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TOURISM

Barcelona to hand out €3,000 fines to tour guides with groups of more than 15

Barcelona City Council has approved new rules to limit the size of tour groups in the Old Town to just 15 people, in a bid to stop the overcrowding caused by tourists in the Catalan capital's city centre.

Published: 30 June 2022 09:36 CEST
Barcelona tourists
Tour group sizes in Barcelona's Old Town will be limited to 15. Photo: LLUIS GENE / AFP

The Old Town or Ciutat Vella is one of the most-visited areas of Barcelona and includes well-known tourist areas such as the Gothic Quarter, Las Ramblas and El Born. Here, it’s not uncommon to see large tour groups, blocking up the narrow streets and stopping the flow of pedestrians.

The new restrictions were announced by the councillor of the Ciutat Vella district, Jordi Rabassa, and the councillor for Tourism and Creative Industries, Xavier Marcé and are to be put on public display to ensure all potential disagreements can be solved before the rules come into force, which could be as early as the end of July 2022.

While groups will be limited to 15 people within the Ciutat Vella, in the city’s other neighbourhoods, where streets are slightly wider and it’s not so crowded, up to 30 people will be allowed per group.

Barcelona City Council has also introduced restrictions on the number of tour groups that can enter certain areas at one time. For example, a maximum of eight tour groups will be allowed in the central Plaça Sant Jaume, where the Ayuntamiento is located, five groups will be permitted to enter the colonnaded Plaça Reial, while a limit of three groups can visit the squares around the old Santa María del Mar church in El Born.

This restriction will affect 13 different areas throughout the city.

The new rules will also introduce 24 one-way pedestrianised areas, where the concentration of tourists is even greater, in a bid to stop a bottleneck of people.

The aim is to make sure that streets are not clogged up by tourists, preventing locals from going about their daily life and accessing areas where they live, work, socialise and run errands. 

Those tour guides who do not comply with the new rules will be faced with fines of between €1,500 and €3,000.

Other rules which will apply to tour groups across the whole city include banning the use of megaphones and making sure that at least 50 percent of the street is left free for others to use.

Barcelona suffered from over-tourism before the Covid-19 pandemic began and in 2019 received a record number of visitors of almost 12 million. This summer has seen a huge increase in tourists after numbers dropped dramatically in 2020 and 2021, and hotel occupation is already at 100 percent for July and August. 

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TOURISM

‘It’s become unliveable’: Spain’s Málaga plans protests against mass tourism

After recent protests in the Canaries and seemingly growing anti-tourism sentiment across Spain, locals in the Costa del Sol city of Málaga are also planning demonstrations in June against the 'touristification' of their city.

Published: 2 May 2024 11:20 CEST
'It's become unliveable': Spain's Málaga plans protests against mass tourism

Locals in Málaga are set to take to the streets in protest against mass-tourism in June, demanding an end to the ‘touristification’ of their city.

This comes after large protests in the Canary Islands in recent weeks and growing anti-tourist sentiment around the country.

Tension among locals in places such as Barcelona, Valencia, the Balearic and Canary Islands, as well as Málaga, stems from frustration with the mass tourism model and its impact on their cities.

READ ALSO: Why Spain is a cheap mass tourism destination

Often, it is also about the post-pandemic influx of remote workers and digital nomads from abroad, many of whom come to Spain to enjoy a (relatively speaking) cheaper cost of living with high foreign wages and purchasing power than many local Spaniards struggle to compete with.

READ ALSO: Mass protests in Spain’s Canary Islands decry overtourism

In this sense, much of the building anti-mass tourism sentiment brewing in Spain is bundled up in a more general (and at times somewhat confused or misplaced) anti-foreigner feeling that views outsiders, whether it be traditional tourists or digital nomads, as exploiting Spain and the expense of Spaniards.

In cities such as Málaga, locals are being priced out of their own neighbourhoods as more and more properties are turned into short-term tourist rentals owned by landlords (many of them Spaniards or commercial multi-property owners) wanting to cash in.

A growing number of Malagueños have had enough and will take to the streets on June 29th under the slogan ‘for decent housing and against the processes of touristification and precariousness of life’.

The event’s aim is to protest the tourist model in the city: ‘Málaga has become an unliveable city for those of us who live there. It is over! For a Málaga to live in and not to survive’ are among the catchphrases expected to be used at the demonstration.

Organised by the Málaga Tenants Union, the protest will challenge the ‘exploitation of housing, work and life’ in the Andalusian city.

Locals would say this has been a long time coming. In many ways, Málaga has become a victim of its own success, particularly after it was voted as the best city for foreign residents in the InterNations Expat City Ranking 2023. In the post-pandemic period, scores of foreigners have moved to the city.

READ ALSO:  Why Spain’s Málaga is becoming a victim of its own success

So much so that eight out of 10 new residents moving to Málaga are currently foreigners, according to recent data from Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE). Stats show that in 2022 Málaga welcomed a total of 56,242 inhabitants, of which 44,656 were foreigners and 11,586 were Spanish nationals.

In recent months the city has become inundated with anti-tourist stickers.

“This used to be my home” (antes esta era mi casa) , “go f*cking home” (a tu puta casa), “stinking of tourist” (apestando a turista), “this used to be the city centre” (antes esto era el centro) and “Your dead loved ones, mayor” (Alcalde tus muertos) are some of the hostile messages recently adorning walls and doors in Málaga.

READ ALSO: ‘Get the f*ck out of here’: Spain’s Málaga plastered with anti-tourism stickers

The growing foreign population, combined with the pre-existing mass tourist model, has inflated the local property market. Rental prices have increased by 16.5 percent compared since the end of 2022 and have now reached an average of €15.5/m2, stats from property portal Idealista show, while the cost to buy a home in Málaga has increased by 11 percent to an average of €3,049/m2, reaching a new historic high.

According to a study by HelloSafe, Málaga is the second most expensive province in the country when compared to the average salary, just behind Barcelona. It estimates that 81 percent of the average salary in Málaga is used on living and rent.

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