Tourism cap in Barcelona?

[marmar]

from In These Times:



Barcelona's new mayor, Ada Colau, thinks what her city needs is a “tourist cap”—a moratorium on new hotel licenses and a limit on the number of tourists entering the city.

Colau proposed these restrictions June 1, soon after winning office on a left-wing slate backed by Podemos and the Barcelona en Comú Party. Once considered a source of vigor for the local economy, tourism is now seen by many Barcelonans as a scourge, responsible for overcrowded streets, disorderly behavior (including incidents of streaking) and an increasing cost of living.

“(Tourists) have urinated onto my balcony, they have set fire to laundry, someone defecated in the building’s hallway,” Nando Prieto, whose building now rents rooms to tourists, told Vice. The English-language newspaper The Local reports that a growing market for short-term tourist apartments is “leading to rampant real estate speculation.”

“Investors have been snapping up whole apartment blocks and kicking out the locals, many of whom are elderly,” says resident Vicenç Forner. ................(more)

http://inthesetimes.com/article/18149/should-cities-ban-tourists