As if in reaction to the protests over the Louis Vuitton fashion show at Park Güell, and surely alarmed by the atmosphere of discomfort due to tourist overcrowding in Barcelona, the City Council has created the EGA (High-Traffic Areas) and has concentrated them in sixteen prioritized spaces for now in the Sagrada Familia, Park Güell, and La Boqueria. Yes, tourism has drawbacks and causes inconvenience. However, as a resident of the Sagrada Familia, I emphatically state that these are manageable inconveniences and that when you live next to a monument that is a World Heritage Site, it would be unthinkable for people not to come from outside to visit you. They know it at the Eiffel Tower, they know it at the Colosseum, and they know it at Big Ben. I have checked myself and I know that I do not have an ounce of tourist-phobia, because I know that the tourist is not to blame for poor management. The problem has never been the tourist, but rather wanting to make the city a pretty facade as if it were a theme area of Port Aventura or the Poble Espanyol. The problem was never even Louis Vuitton; the problem was despising the residents and discriminating against them without negotiation or communication. And the problem is not the hostes que vingueren: they are welcome. The problem in the future will be the public managers who will have kicked us out of our homes.
Being an EGA means that a series of actions will be applied to you, which will include "reinforcements in the civic agent or cleaning team staff, removal of obsolete urban furniture, reorganization of tourist coach parking, or measures to support local commerce." Everyone who reads these measures can see a patch, an urgent solution, a hasty adoption of measures that can undoubtedly help with better management of spaces, but they are far from addressing the root problem. All of this is accompanied by a communication campaign under the umbrella of the Pla Endreça with slogans such as Are you coming to Barcelona? We welcome you, but follow the rules! or Everyone is welcome. Be respectful and you'll be respected, clearly pointing to the tourist as the alleged culprit of any discomfort that may arise. A mistake, in my opinion: the tourist is not to blame for wanting to come and see a beautiful city. The tourist should be welcomed and not singled out, much less by the city's own council, when the deficit is evidently of another kind. Telling tourists to behave is, plain and simple, shirking responsibility. To begin with, the authorities should behave.
We all know the deficit, and we suffer from it beyond the high season: it is a deficit of security, of cleanliness, of compliance with ordinances (by locals and foreigners, including cycling on streets where it is not allowed), of a review (surely upwards) of hotel prices, of the irregular proliferation of tourist apartments, of the conditions of licenses to establish uprooted businesses, of offering public space for events that do not connect with the population, of local people's salaries compared to rental prices (and the cost of living), of the depersonalization of the city and of confusing ponte guapa (make yourself pretty) with ponme otra, chata (give me another one, pal).
No, it is not tourism, but the abandonment of tourism as the main economic area and the inability to make Barcelonians feel like protagonists of their cityNo, it is not tourism, but abandonment in tourism as the main economic area and the inability to make Barcelona residents feel like protagonists of their city. This has nothing to do with many tourists coming: it has to do with how we Barcelona residents feel when these tourists are no longer there, what grievance of treatment we suffer, what difference in conditions (economic and social) we observe towards foreigners, what degree of depatrimonialization of what belongs to everyone (see Park Güell) we must endure as permanent humiliation, to what degree of simple party and festivities commission the City Council has become. No, it is not the hostes que vingueren. If the house were well managed and in good condition, the problem of guests would be zero.
The tourist only wants to live their vacation in the city, be well served, and not feel like they are bothering anyone. That they don't bother is not the tourist's responsibility, but that of our public managers. Everyone sees the problem: that soon, if we don't stop being frivolous and looking for the photo, those who will become guests in our city will be ourselves. In fact, and not because of any tourist, this process has already begun.