Protests against tourism have increased in frequency and size as tourist arrivals to popular destinations meet, and in some places surpass, pre-pandemic levels.
Following protests throughout Spain in 2024, tourist arrivals increased 4.1% in the first seven months of 2025, according to its National Statistics Institute.
And it’s going up still, despite it being an issue before this year. It’s interesting that there’s still an increase despite the pushback.
That specific protest was on La Rambla, which has been completely blighted by unconstrained tourism and which has had continuing problems with young male drunk tourists harassing locals, loudly partying all night, preventing the neighbors from sleeping, and generally behaving like arseholes. I go to Barcelona frequently and as long you’re not being a complete skidmark, the vast majority of locals don’t mind. As a matter of principle, I never use AirBnB.
The bigger source of protests in Barcelona was the phenomenon of scumbag landlords evicting local people and then hiring out the places on AirBnB. That became a big local political issue. Whole neighborhoods were being strip-mined in that way.
This certainly goes further back than you may think.
And it’s going up still, despite it being an issue before this year. It’s interesting that there’s still an increase despite the pushback.
That specific protest was on La Rambla, which has been completely blighted by unconstrained tourism and which has had continuing problems with young male drunk tourists harassing locals, loudly partying all night, preventing the neighbors from sleeping, and generally behaving like arseholes. I go to Barcelona frequently and as long you’re not being a complete skidmark, the vast majority of locals don’t mind. As a matter of principle, I never use AirBnB.
The bigger source of protests in Barcelona was the phenomenon of scumbag landlords evicting local people and then hiring out the places on AirBnB. That became a big local political issue. Whole neighborhoods were being strip-mined in that way.