Barcelona protests

[sofietucker]

While we've been to Barcelona many times, as well as the Balearics, we are on a cruise next year--just paid in full, for extra OBC--that also goes to other Mediterranean posts that are protesting. We always go in to the port several days early, get an apt., live like locals (e.g., spend our money in their city). Now I feel like just cancelling the whole thing: if they don't want us, we don't want them. Ditto with next year's Baltic cruise! Used to spend a week, precruise in Amsterdam.

Yet last year in Sevilla, our guide told us everyone is desperate for tourist dollars... Especially after the devastation and decimation, both of people and economics, of the pandemic. So we're torn.

[VMax1700]

4 hours ago, sofietucker said:

get an apt

That is one of the main problems.  Short term apartment rental has decimated the availability of apartments for locals to rent on a long term basis.  Air Bnb etc has made the problem worse as property owners are opting for the high value short term lets over the long term residential type lets.  So when you say "get an apt, live like locals", the locals cannot afford to live in the city anymore so you are not living like a local. 

[sofietucker]

4 hours ago, VMax1700 said:

That is one of the main problems.  Short term apartment rental has decimated the availability of apartments for locals to rent on a long term basis.  Air Bnb etc has made the problem worse as property owners are opting for the high value short term lets over the long term residential type lets.  So when you say "get an apt, live like locals", the locals cannot afford to live in the city anymore so you are not living like a local. 

Exactly so. And that is why we will no longer rent in Amsterdam either. Further, we'll stay at a hotel out of town when we DO arrive in those ports early. But even further than that, we're looking at changing itineraries so we avoid those cities as much as possible.

[RealNorwegianCruiser]

14 hours ago, VMax1700 said:

That is one of the main problems.  Short term apartment rental has decimated the availability of apartments for locals to rent on a long term basis.  Air Bnb etc has made the problem worse as property owners are opting for the high value short term lets over the long term residential type lets.  So when you say "get an apt, live like locals", the locals cannot afford to live in the city anymore so you are not living like a local. 

 

Do as germans and dutch are doing here in Norway: Bring your own camper and bring all food from home. Then get stuck with your camper at Trollstigen or another narrow mountain road here, because you dont got the experience with either driving with a camper OR driving at narrow mountain roads  🙂

[edinburgher]

On 7/29/2024 at 4:37 AM, sofietucker said:

But even further than that, we're looking at changing itineraries so we avoid those cities as much as possible.

As a number of European cities are having the same problems with overtourism and  non-hotel  accommodation restricting the availability of housing for locals, you may find that choosing European itineraries could become more problematic for you in the future.

[sofietucker]

On 8/3/2024 at 10:36 AM, edinburgher said:

As a number of European cities are having the same problems with overtourism and  non-hotel  accommodation restricting the availability of housing for locals, you may find that choosing European itineraries could become more problematic for you in the future.

Yeah. We plan to stay in hotels (or, as usual, B&Bs) in cities where they are eliminating or reducing access to rentals, like Amsterdam. But it's not just overtourism that's creating the housing crunch: I just read that last year, the Spanish govt. issued 750,000 visas to digital nomads to live and work in Spain.

[Harters]

5 hours ago, sofietucker said:

the Spanish govt. issued 750,000 visas to digital nomads to live and work in Spain

And they will only be for nomads from outside the European Union. Folk from other EU countries have the benefit of free movement so don't need a visa

[sofietucker]

1 hour ago, Harters said:

And they will only be for nomads from outside the European Union. Folk from other EU countries have the benefit of free movement so don't need a visa

My point--and that of the article: those folk from the US and elsewhere, even more so than tourists, are responsible for hundreds of thousands of short-term rentals currently being snatched from Spanish natives. It's not just tourists that are causing this housing crisis

[Harters]

10 hours ago, sofietucker said:

It's not just tourists that are causing this housing crisis

Indeed not. I know someone from here  now working in Barca in IT. But in parts of Spain, like Tenerife and Mallorca, tourism is the main driver of the problem as has been well reported in the local Spanish press. 

 

But you are right that migration generally is also a driver. You may have seen reports of anti-migrant and anti-Muslim violent protests in the UK over the last week. So not just a problem for Spain and rightly condemned by our government. 

[sofietucker]

6 hours ago, Harters said:

Indeed not. I know someone from here  now working in Barca in IT. But in parts of Spain, like Tenerife and Mallorca, tourism is the main driver of the problem as has been well reported in the local Spanish press. 

 

But you are right that migration generally is also a driver. You may have seen reports of anti-migrant and anti-Muslim violent protests in the UK over the last week. So not just a problem for Spain and rightly condemned by our government. 

Yes. Everyone wants to move to better climates (geographical, political, social). And then there's the effects of thousands of bodies impacting delicate architecture such as the Acropolis... Not to mention horrific, incomprehensible vandalism such as the destruction of your Sycamore Gap tree or our sandstone arches and columns in Utah. The obvious solution is to just stay home. But I selfishly want to see the rest of the world before it's all gone, lol.