Staff Reporter
THIS year has seen unprecedented protests in Spain calling for a new model of tourism, as locals are increasingly priced out of the property market and have to suffer problems such as noise pollution and antisocial behaviour from some of the millions of people who come to visit the country every year.
While many of the tourists and expats who have been interviewed this year by the press on the issue have shown sympathy with the demonstrators’ plight, some are now speaking out against what they see as a ‘xenophobic’ movement in Spain.
Speaking to Euronews, Valencia-based digital nomad Ron called the protests ‘a diversion’.
“Like they need to create an enemy for the problem,” he said.
“They don’t want to direct it at the government,” the 40-year-old continued. “So they direct it at someone who won’t be able to do anything about it, direct it towards a tourist.”
Nicole, 32, and Jasper, 30, also spoke to Euronews about their experiences in Barcelona, where they have been living and working for several months.
“It’s clear that it’s not only anti-tourist, it’s anti-outsider,” said Jasper. “Which is xenophobic.”
Indeed, a recent protest in Barcelona made international headlines for being the first demonstration so far this year to actively target tourists.
Protestors were caught on camera squirting them with water pistols, chanting at them to ‘go home’, and symbolically sealing off hotels and outdoor restaurant dining areas with tape.
“The individual tourists themselves have no power to transform Barcelona into the city its residents wish for,” Nicole told Euronews.
Jasper also echoed concerns regularly seen in online postings about unease among visitors and digital nomads about speaking English or their native tongue in public.
“We were definitely conscious of speaking English in public, even amongst ourselves,” he said.
But there are digital nomads who are making a concerted effort to integrate into life in Spain, which is the third-most-popular destination for remote workers after Portugal and Thailand.
“We really want to integrate,” Jane told Euronews Travel. “It’s practical for us to integrate as early as [possible] now, and therefore we exert effort in learning the language… and doing everything we need to be citizens in the future.”
“One of our favourite ways that we integrated into Spanish life was Catalan cooking school,” said Jasper. “We took several classes and learned all kinds of Catalan dishes, some we cook regularly to this day.”
The opinions expressed by those who spoke to Euronews reflect those cited recently in the Wall Street Journal, with tourists admitting that the images of demonstrators carrying signs with slogans such as ‘Tourist Go Home’ are giving them second thoughts.
“We love Barcelona, but if they want to limit tourism, we will without a doubt take that into account in the future,” said Val Gui, a 36-year-old executive from Boston who visited the Catalan capital earlier this year with his family.
