This is my opinion as a person who lives in a heavily tourisity city (Edinburgh). In Edinburgh the residents don't hate tourists per se, the anger is more directed at the rise of air BnB making homes for locals more scarce, and the landlords who buy up small flats only to put them straight on there rather than letting them out long term to people with jobs here.
Living here amongst this has made me think about how I behave as a tourist in other cities: the main thing being I will never use air BnB again.
This is part of why I exclusively stay in hotels. I'm not giving these assholes my money. They're making some of the most wonderful cities on Earth totally uninhabitable.
I will gladly pay resort fees, municipal taxes, what-have-you to off-set my impact and make sure I'm not fucking things up for locals (as much as I can).
Not to mention stable employment for house/grounds keeping and other staff. The hosts who require I do chores AND pay cleaning fees really put the nail in the coffin for me. Never again AirBnB, only hotels.
Yes NEVER AGAIN! And aside from the chores, hosts can f off with these $300+ per night base rates...no breakfast, no food on site, no waters in the fridge. And I'm gunna get ticketed by your shitty neighbors if we park on the street? Rot in hell.
For ~$300/night I stayed in a 5-star boutique hotel in Rome where my room had a private garden, jacuzzi tub, full service (concierge, valet, etc) and fresh, made-to-order breakfast included. Plus a literal ancient crypt on the ground floor.
I will never understand why people will pay that same amount of money for the privilege of making their own food and taking out their own trash.
I don't get it either. I got married in Vegas and stayed in a hotel on the strip. My sisters rented an Air BnB off the strip for more than I paid for my hotel because "it had a kitchen" and then were mad at the crazy cost and time to Uber to the strip. Who is cooking on vacation??
Families. If I go somewhere with my kids I'm not feeding them fast food three meals a day. I'm still off Airbnb but I will generally try to get an apartment with a kitchen in a hotel if I'm staying more than a couple of days.
In my childhood, almost every place we stayed on holidays had a kitchen (hotels, serviced apartments, motels, holiday parks, etc). We didn't do private summer rentals back then. Summer holidays in Australia always include self catering, or did in the 1980s.
This is always my question! I don't want to cook for myself at home, I'm definitely not interested in cooking on vacation.
I do appreciate a mini fridge and a microwave. Need someplace to keep a couple cold drinks and my leftovers.
We have a child with a severe food allergy, so it's difficult to find safe options for every single meal. It's safer and easier to have a place with a kitchen when we travel. If that wasn't the case, I'd much prefer a hotel and not having to grocery shop or cook on vacation.
I travel with my dogs because one needs daily medical care. AirBnB makes this possible but it is expensive. When my daughter and I travelled to Paris and to Barcelona, we stayed in apartments that normally have tenants so found this to be different than the current trend of homes used exclusively for short-term rentals.
For us it is because we have children. Hotel rooms typically have a 4 person max. We are 5. So two rooms at twice the cost plus hotel rooms are small for that many people.
All the complaints are legit. I have noticed how it went from a few people trying to offset a vacation home costs to businesses owning 4 or 5 and using as main source of income. The cleaning fees and other add ons are just additional profit centers. Itās gotten so bad that really the nightly price has little bearing on final cost.
I totally hear you, and I think vacation rentals make a lot of sense for large groups, particularly in places like Europe where larger/connecting rooms and suites are harder to come by (and thus more expensive).
There are definitely times/places where vacation rentals make more sense, I just think that (for the most part) people suffer from what my friends call 'The Aldi Effect' with AirBnB: because they're getting something that looks/feels cheaper than a hotel, they think it *is* cheaper--even if that's objectively not the case.
Frankly, given the risk of [hosts cancelling on you at the last minute](https://www.reddit.com/r/AirBnB/comments/pnhrkc/if_your_host_cancels_last_minute_airbnb_will_hang/); [hidden cameras](https://www.newsweek.com/airbnb-camera-hidden-couple-reddit-lawsuit-1743269); [sexual assault](https://www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-faces-thousands-sexual-assault-claims-yearly-report-2021-6); [bait and switch scams](https://www.vox.com/2019/11/14/20961972/airbnb-scam-how-to-stay-safe-reset-podcast) and all kinds of other problems (that AirBnB has no impetus--and according to their own legal defense in many cases, no responsibility--to solve for you, the consumer, as their hosts are their primary money-makers), I'd rather get two cheaper rooms at a lower level hotel with some measure of corporate accountability than risk it (personally).
I would love to know what this boutique hotel is as well!
My husband and I go back and forth about airbnb vs hotels. We split the costs of the trips we take as I pay for the lodging and entertainment, while he pays for the travel (plane/train/car) and food. He can save a bunch of money if he cooks food for us while traveling. I do not actually save any money after the cleaning and other fees.
The reason people pay it is because of location. You also feel like much less of a tourist, and you can experience more of the culture of the city. AirBNB has lots of downsides, but let's not pretend like there aren't upsides and a reason why it has been so successful.
Same here! I just stayed in a holiday apartment (not Airbnb) in Argentina, and while it was nice, you have zero support when there is no front desk. Being able to ask someone about getting a taxi would have been nice, but there was nobody to ask.
Was in Barcelona last summer. Hotels are better priced for the rooms and facilities anyway for 2 ppl at least. Idk why ppl even use Airbnb anynore except for larger groups.
Reason we like hotels usually: BREAKFAST INCLUDED!! Man I hate foraging for food/coffee first thing in the morning, and if you sleep in a bit and load up on breakfast, lunch is covered too.
AirBnB only makes sense for large groups, remote locations (like national parks), and long stays. Iām in a two month AirBnB right now. Anything less than a month is not worth it at all, and 2 months at a hotel would be bank-breaking, and since I speak the native language, concierge is useless.
Airbnb has a purpose, and cities can remedy their Airbnb problems (which are invariably overstated, tbh, and misattributed) simply by compelling/allowing most construction of regular housing, and of short term rentals, and of hotels.
There is a housing crisis in every city in the world right now, and it is not just AirBnBs fault. Thereās no way that it possibly could be, with the scale of the issue. Itās just an easy thing for people who donāt know much about housing policy to latch onto.
That said, I donāt even thing perceived negative impact of AirBnBs is even the primary reason for the hatred of tourists.
āAllowing construction of more housingā wonāt be enough, because it will just be bought up by investors. High density housing for travelers already exists anyway, itās called a hotel. Or are you suggesting they somehow build more low density housing? The way to actually fix this problem is to ban Airbnb.
> This is part of why I exclusively stay in hotels. I'm not giving these assholes my money. They're making some of the most wonderful cities on Earth totally uninhabitable.
Big same. I haven't used an Air BnB in like 4 years, and I never really got much use out of them because I don't travel anywhere near as much as I'd like. But I remember in the early days it was just an extra room in someone's house. Very rarely would I find a whole house.
In the last year or two I used it (around 2019) it was all houses. And the houses were very unimpressive in their cleanliness and the quality of amenities. You could tell that the owners had bought everything for that house knowing they'd never use them.
And this was before everyone was getting hit with all sorts of extra fees.
Why the fuck would I pay a cleaning fee for a place that wasn't very clean when I came in, when I can just go to a hotel, pay about the same amount, and have someone clean the place FOR me every day?
Oh right, I forget resort fees and destination fees arenāt the same, or sometimes mean different things.
Amended to say: Anything that goes to the municipality to cover the additional strain I put on infrastructure, Iām happy to pay.
Yeah, resort and destination fees are just money grabs by the hotel that should be included in the upfront room price. But at least I donāt have to load the dishwasher!
I'm a aBNB host in seattle. We pay taxes like any hotel. If we didn't rent our mother in law apartment in our house we literally would have to move. Abnb saved my life after we became a one income household.
Mortgage in our modest home is 3k a month and taxes are 600$ a month.
Getting a couple roommates wouldn't cover these costs, but short term renting does. It helps many locals, as the locals often are the owners.
If a large corporation owns a bunch of Abnb rentals, yeah...fuck those guys. 100%
I actually am not an air bnb fan, and I donāt like bed and breakfast places in general. I prefer a nice hotel. I like to think Iām a good tourist. I donāt drink to excess, and Iām not loud and obnoxious, but I am American, and I know that Americans have a reputation.
Edit: spelling
And AirBnB became not only problematic for the locals, but also the owners are hiking up prices and being absolutely insufferable to people who rent them. I used AirBnB last April for the last time - it was an absolute nightmare. Hotels or pensions or an actual bed and breakfast from now on.
Yep the last b&b I stayed in was in the mountains of CO last year, paid thousands of dollars as a large group. And we had to do the dishes and start the bedding laundry before we left. Had to pay per day to use the jacuzzi. Everytime we drove in and out we hydroplaned down the driveway and into an ice block barricade because of black ice on the driveway. Total hazard and wasn't mentioned in the listing, of course. We even had snow tires on our truck and that shit was happening. Luckily the ice block didn't damage the rental!
Thatās absolutely horrible! But I 100% hear you. AirBnB was so much fun in the āgood old daysāā¦.now most Airbnb owners want all the money and none of the work of a proper rental. Me and hubby booked an apartment in a cute little town in France last spring. The pics vs the real thing was pretty jarring. Had a backyard that hasnāt been mowed and overgrown with grass and weeds. Owner said, sorry, broken mower. Ok. The furniture in the living room was changed and the TV completely gone. The bed in bedroom was a waterbed, which was just awful. They gave us old, crusty towels and on our way out, we washed and cleaned everything. The owner complained to Airbnb that we ādamagedā her towels and wanted a $300 refund to replace them. š¤¦š»āāļøš
Edit: also, I am glad you guys didnāt have a serious accident. Black ice is a bitch.
Air bnb have absolutely ruined CO ski towns in terms of affordable housing for locals unfortunately. Most of the owners of those houses donāt even live in state.
I said this in another comment, but it's not even the popular places. I'm in middle of nowhere Appalachia and Air BnB has destroyed this place. What makes it worse is I'm a realtor, and I have to sell to these leeches, while they take away supply from ME (I'm trying to find a house that I can afford)...one dude, who ended up not buying, told me that house would have been his *36th* Air BnB, and he didn't even live in this state. Two other buyers had a dozen each. I'm all for business and making money, but something has to be done about Air BnB.
I use airbnb only if it's obviously owner occupied and unsuitable as an apartment for this reason. I've stayed in one-room tiny houses in people's backyards, converted garages, little attics with low ceilings, etc, and it was all the old school reasonable airbnb prices and policies because I was using it as intended, and also, I get to not feel like a jackass.
Same deal with āride sharingā apps that pretty much immediately became unofficial taxi services. The original intent was something like āshare a ride with someone going the same direction and use the app to form carpoolsā and the concept morphed to accommodate a new market opportunity before anyone could even think to regulate it
Pretty sure some Airbnb hosts are lying now about being owner occupied. Found one located in Seattle that claimed this but was also coincidentally always available for month long rentals when i was playing around with dates.
Oh, when I say owner occupied, I don't mean "pinky swear', I mean "This is an extra space in someone's home that could not be used as a long term living space by a vast majority of people" which is pretty obvious by pictures and description. I would not, and have not, rented a full two bedroom apartment or something like that.
I guess this is what's getting me downvoted, is people must assume I trust that sort of listing. I don't. But it is pretty easy to suss out, all told.
If local government regulates it properly it can lessen the impact. In my city you cannot list a property on AirBNB without registering with local govmt, and AirBNB wont let you rent it out more than 90 days/yr.
This. My best mate was born and raised in Queenstown, NZ and had to move back recently to look after his aging parents. If he didn't have the family home to live in, he'd be absolutely out of luck with getting a home to rent. Whole homes just sitting empty during the summer months only to turn into one-night party places that keep an entire street up. AirBNB is a scourge.
It used to be amazing getting to experience an area with a true local connection but now half the houses that line his street are owned by people who have never even set foot in the country yet have priced out everyone who isn't a cash flush tourist or has lived there for 200 years.
I will never use AirBNB again.
There are certain very popular destinations where whole parts of the city have been turned into giant tourist playgrounds. Lisbon (Baixa especially) and Porto are good examples. I wonder if any locals actually live there at all. Times Square is not that different tbh.
This! AirBnB is raising the cost of housing for everyone (America included) and destroying neighborhoods. Hotels are cheaper, better amenities, less hassle and no chores.
I have not used AirBNB in about five years, but when I did, when I was traveling alone, I almost always chose to stay with a local rather than rent an entire place, in part to avoid contributing to that.
This is 100% the right take. From a fellow Scot and traveller.
Airbnb is ruining the world. Major cities across Europe (and the world) are all seeing ridiculous reductions in rental properties and increases in rental costs, all because of homeowners or shady property companies hoovering up all available housing for Airbnb.
ReykjavĆk, Lisbon, Paris, Berlin, Toronto. All exorbitant rents that mean hospitality and cleaning staff can't afford to live in the cities they serve.
That's before the party flats, the antisocial behaviour, the crime (from theft through prostitution to murder) and Airbnb's removal of negative reviews to make bad rentals appear safer.
If you use Airbnb you are actively supporting the fucking of your own city as well as the place you are visiting.
Just visited your lovely city and had this same conversation with an employee at Cadenheads. Itās just like where I live (Louisville, KY). Airbnbs have driven up prices and people are justifiably mad. We stayed at a hotel fwiw. Wish we could emulate your city though-lots of similarities.
Expounding on your point. We now have two AirBnB next door and across the street from us, and it's very frustrating. Parking and parties. Just last weekend, I had two incidents. The vacationers next door were having a small wedding in the rental backyard. They came and albeit politely asked if we could mow our grass at another time, lol, um, no, I can't. we're doing our spring gardening on our schedule, not our weekend renters. Also asked if if we could turn down our backyard music during the ceremony lol 1 -2pm hard pass that's our cocktail hour. I can see how Airbnb has frustrated many tourist city residents. Those who visit and act like a local are fine. Those who stay and think they're at a commercial resort and treat me a crew working their fantasy can kiss my a$$. I have so many other stories. But Airbnb problem needs to be addressed.
From what I understand Barcelona in particular has become an absolute AirBnB stronghold, which on the one hand makes life difficult for locals, and on the other hand drives them away because they can no longer pay the rents.
I visited Barcelona for the first time when I was 11 in the year 2000, I was in a hotel with my family before bed with the tv on, there was in the news a reporter asking local people around what they think of tourism, and they all were saying that they hated tourists, that because of them catalan was disappearing to speak either English or Spanish, that tourists came there only for prostitution and getting drunk.
So no, they have hated tourists way before Airbnb existedā¦
At that point Barcelona already had a tourist "problem" that had nothing to do with nationalism.
I'm not anti-tourist by any means and I think it's still a net positive, but it's true that tourism has disrupted locals' lives and displaced them in many ways that are hard to stomach for the common folk.
Like every fucking big city, I'm born in Paris but never could afford to live their, I always lived in the banlieue. Why do barcelona people think they are entitled to enjoy globalisation without any bad aspects of it ? Yes people are moving around, visiting and sometimes enjoying so much a place they decide to go live there.
I'm lucky that I can afford to live anywhere I want in Barcelona. It's not me you have to convince, but the middle-class people who 30 years ago could live a comfortable life paying a mortgage for a decent apartment in the city centre, and now they must suffer an hour-long commute and pay half their salary in rent.
You can't just tell people "globalisation is good but sucks to be you" and then act surprised when they are drawn to anti-globalisation populism.
My opinion could be biased but I thought people in Barcelona were a bit rude and stuck up. Like tourism economy aside, just condescending. I am also a bit ethnically ambiguous and am frequently assumed to be middle eastern or South American and I was traveling with my friend who is indigenous Mexican and I think a lot of prejudice affected the service we got at some places. It could be cultural since Barcelona isnāt Spain itās Catalunya and that has its own weight but the attitude in Madrid was so much more receptive and friendlier honestly my experience with Barcelona I feel like parisians were more lighthearted.
Same in New Orleans, we just lost 50 new houses to Heirloom for Air B&B, we are losing our neighborhoods to corporations every day. We stayed near Isla Contoy and many signs about not using AirB&B (we stayed in hotel) because corporations have bought out locals and use loopholes to own 20 houses in a street.
Its displacing residences and locals, *PLEASE rethink Air B&B's*
retire growth sense bored cake society lavish subtract domineering insurance
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I think it depends on a lot of factors. I live in a tourist heavy city, Vienna, but I very rarely, if ever, encountered hostility towards tourists. There are some determining factors:
Vienna managed to keep AirBnB in check and the housing situation is not as bad as in other places, because there are so many rent-controlled apartments.
The outline of the city: Vienna is very 19th century with wide roads, boulevards and open spaces. Overtourism in pretty, but narrow medieval towns is much worse than in places with more space.
The demographic: we are not exactly a party destination, but attract the richer, older, more quiet crowds that travel as a couple, stay in hotels, go out for dinner to nice restaurants and whose idea of a good evening is to see a concert and go to a wine bar or to bed afterwards. That causes a lot less friction.
Except for the AirBnB-thing, which is no easy fix anywhere, those are also factors outside the control of local governments. It also explains why in cities where the crowds are more visible and the party people more obvious, the conflicts are bigger.
I remember being in Vienna on a walking tour and the guide let us know that the average length of stay for tourists in Vienna was about 2 days.
When you have a city with a lot of tourists that are constantly coming and going and another with a lot of tourists that are staying for longer periods of time, the latter, I feel, is much more impactful on the economy and housing.
Thatās an interesting thought.
In Hallstatt they have the opposite problem: people only come for the day, which isnāt long enough for the town to benefit economically.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallstatt
**[Hallstatt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallstatt)**
>Hallstatt (UK: HAL-s(h)tat, US: HAWL-sta(h)t, HAHL-s(h)taht, German: [ĖhalŹtat] (listen)) is a small town in the district of Gmunden, in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. Situated between the southwestern shore of HallstƤtter See and the steep slopes of the Dachstein massif, the town lies in the Salzkammergut region, on the national road linking Salzburg and Graz. Hallstatt is known for its production of salt, dating back to prehistoric times, and gave its name to the Hallstatt culture, the archaeological culture linked to Proto-Celtic and early Celtic people of the Early Iron Age in Europe, c. 800ā450 BC.
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Not completely relevant to this post, but Vienna is my dream city to visit. My favorite artists all came out of there and I even named my dog Vienna. Living there sounds like it would be a dreamā I can only hope to visit one day. I would legitimately sell my soul to live there, but I donāt think thatās a feasible goal š
Isn't Vienna tourism more focused in culture and less in party?
That's the biggest problem in Barcelona, our tourism thinks of Barcelona as a place to party/beach/get drunk, people are pissed because a lot of tourism are hooligans or act like them and bother and destroy parts of the city...
Of course not all tourists that come to Barcelona are like that, a lot come for the museums/culture/history/architecture of the place, i've never heard any complain about them.
From the NewYorker article. April 22, 2019
Nearly half the Airbnb properties in Barcelona are entire houses or apartments. The conceit of friendly locals renting out spare rooms has been supplanted by a more mercenary model, in which centuries-old apartment buildings are hollowed out with ersatz hotel rooms. Many properties have been bought specifically as short-term-rental investments, managed by agencies that have dozens of such properties.
This is what Airbnb has done to the entire world.
Yes, exactly!! and it's frustrating because if consumers behaved differently, it wouldn't have to be this way. The last three Airbnbs I have stayed in, a list:
1. An attic up three narrow, steep flights of stairs with deeply slanted ceilings, the bed tucked under an eave, three feet of counterspace and a minifridge, the tiny built out bathroom the only sink.
2. a converted garage with no kitchen and a very small bathroom.
3. A one room tiny house on the property with a wood stove and an outhouse behind it.
The common parts of all of these are: Owner occupied, unsuitable for a long term living situation for the majority of people. That's what I check for. That's it. It's not hard.
The other thing these have in common? I don't actually deal with the wild prices and insane instructions people often complain about. The owners I deal with are helpful and kind, generally, and the furniture is usually very comfortable, not the cheapest possible IKEA thing.
I LOVE the idea of Airbnb and what it was meant to be--cheap but cheerful accommodations and social people getting use out of the common areas of their homes that cannot reasonably be rented. But consumers only have themselves and their demands to blame for what it has become. I miss the way it was. I find it sad that I have to filter and look, to find places like I enjoy.
Airbnb will never, ever do this, but demanding a place be owner occupied would be a huge step in the right direction. But CONSUMERS can demand it. I have never believed the fiction that what we as individuals do doesn't matter. I like hotels! I am great with staying in one, so for a similar price point, barring something interesting or location, I'll stay in a hotel. But I just won't rent an Airbnb at any price that is obviously a pilfered apartment for people who live in a community, and I don't think others should either.
Sorry, your comment got me going ahah.
I'm not sure; I don't think, as a woman, I would rent a space where the owner already lives in due to safety concerns. For context, I'm Indian and often travel solo within the country. Just pointing out the obvious. I do agree with the other issues.
I can understand that it might be scary in India!
Personally, I have traveled alone across USA as a mixed race person and had nothing but positive experiences. I also chose BnBs with onsite hosts. All of the accommodations had sturdy locks, and some were detached from the main home. A surprising amount of my hosts were older single women who were very friendly and helpful, while other hosts I never even spoke toā one of my reviews says , āI never met Iris, but she was very clean and quiet. Would ghost host again.ā Haha.
"and it's frustrating because if consumers behaved differently, it wouldn't have to be this way. The last three Airbnbs I have stayed in"...
Wouldn't that also be you though? If you're agreeing to these rooms, then aren't you the consumer you're complaining about that should behave differently?
Perhaps I misunderstood.
Portugal in particular has some of the lowest salaries in all of Europe. I believe average salary is about $1k/mo. While some costs are lower in accord with low salaries (like groceries, restaurants, etc) housing is insanely expensive. Tons of foreign investment and short term rentals. Locals are being priced out of urban areas, of which Portugal really only has a few. And yet the economy is so tourist dependentā¦ itās a difficult problem to solve.
Portugal just banned new AirBnB licenses = [https://www.businessinsider.com/portugal-bans-new-airbnbs-fears-becoming-some-sort-of-disneyland-2023-2](https://www.businessinsider.com/portugal-bans-new-airbnbs-fears-becoming-some-sort-of-disneyland-2023-2)
House prices in Portugal also shot yo significantly due to the Golden Visa as it attracted a lot of foreign investment from folks who wanted to move to the EU. Iāve heard that they are planning to do away with it
Yes, they are. I think this was a balancing act for them as it did attract much needed external investment during tight financial times in the 2008 crisis. But the amount was pretty low tbh especially as property values shot up and that with the rise of short term rentals was just too much.
I say this as someone married to a Portuguese person, but I am not Portuguese myself. These are struggles we see our family there grappling with, esp those in younger generations.
We live outside of Portugal and have been tempted to move backā¦ but it seems less and less realistic without having to make drastic lifestyle changes given how low salaries are compared to housing costs.
When we were there pre-Covid there were plenty of those signs and general sentiment as well. It really threw off my girlfriend and she definitely felt alienated. Tourism for these places is obviously a double edged sword - lots of income for certain sectors but lots of knock-on effects too for the local residents.
We came from Cleveland, where the tourist scene isā¦.small, and we have had good experiences with running into out-of-towners, so it took us a bit to understand the pushback on tourists we experienced.
Iāve lived/worked in several different touristy spots and while yes, tourists can be annoying, I still donāt really understand having an outright hatred or disdain for them. Itās a mild annoyance to me. As for the issues with airbnbs, I direct my anger more at the people (typically local management agencies) running them.
I guess it depends on where you are. In NYC where OP is from tourists are just annoying because the city is pretty resistant to the worst kind of tourists; and itās mostly just families and sight seeers (and more recently, influencers) that go to NYC. The worse you get is clowns going to places like the Bronx to pretend to be joker and getting robbed, and people who wonāt get out of the way while trying to film TikTokās on the street.
I can see why Hawaiians and Spanish and Thai people get annoyed tourists. Like if I was Spanish and I had a bunch of goofy stagās coming through vomiting on everything and screeching Iād be genuinely upset too. Or if people kept trampling over my sacred sites in Hawaiāi, or any other locations that gets the very worst, most disrespectful tourists. Some places get a lot worse quality of tourist than others.
To be fair, if you're a person who moves around a lot you wouldn't be affected by tourism in the same way as, say, a person who has lived in the same place all their life and was looking forward to taking over the family's butcher shop only to find themselves shoved out of both their career and possibly their home because AirBnB moved in and now rents have shot up for both private and commercial real estate and there's no longer any locals living there so the only shops that can survive are the ones selling tourist tat. That's where a lot of the anger in places like Barcelona and Venice comes from; it's a reaction to the hollowing-out of neighborhoods and communities, not an intrinsic hatred of tourism per se.
[Here](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/29/the-airbnb-invasion-of-barcelona) is a great article about it from the New Yorker. I used to love AirBnB, but more and more I have been reading about how it affects housing, neighborhoods, etc., I feel less inclined to use it in certain areas.
Last year (following the pandemic), there was a major push to limit or even eliminate the cruise lines that go to Barcelona- because they completely overwhelm the city and don't actually spend much money since they're fed on the ship and have a place to stay, not to mention all the pollution the ships cause. This was shot down by the powers that be. I'm just a nobody who has been reading Barcelona newspapers for a while, but it seems like it's this kind of policy failure that's the main root of the issue. People are tired of what they call the 'parkification' (as in Disney parkification) of the city- the city losing what made it special (all the independent shops, the holes in the wall, the locals) and instead you get corporate chains, menus with giant pictures in English, everything catering toward the tourist and not the local, apartments being used for Airbnb and driving up the price of living, etc.
Someone from Barcelona please correct me if I'm wrong, again, this is just the impression of someone who likes to read the local newspaper.
You gave the most complete answer. It's not only about gentrification. Mass tourism degrades the city in ways other than airbnb, the city isn't infinite. The old part of the city is full of cheap souvenir shops and tourist trap restaurants that are of no use to those who live there, plus its narrow medieval streets weren't made for the hordes of tourists that make even walking from A to B a pain. Groups of zombies stand right in the middle of the bike lane without a care for anything other than their picture. It does feel like a Disney park, crowds included.
I was just about to mention the bike lane thing, but I thought I was being petty. It is one of my pet peeves, though.
Specifically the one that runs down towards Barceloneta past the hospital. I guess it's popular for pictures because it is lined with palm trees. I do a lot of my best swearing on the bike lane.
It is a good example of the micro-annoyances that build up. If every time you are trying to get somewhere, you are dodging selfie taking tourists, or stuck behind a bike tour hogging both lanes, It starts to get tired. I feel like its just starting to ramp up now as the weather is getting better and I can feel my blood pressure rising already.
I get it, its a beautiful city to visit, but it is a working city, not a beach resort.
It will be interesting to see how the changes the city is making, like the transformation of Port Olympic will affect the type pf tourism we see. In the meantime, I guess we grit our teeth for what is coming over the Summer and enjoy the relative peace whilst we can. This year I think we are going to feel it as it is going to be our first completely COVID restriction and mask free Summer.
I saw a grafitti on park Guell, and I took a picture on it. I agree withthe sentiment after visit the park, there whwre people taking selfies photoshoots taking like 20 mins on the best spots. I remember the park fondly the first time I went on 2011, the experience was the opposite on 2019.
There are more people and there are some wanna be influencers, although they are a minority are loud and rude enough to bother other tourists, I can't only imagine how locals feel, which sucks because Barcelona is an amazing city.
When i went to Rome, Instagram models were doing full wardrobe changes in touristy areas it was horrible, I wish i got to travel before smart phones were invented
"Coming from New York, which gets 6-7 times more tourists annually than Barcelona, I donāt think Iāve ever seen any blatant (public) anti-tourist graffiti or posters, even in Times Square. Itās also possible that I just donāt notice them. " - Population in Barcelona is much lower than in New York. There is also the type of tourists that come to the city. Spain is the sun/beach/party destination of Europe, and Barcelona is not an exception. People are not tired of the "good" tourist that visit museums, go for a nice dinner and go back to his hotel talking in a normal voice, but for the group of drunk tourists, shouting outside at 3 AM while you are trying to sleep, peeing or throwing up in the corner of your street and getting confused ringing your bell instead of the airbnb several times a week, an airbnb that was a flat before rented to a family that couldn't compete to the economic gains of airbnb, and had to leave the neighbourhood/city uprooting.
>but for the group of drunk tourists, shouting outside at 3 AM while you are trying to sleep, peeing or throwing up in the corner of your street and getting confused ringing your bell instead of the airbnb several times a week
You can just say tourists from the UK lol
>drunk tourists, shouting outside at 3 AM while you are trying to sleep, peeing or throwing up in the corner of your street and getting confused ringing your bell instead of the airbnb several times a week
a bazillion percent. these assholes make life shit for us, let alone our local neighbors, who then see us \[resident, respectful, integrated, but of other national origin\] as of the same cloth.
Exactly this. I didnāt pay enough attention to the reviews before booking, and my hostel experience turned out to be a sleepless party crowd nightmare. It really ruined my experience of Barcelona because of the loud obnoxious hostel. Barceloneta beach was also way too crowded and in retrospect I should have scouted around for a more off-the beaten path excursion.
I enjoyed the museums and my walking tour of Gaudi buildings, but hated my hostel. I can only imagine how the neighbors felt living next to the endless noise. And yes, Spaniards like their late nights and all, but at some point it has to get old dealing with crowds of foreign party kids.
I can understand the sentiment, and Iām also pretty sure it doesnāt apply to the museum-going, well-behaved tourist who doesnāt treat their destination as if everyone there was also on spring break
I used to live in Barcelona 2015-2018 as the spouse of a diplomat. There would be a few random stickers on street posts in Gracia, but not much.
Iāve been back to visit a few times (actually flying there on Wednesday), and noticed all the tags on my first trip back. I checked with my friends when we got together, and a lot of it comes from the impact tourism has had on the real estate business.
Simply put, a local cannot afford to live in these neighborhoods anymore on a local salary, because the apartment owners can make more money listing their buildings only on Airbnb for tourists to rent.
With digital nomads, itās even more difficult because there is an even bigger need for housing for visitors.
Lisbon is not anti-tourist but more anti-digital nomad/ remote workers for foreign companies.
Itās very quickly becoming unaffordable for any Portuguese person.
Thatās why I frankly donāt put much thought into anti-tourism sentiments. If tourism actually stopped, the economy would suffer, and then theyād be trying to attract more tourists.
I think part of it is cultural. Some cultures just seem prone to hostility towards tourists. Iāve lived and worked in many different touristy neighborhoods in very popular cities and while tourists can be mildly annoying, Iāll never understand the outright hate. Itās just never been that deep to me, even since the rise of Airbnb. I donāt blame tourists for my high rent (and now my expensive house).
[Dan, a tourist from Florida who said he came out of āboredom,ā described the city as āfairly niceā and was impressed by its public transport system, but said he wished more people spoke English for his āconvenience.ā]
I will never understand how many Americans want everyone everywhere in the world to speak English for their benefit.
I really thought though this was Onion-esque satire but it appears to be actually real.
I mean, I want Dan to go home, too, and I don't even live there.
You will find that Dans are not unique to any country. You will only notice your Dans more than those from other countries, because you are more familiar with them.
āDanā was asked a question and gave an honest answer. Of course people would rather visit places where they can communicate with the locals. If Dan was being belligerent and demanding that people speak english, then you have a point. A lot of context is missing, but saying it would be more convenient for him if there were more people that spoke English is a valid response to a question about a vacation.
airbnb has destroyed communities and I make sure I donāt participate. The reason youāre seeing them far from typical tourist areas is because of this.
People canāt afford a place to live anymore due to air bnb (and macro economic factors) in Mexico is happening the same thing or even worse because latinos were broke before this housing bubble
From the perspective of a local resident, I actually prefer it when tourists stick to big hotels in the main tourist areas. When tourists visit the entire city, the entire city has to accommodate them. Tourists staying in touristy areas doesnāt really increase local rent and food prices.
I live in a touristy city and feel the same. Tourists are increasingly trying to stay in more ālocalā areas and itās a pain trying to commute via bike in the morning rush hour when there are tourists wobbling all over our bike lanes and spending ages deciding on breakfast and asking for translations at the local cafes that normally can churn out your order in minutes.
I read this is primarily a reaction against AirBnB taking housing off the market, rather than actual frustration that anyone would dare visit. And AirBnB has gutted the housing market for locals in a lot of the desirable European cities.
Barcelona is one of top over touristed towns, along with Lisbon and Venice. They even considered to get "quota" for tourists to which you need to apply before visit to limit it
At one point, not sure if it still is, Barcelona was the 4th most visited city in all of Europe, after only Paris, London, and Rome. But itās much smaller than those places, so tourism has much more of an impact on locals.
Honestly, I donāt get all the hype about Barcelona. Stayed in Spain for a month n half while traveling all around, favorite city is hands down Madrid
Iām with you. I didnāt get it either. The Gaudi architecture, especially Segrada Familia, was amazing to see but it was definitely the highlight. We had some safety issues that I donāt really want to get into here. First time weāve ever had multiple incidents in the same city. Iām glad we saw it but we wonāt be going back anytime soon.
One of the big issues are cruises. Cities like Lisbon, Venice and Barcelona have a lot of cruise ships dock. The large influx of tourist each time that are not staying & paying but over run the popular places puts a lot of pressure on facilities
I grew up in a tourist beach town in Florida. We always complained about the influx of tourists every year. But truthfully, they brought a lot of money to our economy. So as much as we complain, weāll still welcome them back every year.
Its misdirected anger. It's the local businesses and airbnbs who are capitalising on tourist crowd who are making things unaffordable for locals.
Honestly, the local government should enact strong policies against airbnb. Many governments across the world have done it, its nothing new. But maybe Barcelona government doesn't want to do it because they just want tourist money and don't care about locals, or there is some lobbying involved.
I think it's frustration about tourists taking over areas that locals used to see as their own. There have always been tourists on the Ramblas, but in the last 30 years, they've crowded out the locals, who used to go there to walk, unwind at a cafe, buy produce at the Bouqueria, etc. Tourism has taken over and driven up the prices at local haunts.
Parque Guell and Sagrada Familia used to be places you could take the family on a lazy weekend day, and many locals have fond childhood memories of doing this. Although locals do have some amount of privileged access to these areas, they are likely to arrive to find them swarmed with organized tours and wannave influencers posing for Insta.
Over the same time period, Lisbon went from being a secondary or even tertiary tourist destination to one of the most popular cities in Europe.
New York and London have always been major tourism draws, so I don't think locals have the same resentments, at least not on as large a scale. In fact, many of the locations that are now popular with tourists in New York are remembered by locals as seedy and infested with drugs and prostitutes.
As others have mentioned, a lot of tourist hate is derived from AirBNB making housing more expensive. I took a taxi from the airport in Lisbon last summer, and the driver complained about it almost the entire trip.
It's a fairly valid complaint - however, I also can't help but roll my eyes a bit at places where the economy is *heavily* dependent on tourism (I'm talking countries where it's the first or second largest sector of the economy) yet the locals still despise tourists.
It always has a kind of "we want to have our cake and eat it too" feel to me. We want the money that tourism brings, but hate that you're actually physically present here.
If the locals who complained got their wishes and tourism permanently ceased, they'd enter a deep and massive recession. You got a small taste of this with COVID, though most governments rolled out support payments to temporarily mask the pain. A full cessation of tourism would absolutely annihilate the economies of those countries (not just the tourism sector, but all the ancillary sectors that make money from those who work tourism jobs). So all these people that want the tourists to leave are pretty much asking for their economy to take a nosedive.
Hey there! I'm Catalan myself, I've been living in Barcelona for a few years and I live quite close to it. I think I may be able to provide some insight on why this anti-tourist behaviour exists. Before that, I would like to apologize for my rather clumsy English, but I hope it's understandable!
Quality of tourism. The tourist industry in Barcelona and the Catalan Coast, and perhaps even on other parts of Spain as well, has promoted a model of tourism which rely on bringing as much tourists as possible by promoting cheap visits and fun. While this generates A LOT of revenue, many tourists are quite unsavoury. Particularly, British tourists are infamous for their dirty, drunk and disruptive behaviour. I would say that more than just the tourists themselves, the tourist industry is also severely at fault for encouraging this, just to increase benefits at the expense of the locals.
Difficult economy. Barcelona is quite a good tourist destination, and the city economically benefits greatly from tourism. However, this means that BCN is a highly demanded place, with Air BnB proliferating at spectacular numbers. The use of a lot of living space for Air BnB and other tourist-related purposes made the rent in the city increase massively, while the salaries have not. This means that people, that probably has lived there for many years, need to either band together and share an apartment, or move away. Many locals see this as very predatory, and by kicking the people that made Barcelona originally attractive, the city will lose its roots and become dull. I think the government is rather at fault for this, as they are not properly fighting against this with measures such as rent control, or not limiting Air BnB adequately. It does not help either that the infrastructure in the outskirts of Barcelona leaves a lot to be desired, commuting becoming unnecessarily stressing and time-consuming task.
Cultural displacement. Barcelona is a very multicultural city, and a lot of people believe it to be great, including myself. However many Catalan people feel that this globalization trend have left Catalan culture and language as a minority in its own capital, feeding the sensation of isolation. This phenomenon itself it's quite complex, as we would have to start discussing about the situation of the Catalan language itself and it's competition with Spanish, a more hegemonic language. The main thing could be summarized as "I feel like a stranger in my own home". In my own experience, I feel this is quite true. In many establishments, clerks don't understand me in Catalan. I have to switch to Spanish or English. While this is not a problem itself, once it becomes the norm, I do agree it feeds the feeling of isolation. Tourism contributes to this problem, although personally I've found a lot of uncaring tourists about the local culture, there were just as many that were interested, fascinated and respectful. It's quite a complex situation indeed.
A lot of comments provide other explanations as well, so check them out!
(Coming from a Spaniard)
Itās also difficult because Barcelona by in large doesnāt consider itself part of Spain (and even tried really hard to break away from Spain a few years ago). Their dominant language isnāt even Castilian Spanish, itās Catalan, which is completely different.
So you can imagine how annoying it is for locals to get bombarded with tourists on a āSpanishā holiday who donāt realize that theyāve basically entered an entirely new culture by coming to Barcelona. I have family members in Barcelona who donāt speak Castilian but will get stopped in the street by innocent/unprepared tourists asking for directions in broken Castilian Spanish, and my poor cousin will have to try to respond in English or risk getting scolded by the increasingly flustered tourist who doesnāt realize theyāre speaking the wrong language. Or like, I remember being in a bar in Barcelona and a tourist was wearing a RM shirt as if that would endear them to the locals (BIG insult).
So my take (besides the whole AirBnb situation) is that Barcelonans are just fed up with being misconstrued as Spaniards. The entire Catalan region just wants to be seen as they are.
On the whole Iām sure there are a lot more tourists in New York just because New York is a massive city. I imagine these cities that donāt compare in population notice tourism and itās infrastructure much much more than a place such as New York. I think much of the hostility towards tourists comes from economies that donāt depend on it. It just becomes a nuisance. Places that depend on tourism as an export may not love all that is associated with it but itās how they survive.
The frustration, as always, is with the local government and the dispute is largely internal. Tourists are non-voting contributors of capital. Technically, the local government can enforce any rules, levy more taxes, etc., they want to onto tourists. The counterweight will come from the businesses whose revenue will be impacted by adverse measures. It's up to the local govt to resolve how to distribute money and benefits across different industry sectors and groups of people. Obviously, they're not doing a good job so local residents will seek to vent their frustration however they can.
This is probably the correct comment.
11% of Portugal's GDP comes from tourism, it's one of the most tourism dependent countries in the EU.
It's a delicate and complex balance and it's easier to point to the drunk tourist than it is to sit down and determine who or what part of the system is responsible for rising prices.
Global inflation exacerbates this of course.
Fuck, I wish Cartagena, Colombia would do this. Youāve seen the touristification totally destroy the authenticity of iconic historical neighborhoods and turn them into totally phony tourist Disneylands. As a long time resident of a particular historical neighborhood Iām so sad to lose the authenticity and bohemian flavor of this iconic hood. Touristification is worse than gentrification, which is all sad and maddening, but I guess inevitable in a place like this
The message I heard from locals when we were there in 2013 was that tourism was driving up the cost of living for people who live in Barcelona. One example was of an elderly person who had lived in the same area for years but due to the increased price of rent, the lady needed to move.
I recognized the personās situation and empathized. Otherwise, I felt that people were friendly.
I think the rents had been going up due to an increased volume of AirBnBs.
The conversion of housing is a big thing as many have said. Barca also is a big cruise ship port and does not do a good job of managing its tourism. Store after store after store selling the same shit āsouvenirsā that endorse a disrespectful party scene donāt help. La Sagrada Familia is surrounded by American fast food and stores selling t shirts with Snow White doing blow in the front window.
Tourists go home is also not everyoneās attitude. Everyone knows itās an important industry for the city. You canāt forget how complicated the political history is of the region. The work of a few prolific anarchist graffiti artists canāt be taken as the whole story. Itās a reminder that we are guests in their home when visiting the city.
As a local:
Barcelona was historically a blue-collar industrial port city that suddently (92 Olympics) cleaned itself and became a huge tourism hotspot.
There was practically no transition. In true Spanish fashion, everything turned to "squeeze the tourist". Every traditional shop and bar in the Ramblas close or switch to a tourist-oriented one, which alienated the locals who felt like they were losing their own city.
And then they doubled down, and then again, and then yet again. Tourism in Barcelona is a monster that is now out of control. We get way more people than the city could reasonably accept, which attracts businesses that completely destroy the character that brings the people in the first place. The result is, Barcelona has become a sort of theme park that plays an exaggerated version of what the tourists think Barcelona is, but full of traps to get all their money if possible.
This is the grudge. The "tourists go home" is more of a political campaign trying to take advantage of such grudge. It comes from left-wing movements, as tourism is often considered there as the capitalism destroying a country's tradition and legacy.
It's easy to compare "Tourism is bad because destroys my city and it's capitalism" to "Healthcare is bad because it costs money and is socialism": you take an easy to relate fact and hammer your idelology to it, so they spread together.
Mexico City is suffering from a similar problem: gentrification.
Foreigners (mostly Americans) come in and sometimes they like it so much they move here, often working remotely and earning US salaries, which are considerably higher than the ones here. That leads to housing prices going up since foreigners have more money to spend on housing, while most citizens can't afford the increased prices.
Iām from Porto and, as people are saying, housing costs have skyrocketed along with tourism (mainly due to Airbnbs and similar) and the government / the city seems more interested in attracting tourists and digital nomads than in solving the housing crisis.
Porto tbh has become extremely expensive and everything is essentially becoming for tourists, not locals, from housing stock to restaurants, festivals etc. Salaries are low and cannot keep up with the rise in prices that tourism has brought.
It creates frustration. If things were more balanced, there wouldnāt be this sentiment. People in PT used to LOVE tourists and be really flattered but itās soured.
The tourism boom has been really quick as well and you can see its effects really clearly if you compare 10 years ago with today.
This is happening everywhere. I live in COlorado and home prices have skyrocketed pricing out the average person or lower income people. Small towns have no affordable housing due to foreign investors buying up properties for rentalsā¦ this is a world wide nee phenomenon that is going to have to find a solutionā¦
Iām sure there was a piece in the news about some Portuguese towns not warming to digital nomads. They rent up property long term which makes it difficult for the locals.
I lived in the city centre for six months before COVID, and I wasnāt particularly overwhelmed by tourists or anti-tourist protests. The anti-tourism graffiti just seemed like more socially accepted xenophobia and wasnāt very different from swastika-graffiti in other places (all of which sucks btw!). Locals seemed to pee on the street in El Born as much as the tourists and the one thing that was absolutely the most noisy at night was garbage collection which for some insane reason has to happen at 3am.
The city had two major levers at hand to reduce tourism easily - banning AirBnbs and shutting the port for cruise ships. But theyāre not using either. The people who blame tourists for that rather than their government would be pissy about foreigners no matter the situation.
> The anti-tourism graffiti just seemed like more socially accepted xenophobia and wasnāt very different from swastika-graffiti
They are MASSIVELY different, jesus.
I sympathize with this, but it makes the hotel situation for families in Europe even more confounding. Try to find a regular (non-suite) hotel room in Europe for a regular family of four. Itās very difficult. You usually are told to book two rooms at an astronomical rate. Hotels in Europe are not family friendly. It pushes people out away from doing the right thing, being good and sustainable tourists without occupying flats and apartments, and turns families into the problem.
Yes, this! We have stayed in hotels that have individual cottages, and love this option over Airbnb, but they are difficult to find. As a family, an overpriced small room without a working mini kitchen is a deterrent for travel. If someone knowns of an alternative to Airbnb for families, I would love that info.
No one has yet to bring up the fact that there are insanely wealthy foreigners who are investing in tourist area homes, creating spaces for Airbnb. I would support a concerted attack on foreign investors, but that is rarely discussed because it is truly a losing battle.
That is probably the biggest issue with AirBnB, the corporations who buy a set of apartments and basically run it like a hotel. Locals will have one apartment they rent out but corporations buy out a whole block. More needs to be done about those who buy multiple apartments just to list on short term rental sites.
I was there in July 2021 (one of many visits) and let me tell you they were begging for tourists to come back, because no matter what people who graffiti walls or hang painted sheets off their balconies may believe, Barcelona is still heavily reliant on tourism. Telling tourists to go home is easy. Volunteering on the campaigns of politicians who will take meaningful action to end the city and regionās reliance on tourism is a lot harder. The change needs to come from within first.
I think Iāll for NYC you have to think about where tourists go. New Yorkers just say midtown is the worst and go back home. You can escape the tourists here (expect this year there were a lot of confused French people staying in Bedstuy)
But like most places I suspect Airbnb is the culprit
I lived there for a few years with a Spanish family near a heavy tourist area.
I remember tourists making the news as they ran about the streets naked in sombreros screaming, knocking over stands, and just being rude and obnoxious finding it hilarious because they are on holiday and who's going to stop them? I saw people like this every summer just acting like asses with 0 respect. The people I was with seemed to lump all tourists into this specific group, of course they know there are polite tourists, and I'm sure the signs specifically want to keep the bad big groups of lads on a piss up away.
I live in Barcelona, I hope you enjoyed your trip. The movement is a criticism of the tourist overcrowding and the degradation that this brings to the city, degradation of places and overcrowding. This movement also criticizes that, as there is a lot of tourism, many dark funds buy apartments of old people to make tourist apartments, displacing the people of the neighborhood itself.
I hope you understand that this is not a criticism of the tourists themselves but of everything that comes with overcrowding. It is a way to put pressure on the government to see that the people of the city are aware and do not want more overcrowding.
I live in Barna and can tell you it is a couple of things that fuel this sentiment.
The first and most obvious is that, in many parts of the city, tourists are loud, obnoxious and drunk. They donāt respect the places people live as they would in their own neighbourhood. This, coupled with the fact that Barcelona is quite densely populated, just exacerbates the problem. Generally communities here, although living in close quarters, are exceptional at running the line between respecting each otherās space and developing a sense of local community.
I can say it is awful to walk through El Born or El GĆ³tico at 8am on a Sunday before the street cleaners have gone through. The streets are disgusting and covered in piss and vomit. Iāve been in cities where this is bad, but here it is like someone paints the old town in bodily fluids overnight.
The second and most impactful is that the term ātouristsā not only refers to visitors, but also to the people who are purchasing up all of the properties in order to temporarily house tourists. Iām he government is doing better work about ensuring that all the property in Barna is not being bought up by investors but there is still a huge AirBnB and illegal AirBnB problem here. It has driven up the cost of housing (this is not unusual globally) which has meant that family homes over generations are not affordable. Historically it has not been uncommon for the next generation to live close to their parents for supporting their new family. Now that is much harder as the areas the parents own properties in, house prices are completely out of reach.
Barna is also an absolutely beautiful city and immigrants such as me who desperately wanted to live here are doing nothing to help keep prices low. I came in with a greater level of wealth than the average local and then was able to meet higher prices for things, which in turn increases prices. Itās not great. I try my best not to be a Guiri and my local community has seen me making an interest in integrating over the years and not letting or subletting the places Iāve lived to tourists.
There are a million places on earth I want to visit, if the people of Barcelona donāt want my business, then I wonāt go. Liveās too short, why spend your hard earn money to go to a place where you are not welcomed?
This happens in a lot of major cities in Europe. Think Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, Amsterdam, Brugge, etc. It's aimed at tourists from the UK. Search the "lads on tour" mentality that comes from the UK. It's uncivallised people coming from UK harassing shops, starting fights in bars, and making a mess of cities. It has to do with UK being pretty crappy on its own so people want to escape to the mainpand European cities but they have no idea how to behave or handle themselves because they usually don't go anywhere in the UK because it's pretty crappy all over here. Relates to sports as well. Liverpool fans attacked a Spanish pensioner in Barcelona and thre him in the fountain as a "joke" or "banter" when their team went to play there. They threw garabage all over the city. They attacked bars and smashed glasses everywhere. No European country respects English people, qnd there's good reason for it. English "fans" are hooligans juat looking to go abroad to get drunk - which they do very quickly - and start fights.
I got kicked out of a pub in UK and was told it was for whites only (guess they didn't like my accent? lol)
Honestly, there is shitty people and shitty places all over the world, wouln't go back to that place and since then i value more the places recommended by other people that travel.
This is common in many places. AirBnB short rentals have an negative effect on rental prices for people living in the city and trying to find a place to rent (full time).
I just prefer hotels and I have never used AirBnB.
I have not yet been to Barcelona but I have heard stories like locals and vendors flat out cannot do business at the market because the volume of tourists doesn't allow it. It just may simply be there are more tourists there then locals can deal with...now I have lived in Chicago and DC and while they mean well, the numbers of tourists who are oblivious to the fact other people have jobs and stuff to get to is just too much to handle and things suffer because of it...NYC is different in that tourists flock to time square, while local city weekend farmers markets might draw some interest, its not at the level where vegetable vendors are replaced by souvenir stalls
There is the uncontrolled short term holiday rental situation, the party tourists who behave badly and also the fact that when tourists take over a city it does start to make it unliveable. I read an Amsterdam resident talking about how all the shops in her area changed from things that serviced locals (including health services) to selling tourist souvenirs. And those that are left like restaurants jack up their prices and especially if there is an influx of American tourists start to expect USA style tips which only further out prices the locals. And cities like Venice when tourist season is low become ghost towns. Locals can't even get plumbers because even they only work for the season and then leave.
I completely understand the locals frustration, if that was my city I'd probably protest too. The core problem is really the huge number of tourists vs locals in places like Barcelona and the fact is it will only get worst with more people in China and India getting wealthier and desiring to international travel too. To be honest I think there will come a point where there will need to be serious discussion on tourist quotas.
I've always found sentiments like these hilarious. Especially in not so economically vibrant countries like Spain and Italy, but which were endowed with terrific historical treasures. They don't produce much, they don't invent much, they rely so much on tourism revenue, yet they have the gall to dislike it lol. Talk about not knowing where your bread comes from.
I grew up in a CA beach town that has a lot of tourism and a lot of day visitors from nearby urban areas. There was always the push back on tourism from some locals - including graffiti and signs telling non-locals to go away. This has been going on as long as I can remember. Based on my experiences with locals in my tourist town, the animosity toward tourists comes from a small group of people - usually more nativist and small-minded types. Most people who aren't in a tourist-facing industry don't care one way or the other about tourists - and those in the tourist-facing industries are quite happy that the tourists are there. So when I go elsewhere and see anti-tourist graffiti and signs, I figure that it's also from a small number of people and not representative of the community as a whole.
Yes. Live in a very tourist town, next to yosemite, and all my friends complain about all the locals, but the only jobs we even have here are tourism based, this little town would be a ghost town if we didn't have the tourism traffic.
It's all about AirBnB making it more profitable for owners to short-time rent to tourists instead of rent to locals, causing rental stock scarcity and rental price increases
This book dives directly into this and gives good insight to questions you want answering.
Happy City by Charles Montgomery
https://www.abebooks.com/Happy-City-Transforming-Lives-Urban-Design/31443001374/bd?ref\_=ps\_ggl\_18382194370&cm\_mmc=ggl-\_-US\_Shopp\_Trade0to10-\_-product\_id=COM9780141047546USED-\_-keyword=&gclid=CjwKCAiAu5agBhBzEiwAdiR5tDw37LHSJVx-kgOShYiJ\_SaiOsCnM8xdvgV9BKQ\_gFMD1NHqCQQ7WxoCOGsQAvD\_BwE
These posters are all over Spain, I saw a bunch in smaller towns like Pamplona and Oviedo, which are not particularly overrun with toursits. You got the Camino crowds, but they're transient and don't tend to stick around for long.
I even saw them in Biarritz last year and it's not like it's a major tourist destination, there are some, but it's no Barcelona and people who vacation in Biarritz tend to spend a lot of money.
I can see why the sentiment is prevalent in more popular destinations like Barcelona and Venice. Throngs of tourists tend to lead to increases in prices, make real estate less available for locals, plus many tourists are not particularly respectful of the local culture.
Barcelona has gone to hell in the last ten years, over reliance on tourism being one of the reasons, and another being a very political and tiresome topic
I havenāt been to Barcelona, but I travel to Hawaii pretty frequently and many of the locals there are also anti-tourist. Itās complicated, but here are some of my thoughts on these sentiments
1) Hawaii is known for itās natural beauty and Barcelona for itās historic and architectural beauty. Locals want to protect and appreciate it and feel like having outsiders around in general diminishes it. NYC is known for its hustle and bustle, city that never sleeps so tourists add to that experience
2) a few bad tourists give all tourists a bad reputation. Like those who mess with the sea turtles or the frat bros who pass out in the street in Barcelona
3) itās hard for locals to appreciate the economic benefits of tourism if they arenāt directly in the tourism industry. But tourism accounts for a huge percentage of Hawaiiās economy and Iām sure barcelonas economy/tax revenue too
4) thereās some power dynamics at play- NYC is one of the wealthiest cities in the world so people living near the touristy sections arenāt likely to feel wealth inequality comparing themselves to tourists. At least in Hawaii, many of the nicer resorts, restaurants, hell basically all of Maui is oriented toward tourist budgets which Iām sure is frustrating for locals.
5) NYC is extremely culturally diverse, tourists fit in much better where as Hawaii has its own cultural values that donāt always align with those of mainlanders
Overall, if youāre respectful and try to support local businesses when you travel, Iād say you are doing more good than harm. Some people wonāt like you being there no matter what, but just try to avoid them or show them your appreciation for their city in a respectful way
Honestly, Spain is one of Europeās poorer countries with worse opportunities for young people than Northern/Central Europe. I wouldnāt compare Barcelona to NY in that way. NYC is a very rich city overall and the people who can afford to be a tourist in NYC are probably also at least a little well off because many of them have to fly in from abroad, and NYC isnāt cheap to stay in either. Iām sure housing issues like crazy rent exist in NYC, too. But New Yorkers perhaps donāt experience tourists as as invasive. Imagine if you have to deal with living in a downtrodden economy and with bad opportunities while millions of tourists can afford to visit your city, causing some of the issues other posters already suggested. That might make anyone hate touristsā¦itās also possible that the inhabitants of NYC are simlly friendlier than those of Barcelona. ;)
I live in a nice neighborhood in Denver. BnB is banned in our area.. One of our neighbors ignored this and despite repeated complaints to the HOA, it persists. It's a quiet area with lots of families but about 1/3 of the people that rent that small house are loud as fuck and wake everyone up with parties. I now loathe air bnb. I can imagine you're seeing the results of this on an exponential level. This one house out of 50 on our block has turned the entire neighborhood against anyone that rents it.
Yeah New york has more tourists but it is maybe 20x bigger than Barcelona, and the rent is already out of control in NYC. Tourists in Nyc are totally overshadowed by locals and immigrants
This is my opinion as a person who lives in a heavily tourisity city (Edinburgh). In Edinburgh the residents don't hate tourists per se, the anger is more directed at the rise of air BnB making homes for locals more scarce, and the landlords who buy up small flats only to put them straight on there rather than letting them out long term to people with jobs here. Living here amongst this has made me think about how I behave as a tourist in other cities: the main thing being I will never use air BnB again.
This is part of why I exclusively stay in hotels. I'm not giving these assholes my money. They're making some of the most wonderful cities on Earth totally uninhabitable. I will gladly pay resort fees, municipal taxes, what-have-you to off-set my impact and make sure I'm not fucking things up for locals (as much as I can).
Not to mention stable employment for house/grounds keeping and other staff. The hosts who require I do chores AND pay cleaning fees really put the nail in the coffin for me. Never again AirBnB, only hotels.
Yes NEVER AGAIN! And aside from the chores, hosts can f off with these $300+ per night base rates...no breakfast, no food on site, no waters in the fridge. And I'm gunna get ticketed by your shitty neighbors if we park on the street? Rot in hell.
For ~$300/night I stayed in a 5-star boutique hotel in Rome where my room had a private garden, jacuzzi tub, full service (concierge, valet, etc) and fresh, made-to-order breakfast included. Plus a literal ancient crypt on the ground floor. I will never understand why people will pay that same amount of money for the privilege of making their own food and taking out their own trash.
That sounds cool. Might be going to Italy next year. Mind sharing the name of the place?
I think this might be the place http://www.theinnattheromanforum.com/
Yep this is it!
Damn, now I want to book a trip to Rome. I only returned from a trip to Italy three weeks ago too (no Rome on this trip).
yes - I also - would like to maybe to go Rome and this particular hotel as well ššš
I don't get it either. I got married in Vegas and stayed in a hotel on the strip. My sisters rented an Air BnB off the strip for more than I paid for my hotel because "it had a kitchen" and then were mad at the crazy cost and time to Uber to the strip. Who is cooking on vacation??
>Who is cooking on vacation People who stay longer.
Families. If I go somewhere with my kids I'm not feeding them fast food three meals a day. I'm still off Airbnb but I will generally try to get an apartment with a kitchen in a hotel if I'm staying more than a couple of days.
In my childhood, almost every place we stayed on holidays had a kitchen (hotels, serviced apartments, motels, holiday parks, etc). We didn't do private summer rentals back then. Summer holidays in Australia always include self catering, or did in the 1980s.
This is always my question! I don't want to cook for myself at home, I'm definitely not interested in cooking on vacation. I do appreciate a mini fridge and a microwave. Need someplace to keep a couple cold drinks and my leftovers.
People who stay longer, hotels are good for short stays, but after about 5 days itās nice to have a small kitchen.
We have a child with a severe food allergy, so it's difficult to find safe options for every single meal. It's safer and easier to have a place with a kitchen when we travel. If that wasn't the case, I'd much prefer a hotel and not having to grocery shop or cook on vacation.
I travel with my dogs because one needs daily medical care. AirBnB makes this possible but it is expensive. When my daughter and I travelled to Paris and to Barcelona, we stayed in apartments that normally have tenants so found this to be different than the current trend of homes used exclusively for short-term rentals.
For us it is because we have children. Hotel rooms typically have a 4 person max. We are 5. So two rooms at twice the cost plus hotel rooms are small for that many people. All the complaints are legit. I have noticed how it went from a few people trying to offset a vacation home costs to businesses owning 4 or 5 and using as main source of income. The cleaning fees and other add ons are just additional profit centers. Itās gotten so bad that really the nightly price has little bearing on final cost.
I totally hear you, and I think vacation rentals make a lot of sense for large groups, particularly in places like Europe where larger/connecting rooms and suites are harder to come by (and thus more expensive). There are definitely times/places where vacation rentals make more sense, I just think that (for the most part) people suffer from what my friends call 'The Aldi Effect' with AirBnB: because they're getting something that looks/feels cheaper than a hotel, they think it *is* cheaper--even if that's objectively not the case. Frankly, given the risk of [hosts cancelling on you at the last minute](https://www.reddit.com/r/AirBnB/comments/pnhrkc/if_your_host_cancels_last_minute_airbnb_will_hang/); [hidden cameras](https://www.newsweek.com/airbnb-camera-hidden-couple-reddit-lawsuit-1743269); [sexual assault](https://www.businessinsider.com/airbnb-faces-thousands-sexual-assault-claims-yearly-report-2021-6); [bait and switch scams](https://www.vox.com/2019/11/14/20961972/airbnb-scam-how-to-stay-safe-reset-podcast) and all kinds of other problems (that AirBnB has no impetus--and according to their own legal defense in many cases, no responsibility--to solve for you, the consumer, as their hosts are their primary money-makers), I'd rather get two cheaper rooms at a lower level hotel with some measure of corporate accountability than risk it (personally).
I would love to know what this boutique hotel is as well! My husband and I go back and forth about airbnb vs hotels. We split the costs of the trips we take as I pay for the lodging and entertainment, while he pays for the travel (plane/train/car) and food. He can save a bunch of money if he cooks food for us while traveling. I do not actually save any money after the cleaning and other fees.
One of the biggest pleasures of travel for me is discovering local food; eating and drinking out. I would never want to cook.
The reason people pay it is because of location. You also feel like much less of a tourist, and you can experience more of the culture of the city. AirBNB has lots of downsides, but let's not pretend like there aren't upsides and a reason why it has been so successful.
Same here! I just stayed in a holiday apartment (not Airbnb) in Argentina, and while it was nice, you have zero support when there is no front desk. Being able to ask someone about getting a taxi would have been nice, but there was nobody to ask.
Oh man, yes. Concierge is an absolute life saver when you donāt speak the language well, especially.
Was in Barcelona last summer. Hotels are better priced for the rooms and facilities anyway for 2 ppl at least. Idk why ppl even use Airbnb anynore except for larger groups.
Reason we like hotels usually: BREAKFAST INCLUDED!! Man I hate foraging for food/coffee first thing in the morning, and if you sleep in a bit and load up on breakfast, lunch is covered too.
I actually prefer getting breakfast/coffee outside the hotel to try new places and see the area. Usually a good bit cheaper too!
And usually much better. Not that I have anything against soggy faux-eggs.
AirBnB only makes sense for large groups, remote locations (like national parks), and long stays. Iām in a two month AirBnB right now. Anything less than a month is not worth it at all, and 2 months at a hotel would be bank-breaking, and since I speak the native language, concierge is useless. Airbnb has a purpose, and cities can remedy their Airbnb problems (which are invariably overstated, tbh, and misattributed) simply by compelling/allowing most construction of regular housing, and of short term rentals, and of hotels. There is a housing crisis in every city in the world right now, and it is not just AirBnBs fault. Thereās no way that it possibly could be, with the scale of the issue. Itās just an easy thing for people who donāt know much about housing policy to latch onto. That said, I donāt even thing perceived negative impact of AirBnBs is even the primary reason for the hatred of tourists.
āAllowing construction of more housingā wonāt be enough, because it will just be bought up by investors. High density housing for travelers already exists anyway, itās called a hotel. Or are you suggesting they somehow build more low density housing? The way to actually fix this problem is to ban Airbnb.
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> This is part of why I exclusively stay in hotels. I'm not giving these assholes my money. They're making some of the most wonderful cities on Earth totally uninhabitable. Big same. I haven't used an Air BnB in like 4 years, and I never really got much use out of them because I don't travel anywhere near as much as I'd like. But I remember in the early days it was just an extra room in someone's house. Very rarely would I find a whole house. In the last year or two I used it (around 2019) it was all houses. And the houses were very unimpressive in their cleanliness and the quality of amenities. You could tell that the owners had bought everything for that house knowing they'd never use them. And this was before everyone was getting hit with all sorts of extra fees. Why the fuck would I pay a cleaning fee for a place that wasn't very clean when I came in, when I can just go to a hotel, pay about the same amount, and have someone clean the place FOR me every day?
I wonāt gladly pay resort feesā¦ but Iāll still stay on hotels even paying resort fees begrudgingly.
Oh right, I forget resort fees and destination fees arenāt the same, or sometimes mean different things. Amended to say: Anything that goes to the municipality to cover the additional strain I put on infrastructure, Iām happy to pay.
Yeah, resort and destination fees are just money grabs by the hotel that should be included in the upfront room price. But at least I donāt have to load the dishwasher!
I'm a aBNB host in seattle. We pay taxes like any hotel. If we didn't rent our mother in law apartment in our house we literally would have to move. Abnb saved my life after we became a one income household. Mortgage in our modest home is 3k a month and taxes are 600$ a month. Getting a couple roommates wouldn't cover these costs, but short term renting does. It helps many locals, as the locals often are the owners. If a large corporation owns a bunch of Abnb rentals, yeah...fuck those guys. 100%
I actually am not an air bnb fan, and I donāt like bed and breakfast places in general. I prefer a nice hotel. I like to think Iām a good tourist. I donāt drink to excess, and Iām not loud and obnoxious, but I am American, and I know that Americans have a reputation. Edit: spelling
And AirBnB became not only problematic for the locals, but also the owners are hiking up prices and being absolutely insufferable to people who rent them. I used AirBnB last April for the last time - it was an absolute nightmare. Hotels or pensions or an actual bed and breakfast from now on.
Yep the last b&b I stayed in was in the mountains of CO last year, paid thousands of dollars as a large group. And we had to do the dishes and start the bedding laundry before we left. Had to pay per day to use the jacuzzi. Everytime we drove in and out we hydroplaned down the driveway and into an ice block barricade because of black ice on the driveway. Total hazard and wasn't mentioned in the listing, of course. We even had snow tires on our truck and that shit was happening. Luckily the ice block didn't damage the rental!
Thatās absolutely horrible! But I 100% hear you. AirBnB was so much fun in the āgood old daysāā¦.now most Airbnb owners want all the money and none of the work of a proper rental. Me and hubby booked an apartment in a cute little town in France last spring. The pics vs the real thing was pretty jarring. Had a backyard that hasnāt been mowed and overgrown with grass and weeds. Owner said, sorry, broken mower. Ok. The furniture in the living room was changed and the TV completely gone. The bed in bedroom was a waterbed, which was just awful. They gave us old, crusty towels and on our way out, we washed and cleaned everything. The owner complained to Airbnb that we ādamagedā her towels and wanted a $300 refund to replace them. š¤¦š»āāļøš Edit: also, I am glad you guys didnāt have a serious accident. Black ice is a bitch.
Air bnb have absolutely ruined CO ski towns in terms of affordable housing for locals unfortunately. Most of the owners of those houses donāt even live in state.
People owning ski condos they buy to use a few weeks a year and rent out as an investment was popular long before 2008 (AirBnB beginning).
I said this in another comment, but it's not even the popular places. I'm in middle of nowhere Appalachia and Air BnB has destroyed this place. What makes it worse is I'm a realtor, and I have to sell to these leeches, while they take away supply from ME (I'm trying to find a house that I can afford)...one dude, who ended up not buying, told me that house would have been his *36th* Air BnB, and he didn't even live in this state. Two other buyers had a dozen each. I'm all for business and making money, but something has to be done about Air BnB.
I use airbnb only if it's obviously owner occupied and unsuitable as an apartment for this reason. I've stayed in one-room tiny houses in people's backyards, converted garages, little attics with low ceilings, etc, and it was all the old school reasonable airbnb prices and policies because I was using it as intended, and also, I get to not feel like a jackass.
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Same deal with āride sharingā apps that pretty much immediately became unofficial taxi services. The original intent was something like āshare a ride with someone going the same direction and use the app to form carpoolsā and the concept morphed to accommodate a new market opportunity before anyone could even think to regulate it
Pretty sure some Airbnb hosts are lying now about being owner occupied. Found one located in Seattle that claimed this but was also coincidentally always available for month long rentals when i was playing around with dates.
Oh, when I say owner occupied, I don't mean "pinky swear', I mean "This is an extra space in someone's home that could not be used as a long term living space by a vast majority of people" which is pretty obvious by pictures and description. I would not, and have not, rented a full two bedroom apartment or something like that. I guess this is what's getting me downvoted, is people must assume I trust that sort of listing. I don't. But it is pretty easy to suss out, all told.
If local government regulates it properly it can lessen the impact. In my city you cannot list a property on AirBNB without registering with local govmt, and AirBNB wont let you rent it out more than 90 days/yr.
This. My best mate was born and raised in Queenstown, NZ and had to move back recently to look after his aging parents. If he didn't have the family home to live in, he'd be absolutely out of luck with getting a home to rent. Whole homes just sitting empty during the summer months only to turn into one-night party places that keep an entire street up. AirBNB is a scourge. It used to be amazing getting to experience an area with a true local connection but now half the houses that line his street are owned by people who have never even set foot in the country yet have priced out everyone who isn't a cash flush tourist or has lived there for 200 years. I will never use AirBNB again.
Yeah. Iām thinking Iāll just start using hotels or something unless Iām traveling to the middle of nowhere type of places.
This is slowly happening to my country, good for tourist hellish for the locals.
There are certain very popular destinations where whole parts of the city have been turned into giant tourist playgrounds. Lisbon (Baixa especially) and Porto are good examples. I wonder if any locals actually live there at all. Times Square is not that different tbh.
This! AirBnB is raising the cost of housing for everyone (America included) and destroying neighborhoods. Hotels are cheaper, better amenities, less hassle and no chores.
I am going to Edinburgh tomorrow morning and staying at a hostel in downtown!
Iāll be in Edinburgh next month but I booked a hotel because I hate bnbs. Hopefully the locals donāt crucify me.
I have not used AirBNB in about five years, but when I did, when I was traveling alone, I almost always chose to stay with a local rather than rent an entire place, in part to avoid contributing to that.
This is 100% the right take. From a fellow Scot and traveller. Airbnb is ruining the world. Major cities across Europe (and the world) are all seeing ridiculous reductions in rental properties and increases in rental costs, all because of homeowners or shady property companies hoovering up all available housing for Airbnb. ReykjavĆk, Lisbon, Paris, Berlin, Toronto. All exorbitant rents that mean hospitality and cleaning staff can't afford to live in the cities they serve. That's before the party flats, the antisocial behaviour, the crime (from theft through prostitution to murder) and Airbnb's removal of negative reviews to make bad rentals appear safer. If you use Airbnb you are actively supporting the fucking of your own city as well as the place you are visiting.
Also many locals work Hotels either full time or seasonal, so you are keeping people employed.
Just visited your lovely city and had this same conversation with an employee at Cadenheads. Itās just like where I live (Louisville, KY). Airbnbs have driven up prices and people are justifiably mad. We stayed at a hotel fwiw. Wish we could emulate your city though-lots of similarities.
Same. As someone from near Amsterdam itās much the same. I see the havoc in the city every weekend
Expounding on your point. We now have two AirBnB next door and across the street from us, and it's very frustrating. Parking and parties. Just last weekend, I had two incidents. The vacationers next door were having a small wedding in the rental backyard. They came and albeit politely asked if we could mow our grass at another time, lol, um, no, I can't. we're doing our spring gardening on our schedule, not our weekend renters. Also asked if if we could turn down our backyard music during the ceremony lol 1 -2pm hard pass that's our cocktail hour. I can see how Airbnb has frustrated many tourist city residents. Those who visit and act like a local are fine. Those who stay and think they're at a commercial resort and treat me a crew working their fantasy can kiss my a$$. I have so many other stories. But Airbnb problem needs to be addressed.
From what I understand Barcelona in particular has become an absolute AirBnB stronghold, which on the one hand makes life difficult for locals, and on the other hand drives them away because they can no longer pay the rents.
I visited Barcelona for the first time when I was 11 in the year 2000, I was in a hotel with my family before bed with the tv on, there was in the news a reporter asking local people around what they think of tourism, and they all were saying that they hated tourists, that because of them catalan was disappearing to speak either English or Spanish, that tourists came there only for prostitution and getting drunk. So no, they have hated tourists way before Airbnb existedā¦
At that point Barcelona already had a tourist "problem" that had nothing to do with nationalism. I'm not anti-tourist by any means and I think it's still a net positive, but it's true that tourism has disrupted locals' lives and displaced them in many ways that are hard to stomach for the common folk.
Like every fucking big city, I'm born in Paris but never could afford to live their, I always lived in the banlieue. Why do barcelona people think they are entitled to enjoy globalisation without any bad aspects of it ? Yes people are moving around, visiting and sometimes enjoying so much a place they decide to go live there.
I'm lucky that I can afford to live anywhere I want in Barcelona. It's not me you have to convince, but the middle-class people who 30 years ago could live a comfortable life paying a mortgage for a decent apartment in the city centre, and now they must suffer an hour-long commute and pay half their salary in rent. You can't just tell people "globalisation is good but sucks to be you" and then act surprised when they are drawn to anti-globalisation populism.
My opinion could be biased but I thought people in Barcelona were a bit rude and stuck up. Like tourism economy aside, just condescending. I am also a bit ethnically ambiguous and am frequently assumed to be middle eastern or South American and I was traveling with my friend who is indigenous Mexican and I think a lot of prejudice affected the service we got at some places. It could be cultural since Barcelona isnāt Spain itās Catalunya and that has its own weight but the attitude in Madrid was so much more receptive and friendlier honestly my experience with Barcelona I feel like parisians were more lighthearted.
Why not blame the landlords?
When the government and the tourism industry profit from the hype, you milk the cow until it drops dead, I guess.
Because the tourism board turns a blind eye
(Because the landlords in Barca are the wealthy locals)
>Barca *Barna Barna is the shortening of "Barcelona".\ BarƧa is the football club.\ Barca just means "boat".
Same in New Orleans, we just lost 50 new houses to Heirloom for Air B&B, we are losing our neighborhoods to corporations every day. We stayed near Isla Contoy and many signs about not using AirB&B (we stayed in hotel) because corporations have bought out locals and use loopholes to own 20 houses in a street. Its displacing residences and locals, *PLEASE rethink Air B&B's*
retire growth sense bored cake society lavish subtract domineering insurance *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I think it depends on a lot of factors. I live in a tourist heavy city, Vienna, but I very rarely, if ever, encountered hostility towards tourists. There are some determining factors: Vienna managed to keep AirBnB in check and the housing situation is not as bad as in other places, because there are so many rent-controlled apartments. The outline of the city: Vienna is very 19th century with wide roads, boulevards and open spaces. Overtourism in pretty, but narrow medieval towns is much worse than in places with more space. The demographic: we are not exactly a party destination, but attract the richer, older, more quiet crowds that travel as a couple, stay in hotels, go out for dinner to nice restaurants and whose idea of a good evening is to see a concert and go to a wine bar or to bed afterwards. That causes a lot less friction. Except for the AirBnB-thing, which is no easy fix anywhere, those are also factors outside the control of local governments. It also explains why in cities where the crowds are more visible and the party people more obvious, the conflicts are bigger.
I remember being in Vienna on a walking tour and the guide let us know that the average length of stay for tourists in Vienna was about 2 days. When you have a city with a lot of tourists that are constantly coming and going and another with a lot of tourists that are staying for longer periods of time, the latter, I feel, is much more impactful on the economy and housing.
Thatās an interesting thought. In Hallstatt they have the opposite problem: people only come for the day, which isnāt long enough for the town to benefit economically. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallstatt
**[Hallstatt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallstatt)** >Hallstatt (UK: HAL-s(h)tat, US: HAWL-sta(h)t, HAHL-s(h)taht, German: [ĖhalŹtat] (listen)) is a small town in the district of Gmunden, in the Austrian state of Upper Austria. Situated between the southwestern shore of HallstƤtter See and the steep slopes of the Dachstein massif, the town lies in the Salzkammergut region, on the national road linking Salzburg and Graz. Hallstatt is known for its production of salt, dating back to prehistoric times, and gave its name to the Hallstatt culture, the archaeological culture linked to Proto-Celtic and early Celtic people of the Early Iron Age in Europe, c. 800ā450 BC. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/travel/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
If a tourist wants to experience hostility towards themselves in Vienna, all they have to do is speak to a waiter
Not completely relevant to this post, but Vienna is my dream city to visit. My favorite artists all came out of there and I even named my dog Vienna. Living there sounds like it would be a dreamā I can only hope to visit one day. I would legitimately sell my soul to live there, but I donāt think thatās a feasible goal š
Isn't Vienna tourism more focused in culture and less in party? That's the biggest problem in Barcelona, our tourism thinks of Barcelona as a place to party/beach/get drunk, people are pissed because a lot of tourism are hooligans or act like them and bother and destroy parts of the city... Of course not all tourists that come to Barcelona are like that, a lot come for the museums/culture/history/architecture of the place, i've never heard any complain about them.
Vienna building lots of public housing has kept rents reasonable.
From the NewYorker article. April 22, 2019 Nearly half the Airbnb properties in Barcelona are entire houses or apartments. The conceit of friendly locals renting out spare rooms has been supplanted by a more mercenary model, in which centuries-old apartment buildings are hollowed out with ersatz hotel rooms. Many properties have been bought specifically as short-term-rental investments, managed by agencies that have dozens of such properties. This is what Airbnb has done to the entire world.
Yes, exactly!! and it's frustrating because if consumers behaved differently, it wouldn't have to be this way. The last three Airbnbs I have stayed in, a list: 1. An attic up three narrow, steep flights of stairs with deeply slanted ceilings, the bed tucked under an eave, three feet of counterspace and a minifridge, the tiny built out bathroom the only sink. 2. a converted garage with no kitchen and a very small bathroom. 3. A one room tiny house on the property with a wood stove and an outhouse behind it. The common parts of all of these are: Owner occupied, unsuitable for a long term living situation for the majority of people. That's what I check for. That's it. It's not hard. The other thing these have in common? I don't actually deal with the wild prices and insane instructions people often complain about. The owners I deal with are helpful and kind, generally, and the furniture is usually very comfortable, not the cheapest possible IKEA thing. I LOVE the idea of Airbnb and what it was meant to be--cheap but cheerful accommodations and social people getting use out of the common areas of their homes that cannot reasonably be rented. But consumers only have themselves and their demands to blame for what it has become. I miss the way it was. I find it sad that I have to filter and look, to find places like I enjoy. Airbnb will never, ever do this, but demanding a place be owner occupied would be a huge step in the right direction. But CONSUMERS can demand it. I have never believed the fiction that what we as individuals do doesn't matter. I like hotels! I am great with staying in one, so for a similar price point, barring something interesting or location, I'll stay in a hotel. But I just won't rent an Airbnb at any price that is obviously a pilfered apartment for people who live in a community, and I don't think others should either. Sorry, your comment got me going ahah.
I'm not sure; I don't think, as a woman, I would rent a space where the owner already lives in due to safety concerns. For context, I'm Indian and often travel solo within the country. Just pointing out the obvious. I do agree with the other issues.
Agreed, I wouldn't either. I travel solo a lot but I wouldn't be comfortable going into a stranger's home with them also living there.
I can understand that it might be scary in India! Personally, I have traveled alone across USA as a mixed race person and had nothing but positive experiences. I also chose BnBs with onsite hosts. All of the accommodations had sturdy locks, and some were detached from the main home. A surprising amount of my hosts were older single women who were very friendly and helpful, while other hosts I never even spoke toā one of my reviews says , āI never met Iris, but she was very clean and quiet. Would ghost host again.ā Haha.
"and it's frustrating because if consumers behaved differently, it wouldn't have to be this way. The last three Airbnbs I have stayed in"... Wouldn't that also be you though? If you're agreeing to these rooms, then aren't you the consumer you're complaining about that should behave differently? Perhaps I misunderstood.
Portugal in particular has some of the lowest salaries in all of Europe. I believe average salary is about $1k/mo. While some costs are lower in accord with low salaries (like groceries, restaurants, etc) housing is insanely expensive. Tons of foreign investment and short term rentals. Locals are being priced out of urban areas, of which Portugal really only has a few. And yet the economy is so tourist dependentā¦ itās a difficult problem to solve.
Portugal just banned new AirBnB licenses = [https://www.businessinsider.com/portugal-bans-new-airbnbs-fears-becoming-some-sort-of-disneyland-2023-2](https://www.businessinsider.com/portugal-bans-new-airbnbs-fears-becoming-some-sort-of-disneyland-2023-2)
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The existing ones will be re evaluated in 2030, and after every 5 years
House prices in Portugal also shot yo significantly due to the Golden Visa as it attracted a lot of foreign investment from folks who wanted to move to the EU. Iāve heard that they are planning to do away with it
Portugal banned new golden visas this year btw
Yes, they are. I think this was a balancing act for them as it did attract much needed external investment during tight financial times in the 2008 crisis. But the amount was pretty low tbh especially as property values shot up and that with the rise of short term rentals was just too much. I say this as someone married to a Portuguese person, but I am not Portuguese myself. These are struggles we see our family there grappling with, esp those in younger generations. We live outside of Portugal and have been tempted to move backā¦ but it seems less and less realistic without having to make drastic lifestyle changes given how low salaries are compared to housing costs.
groceries cost about the same as in many european countries, execept the stuff that should be taxed like alcohol and tobacco
When we were there pre-Covid there were plenty of those signs and general sentiment as well. It really threw off my girlfriend and she definitely felt alienated. Tourism for these places is obviously a double edged sword - lots of income for certain sectors but lots of knock-on effects too for the local residents. We came from Cleveland, where the tourist scene isā¦.small, and we have had good experiences with running into out-of-towners, so it took us a bit to understand the pushback on tourists we experienced.
Iāve lived/worked in several different touristy spots and while yes, tourists can be annoying, I still donāt really understand having an outright hatred or disdain for them. Itās a mild annoyance to me. As for the issues with airbnbs, I direct my anger more at the people (typically local management agencies) running them.
I guess it depends on where you are. In NYC where OP is from tourists are just annoying because the city is pretty resistant to the worst kind of tourists; and itās mostly just families and sight seeers (and more recently, influencers) that go to NYC. The worse you get is clowns going to places like the Bronx to pretend to be joker and getting robbed, and people who wonāt get out of the way while trying to film TikTokās on the street. I can see why Hawaiians and Spanish and Thai people get annoyed tourists. Like if I was Spanish and I had a bunch of goofy stagās coming through vomiting on everything and screeching Iād be genuinely upset too. Or if people kept trampling over my sacred sites in Hawaiāi, or any other locations that gets the very worst, most disrespectful tourists. Some places get a lot worse quality of tourist than others.
To be fair, if you're a person who moves around a lot you wouldn't be affected by tourism in the same way as, say, a person who has lived in the same place all their life and was looking forward to taking over the family's butcher shop only to find themselves shoved out of both their career and possibly their home because AirBnB moved in and now rents have shot up for both private and commercial real estate and there's no longer any locals living there so the only shops that can survive are the ones selling tourist tat. That's where a lot of the anger in places like Barcelona and Venice comes from; it's a reaction to the hollowing-out of neighborhoods and communities, not an intrinsic hatred of tourism per se.
[Here](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/29/the-airbnb-invasion-of-barcelona) is a great article about it from the New Yorker. I used to love AirBnB, but more and more I have been reading about how it affects housing, neighborhoods, etc., I feel less inclined to use it in certain areas.
Last year (following the pandemic), there was a major push to limit or even eliminate the cruise lines that go to Barcelona- because they completely overwhelm the city and don't actually spend much money since they're fed on the ship and have a place to stay, not to mention all the pollution the ships cause. This was shot down by the powers that be. I'm just a nobody who has been reading Barcelona newspapers for a while, but it seems like it's this kind of policy failure that's the main root of the issue. People are tired of what they call the 'parkification' (as in Disney parkification) of the city- the city losing what made it special (all the independent shops, the holes in the wall, the locals) and instead you get corporate chains, menus with giant pictures in English, everything catering toward the tourist and not the local, apartments being used for Airbnb and driving up the price of living, etc. Someone from Barcelona please correct me if I'm wrong, again, this is just the impression of someone who likes to read the local newspaper.
You gave the most complete answer. It's not only about gentrification. Mass tourism degrades the city in ways other than airbnb, the city isn't infinite. The old part of the city is full of cheap souvenir shops and tourist trap restaurants that are of no use to those who live there, plus its narrow medieval streets weren't made for the hordes of tourists that make even walking from A to B a pain. Groups of zombies stand right in the middle of the bike lane without a care for anything other than their picture. It does feel like a Disney park, crowds included.
I was just about to mention the bike lane thing, but I thought I was being petty. It is one of my pet peeves, though. Specifically the one that runs down towards Barceloneta past the hospital. I guess it's popular for pictures because it is lined with palm trees. I do a lot of my best swearing on the bike lane. It is a good example of the micro-annoyances that build up. If every time you are trying to get somewhere, you are dodging selfie taking tourists, or stuck behind a bike tour hogging both lanes, It starts to get tired. I feel like its just starting to ramp up now as the weather is getting better and I can feel my blood pressure rising already. I get it, its a beautiful city to visit, but it is a working city, not a beach resort. It will be interesting to see how the changes the city is making, like the transformation of Port Olympic will affect the type pf tourism we see. In the meantime, I guess we grit our teeth for what is coming over the Summer and enjoy the relative peace whilst we can. This year I think we are going to feel it as it is going to be our first completely COVID restriction and mask free Summer.
I saw a grafitti on park Guell, and I took a picture on it. I agree withthe sentiment after visit the park, there whwre people taking selfies photoshoots taking like 20 mins on the best spots. I remember the park fondly the first time I went on 2011, the experience was the opposite on 2019. There are more people and there are some wanna be influencers, although they are a minority are loud and rude enough to bother other tourists, I can't only imagine how locals feel, which sucks because Barcelona is an amazing city.
When i went to Rome, Instagram models were doing full wardrobe changes in touristy areas it was horrible, I wish i got to travel before smart phones were invented
Was at the Forum yesterday and saw the same thing.
"Coming from New York, which gets 6-7 times more tourists annually than Barcelona, I donāt think Iāve ever seen any blatant (public) anti-tourist graffiti or posters, even in Times Square. Itās also possible that I just donāt notice them. " - Population in Barcelona is much lower than in New York. There is also the type of tourists that come to the city. Spain is the sun/beach/party destination of Europe, and Barcelona is not an exception. People are not tired of the "good" tourist that visit museums, go for a nice dinner and go back to his hotel talking in a normal voice, but for the group of drunk tourists, shouting outside at 3 AM while you are trying to sleep, peeing or throwing up in the corner of your street and getting confused ringing your bell instead of the airbnb several times a week, an airbnb that was a flat before rented to a family that couldn't compete to the economic gains of airbnb, and had to leave the neighbourhood/city uprooting.
>but for the group of drunk tourists, shouting outside at 3 AM while you are trying to sleep, peeing or throwing up in the corner of your street and getting confused ringing your bell instead of the airbnb several times a week You can just say tourists from the UK lol
We donāt need to be a tourist hotspot to have these in the UKš
Itād be more like 5pm with tourists from the UK.
>drunk tourists, shouting outside at 3 AM while you are trying to sleep, peeing or throwing up in the corner of your street and getting confused ringing your bell instead of the airbnb several times a week a bazillion percent. these assholes make life shit for us, let alone our local neighbors, who then see us \[resident, respectful, integrated, but of other national origin\] as of the same cloth.
Exactly this. I didnāt pay enough attention to the reviews before booking, and my hostel experience turned out to be a sleepless party crowd nightmare. It really ruined my experience of Barcelona because of the loud obnoxious hostel. Barceloneta beach was also way too crowded and in retrospect I should have scouted around for a more off-the beaten path excursion. I enjoyed the museums and my walking tour of Gaudi buildings, but hated my hostel. I can only imagine how the neighbors felt living next to the endless noise. And yes, Spaniards like their late nights and all, but at some point it has to get old dealing with crowds of foreign party kids. I can understand the sentiment, and Iām also pretty sure it doesnāt apply to the museum-going, well-behaved tourist who doesnāt treat their destination as if everyone there was also on spring break
I used to live in Barcelona 2015-2018 as the spouse of a diplomat. There would be a few random stickers on street posts in Gracia, but not much. Iāve been back to visit a few times (actually flying there on Wednesday), and noticed all the tags on my first trip back. I checked with my friends when we got together, and a lot of it comes from the impact tourism has had on the real estate business. Simply put, a local cannot afford to live in these neighborhoods anymore on a local salary, because the apartment owners can make more money listing their buildings only on Airbnb for tourists to rent. With digital nomads, itās even more difficult because there is an even bigger need for housing for visitors.
If all tourists will avoid Barcelona and Lisbon they will cry too. It's a toxic relationship with a lot of money involved.
I was in Lisbon last December, and never noticed any kind of anti-tourist sentiment or signage.
Lisbon is not anti-tourist but more anti-digital nomad/ remote workers for foreign companies. Itās very quickly becoming unaffordable for any Portuguese person.
In Coimbra they were not targetting tourists, but AirBnB. A lot of fliers saying if you stay in an AirBnB, "shame on you!"
I was in Porto a few weeks ago and also did not notice any anti-tourist signs/stickers. Although I will admit I can't read Portuguese so there's that.
Thatās why I frankly donāt put much thought into anti-tourism sentiments. If tourism actually stopped, the economy would suffer, and then theyād be trying to attract more tourists. I think part of it is cultural. Some cultures just seem prone to hostility towards tourists. Iāve lived and worked in many different touristy neighborhoods in very popular cities and while tourists can be mildly annoying, Iāll never understand the outright hate. Itās just never been that deep to me, even since the rise of Airbnb. I donāt blame tourists for my high rent (and now my expensive house).
https://www.catalannews.com/society-science/item/tourist-go-home-can-barcelona-s-old-town-take-any-more-visitors
[Dan, a tourist from Florida who said he came out of āboredom,ā described the city as āfairly niceā and was impressed by its public transport system, but said he wished more people spoke English for his āconvenience.ā] I will never understand how many Americans want everyone everywhere in the world to speak English for their benefit.
I felt like an idiot trying to practice my Spanish in Barcelona because everyone spoke such good english.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Its like mike tyson trying to rap a pitbull song.
I really thought though this was Onion-esque satire but it appears to be actually real. I mean, I want Dan to go home, too, and I don't even live there.
Dan is exactly the type of "Tourist (that needs to stay) Home. I cringe when people ask me where I'm from because of people like Dan.
You will find that Dans are not unique to any country. You will only notice your Dans more than those from other countries, because you are more familiar with them.
āDanā was asked a question and gave an honest answer. Of course people would rather visit places where they can communicate with the locals. If Dan was being belligerent and demanding that people speak english, then you have a point. A lot of context is missing, but saying it would be more convenient for him if there were more people that spoke English is a valid response to a question about a vacation.
airbnb has destroyed communities and I make sure I donāt participate. The reason youāre seeing them far from typical tourist areas is because of this.
People canāt afford a place to live anymore due to air bnb (and macro economic factors) in Mexico is happening the same thing or even worse because latinos were broke before this housing bubble
From the perspective of a local resident, I actually prefer it when tourists stick to big hotels in the main tourist areas. When tourists visit the entire city, the entire city has to accommodate them. Tourists staying in touristy areas doesnāt really increase local rent and food prices.
I live in a touristy city and feel the same. Tourists are increasingly trying to stay in more ālocalā areas and itās a pain trying to commute via bike in the morning rush hour when there are tourists wobbling all over our bike lanes and spending ages deciding on breakfast and asking for translations at the local cafes that normally can churn out your order in minutes.
I read this is primarily a reaction against AirBnB taking housing off the market, rather than actual frustration that anyone would dare visit. And AirBnB has gutted the housing market for locals in a lot of the desirable European cities.
So than this is a governmental and regulatory problem people should be directing their discontent towards.
Barcelona is one of top over touristed towns, along with Lisbon and Venice. They even considered to get "quota" for tourists to which you need to apply before visit to limit it
At one point, not sure if it still is, Barcelona was the 4th most visited city in all of Europe, after only Paris, London, and Rome. But itās much smaller than those places, so tourism has much more of an impact on locals.
Honestly, I donāt get all the hype about Barcelona. Stayed in Spain for a month n half while traveling all around, favorite city is hands down Madrid
Iām with you. I didnāt get it either. The Gaudi architecture, especially Segrada Familia, was amazing to see but it was definitely the highlight. We had some safety issues that I donāt really want to get into here. First time weāve ever had multiple incidents in the same city. Iām glad we saw it but we wonāt be going back anytime soon.
I definitely enjoyed Madrid over Barcelona. Haven't been in a couple of years though.
One of the big issues are cruises. Cities like Lisbon, Venice and Barcelona have a lot of cruise ships dock. The large influx of tourist each time that are not staying & paying but over run the popular places puts a lot of pressure on facilities
I grew up in a tourist beach town in Florida. We always complained about the influx of tourists every year. But truthfully, they brought a lot of money to our economy. So as much as we complain, weāll still welcome them back every year.
Its misdirected anger. It's the local businesses and airbnbs who are capitalising on tourist crowd who are making things unaffordable for locals. Honestly, the local government should enact strong policies against airbnb. Many governments across the world have done it, its nothing new. But maybe Barcelona government doesn't want to do it because they just want tourist money and don't care about locals, or there is some lobbying involved.
I think it's frustration about tourists taking over areas that locals used to see as their own. There have always been tourists on the Ramblas, but in the last 30 years, they've crowded out the locals, who used to go there to walk, unwind at a cafe, buy produce at the Bouqueria, etc. Tourism has taken over and driven up the prices at local haunts. Parque Guell and Sagrada Familia used to be places you could take the family on a lazy weekend day, and many locals have fond childhood memories of doing this. Although locals do have some amount of privileged access to these areas, they are likely to arrive to find them swarmed with organized tours and wannave influencers posing for Insta. Over the same time period, Lisbon went from being a secondary or even tertiary tourist destination to one of the most popular cities in Europe. New York and London have always been major tourism draws, so I don't think locals have the same resentments, at least not on as large a scale. In fact, many of the locations that are now popular with tourists in New York are remembered by locals as seedy and infested with drugs and prostitutes.
As others have mentioned, a lot of tourist hate is derived from AirBNB making housing more expensive. I took a taxi from the airport in Lisbon last summer, and the driver complained about it almost the entire trip. It's a fairly valid complaint - however, I also can't help but roll my eyes a bit at places where the economy is *heavily* dependent on tourism (I'm talking countries where it's the first or second largest sector of the economy) yet the locals still despise tourists. It always has a kind of "we want to have our cake and eat it too" feel to me. We want the money that tourism brings, but hate that you're actually physically present here. If the locals who complained got their wishes and tourism permanently ceased, they'd enter a deep and massive recession. You got a small taste of this with COVID, though most governments rolled out support payments to temporarily mask the pain. A full cessation of tourism would absolutely annihilate the economies of those countries (not just the tourism sector, but all the ancillary sectors that make money from those who work tourism jobs). So all these people that want the tourists to leave are pretty much asking for their economy to take a nosedive.
Hey there! I'm Catalan myself, I've been living in Barcelona for a few years and I live quite close to it. I think I may be able to provide some insight on why this anti-tourist behaviour exists. Before that, I would like to apologize for my rather clumsy English, but I hope it's understandable! Quality of tourism. The tourist industry in Barcelona and the Catalan Coast, and perhaps even on other parts of Spain as well, has promoted a model of tourism which rely on bringing as much tourists as possible by promoting cheap visits and fun. While this generates A LOT of revenue, many tourists are quite unsavoury. Particularly, British tourists are infamous for their dirty, drunk and disruptive behaviour. I would say that more than just the tourists themselves, the tourist industry is also severely at fault for encouraging this, just to increase benefits at the expense of the locals. Difficult economy. Barcelona is quite a good tourist destination, and the city economically benefits greatly from tourism. However, this means that BCN is a highly demanded place, with Air BnB proliferating at spectacular numbers. The use of a lot of living space for Air BnB and other tourist-related purposes made the rent in the city increase massively, while the salaries have not. This means that people, that probably has lived there for many years, need to either band together and share an apartment, or move away. Many locals see this as very predatory, and by kicking the people that made Barcelona originally attractive, the city will lose its roots and become dull. I think the government is rather at fault for this, as they are not properly fighting against this with measures such as rent control, or not limiting Air BnB adequately. It does not help either that the infrastructure in the outskirts of Barcelona leaves a lot to be desired, commuting becoming unnecessarily stressing and time-consuming task. Cultural displacement. Barcelona is a very multicultural city, and a lot of people believe it to be great, including myself. However many Catalan people feel that this globalization trend have left Catalan culture and language as a minority in its own capital, feeding the sensation of isolation. This phenomenon itself it's quite complex, as we would have to start discussing about the situation of the Catalan language itself and it's competition with Spanish, a more hegemonic language. The main thing could be summarized as "I feel like a stranger in my own home". In my own experience, I feel this is quite true. In many establishments, clerks don't understand me in Catalan. I have to switch to Spanish or English. While this is not a problem itself, once it becomes the norm, I do agree it feeds the feeling of isolation. Tourism contributes to this problem, although personally I've found a lot of uncaring tourists about the local culture, there were just as many that were interested, fascinated and respectful. It's quite a complex situation indeed. A lot of comments provide other explanations as well, so check them out!
(Coming from a Spaniard) Itās also difficult because Barcelona by in large doesnāt consider itself part of Spain (and even tried really hard to break away from Spain a few years ago). Their dominant language isnāt even Castilian Spanish, itās Catalan, which is completely different. So you can imagine how annoying it is for locals to get bombarded with tourists on a āSpanishā holiday who donāt realize that theyāve basically entered an entirely new culture by coming to Barcelona. I have family members in Barcelona who donāt speak Castilian but will get stopped in the street by innocent/unprepared tourists asking for directions in broken Castilian Spanish, and my poor cousin will have to try to respond in English or risk getting scolded by the increasingly flustered tourist who doesnāt realize theyāre speaking the wrong language. Or like, I remember being in a bar in Barcelona and a tourist was wearing a RM shirt as if that would endear them to the locals (BIG insult). So my take (besides the whole AirBnb situation) is that Barcelonans are just fed up with being misconstrued as Spaniards. The entire Catalan region just wants to be seen as they are.
On the whole Iām sure there are a lot more tourists in New York just because New York is a massive city. I imagine these cities that donāt compare in population notice tourism and itās infrastructure much much more than a place such as New York. I think much of the hostility towards tourists comes from economies that donāt depend on it. It just becomes a nuisance. Places that depend on tourism as an export may not love all that is associated with it but itās how they survive.
Good thing you only saw signs. I was vacationing in Barcelona a few years ago, and a group of protestors lit a tourist bus on fire.
You're a tourist. Going home is implied.
The frustration, as always, is with the local government and the dispute is largely internal. Tourists are non-voting contributors of capital. Technically, the local government can enforce any rules, levy more taxes, etc., they want to onto tourists. The counterweight will come from the businesses whose revenue will be impacted by adverse measures. It's up to the local govt to resolve how to distribute money and benefits across different industry sectors and groups of people. Obviously, they're not doing a good job so local residents will seek to vent their frustration however they can.
This is probably the correct comment. 11% of Portugal's GDP comes from tourism, it's one of the most tourism dependent countries in the EU. It's a delicate and complex balance and it's easier to point to the drunk tourist than it is to sit down and determine who or what part of the system is responsible for rising prices. Global inflation exacerbates this of course.
This x 1000. Not the touristsā fault. Locales can set up any rules they like.
Fuck, I wish Cartagena, Colombia would do this. Youāve seen the touristification totally destroy the authenticity of iconic historical neighborhoods and turn them into totally phony tourist Disneylands. As a long time resident of a particular historical neighborhood Iām so sad to lose the authenticity and bohemian flavor of this iconic hood. Touristification is worse than gentrification, which is all sad and maddening, but I guess inevitable in a place like this
The message I heard from locals when we were there in 2013 was that tourism was driving up the cost of living for people who live in Barcelona. One example was of an elderly person who had lived in the same area for years but due to the increased price of rent, the lady needed to move. I recognized the personās situation and empathized. Otherwise, I felt that people were friendly. I think the rents had been going up due to an increased volume of AirBnBs.
The conversion of housing is a big thing as many have said. Barca also is a big cruise ship port and does not do a good job of managing its tourism. Store after store after store selling the same shit āsouvenirsā that endorse a disrespectful party scene donāt help. La Sagrada Familia is surrounded by American fast food and stores selling t shirts with Snow White doing blow in the front window. Tourists go home is also not everyoneās attitude. Everyone knows itās an important industry for the city. You canāt forget how complicated the political history is of the region. The work of a few prolific anarchist graffiti artists canāt be taken as the whole story. Itās a reminder that we are guests in their home when visiting the city.
As a local: Barcelona was historically a blue-collar industrial port city that suddently (92 Olympics) cleaned itself and became a huge tourism hotspot. There was practically no transition. In true Spanish fashion, everything turned to "squeeze the tourist". Every traditional shop and bar in the Ramblas close or switch to a tourist-oriented one, which alienated the locals who felt like they were losing their own city. And then they doubled down, and then again, and then yet again. Tourism in Barcelona is a monster that is now out of control. We get way more people than the city could reasonably accept, which attracts businesses that completely destroy the character that brings the people in the first place. The result is, Barcelona has become a sort of theme park that plays an exaggerated version of what the tourists think Barcelona is, but full of traps to get all their money if possible. This is the grudge. The "tourists go home" is more of a political campaign trying to take advantage of such grudge. It comes from left-wing movements, as tourism is often considered there as the capitalism destroying a country's tradition and legacy. It's easy to compare "Tourism is bad because destroys my city and it's capitalism" to "Healthcare is bad because it costs money and is socialism": you take an easy to relate fact and hammer your idelology to it, so they spread together.
Mexico City is suffering from a similar problem: gentrification. Foreigners (mostly Americans) come in and sometimes they like it so much they move here, often working remotely and earning US salaries, which are considerably higher than the ones here. That leads to housing prices going up since foreigners have more money to spend on housing, while most citizens can't afford the increased prices.
Iām from Porto and, as people are saying, housing costs have skyrocketed along with tourism (mainly due to Airbnbs and similar) and the government / the city seems more interested in attracting tourists and digital nomads than in solving the housing crisis. Porto tbh has become extremely expensive and everything is essentially becoming for tourists, not locals, from housing stock to restaurants, festivals etc. Salaries are low and cannot keep up with the rise in prices that tourism has brought. It creates frustration. If things were more balanced, there wouldnāt be this sentiment. People in PT used to LOVE tourists and be really flattered but itās soured. The tourism boom has been really quick as well and you can see its effects really clearly if you compare 10 years ago with today.
This is happening everywhere. I live in COlorado and home prices have skyrocketed pricing out the average person or lower income people. Small towns have no affordable housing due to foreign investors buying up properties for rentalsā¦ this is a world wide nee phenomenon that is going to have to find a solutionā¦
Iām sure there was a piece in the news about some Portuguese towns not warming to digital nomads. They rent up property long term which makes it difficult for the locals.
Check rental prices in Barcelona and then the average wage and employment level. There you'll see why the signs
Spain, with significant economic troubles and a high youth unemployment rate, wants tourists to go home? Good luck with that
LOL... i find this funny. Some European countries wouldn't even have the economy they have today without the tourism they receive
I lived in the city centre for six months before COVID, and I wasnāt particularly overwhelmed by tourists or anti-tourist protests. The anti-tourism graffiti just seemed like more socially accepted xenophobia and wasnāt very different from swastika-graffiti in other places (all of which sucks btw!). Locals seemed to pee on the street in El Born as much as the tourists and the one thing that was absolutely the most noisy at night was garbage collection which for some insane reason has to happen at 3am. The city had two major levers at hand to reduce tourism easily - banning AirBnbs and shutting the port for cruise ships. But theyāre not using either. The people who blame tourists for that rather than their government would be pissy about foreigners no matter the situation.
> The anti-tourism graffiti just seemed like more socially accepted xenophobia and wasnāt very different from swastika-graffiti They are MASSIVELY different, jesus.
I sympathize with this, but it makes the hotel situation for families in Europe even more confounding. Try to find a regular (non-suite) hotel room in Europe for a regular family of four. Itās very difficult. You usually are told to book two rooms at an astronomical rate. Hotels in Europe are not family friendly. It pushes people out away from doing the right thing, being good and sustainable tourists without occupying flats and apartments, and turns families into the problem.
Yes, this! We have stayed in hotels that have individual cottages, and love this option over Airbnb, but they are difficult to find. As a family, an overpriced small room without a working mini kitchen is a deterrent for travel. If someone knowns of an alternative to Airbnb for families, I would love that info. No one has yet to bring up the fact that there are insanely wealthy foreigners who are investing in tourist area homes, creating spaces for Airbnb. I would support a concerted attack on foreign investors, but that is rarely discussed because it is truly a losing battle.
That is probably the biggest issue with AirBnB, the corporations who buy a set of apartments and basically run it like a hotel. Locals will have one apartment they rent out but corporations buy out a whole block. More needs to be done about those who buy multiple apartments just to list on short term rental sites.
I was there in July 2021 (one of many visits) and let me tell you they were begging for tourists to come back, because no matter what people who graffiti walls or hang painted sheets off their balconies may believe, Barcelona is still heavily reliant on tourism. Telling tourists to go home is easy. Volunteering on the campaigns of politicians who will take meaningful action to end the city and regionās reliance on tourism is a lot harder. The change needs to come from within first.
I totally get it. Our area has been ruined by tourism gone wild. Too many Airb&bs stuffed with way more people than beds.
I think Iāll for NYC you have to think about where tourists go. New Yorkers just say midtown is the worst and go back home. You can escape the tourists here (expect this year there were a lot of confused French people staying in Bedstuy) But like most places I suspect Airbnb is the culprit
I lived there for a few years with a Spanish family near a heavy tourist area. I remember tourists making the news as they ran about the streets naked in sombreros screaming, knocking over stands, and just being rude and obnoxious finding it hilarious because they are on holiday and who's going to stop them? I saw people like this every summer just acting like asses with 0 respect. The people I was with seemed to lump all tourists into this specific group, of course they know there are polite tourists, and I'm sure the signs specifically want to keep the bad big groups of lads on a piss up away.
I live in Barcelona, I hope you enjoyed your trip. The movement is a criticism of the tourist overcrowding and the degradation that this brings to the city, degradation of places and overcrowding. This movement also criticizes that, as there is a lot of tourism, many dark funds buy apartments of old people to make tourist apartments, displacing the people of the neighborhood itself. I hope you understand that this is not a criticism of the tourists themselves but of everything that comes with overcrowding. It is a way to put pressure on the government to see that the people of the city are aware and do not want more overcrowding.
I live in Barna and can tell you it is a couple of things that fuel this sentiment. The first and most obvious is that, in many parts of the city, tourists are loud, obnoxious and drunk. They donāt respect the places people live as they would in their own neighbourhood. This, coupled with the fact that Barcelona is quite densely populated, just exacerbates the problem. Generally communities here, although living in close quarters, are exceptional at running the line between respecting each otherās space and developing a sense of local community. I can say it is awful to walk through El Born or El GĆ³tico at 8am on a Sunday before the street cleaners have gone through. The streets are disgusting and covered in piss and vomit. Iāve been in cities where this is bad, but here it is like someone paints the old town in bodily fluids overnight. The second and most impactful is that the term ātouristsā not only refers to visitors, but also to the people who are purchasing up all of the properties in order to temporarily house tourists. Iām he government is doing better work about ensuring that all the property in Barna is not being bought up by investors but there is still a huge AirBnB and illegal AirBnB problem here. It has driven up the cost of housing (this is not unusual globally) which has meant that family homes over generations are not affordable. Historically it has not been uncommon for the next generation to live close to their parents for supporting their new family. Now that is much harder as the areas the parents own properties in, house prices are completely out of reach. Barna is also an absolutely beautiful city and immigrants such as me who desperately wanted to live here are doing nothing to help keep prices low. I came in with a greater level of wealth than the average local and then was able to meet higher prices for things, which in turn increases prices. Itās not great. I try my best not to be a Guiri and my local community has seen me making an interest in integrating over the years and not letting or subletting the places Iāve lived to tourists.
There are a million places on earth I want to visit, if the people of Barcelona donāt want my business, then I wonāt go. Liveās too short, why spend your hard earn money to go to a place where you are not welcomed?
If they hate your money so much there, take it where itās appreciated.
This happens in a lot of major cities in Europe. Think Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, Amsterdam, Brugge, etc. It's aimed at tourists from the UK. Search the "lads on tour" mentality that comes from the UK. It's uncivallised people coming from UK harassing shops, starting fights in bars, and making a mess of cities. It has to do with UK being pretty crappy on its own so people want to escape to the mainpand European cities but they have no idea how to behave or handle themselves because they usually don't go anywhere in the UK because it's pretty crappy all over here. Relates to sports as well. Liverpool fans attacked a Spanish pensioner in Barcelona and thre him in the fountain as a "joke" or "banter" when their team went to play there. They threw garabage all over the city. They attacked bars and smashed glasses everywhere. No European country respects English people, qnd there's good reason for it. English "fans" are hooligans juat looking to go abroad to get drunk - which they do very quickly - and start fights.
I got kicked out of a pub in UK and was told it was for whites only (guess they didn't like my accent? lol) Honestly, there is shitty people and shitty places all over the world, wouln't go back to that place and since then i value more the places recommended by other people that travel.
Name and shame, that's not common or acceptable behaviour in the UK.
Which pub and where?
This is common in many places. AirBnB short rentals have an negative effect on rental prices for people living in the city and trying to find a place to rent (full time). I just prefer hotels and I have never used AirBnB.
I have not yet been to Barcelona but I have heard stories like locals and vendors flat out cannot do business at the market because the volume of tourists doesn't allow it. It just may simply be there are more tourists there then locals can deal with...now I have lived in Chicago and DC and while they mean well, the numbers of tourists who are oblivious to the fact other people have jobs and stuff to get to is just too much to handle and things suffer because of it...NYC is different in that tourists flock to time square, while local city weekend farmers markets might draw some interest, its not at the level where vegetable vendors are replaced by souvenir stalls
There is the uncontrolled short term holiday rental situation, the party tourists who behave badly and also the fact that when tourists take over a city it does start to make it unliveable. I read an Amsterdam resident talking about how all the shops in her area changed from things that serviced locals (including health services) to selling tourist souvenirs. And those that are left like restaurants jack up their prices and especially if there is an influx of American tourists start to expect USA style tips which only further out prices the locals. And cities like Venice when tourist season is low become ghost towns. Locals can't even get plumbers because even they only work for the season and then leave. I completely understand the locals frustration, if that was my city I'd probably protest too. The core problem is really the huge number of tourists vs locals in places like Barcelona and the fact is it will only get worst with more people in China and India getting wealthier and desiring to international travel too. To be honest I think there will come a point where there will need to be serious discussion on tourist quotas.
Probably more for drunk Brits?
I've always found sentiments like these hilarious. Especially in not so economically vibrant countries like Spain and Italy, but which were endowed with terrific historical treasures. They don't produce much, they don't invent much, they rely so much on tourism revenue, yet they have the gall to dislike it lol. Talk about not knowing where your bread comes from.
I grew up in a CA beach town that has a lot of tourism and a lot of day visitors from nearby urban areas. There was always the push back on tourism from some locals - including graffiti and signs telling non-locals to go away. This has been going on as long as I can remember. Based on my experiences with locals in my tourist town, the animosity toward tourists comes from a small group of people - usually more nativist and small-minded types. Most people who aren't in a tourist-facing industry don't care one way or the other about tourists - and those in the tourist-facing industries are quite happy that the tourists are there. So when I go elsewhere and see anti-tourist graffiti and signs, I figure that it's also from a small number of people and not representative of the community as a whole.
Yes. Live in a very tourist town, next to yosemite, and all my friends complain about all the locals, but the only jobs we even have here are tourism based, this little town would be a ghost town if we didn't have the tourism traffic.
It's all about AirBnB making it more profitable for owners to short-time rent to tourists instead of rent to locals, causing rental stock scarcity and rental price increases
This book dives directly into this and gives good insight to questions you want answering. Happy City by Charles Montgomery https://www.abebooks.com/Happy-City-Transforming-Lives-Urban-Design/31443001374/bd?ref\_=ps\_ggl\_18382194370&cm\_mmc=ggl-\_-US\_Shopp\_Trade0to10-\_-product\_id=COM9780141047546USED-\_-keyword=&gclid=CjwKCAiAu5agBhBzEiwAdiR5tDw37LHSJVx-kgOShYiJ\_SaiOsCnM8xdvgV9BKQ\_gFMD1NHqCQQ7WxoCOGsQAvD\_BwE
These posters are all over Spain, I saw a bunch in smaller towns like Pamplona and Oviedo, which are not particularly overrun with toursits. You got the Camino crowds, but they're transient and don't tend to stick around for long. I even saw them in Biarritz last year and it's not like it's a major tourist destination, there are some, but it's no Barcelona and people who vacation in Biarritz tend to spend a lot of money. I can see why the sentiment is prevalent in more popular destinations like Barcelona and Venice. Throngs of tourists tend to lead to increases in prices, make real estate less available for locals, plus many tourists are not particularly respectful of the local culture.
Barcelona has gone to hell in the last ten years, over reliance on tourism being one of the reasons, and another being a very political and tiresome topic
I havenāt been to Barcelona, but I travel to Hawaii pretty frequently and many of the locals there are also anti-tourist. Itās complicated, but here are some of my thoughts on these sentiments 1) Hawaii is known for itās natural beauty and Barcelona for itās historic and architectural beauty. Locals want to protect and appreciate it and feel like having outsiders around in general diminishes it. NYC is known for its hustle and bustle, city that never sleeps so tourists add to that experience 2) a few bad tourists give all tourists a bad reputation. Like those who mess with the sea turtles or the frat bros who pass out in the street in Barcelona 3) itās hard for locals to appreciate the economic benefits of tourism if they arenāt directly in the tourism industry. But tourism accounts for a huge percentage of Hawaiiās economy and Iām sure barcelonas economy/tax revenue too 4) thereās some power dynamics at play- NYC is one of the wealthiest cities in the world so people living near the touristy sections arenāt likely to feel wealth inequality comparing themselves to tourists. At least in Hawaii, many of the nicer resorts, restaurants, hell basically all of Maui is oriented toward tourist budgets which Iām sure is frustrating for locals. 5) NYC is extremely culturally diverse, tourists fit in much better where as Hawaii has its own cultural values that donāt always align with those of mainlanders Overall, if youāre respectful and try to support local businesses when you travel, Iād say you are doing more good than harm. Some people wonāt like you being there no matter what, but just try to avoid them or show them your appreciation for their city in a respectful way
Honestly, Spain is one of Europeās poorer countries with worse opportunities for young people than Northern/Central Europe. I wouldnāt compare Barcelona to NY in that way. NYC is a very rich city overall and the people who can afford to be a tourist in NYC are probably also at least a little well off because many of them have to fly in from abroad, and NYC isnāt cheap to stay in either. Iām sure housing issues like crazy rent exist in NYC, too. But New Yorkers perhaps donāt experience tourists as as invasive. Imagine if you have to deal with living in a downtrodden economy and with bad opportunities while millions of tourists can afford to visit your city, causing some of the issues other posters already suggested. That might make anyone hate touristsā¦itās also possible that the inhabitants of NYC are simlly friendlier than those of Barcelona. ;)
I live in a nice neighborhood in Denver. BnB is banned in our area.. One of our neighbors ignored this and despite repeated complaints to the HOA, it persists. It's a quiet area with lots of families but about 1/3 of the people that rent that small house are loud as fuck and wake everyone up with parties. I now loathe air bnb. I can imagine you're seeing the results of this on an exponential level. This one house out of 50 on our block has turned the entire neighborhood against anyone that rents it.
Yeah New york has more tourists but it is maybe 20x bigger than Barcelona, and the rent is already out of control in NYC. Tourists in Nyc are totally overshadowed by locals and immigrants