Spanish minister condemns mob who squirted diners with water pistols

Spain‘s tourism minister has finally condemned the mob of Barcelonians who soaked holidaymakers with water pistols, in the country’s latest protest against tourists. 

Last week, thousands of protestors marched through central Barcelona, waving placards and squirting holidaymakers with water guns in the latest expression of anger at perceived overtourism in Spain.

Under the slogan ‘Enough! Let’s put limits on tourism’, some 2,800 people – according to police – marched along a waterfront district of Barcelona to demand a new economic model that would reduce the millions of tourists that visit every year.

Protesters carried signs reading ‘Barcelona is not for sale,’ and, ‘Tourists go home,’ before some used water guns on tourists eating outdoors at restaurants in popular tourist hotspots. Chants of ‘Tourists out of our neighbourhood’ rang out as some stopped in front of the entrances to hotels.

Tourism minister Jordi Hereu, who previously served as Barcelona’s mayor told reporters that while the demonstrators’ actions were reprehensible, the incident was ‘exaggerated.’

Last week, thousands of protestors marched through central Barcelona, waving placards and squirting holidaymakers with water guns

Under the slogan ‘Enough! Let’s put limits on tourism’, some 2,800 people – according to police – marched along a waterfront district of Barcelona

Protesters carried signs reading ‘Barcelona is not for sale,’ and, ‘Tourists go home,’ before some used water guns on tourists eating outdoors at restaurants in popular tourist hotspots

Chants of ‘Tourists out of our neighbourhood’ rang out as some stopped in front of the entrances to hotels

Tourism minister Jordi Hereu (pictured), who previously served as Barcelona’s mayor told reporters that while the demonstrators’ actions were reprehensible, the incident was ‘exaggerated’

‘We are a hospitable culture… A photograph, however iconic it may be, does not reflect the reality of an entire country’, Hereu claimed. 

Barcelona’s rising cost of housing, up 68 per cent in the past decade, is one of the main issues for the movement, along with the effects of tourism on local commerce and working conditions in the city of 1.6 million inhabitants.

Rents rose by 18 per cent in June from a year earlier in tourist cities such as Barcelona and Madrid, according to the property website Idealista. For years, the city has worn anti-tourist graffiti with messages such as ‘tourists go home’ aimed at visitors some blame for the rising prices and shaping of the economy around tourists.

Barcelona’s current mayor, Jaume Collboni, announced a plan in June to phase out all short-term lets by 2028, an unexpectedly drastic move by the authorities who seek to rein in soaring housing costs and make the city liveable for residents. 

But many still feel not enough is being done to balance the needs of tourists, who bring millions to the city each year, with those of locals.

‘Local shops are closing to make way for stores that do not serve the needs of neighbourhoods. People cannot afford their rents,’ said Isa Miralles, a 35-year-old musician who lives in the Barceloneta district.

‘I have nothing against tourism, but here in Barcelona we are suffering from an excess of tourism that has made our city unliveable,’ said Jordi Guiu, a 70-year-old sociologist.

The northeastern coastal city, with internationally famous sites such as La Sagrada Familia, received more than 12 million tourists last year, according to local authorities.

To combat the ‘negative effects of mass tourism’, the city council run by the Socialist Jaume Collboni announced 10 days ago that it was banning tourist apartment rentals – there are now more than 10,000 – by 2028 so that they can be put back on the local housing market.