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Backback in barcelona summer equinox1/1/2024 You may have dreamed about going to a city ever since you were a kid, have a personal connection (perhaps a family member lives there), or intensively studied the city in college. Barcelona has a collection of architecture that runs the gamut from Catalan Gothic to Modernista, Madrid’s selection of world-class art museums are second to none, and the tapas scene in Sevilla is truly irresistible. to visit touristy places after all, they’re popular for a reason. And we can support local economies by staying at family-run bed and breakfasts, avoiding multinational chain restaurants in favor of independent cafés and taverns, and patronizing unique food and wine stores or boutiques that specialize in, say, handmade hats or shoes instead of souvenir shops.īut what if the best way to travel responsibly in these major cities was to not even visit them at all?Īlternatives to the cities everyone visitsĭisclaimer: It’s O.K. We can reduce our impact by visiting during shoulder or low seasons, eschewing huge tour groups for independent travel, and staying in hotels outside of the city center. that have been inundated by mass tourism. There are lots of ways we can travel responsibly in cities like Barcelona, Madrid, etc. Whether these measures will prevent locals from being evicted due to rising rents remains to be seen, but there’s clearly been a backlash to this pillar of the Spanish economy.Īs travelers, the burden is on us to ethically spend our money and make travel decisions that don’t wreck the urban fabric of cities we visit. Colau froze construction of any new hotels upon taking office, while Carmena plans to outlaw almost all touristic apartments in central Madrid. In response, new left-wing mayors like Barcelona’s Ada Colau and Madrid’s Manuela Carmena have implemented stiff regulations to prevent further damage and hopefully keep longtime residents in town. Tourism may be the third-biggest industry in Spain, but tourism on the massive scale we see today is steadily removing everything that makes beloved neighborhoods like the Gòtic and Madrid’s historic core so special: the people who live in them. I first learned about the negative effects of tourism in 2014 when I watched the documentary Bye, Bye, Barcelona. It pulls no punches in blaming tourists for the transformation of the Barri Gòtic (Gothic Quarter) from a residential neighborhood with shops, markets, and businesses into a zone that caters almost exclusively to visitors today. In short, mass tourism is destroying what we love most about Spain and turning the country’s biggest cities like Barcelona, Madrid, or Granada into theme parks for tourists. This (presumably) Catalan user’s account has reminded me of the phenomenon I was slowly growing aware of while I lived in Spain-and even participated in on my weekend jaunts from Úbeda and Santiago de Compostela. One of the best decisions I’ve made on Twitter recently was following Humans of Late Tourism, who shares images and stories that show how absurd and destructive modern mass tourism has become in Europe and beyond.īrowse their feed for a few minutes and you’ll see a photo of the hordes that make appreciating the Mona Lisa all but impossible at the Louvre, a news article from Mallorca about the latest death due to balconing, or a lamppost flyer in Porto accusing Airbnb apartments with causing massive increases in rent.
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