Spaniards turn water guns on visitors in Barcelona and Mallorca to
protest mass tourism
[June 16, 2025] By
JOSEPH WILSON
BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Protesters used water guns against unsuspecting
tourists in Barcelona and on the Spanish island of Mallorca on Sunday as
demonstrators marched to demand a rethink of an economic model they
believe is fueling a housing crunch and erasing the character of their
hometowns.
The marches were part of the first coordinated effort by activists
concerned with the ills of overtourism across southern Europe's top
destinations. While several thousands rallied in Mallorca in the biggest
gathering of the day, hundreds more gathered in other Spanish cities, as
well as in Venice, Italy, and Portugal's capital, Lisbon.
“The squirt guns are to bother the tourists a bit,” Andreu Martínez said
in Barcelona with a chuckle after spritzing a couple seated at an
outdoor café. “Barcelona has been handed to the tourists. This is a
fight to give Barcelona back to its residents.”
Martínez, a 42-year-old administrative assistant, is one of a growing
number of residents who are convinced that tourism has gone too far in
the city of 1.7 million people. Barcelona hosted 15.5 million visitors
last year eager to see Antoni Gaudí’s La Sagrada Familia basilica and
the Las Ramblas promenade.
Martínez says his rent has risen over 30% as more apartments in his
neighborhood are rented to tourists for short-term stays. He said there
is a knock-on effect of traditional stores being replaced by businesses
catering to tourists, like souvenir shops, burger joints and “bubble
tea” spots.
“Our lives, as lifelong residents of Barcelona, are coming to an end,"
he said. "We are being pushed out systematically.”
Around 5,000 people gathered in Palma, the capital of Mallorca, with
some toting water guns as well and chanting “Everywhere you look, all
you see are tourists.” The tourists who were targeted by water blasts
laughed it off. The Balearic island is a favorite for British and German
sun-seekers. Housing costs have skyrocketed as homes are diverted to the
short-term rental market.
Hundreds more marched in Granada, in southern Spain, and in the northern
city of San Sebastián, as well as the island of Ibiza.
In Venice, a couple of dozen protesters unfurled a banner calling for a
halt to new hotel beds in the lagoon city in front of two recently
completed structures, one in the popular tourist destination’s historic
center where activists say the last resident, an elderly woman, was
kicked out last year.
‘That’s lovely'
Protesters in Barcelona blew whistles and held up homemade signs saying
“One more tourist, one less resident.” They stuck stickers saying
“Citizen Self-Defense,” in Catalan, and “Tourist Go Home,” in English,
with a drawing of a water gun on the doors of hotels and hostels.
There was tension when the march stopped in front of a large hostel,
where a group emptied their water guns at two workers positioned in the
entrance. They also set off firecrackers next to the hostel and opened a
can of pink smoke. One worker spat at the protesters as he slammed the
hostel’s doors.
American tourists Wanda and Bill Dorozenski were walking along
Barcelona’s main luxury shopping boulevard where the protest started.
They received a squirt or two, but she said it was actually refreshing
given the 83 degree Fahrenheit (28.3 degrees Celsius) weather.
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A protester with a water gun takes part in a protest against
overtourism in Barcelona, Spain, Sunday, June 15, 2025. (AP
Photo/Pau Venteo)
 “That’s lovely, thank you
sweetheart,” Wanda said to the squirter. “I am not going to
complain. These people are feeling something to them that is very
personal, and is perhaps destroying some areas (of the city).”
There were also many marchers with water guns who didn't fire at
bystanders and instead solely used them to spray themselves to keep
cool.
Crackdown on Airbnb
Cities across the world are struggling with how to cope with mass
tourism and a boom in short-term rental platforms, like Airbnb, but
perhaps nowhere has surging discontent been so evident as in Spain,
where protesters in Barcelona first took to firing squirt guns at
tourists during a protest last summer.
There has also been a confluence of the pro-housing and anti-tourism
struggles in Spain, whose 48 million residents welcomed record 94
million international visitors in 2024. When thousands marched
through the streets of Spain’s capital in April, some held homemade
signs saying “Get Airbnb out of our neighborhoods.”
Spanish authorities are striving to show they hear the public outcry
while not hurting an industry that contributes 12% of gross domestic
product.
Last month, Spain’s government ordered Airbnb to remove almost
66,000 holiday rentals from the platform that it said had violated
local rules.
Spain’s Consumer Rights Minister Pablo Bustinduy told The Associated
Press shortly after the crackdown on Airbnb that the tourism sector
“cannot jeopardize the constitutional rights of the Spanish people,”
which enshrines their right to housing and well-being. Carlos Cuerpo,
the economy minister, said in a separate interview that the
government is aware it must tackle the unwanted side effects of mass
tourism.
The boldest move was made by Barcelona's town hall, which stunned
Airbnb and other services who help rent properties to tourists by
announcing last year the elimination of all 10,000 short-term rental
licenses in the city by 2028.
That sentiment was back in force on Sunday, where people held up
signs saying “Your Airbnb was my home.”
‘Taking away housing’
The short-term rental industry, for its part, believes it is being
treated unfairly.
“I think a lot of our politicians have found an easy scapegoat to
blame for the inefficiencies of their policies in terms of housing
and tourism over the last 10, 15, 20 years,” Airbnb’s general
director for Spain and Portugal, Jaime Rodríguez de Santiago
recently told the AP.
That argument either hasn’t trickled down to the ordinary residents
of Barcelona, or isn’t resonating.
Txema Escorsa, a teacher in Barcelona, doesn’t just oppose Airbnb in
his home city, he has ceased to use it even when traveling
elsewhere, out of principle.
“In the end, you realize that this is taking away housing from
people,” he said.
___
AP Videojournalist Hernán Múńoz in Barcelona, and Associated Press
writer Colleen Barry in Venice, Italy, contributed.
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