Spaniards turn water pistols on visitors to protest mass tourism
NPR Online NewsJUN 17
Mass tourism has transformed beloved neighborhoods into unaffordable tourist playgrounds, forcing lifelong residents to abandon their homes as rents skyrocket. In the meantime, local economies have been transformed from businesses servicing communities to souvenir shops serving visitors. The current model must change if locals are to have a future in their own homes.
While overtourism is an issue, protestors must not make rash decisions. Tourism provides essential economic benefits, generating 12% of Spain's GDP and supporting 150,000 jobs in Barcelona alone. Scaring tourists away, therefore, would be a disaster, and, as such, demonstrators should instead direct their energy toward policy-makers to effect change rather than attempt it on their own.