What the article didn’t mention is that this has to do with VRBOs or AirBnBs…many of the prettiest, formerly family-occupied neighborhoods in town no longer have permanent residents, but hundreds of visitors staying in apartments that have been transformed into vacation rentals.
This, of course, has driven up the price of apartments and has also emptied out whole neighborhoods of permanent residents.
US cities have had the same problem. Charleston, for example, was losing permanent residents because of the VRBO pressure. They solved it by requiring a minimum 30 day stay, except in those which were also occupied by the owner, who could rent his rooms for shorter stays provided that he lived there too.
I’m not sure what they’re going to do in Barcelona. This isn’t the way to go about it though…the city lives on tourism.
Yes, indeed. That is relatively new- and it has added a lot to the problem of mass tourism in recent years.