It’s not just a Spanish problem. Cities across the world are struggling with how to cope with overtourism and a boom in short-term rental platforms, like Airbnb, but perhaps nowhere has surging discontent been so evident as in Barcelona, where protesters plan to take to the streets on Sunday.
Similar demonstrations are slated in several other Spanish cities, including on the Balearic islands of Mallorca and Ibiza, as well as in the Italian postcard city of Venice, Portugal’s capital Lisbon and other cities across southern Europe — marking the first time a protest against tourism has been coordinated across the region.
Spaniards have staged several large protests in Barcelona, Madrid and other cities in recent years to demand lower rents. When thousands marched through the streets of Spain’s capital in April, some held homemade signs saying “Get Airbnb out of our neighborhoods.”
Just ban Airbnb outright? Or have anyone on it to have to register as an actual B&B and be regulated as such?
I think Singapore handles it well, any residential property can only be rented for minimum of six months, less than six months and it must be registered a commercial property and be in a zone that allows commercial activity.
It doesn’t ban AirBnB specifically, but it solves this problem.
IIRC, Netherlands tried to limit long term airbnb in multiple cities, but the data has shown that long term rental prices still increase over time. Some cities’ airbnb regulation has actually raised rent prices due to the further limited supply.
More housing needs to be built. Granted, I haven’t looked into if there are any limits on corporate ownership of housing, regulations that make contruction more expensive, or what the percentage of communal housing cooperatives/rent-to-buy is, which could also make a difference compared to other countries.
Seems like they could just ratchet up the tax on short term rentals. Additional tax for non-owner occupied, additional tax for owning more than one, additional tax for corporate owned. Start with a modest rate, announce that the rate will be going up in a year to give people the chance to sell if they want, then slam the gas on it
They could but tourism is over 10% of Spain’s GDP so with the world economy on the verge of recession all the time they don’t want to risk it. On top of that there are limits as to what taxes the central government can impose on autonomic regions and many of them don’t want any additional taxes and fight every decision like that in courts. Not to mention that there are many places kept alive only by the short term rentals. You have half abandoned villages where there’s simply no work around. If you kick out tourists from there those places will case to exists. Your solution doesn’t distinguish between places like that and the mass tourism destination people are actually protesting against.
Dude I live in Tenerife born and raised, the “south” of the island which is what we call the tourist part and I mean spring break mixed with old retired perople… they have ghettos and communities just with germans, just with russians, jsut with british…
The issue salaries are shit here because the status quo wants it to remain like that despite protests, we have the climate so all efforts go into hotels, services and takin as much money from those tourists that make 3x as much as we do.
And ever since like the early 2000’s they started bit by bit buying cheap (for them) and making entire spaces full foreign communities, with their own bars, supermarkets… nobody speaks spanish there NOBODY! you go into a small 7/11 in some areas in Los Cristianos or Las Chafiras and ask for something adn they look at you like YOU re foreigner
Now to sum to that then the BOOM of temp tourists renting happened and it made everything even worse.
They keep blaming the tourists, but as usual it’s scummy landlords that are the problem they’ve kicked people out and put the properties on air bnb or similar. They need to ban it and the problem will solve itself.
It’s not even that; it’s just a symptom of wealth inequality. Think about it: who are all these tourists and landlords, and why are they able to afford to outcompete the locals for the properties in the first place?
This is how we get nationalism. The rich blame somebody else and cause everybody to fight amongst themselves while they’re the real problem all along. Then with nationalism you can control people through blind allegiance. It’s a win win.
When you remove the “landlords” from your statement, the tourist blame doesn’t make much sense:
Think about it: who are all these tourists [snip], and why are they able to afford to outcompete the locals for the properties in the first place?
Because a tourist only need the housing for a few days at exorbitant prices and the locals need it for 365 days?
Do real “middle-class” people have enough money to pay those exorbitant prices even for a few days, at this point? I mean, if the people being displaced by this stuff were themselves also going on vacation and inflicting the same issue on locals elsewhere that’d be one thing, but I’m not convinced that’s the case.
We keep saving a whole year to afford a short 7 day trip. That’s how we afford it.
All I know is that I’m allegedly “middle-class” and I’ve never felt like I’ve been able to “afford” a vacation in my entire adult life. Certainly nothing like what my Boomer parents talk about having done when they were my age.
I’ve never felt like I’ve been able to “afford” a vacation in my entire adult life.
I’m interested in this thread of conversation if you’re willing. If not, no worries.
You have a vision of a vacation in your mind. How much does that theoretical vacation cost? We can even put upper and lower bounds on it. What dollar figure do you think you’d need for the entire vacation (travel, lodging, food, expenses)?
I dunno, maybe $1000-$2000, give or take? However much it costs for a couple to, say, drive from Atlanta to a Florida panhandle beach town for a week, staying in a mid-priced hotel, eating mostly casual dining plus a few overpriced but not fancy seafood dinners, and budgeting for a few activities like mini golf or a dolphin tour or whatever.
(Even that is more modest than the example I gave about my parents: they were doing things like flying to Cancun and staying at all-inclusive resorts in their 20s and 30s.)
In contrast, the “vacations” I actually have taken have either been staycations, tagging along with my parents or the in-laws on their trips for free, traveling to attend somebody’s wedding, or (if we’re actually paying for it ourselves)… camping. Not “glamping,” either – in a tent at a National Forest backcountry campsite for $0/night.
To be clear, I’m not saying that I can’t cover a $2000 expense if I have to. I’m just saying that I’ve never felt wealthy enough to be comfortable spending that much money on something that isn’t a necessity or an investment.
ding ding ding ding ding ding ding!
rushes to muffle bell with divisive statements and lazy vague complaints about people these days
don’t don’t don’t don’t don’t don’t do…
… are you okay?
yes, please never ask that phrase with a condescending ellipsis slapped on the front like that ever again though
… k
Consumers are also part of the problem, as well as governing legislation being far too lax. We all have a part to play, and solidarity with these protesters
From a protest standpoint though, what about all the tourists that are staying in normal hotels? Targeting tourists truly in general, just seems kind of dubious.
Its water pistols. In hot parts of Europe. I’m sure they are following well punlished routes. I don’t think there’s anything dubious here. Except AirBnB apartments
It’s still stupid. Do this to members of parliament or city officials. This is essentially blaming foreigners for their officials valuing profits over their citizens
The person doing the spraying knows it’s just a water pistol. The person being sprayed has just been exposed to an unknown liquid by an unknown person. Considering this is also how acid attacks work, it’s not really that cool of a thing to do to people.
What? Get outside is my advice to anyone worried about acid attacks. People are good
Spain encourages tourism. As a tourist I just want a nice vacation, I don’t want to get into all the local politics.
Why not go to some other part of spain? If you travel to a country, you are politics!
Man, I’m just there to eat, drink, and spend money. Especially in Spain’s case, sherry. I don’t need other peoples problems stacked on top of my own.
