Barcelona Demonstrators Protest against Tourists

[CCWineLover]

6 minutes ago, Breckski said:

Don't know if I agree with this.  I think a lot of folks spend money on excursions.  Even if it's an included Viking excursion, they're still spending money in my mind.  And it seems like a lot of people buy souvenirs and would imagine Barcelona has a pretty high conversion rate for souvenirs.  Of course we may have different definitions of very little money.

 

I think a lot of people who go back to the ship for lunch are simply afraid to purchase food at port.  Various reasons:  unfamiliar with local customs, food safety, no local currency or fear of paying with credit card, don't like the food, etc.  But they will readily pay for a Viking excursion as it's 100% safe.  Remember, a lot of cruisers are not seasoned world travelers.

We've often thought this exact same thing!!

We enjoy sampling food in local areas, but we consider ourselves seasoned travelers. Since COVID, the number of new travelers (especially to Europe) has really increased on Viking.  Lots of newbies and there certainly can be a fear of trying something outside the box until you have experienced it.

[OnTheJourney]

54 minutes ago, CCWineLover said:

We enjoy sampling food in local areas

We do as well - but have done this mostly if we're no longer on the ship - like during a pre or post extension. Otherwise, during a day off ship (or a few hours for an excursion), we generally don't bother getting anything to eat locally and simply wait till we get back on board. Or, if we know there's going to be free time to grab lunch during a longer excursion, we'll often just take along granola bars or other crackers to munch - much the same as how we travel by car if we don't want to take time to stop to buy lunch. This is not in any way to eschew being adventurous, but just much easier. Each to his/her own. Some people seem to thrive on trying as many of the local foods as they have time for.

Edited July 11 by OnTheJourney

[ohiojohn]

11 hours ago, OneSixtyToOne said:

Just a reminder for US travelers to enroll in the State Department’s STEP program. They will notify you of security concerns during your stay. For example, when in Santiago last year we got a notice of demonstrations in the downtown area. We were leaving that day so it didn’t affect us but it IS informative. Recently, for our upcoming trip we’ve received notifications of demonstrations.

 

https://step.state.gov/STEPMobile/Default.aspx

Thanks for posting this info.  I immediately went to the site, signed up and entered my next Viking cruise.  Did not know Italy is at a Level 2.  Also found an iPhone app for the state department searching using “Smart Traveler”.  I also appreciated your review of the Classic Greek pre extension, thanks.  We go on this pre-extension in early October.

[kctwinmommy]

@ohiojohn - we just did the extension as well, I wrote all about it in my review. It was worth every penny!

 

 

[Liz Masterson]

I wonder if they wish they hadn’t built that big church…

[Planning to cruise]

We tend to explore indepedently, having researched what we want to see and how to go about it.  Often that involves spending on public transport, entry fees, a coffee or two.  

[JDincalif]

Rather amusingly, when we were in Barcelona last November our Google Maps search for tourist attractions yielded a "Tourists Go Home" mural near our hotel. 

 

We prudently decided against visiting *that* particular attraction.

Edited July 11 by JDincalif

[kctwinmommy]

12 hours ago, Liz Masterson said:

I wonder if they wish they hadn’t built that big church…

Well, seeing as that's been going on for well over 100 years, I don't think they thought about tourists for that. 😉

 

I'm glad we saw Barcelona, and we loved it, said we'd love to go back. But if this type of sentiment continues, we'll have to think long and hard about that. Or, consider a different time of year when it might not be as difficult. I would imagine these protests are much worse during the summer months.

[island lady]

We were in Barcelona this last Tuesday and Wednesday.   No protests, felt safe walking around, but very busy with tourists.  

 

The protests were all on the previous Saturday.  They received the media attention they wanted and have tamed down again.  

[CDNPolar]

We embark in Barcelona in October.  We have been to Barcelona before and just intend to go directly to the ship.  If we came across protesters we would just move on and let them do their thing.

[island lady]

2 hours ago, CDNPolar said:

We embark in Barcelona in October.  We have been to Barcelona before and just intend to go directly to the ship.  If we came across protesters we would just move on and let them do their thing.

 

The protesters were walking along the outdoor cafes shouting rude comments at the diners at the tables and shooting water guns at them.  No injuries that I am aware of, just rude and crude of them.  

 

Maybe we should tell the Barcelona residents, if they want to be that way...they will not be welcome to come to Orlando to visit Mickey Mouse!!  😄 😄 

[Mlb4chris]

On 7/10/2024 at 5:02 AM, Mrs Miggins said:

One of the issues is that cruise passengers typically spend very little money on land. How many times have we read “we went back to the ship for lunch”. 

I must say I’ve never understood eating on the ship while in port. Isn’t that why one travels? To experience a new world and tastes? I absolutely love a good burger at the pool grill but not with a cornucopia of options in a beautiful unexplored city.  I mean this with all due respect to others taste buds☺️

[CCWineLover]

29 minutes ago, Mlb4chris said:

I must say I’ve never understood eating on the ship while in port. Isn’t that why one travels? To experience a new world and tastes? I absolutely love a good burger at the pool grill but not with a cornucopia of options in a beautiful unexplored city.  I mean this with all due respect to others taste buds☺️

Totally agree with you!~   

But everyone has their own thoughts obviously.

We so thoroughly enjoy all aspects of traveling and did/do a lot of traveling overseas on our own with cruising being just a part of our traveling.  We are blessed with wonderful taste buds (sometimes to our dismay 🙂 )  and enjoy all local foods.

I was fortunate to have parents who encouraged and promoted us growing up to try and taste foods of all cultures (easy to do in Los Angeles and San Francisco).

 

[island lady]

On 7/10/2024 at 8:02 AM, Mrs Miggins said:

One of the issues is that cruise passengers typically spend very little money on land. How many times have we read “we went back to the ship for lunch”. 

 

Not even close.  The protesters have a problem with the short term rentals that the tourists are using, which limits the supply of available homes and drives up the cost of housing for them.  They had no problem with tourists staying on a cruise ship...which does nothing to hurt their real estate market.  

 

You need to actually research this subject.  😑

[Happy fool]

In 2016 we visited Barcelona. Even then there were homemade banners hanging from balconies saying No Tourists. We stayed in an STR. We were there for 10 days. I will say that Barcelona opened my eyes to the damage STRs can do to a local housing market. 
 

even here in the US STRs are causing problems by reducing the housing supply for residents. I take the attitude that when you know better do better. I haven’t stayed in a STR  since 2016. I prefer not to live in a neighborhood where my neighbors are tiny hotels. We have one STR on my block.  It is very well managed. However, if we had 5 or 10 STRs it would impact the character of our neighborhood. 

[tarhoosier]

I stayed in an AirBnB condo in Montréal and the owner told me the annual meeting for the owners would be in the lobby one afternoon during our stay. Short term rental was not approved so I was to say I was a friend (or something). This was revealed as he walked us through the apartment on arrival. No chance to change options. I had to switch from English to French twice to say "I do not speak (French) (English)" when I encountered someone.*

 

* they knew something was up.

[SJD117]

 

48 minutes ago, Happy fool said:

In 2016 we visited Barcelona. Even then there were homemade banners hanging from balconies saying No Tourists. We stayed in an STR. We were there for 10 days. I will say that Barcelona opened my eyes to the damage STRs can do to a local housing market. 
 

even here in the US STRs are causing problems by reducing the housing supply for residents. I take the attitude that when you know better do better. I haven’t stayed in a STR  since 2016. I prefer not to live in a neighborhood where my neighbors are tiny hotels. We have one STR on my block.  It is very well managed. However, if we had 5 or 10 STRs it would impact the character of our neighborhood. 

It will be a cold day in you-know-where before I stay in an STR.

[wolfie11]

8 hours ago, island lady said:

 

Not even close.  The protesters have a problem with the short term rentals that the tourists are using, which limits the supply of available homes and drives up the cost of housing for them.  They had no problem with tourists staying on a cruise ship...which does nothing to hurt their real estate market.  

 

You need to actually research this subject.  😑

You are only partly right.  This is a complicated problem.  There are housing shortages everywhere for a number of reasons of which STRs are only one.  However, STRs are a problem that is easily addressed through regulation and hundreds of cities and towns are doing just that.  
 

There is also what I call the Bar Harbor problem.  Roughly 5,000 people live in Bar Harbor.  For the last 150 years it has been a summer place for the rich and famous as well as many others.  The rich had cottages. The others stayed in hotels.  To this day, Bar Harbors hotels fill up from June through October.  These people stay for 1-2 weeks, they eat in the local restaurants and shop in the local stores.  They spend on average around $400 per day.  Bar Harbor is bustling all summer with these visitors.  Then the cruise ships show up, depositing thousands of extra people every day into town.  The average cruise ship passenger spends around &40 a day.  They clog the streets.  Many are rude and entitled.  They monopolize the buses to go into Acadia, and take up all the seats on the whale watching boats.  The people who spend $400 a day start to complain and hotel bookings start to drop.  Bar Harbor solved their problem by limiting cruise ship passengers to 2000 per day.

 

Then there is the Juneau problem.  Juneau has 33,000 people.  Almost none of them work in or are dependent on tourism.  Every day from May to September up to 7 cruise ships drop as many as 20,000 extra people in town.  The traffic jams are horrendous.  Nobody goes downtown until after the cruise ships leave.  If you live in the Valley, the helicopters start by 8am and go until 5pm, fleets of 5-6 flying low over your house every 20 minutes.  
 

I don’t blame cruisers/tourists.  I am one.  I do think the cruise lines are shooting themselves in the foot by building huge cruise ships and sailing them to places already overloaded with visitors.  I know this is a moot point with Viking and its small ships but everyone gets tarred with the same brush.

 

Rant over. 😁

[island lady]

2 hours ago, wolfie11 said:

You are only partly right.  This is a complicated problem.  There are housing shortages everywhere for a number of reasons of which STRs are only one.  However, STRs are a problem that is easily addressed through regulation and hundreds of cities and towns are doing just that.  
 

There is also what I call the Bar Harbor problem.  Roughly 5,000 people live in Bar Harbor.  For the last 150 years it has been a summer place for the rich and famous as well as many others.  The rich had cottages. The others stayed in hotels.  To this day, Bar Harbors hotels fill up from June through October.  These people stay for 1-2 weeks, they eat in the local restaurants and shop in the local stores.  They spend on average around $400 per day.  Bar Harbor is bustling all summer with these visitors.  Then the cruise ships show up, depositing thousands of extra people every day into town.  The average cruise ship passenger spends around &40 a day.  They clog the streets.  Many are rude and entitled.  They monopolize the buses to go into Acadia, and take up all the seats on the whale watching boats.  The people who spend $400 a day start to complain and hotel bookings start to drop.  Bar Harbor solved their problem by limiting cruise ship passengers to 2000 per day.

 

Then there is the Juneau problem.  Juneau has 33,000 people.  Almost none of them work in or are dependent on tourism.  Every day from May to September up to 7 cruise ships drop as many as 20,000 extra people in town.  The traffic jams are horrendous.  Nobody goes downtown until after the cruise ships leave.  If you live in the Valley, the helicopters start by 8am and go until 5pm, fleets of 5-6 flying low over your house every 20 minutes.  
 

I don’t blame cruisers/tourists.  I am one.  I do think the cruise lines are shooting themselves in the foot by building huge cruise ships and sailing them to places already overloaded with visitors.  I know this is a moot point with Viking and its small ships but everyone gets tarred with the same brush.

 

Rant over. 😁

 

Yes, I agree with you on that point.  Shame what Key West is suffering also.  The residents (as in Southwest Harbor Maine) voted to ban large cruise ships.  The vote stands in Southwest Harbor Maine, but our Governor from Florida stuck down the vote the Key West people did...and won't ban the cruise ships.  IMHO...the cruise ships have ruined that sweet little iconic town on our southern end. Real shame.  

 

But the deal with the protestors in Barcelona WAS about the short term rentals and the housing shortage that drive the cost of affordable housing way up for the locals.  One only needs to read the news articles and the interviews.  They are indeed trying to get city leaders to limit those short term rentals.  

 

I was in Barcelona on Tuesday and Wednesday last week...just a couple of days after that protest.  All was calm again.  I did talk to many of the locals who echoed what I mentioned  about the housing problem.  They had no problem with the cruise pax.  We paid big bucks for a boutique hotel, had all our meals at restaurants, shopped, and paid for transport before we boarded our ship.   

 

The bulk of Barcelona cruise pax are coming and going.  It is not just a port of call, it is more of an embarkation port.  Those pax are spending money in town the same as I did post and pre cruise.  It's a big boom to the restaurants, hotels, and taxi drivers.  Which many locals obviously work for.  

[KBs mum]

On 7/9/2024 at 7:02 PM, farmecologist said:

I'm not sure these folks realize how much it will affect their economy if visitors "go home".  A "be careful what you wish for" situation, to be sure!  At the same time, I get their sentiment...as Europe isn't what it once was.  The overcrowding does suck!

They found out during covid, and preferred it. Same as where we live, international tourists weren't missed. Cruise passengers don't bring in much cash for local businesses, so no need to encourage them instead of people staying locally spending money in local hotels and restaurants

 

[Mich3554]

3 hours ago, KBs mum said:

They found out during covid, and preferred it. Same as where we live, international tourists weren't missed. Cruise passengers don't bring in much cash for local businesses, so no need to encourage them instead of people staying locally spending money in local hotels and restaurants

 

The money that tourists spend in port may not be much, but cruise ships support an entire tourist industry of guides, transportation, dock fees, salaries for dock workers, bus drivers, and things I’m probably not thinking about. Lunch in town is nothing.  
 

The cruises we were on following Covid,  the tour guides were frequently giddy in getting tourists back in town and being back to work. Just think of the numbers.  Assuming 700 people are taking Viking excursions, that results in the need for 30+ busses, 30+ bus drivers, 30+ tour guides.  Guides of La Familia Sagrada told us that completion of the cathedral was dependent upon tourist $$.  Because of the 2 year covid gap, the goal of getting it completed on the 100th anniversary of Gaudi’s death in 2026.  There was such a loss of income from tourists that that goal is impossible.  Imagine the amount of tourist $$ that are providing for this kind of building.  
 

Then there are the tourists like us, who go early and stay later from the cruise and drop another chunk of change.  The last cruise we got off of dropped us off in Vancouver.  That’s the only time I do not remember booking a hotel and look for dinner reservations…only because it’s only 60 miles from home and we are up there a few times/mo visiting family. 

[CDNPolar]

All the above very true.  

I think for residents that live and work in some of these cities, the onslaught of thousands of people being unleashed on a city is too much to deal with.

 

I was born and raised in Toronto.  Toronto is not a major tourist draw, but we have our tourist season and times.  We do have some cruise ships that dock in Toronto as well.

 

When I am "running" for the commuter train after work and minutes from the next one and a carefully timed routine to get to the station, I can often be interrupted by groups of tourists that are blocking the sidewalks listening to a guide, or staring up at a building. 

 

I can only imagine what it is like for locals in some of these cities.

 

We went to Venice off season.  Very off season.  We were told that the crowds were extremely light and we found it frustrating as a tourist based on the number of people.  I cannot imagine Venice in high tourist season.

 

I am not convinced that it is because cruise passengers don't spend enough money.  We do fuel the bus/tour industry.  I think it is about crowding.

[KBs mum]

Cruise passengers simply don't spend much money in port towns compared to other types of tourist, and can create crowds that deter the higher spending sectors. 

During covid a lot of towns reset, and are now aiming for fewer tourists spending more, rather than mass market low value

[HatesPopups]

On 7/10/2024 at 9:16 AM, OneSixtyToOne said:

Just a reminder for US travelers to enroll in the State Department’s STEP program. They will notify you of security concerns during your stay. For example, when in Santiago last year we got a notice of demonstrations in the downtown area. We were leaving that day so it didn’t affect us but it IS informative. Recently, for our upcoming trip we’ve received notifications of demonstrations.

 

https://step.state.gov/STEPMobile/Default.aspx

I began to enroll in the STEP program but ran into difficulty completing it.  It wanted a phone number or address for each country we visited, but did not give us the option of indicating we would be on a cruise ship.  How did you handle that requirement?  Do you just use your cell phone number and don't enter an address?  Thank you in advance for your help!

[OneSixtyToOne]

1 minute ago, HatesPopups said:

I began to enroll in the STEP program but ran into difficulty completing it.  It wanted a phone number or address for each country we visited, but did not give us the option of indicating we would be on a cruise ship.  How did you handle that requirement?  Do you just use your cell phone number and don't enter an address?  Thank you in advance for your help!

Yes. Just your cellphone number.