June
Now, on Saturday June 15th, the Assembly of Neighbourhoods for Tourism Degrowth (ABDT) has called for a new demonstration in Barcelona under the slogan: ‘Tourism is stealing our bread, our homes and our future: we defend the city, tourism degrowth NOW!’.
More than 100 organisations from across the country have already signed the manifesto.
The march will start at 12 noon on Sunday in the Jardinets de Gràcia, and then move on to city centre spots such as Passeig de Gràcia and Diagonal. Authorities are recommending that people in the city use public transport while the march is on.
Similar protests will take place in other Spanish cities such as Palma, San Sebastián, Granada and Ibiza, and there will also be demos overseas in cities such as Lisbon, Naples, Venice and Naples, organised by The Southern Europe Network Against Touristification (SET).
Reports in the Spanish press suggest that the aim is to disrupt “tourist routines” and demand policies to curb what they describe as an “economic monoculture that is driving out residents.”
The organising groups also includes trade unions representing workers in the tourism sector and environmental groups such as Ecologistas en Acción.
Organisers are inviting demonstrators to bring water pistols and toys, a direct reference to an anti-mass tourism demonstration carried out last year on the city's Ramblas boulevard, where some protesters sprayed holidaymakers with water as they sat on restaurant terraces.
Protesters in Barcelona recently held up a bus covered it with a large banner reading “Let’s put out the tourist fire. June 15th – Day of struggle against touristification”, looking ahead to the protest this weekend.
During the series of protests in 2024, some in Spain and around the world wondered if demonstrations were becoming overly aggressive and demonising tourists themselves as opposed to the tourist industry and gentrification more generally.
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