Barcelona's tourism chief has pledged to reclaim the city from overtourism, following a series of protests by activists against mass tourism. The pledge comes after members of the youth organisation Arran hijacked a tourist bus in Barcelona, letting off green and white smoke flares and hanging a sign reading 'Stop mass tourism in the Catalan countries'.
The activists, who insist they are not against tourism but 'massification', claim it is ruining local people's lives, harming the landscape, damaging beaches, pricing residents out of the property market and 'eating up the coastline'. The protest is part of a summer campaign that has included chaining themselves to a Gaudi sculpture and daubing 'Tourists go home' graffiti.
Barcelona's first deputy mayor, Gerardo Pisarello, called the bus hijacking 'a symbolic initiative' and said it should promote a debate on the city's tourism model. The tourism chief has vowed to take action to address the concerns of residents and ensure tourism benefits the local community.
Arran says the current tourism model is 'designed solely and exclusively on the basis of the economic interests of the class that exploits it' and 'threatens the lives of people'. The group argues that tourism generates low-paid jobs with long hours, prices locals out of housing, and only benefits those involved in the tourism industry.
