Posted on 07/07/2024 4:29:45 AM PDT by C19fan
Thousands of protestors marched through central Barcelona this evening, waving placards and squirting holidaymakers with water guns in the latest expression of anger at perceived overtourism in Spain.
Under the slogan 'Enough! Let's put limits on tourism', some 2,800 people - according to police - marched along a waterfront district of Barcelona to demand a new economic model that would reduce the millions of tourists that visit every year.
Protesters carried signs reading 'Barcelona is not for sale,' and, 'Tourists go home,' before some used water guns on tourists eating outdoors at restaurants in popular tourist hotspots. Chants of 'Tourists out of our neighbourhood' rang out as some stopped in front of the entrances to hotels.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
I recall that too. I think that was also used elsewhere to determine where the military pay went.
We liked Bucharest. It’s clearly post-Soviet and a bit run down in places, but hardly any tourists. Unfortunately we were there during the unusually hot period when it was 100 degrees. So we spent time by the fountains and in the mall and Carefour. But it was easy to get around on cheap public transportation and very inexpensive.
I can sympathize with these protesters. We’ve been to Barcelona and were unimpressed. Some great historical and Gaudí buildings, but the part by the coast seemed like a place for tourists, especially drunken young party animals.
Just Great, planning a trip to Barcelona in October. Just F’n Great.
Much of the “draw” in Spain are things and places that survive from hundreds of years ago. That and warm-water beaches.
Neither are really expandable.
Barcelona has just a few tourist “draws” (I know Barcelona very well) - the Barri Gotic/ciutat vella (Gothic quarter), the old medieval city - which includes the Picasso museum. La rambla, the old main drag, which is lined with tourist businesses, the mercat (public market), the port, mainly the yacht harbor, the beach, the various Gaudi sites. And thats it.
Barcelona is a huge city and the tourists crowd into @5% of it.
There are some other bits that, imho, should rank, as destinations, with anywhere in Europe, but arent really huge tourist draws. The fortress of Montjuich, the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya, which is very grand, even the Miro museum, if you like that sort of thing.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museu_Nacional_d%27Art_de_Catalunya
Don’t know what these Spanish simpletons are complaining about.
Spain is part of the European Union. They voluntarily gave up their sovereignty to join the bloc. A German, Frenchman, Dutchman or Dane can travel to Spain freely, as if moving from state to state in the USA.
Spain voted to become part of the EU, and now they can live with the EU trash. /spit
“People in Barcelona should be careful what they ask for. Tourist dollars probably account for a significant percent of their economy. Unemployment is harsh.”
There are some serious people predicting that Europe is devolving into a ‘tourist economy’ in the near future, do to their continuous, self-inflicted, economy-crashing policies, which include:
1. Climate Change (ending nukes, coal, oil, gas, etc.)
2. Backfire Sanctions (on Russia), and likely Backfire Sanctions (on China)
3. Mass Immigration
Unfortunately for Europe, its post-Industrial future of tourism will likely be quite limited due to the last item putting much of the continent off limits.
It will be interesting to see whether Europeans take their de-industrialization and population replacement peacefully, or if they lash-out, one last time.
Mr. GG2’s nephew and wife and kids are in Spain this week. 😮
My post went 15 miles over your head. Like an sr71 over Moscow. You are a special kind of autistic, aren’t you.
“Spanish speaking thugs” are not Spanish people, that is, those from the actual Spain, that European country, subjects of Felipe VI de Borbon.
Those people are from old colonies that Spain lost 200 years ago.
It would be as if I blamed Americans for the behavior of Australians. Or English speaking Indians and Jamaicans.
The Spanish-Spanish never came to the US in any numbers, unlike the Germans, Italians and etc.
So go whine elsewhere about “overrun cities”. I despise you ignorant waste cases.
I, unusually for the Spanish, have lived in the US for forty years. So I know you characters backwards and forwards. And your type of character has no redeeming features.
During Desert Eagle and Desert Storm Norfolk, Virginia Beach, and Portsmouth emptied out... 6 months later the local businesses were singing the blues cuz there was no service personnel patronizing as they were all overseas. I think the local population in Virginia Beach and the surrounding areas learn a lesson from that. And then came Iraq and Afghanistan.
Your “meaning” is irrelevant to the subject of the OP. I answered the limited US case you could make with respect to the actual subject.
‘Tourists out of our neighbourhood’ 🤔 let me know how your ‘Migrants out of our neighbourhood’ works out…..
Tourist dollars probably bought the squirrels guns th3y were using
They need to use the Disney solution to large crowds, keep raising prices until only the very rich can afford to visit.
Yep. Florida is a “tourist state” where floridians are forced to live like tourists. Special tourist taxes on hotels and for “roads” cuz it’s needed for the tourist “infrastructure.” “ politicians are constantly telling us we NEED THE TOURIST DOLLARS! Why? So we can build more roads leading to Mickey World? I’ve lived and worked in the state for 50 years and tourism hasn’t put a dime in my pocket.
I ,I’ve in a huge tourist town and summers were a nightmare, but the $$ sustained the town through the hard winter
Tourism became a huge deal in Spain long before there was an EU with Schengen, and long before Spain joined the EU. This was a policy of Francisco Franco’s regime dating to the 1950s. And they pursued it relentlessly.
It was the dictatorship that created the airports, roads, hotel networks (some of the jewels of the “parador” system date to that time). It was the dictatorship that made it easy for British people, especially, to buy beachfront property. And so forth.
By the time Spain joined the EU (1986) the whole industry was in place and millions of tourists had been coming to Spain annually for decades.
What work do you do?
Be sure to eat a paella at Los Caracoles. I still remember it more than fifty years later.
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