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Mass tourism protesters squirt water at Barcelona tourists

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Re: Mass tourism protesters squirt water at Barcelona tourists

#61

Post by hypeatei »

kingsloi wrote: post #57
bilsbie wrote: post #28

We really just need more places. We basically have the same number of tourist destinations as when the population was 1/3 the size. No one is making more places to visit.

I agree - either lower people's standards or try push a "beauty is in eye of the beholder" mindset For example Gary, Indiana. You only hear the bad things, but never that it has great beaches and trails, if you're willing to settle for a bit less on everything else. Here's a video I took a few months ago https://imgur.com/PItmK2v , I don't think people necessarily picture these sort of views from the armpit of Indian…

> You only hear the bad things, but never that it has great beaches and trails

Wow that's really interesting! Cool video, too.

Re: Mass tourism protesters squirt water at Barcelona tourists

#62

Post by kwhitefoot »

chabons wrote: post #21
more_corn wrote: post #6

It’s Barcelona in July. I would pay to get squirted. But also, Being mad at tourists seems weird to me. These are people who want to come and experience your city, learn about your culture, pay to eat food at your restaurants. Buy local art, have gelato with you. If your gripe is increased housing costs (which it almost always is) The problem is not tourists. The problem is short term rentals are more profitable than…

> Embrace them and make rules to prevent them from damaging the city they’re coming to experience. +1, squirting the tourists who are already there does little to discourage other tourists from coming, or to solve the problem that they're competing for the same housing. That said, I can't help but think that AirBnB(/VRBO/etc...) is just faster to respond to market conditions than traditional hotel businesses because…

> is just faster to respond to market conditions than traditional hotel businesses because it leverages already built private residences.

It's faster because it breaks the law. It's easy to react quickly if you don't bother paying taxes and ignore rules on subletting, etc. It remove a lot of work.

> AirBnB sidesteps zoning

It's not side stepping anything it's often breaking the law, or at least encouraging other people to do so.

Re: Mass tourism protesters squirt water at Barcelona tourists

#64

Post by petercooper »

jerlam wrote: post #46
petercooper wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe hotel chains could look into providing what modern tourists want and need. More spaces for families/groups and people happy to cook their own meals. These are the natural users of Airbnb-style properties, but I'd be happier going to a hotel if they offered a practical alternative.

Look into "extended stay hotels", which often have separate bedroom / living areas and full kitchens.

They exist, but a common problem with them is they are for really extended stays, like people working in a city for a month or whatever. Often not possible for a few days as a tourist. But yeah, they can be really good if they work out.

Re: Mass tourism protesters squirt water at Barcelona tourists

#65

Post by crispyambulance »

hypeatei wrote: post #13

It's just some water, okay, but that seems wrong to disturb people minding their own business. Plus how do they know those are tourists and not native Spaniards?

  > Plus how do they know those are tourists and not native Spaniards?
I can't speak for Spain, but it's obvious most of the time in other places. There's differences in the way they dress, their behaviors, the open tour maps, the snapping of pictures, the fact that they're often clumped together and arrive in tour buses-- and this is repeated over and over again with the same pattern, day after day.

The air-bnb tourists, I think, are less noticeable. There's certainly a lot of them but they are distributed around the city and they tend to NOT group together to mob any one place. These tourists are likely to avoid the standard "tourist traps".

Which type of tourist is the kind that inspires resentment from natives? I'm not so sure. The air-bnb tourists, in large-enough numbers, can cause rents to jack-up and THAT certainly hurts the locals. The tour-bus crowds, on the other hand, are more obvious and certainly change the optics of certain places. This eventually leads to the swallowing up of whole blocks with baubble shops and bad restaurants-- but only in certain contained areas and at certain times.

Re: Mass tourism protesters squirt water at Barcelona tourists

#66

Post by EugeneOZ »

itsoktocry wrote: post #17
more_corn wrote: post #6

It’s Barcelona in July. I would pay to get squirted. But also, Being mad at tourists seems weird to me. These are people who want to come and experience your city, learn about your culture, pay to eat food at your restaurants. Buy local art, have gelato with you. If your gripe is increased housing costs (which it almost always is) The problem is not tourists. The problem is short term rentals are more profitable than…

> They pay your wages, they elevate the economy. Even if I don't work in those industries? And what about the places where this money came from, and could have been spent? Point being, tourism isn't all good for all people. There are tradeoffs.

Yes, absolutely yes! Even if you don't work there. Your butcher gains profits of it, your hairdresser... Omg, I just can't believe people can be so short-sighted...

Re: Mass tourism protesters squirt water at Barcelona tourists

#67

Post by EugeneOZ »

taylodl wrote: post #10
more_corn wrote: post #6

It’s Barcelona in July. I would pay to get squirted. But also, Being mad at tourists seems weird to me. These are people who want to come and experience your city, learn about your culture, pay to eat food at your restaurants. Buy local art, have gelato with you. If your gripe is increased housing costs (which it almost always is) The problem is not tourists. The problem is short term rentals are more profitable than…

Either ban short-term rentals or heavily tax them, which serves to make them less profitable.

All touristic flats will be forbidden in 2028.

Re: Mass tourism protesters squirt water at Barcelona tourists

#68

Post by francisofascii »

bilsbie wrote: post #28

We really just need more places. We basically have the same number of tourist destinations as when the population was 1/3 the size. No one is making more places to visit.

I somewhat agree. The truth is there are a ton of towns in the US that you never heard of that do surprisingly well with tourism. You can tell by all the hotels near the town. All you need is a few few restaurants, bars, coffee shop, a cute little market street, a historical attraction, and maybe a hiker/biker trail.

Re: Mass tourism protesters squirt water at Barcelona tourists

#69

Post by cpach »

allemagne wrote: post #60
morkalork wrote: post #20

Why is mass tourism such a problem today and not the 90s/2000s. Is it really all thanks to platforms like Airbnb allowing cities to host so many more tourists that is the problem?

It's because the supply of housing for tourists and residents alike has not kept up with demand. Maybe in someone's ideal world we can put everyone in a city into the categories of "outsiders" and "residents" and enforce a strict regime where "outsiders" are strictly prohibited from occupying housing that rightfully should go to "residents", but we don't live in a world where that's possible. If Airbnb didn't exist s…

There’s something called zoning, and its used in a lot of places to do things like separating hotel areas and residential areas.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoning

Re: Mass tourism protesters squirt water at Barcelona tourists

#70

Post by cpach »

matwood wrote: post #41
morkalork wrote: post #20

Why is mass tourism such a problem today and not the 90s/2000s. Is it really all thanks to platforms like Airbnb allowing cities to host so many more tourists that is the problem?

Relative to costs of flights and accommodations, people just have a lot more money.

Yeah, we tend to overlook this. I grew up in the 80s/90s and the global standard of living has increased dramatically since then.
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