Walter Finch
DESPITE a summer of apparently endless anti-tourist discontent in Spain, the latest opinion survey reveals a very different picture.
It shows that 69% of the populace across the country have a positive or very positive attitude towards tourists.
And three quarters give the country’s tourism industry – critical to the economy – a glowing report, with 75% saying it has a positive impact in their town or city.
The results might come as a surprise after images of fed-up Barcelona residents shooting holidaymakers with water pistols reverberated around the world.
In fact, the discontents who exhibit the strongest turistfobia seem to be a miniscule segment of society, with only 2% expressing a very negative view of tourists. A further 4% said they viewed tourists just negatively.
Meanwhile, a quarter of the Spanish population (25%) describe themselves as ‘neutral’.
However, when you dig into the data some nuance does start to emerge.
In the larger cities, such as Sevilla and Barcelona, the negative perception of tourists increases, with about 12% of residents expressing negative feelings.
Even among those that don’t, almost half of the population (48%) see tourism as a growing problem in their city.
And – perhaps tellingly – only 30% believed that their local governments were taking appropriate measures to tackle the negative effects of tourism.
In these large cities, 66% of the populace are fuming about the local town hall’s inability to limit tourist rentals.
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In medium-sized cities, meanwhile, the negative perception is much lower, at around 4%, while a majority (59%) of the locals do not see tourism as a growing problem in the city, compared to 29% who do.
Overall, 59% of people in Spain do not think tourism is a growing problem, compared to 24% who do.
Only 8% of Spaniards think tourism has a negative impact in their town or city, although this grows to 15% in the large cities and seems to be trending negatively.
To support that thesis, most of the impacts of tourism cited in the survey were negative: 43% found that rent had gone up, 35% believed the cost of living had risen and 29% blamed tourism for an increase in noise at night.
On the other hand, 32% noted an increase in employment opportunities thanks to tourism and 19% thought it led to improvements in infrastructure.
Other negatives were more congestion and crowding (26%), increased dirt and litter (22%) and further gentrification (20%).
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The results came in a YouGov poll which was part of a report entitled Impact of Tourism on the Resident Population. It surveyed 1,027 people around the country at the start of June.
“There is a certain segment of the local population that feels overwhelmed by tourism, confirming what has been appearing in the news in recent months,” the report admits.
However, the ‘growth of employment opportunities and infrastructure development in cities’ have been listed as a plus side that offsets this negative sentiment.
But it warns: “The authorities must also remain vigilant and take measures to ensure that aspects such as public transportation, safety, and especially the proliferation of tourist accommodations do not neglect the needs of the residents.”
