Spanish tourism tumbles amid political and social turmoil

SPAIN currently holds the title of the world’s third most popular tourist destination. But people are turning away.

People walk past a graffiti in Palma de Mallorca, in the Spanish island of Mallorca, May 23, 2016. REUTERS/Enrique Calvo - RTX2ERQ3

SPAIN is famed for its picturesque beaches, world-class food and wine, and vivacious culture.

Each year, tourists come experience the good life in the millions. In 2016, some 75.3 million people visited the European country.

Its popularity has pushed tourist numbers to record levels each year for the past four years and it currently holds the title of the world’s third most popular tourist destination, according to the UN’s World Tourism Organisation.

But now it’s on the brink of losing its place on the podium.

Amid political turmoil, terrorism fears and a violent protest, Spain’s domination of the tourist dollar is at risk.

TOURISM TUMBLES

Barcelona is Spain’s biggest tourist drawcard and is at the heart of the problems now facing the industry.

It’s ranked in Mastercard’s top 20 global destination cities index in 2016 — the only Spanish city to make the list.

But the Catalonia region, where the hugely popular city is located, is facing a 10-12 per cent fall in tourist numbers during the fourth quarter of this year, Catalonia’s top tourism official Patrick Torrent told the Associated Press.

That decline would equate to around $680 million ($450 million euros), Mr Torrent said, which accounts for around 15 per cent of annual tourism revenues. His staff, he said, are “on alert” about the impact on the main booking season.

ESCAPE 12NOV17 BEST TOURING - Contiki, Independent Insider.Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain, Picture: Supplied/ Contiki

So why are tourists staying away?

In August, Barcelona and a nearby town was the target for a horrific terror attack, in which 16 died when a van was driven down a popular tourist strip.

Spain’s national terrorism alert level was upgraded to four, where it still remains, on a scale of one to five.

There has also been deep, and at times violent, conflict over the impact of all these visitors with a strong anti-tourism movement simmering among locals for quite some time.

Spaniards are growing frustrated by armies of tourists taking over town centres, disrupting the lives of locals and putting a strain on resources.

The 8.2 million foreign visitors who holidayed in Barcelona last year grossly outnumber the city’s actual residents, of about 1.6 million.

If you include cruise passengers and day-trippers, the number of tourists shoots up to about 32 million a year — an eye-watering 20 times the number of people who actually call Barcelona home.

In June 2015 the city appointed a new mayor, Ada Colau, an outspoken critic of tourists. She introduced tourist caps, including on the city’s famous La Boqueria markets, and put a one-year moratorium on new licences for hotel and tourist apartments in the city.

And in the past few months, the movement has ramped up and started to turn violent.

In July, there was an assault on an open-top tourist bus in Barcelona as it pulled up outside the Camp Nou stadium of the city’s iconic football team FC Barcelona.

Four masked assailants slashed the vehicle’s tyres and scrawled “El Turisme Mata Els Barris” in Catalan — which translates as “Tourism Kills Neighbourhoods” — onto the bus windscreen.

At the time, many of the visitors on board that bus feared they were actually caught in a terrorist attack rather than what turned out to be an anti-tourist protest.

Days later the tyres of rental bicycles for tourists were slashed.

Sembla que hi ha una nova atracció turística a #Vallcarca. #NoÉsTurismefòbia#LluitaDeClasses pic.twitter.com/a0sAGE6JKW

— Heura Negra (@AsLLibVallcarca) August 2, 2017

POLITICAL CHAOS

All this could soon be amplified by the political turmoil Catalonia now faces after the disputed independence referendum.

In early October, the region held a vote, asking its residents if they want Catalonia to become an independent state from the rest of Spain, in the form of a republic.

The nation’s constitutional court declared the referendum illegal but they went ahead with a vote anyway, prompting Madrid to launch a crackdown.

The Spanish government confiscated millions of ballot slips, imposed direct rule of the region, and sought the arrest of members of the Catalan government, including its leader, Carles Puigdemont — who has now fled to Brussels.

Violent clashes erupted between voters and security forces, with Catalan officials claiming at least 844 people were injured. Officials also claimed that preliminary results of the independence vote showed that 90 per cent backed independence.

Catalonia’s campaign to break away has been gaining momentum since 2010, when Spain’s economy plunged during the financial crisis.

Being the wealthiest region of the country, pro-independence politicians argue that its revenues subsidise other parts of Spain while it gets nothing in return from the government.

Catalan nationalists also argue that they are a separate nation with their own history, culture and language and that they should have increased fiscal independence.

The crisis has deeply divided Catalans and seen more than 2000 businesses move their headquarters out of the wealthy region, AFP reports.

It is now Spaniards’ second largest concern after the country’s rampant unemployment, according to a poll published Tuesday.

A survey by the Centre of Sociological Studies in Madrid found that 29 per cent of respondents said they were now more worried over the fate of the region than by corruption (28.3 per cent).

Catalan pro-independence mayors hold a banner as they demonstrate to show solidarity with detained officials in Spain on November 7, 2017 in front of the European Commission building in Brussels. The sacked leader of Catalonia claimed on November 7 that he fled to Belgium because Spain was preparing a "wave of oppression and violence" against his separatist movement. / AFP PHOTO / Emmanuel DUNAND

BUSINESS AS USUAL?

There had been fears that Madrid’s imposition of direct rule on Catalonia could provoke widespread unrest in the region. But this has yet to materialise in any significant way.

And according to Mr Torrent, it never will — so tourists should not be deterred from visiting the region.

Speaking to the Associated Press, he said he is meeting regularly with Spanish tourism officials — who now supervise Catalonia’s tourism industry following the triggering of Article 155 of the Spanish Constitution which imposed direct rule on the region — and it is “business as usual”. At least until an early Catalan regional election on December 21.

“It’s not intervention. It’s more a kind of co-ordination,” he said.

“It’s easy, it’s not complicated, with good relations without problems, at this moment.”

Mr Torrent also urged all participants in upcoming demonstrations in Catalonia before the election to remain peaceful and law-abiding.

“It’s important to say that our streets are normal, our restaurants are working as usual, our destination is exactly the same situation,” he stressed.

But credit ratings agency Moody’s has warned that the region’s recovery is being jeopardised.

“Moody’s believes that the political instability will negatively affect the region’s economy, in particular foreign investor sentiment and the tourism sector, and add pressure to the region’s already weak finances,” it warned last week.