Locals in Barcelona brandish water pistols against tourists

EMMA STOLTZFUS: With a strong dollar Americans are out and about around the world as TSA checkpoint travel numbers hit three million over the holiday weekend. But one popular tourist destination has a message for would-be travelers: leave.

PROTESTORS: Tourists go home! Tourists go home!

EMMA STOLTZFUS: Thousands of locals marched in the tourist city of Barcelona, Spain over the weekend in protest of soaring rent and cost of living. The protests had the typical cardboard signs and flags, but what stood out were the water guns. Many in the crowd used brightly-colored handheld water pistols on any tourist in range, causing people to abandon their street-side cafe tables for drier ground. 

PROTESTOR: We come here to demonstrate against mass ‘touristification’ here in Barcelona. The last years the city has turned completely for tourists and what we want is a city for citizens and not in service of tourists.

EMMA STOLTZFUS: Barcelona saw 15.6 million tourists in 2023. In an effort to appease locals, the mayor of Barcelona recently announced an initiative to ban all short-term rentals by 2028. As part of it, the city plans to increase the tourist tax by about 27 cents a night and invest in local concerns such as air conditioning in schools. Barcelona isn’t isolated in its search for a balance between visitors and locals in a tourism-dependent economy. In April, around 50,000 protested the tourist industry in the Canary Islands, an autonomous community of Spain. The eight inhabited islands received nearly 14 million international visitors last year, which is around seven times the local population and a 13% increase from the year before. Protestors claimed the balance between locals and tourists had broken down and residents were paying the price. In Barcelona the water pistols did little lasting damage other than getting a few tourists damp, but upcoming policy changes may have a bigger effect on balancing the scales between locals and tourists. I’m Emma Stoltzfus, for more unbiased, straight facts check us out at SAN.com