Tourism has hollowed out Barcelona – and all of us are cheated

Protesters in Barcelona used water pistols to take aim at tourists visiting the Sagrada Família last month.

- Stephen Burgen

Residents' associations in Mallorca posted an open letter appealing to tourists to stay away. More such actions are expected in the Canary Islands, Málaga and elsewhere as Spain braces for another season of overtourism.

Last year, there were close to 100 million visitors to Spain, twice the population. No wonder the industry is rubbing its hands at the prospect of even more this year. But those of us with no stake in the hospitality trade brace ourselves with a mixture of dread and resentment. Mass tourism feels more and more extractive to the point that it is a form of corporate colonialism.

Here in Barcelona, we long ago gave up walking down the overcrowded Rambla. We avoid the old city, and we don’t bother going to the thronged beach at Barceloneta. We can’t get home to Vallcarca because public transport is overwhelmed with tourists heading to Antoni Gaudí's Park Güell. When a new and much needed park was inaugurated last month, the council said it hoped it would attract tourists. When the area around the filthy Besòs River was cleaned up and turned into a nature sanctuary, it was billed as a tourist attraction.