Mayor of Spanish Barcelona to Limit Influx of Tourists to Preserve Local Residents

Jaume Collboni, the mayor of Barcelona, Spain, which is visited by the most tourists, plans to limit the opportunities for travellers who, in his opinion, have overcrowded the city.

He said this in an interview with Reuters.

According to Collboni, tourism restrictions are needed to prevent the city from turning into a theme park without a local population.

The mayor said he would limit the supply of tourists because he cannot influence the demand, which he said is limitless and can grow by 3% to 8% a year, and which ‘no city can meet’.

‘If you have a 300-seat theatre, you cannot sell 500 tickets, even if there are 200 people in the queue... There is a limit to everything,’ Collboni said.

Last year, about 26 million people visited Barcelona. Local authorities are now preparing for a potentially record-breaking 2024.

‘Tourism should serve as a model for the city, not the other way round. This is what we do in Barcelona,’ Collboni added.

He also supports the idea of banning the rental of apartments to tourists, as a survey showed that 75% of Barcelona residents were in favour of this approach.

In addition, the mayor does not plan to ease the current ban on opening new hotels in the city centre.

At the same time, however, Collboni called the protest with the watering of tourists ‘absolutely shameful’ and not in keeping with the spirit of Barcelona.

He argues that all tourists are welcome guests of the city and protests should not deter visitors.

Collboni also recently announced plans to increase the tourist tax for cruise ship passengers visiting the city for less than 12 hours.

As The Gaze previously reported, an angry crowd of protesters against excessive tourism shot water pistols at foreign visitors in restaurants in Barcelona. Thousands of people also marched to the Catalan capital and called on tourists to ‘go home’.