Anti-tourism protests have become common in Spain over recent months. Traditional tourist hotspots such as the Canary and Balearic Islands, as well as cities such as Málaga and Barcelona, have seen locals take to the streets in their thousands.

The Local has covered why people are protesting in great detail, which you can find here, but in short: Spaniards are growing tired of mass tourism, overcrowding in towns and cities, and the increasing number of Airbnb-type platforms that cause rents to rise and deplete the housing stock for locals.

However, this wave of protests peaked recently when protestors in Barcelona sprayed tourists with water pistols. The protestors also symbolically cordoned off restaurant terraces in police tape.

READ ALSO: ‘Out of our neighbourhood!’: Barcelona residents spray water on tourists

The moment went viral and has since received widespread coverage in the British and international press, with many wondering if Spain is worth visiting anymore.

Sky News recently ran a feature titled: “Thinking of going to Barcelona? ‘Better not,’ tourists told”, while iNews spoke to tourists about the wave of protests, quoting some in the headline: “I don’t see us visiting Spain again’: UK tourists turn their backs amid protests.”

In the clickbait-driven media ecosystem of the 21st century, it’s inevitable that these things get blown out of proportion (more on that below).

Of course, directly confronting innocent tourists in this way, even if it was relatively harmless with a water pistol, is a worrying sign and does represent an escalation in tactics.

However, it’s important to remember that judging from the footage it was a very, very small minority of protestors (it looks like two women in particular) who are themselves an even tinier minority of the broader Barcelona population.

Spain’s Tourism Minister, Rosario Sánchez, quickly moved to criticise the actions, and told Sky News that Spain is still one of the “safest tourist destinations” in the world. 

The Catalan context

Understanding the context of Barcelona’s tourism industry is important here, however, and how it perhaps isn’t representative of the rest of the country.

Spain is the second most visited country in the world after France, and Barcelona is the jewel in the tourism crown. With around 1.6 million residents, the Catalan capital welcomed over 25 million overnight visitors in 2023 alone, according to figures from Barcelona city council, making it Spain’s most visited city.

Whereas protest movements in other cities is a newer phenomenon, the “tourists go home” mantra is at least a decade old in the Catalan capital, sprayed countless times on walls or emblazoned on stickers.

Barceloneses were protesting against “drunk tourism” and the abundance of cruise ships docking in the city back in 2014, and such problems have only multiplied and ballooned ever since.

READ ALSO: Barcelona removes route from Google Maps to keep tourists off local bus

So perhaps it’s no surprise that Barcelona is where this nationwide wave of protests in 2024 really reached its tipping point and took a turn for the worse. But the incident, when taken against the backdrop of street protests across Spain, has caused many around the world to wonder if it’s really worth the hassle of going to Spain in the current climate.

Social media has seen an increase in concerned tourists wondering whether it’s safe to visit Spain, and Barcelona in particular.

Reddit, for example, has been flooded with worried travellers asking whether it’s safe to visit Barcelona or Spain more generally, and asking for advice on how to blend in or be a better tourist.

One user posted a thread asking: “Still safe to visit Barcelona?” after seeing the footage.

Another user commented in another: “We really wanted to go to a city in Europe and Barcelona seemed perfect for us. That was until we did further research and saw all the news about locals complaining about tourists, protesting and “attacking” tourists with water guns. That kinda put us off.”

Should I cancel my trip to Spain because of the tourism protests?

Like those online, many will be wondering if they should come to Spain following the protests. For those with trips booked to the Catalan capital or anywhere else in Spain, should they consider cancelling them?

The first thing to remember is that, as with everything in the online, modern news cycle the viral water pistol moment has been blown out of proportion.

As noted above, it seems to have been a tiny handful of people among thousands more protesters behaving in this way. This does not suggest that the protest movement in Spain is turning violent, or that tourists’ safety is at risk.

For all the photos and interviews with Spaniards demanding ‘tourists go home’, we don’t see the thousands of locals who understand Spain’s tourism model is a complicated, multi-faceted problem that also involves politicians, landlords, businesses, and multi-national conglomerates.

Nor do we often, if ever, see interviews with Spaniards who themselves use Airbnbs (or admit to it) when going on holiday around Spain, including some of the more enthusiastic water-pistol protestors too, presumably.

OPINION: Spaniards should blame landlords, not tourists

The vast majority of protesters and Spaniards understand that it’s not the tourists themselves that are the problem (aside from a few badly behaved ones), but rather the system.

Barcelona is the only place where things have boiled over so far (however innocuous a water pistol seems) as they’ve suffered from the problem for longer than other Spanish cities.

However, to say that events in Barcelona don’t feel like an escalation of some kind, however small, would be wrong.

Therefore, for those travelling to Spain in the near future, being self-aware and conscious about the discontent bubbling below the surface could be worthwhile.

As noted above, the frustration of many protestors is directed towards short-term rental tourist platforms such as Airbnb. Therefore, if possible, try and stay in a hotel. Even better if it’s a smaller place run by locals.

Don’t only eat and drink in tourist traps, or international chains you could find in any high street in any city anywhere in the world.

READ ALSO: Ten off-the-beaten-track seaside towns in Spain

When booking your stay or moving around the city, try and go off the tourist trail a bit. In cities like Valencia, Málaga and Barcelona, many complain that the casco antiguo (old town) is overrun with tourists and locals can’t live their day-to-day lives.

Spain is still a very welcoming country, but popular cities and holiday spots people’s lives are affected by overtourism.

So go to the non-touristy part of town. Book a stay in a smaller city that doesn’t become overrun with tourists every summer, or even a small town for a real authentic experience of Spain.

With summers in Spain becoming hotter and hotter, at times to the point of being unenjoyable, you could also consider skipping the high season and go somewhere else for summer, leaving Spain for another season when the weather is more bearable and the summer tourist rush has subsided.

Nobody is expecting you to become fluent in Spanish before your trip, but make an effort to learn a few phrases. Remember how to order in a restaurant, ask for the bill, or for directions. Say por favor and gracias at the very least.

Even if you make some mistakes, Spaniards are generally delighted when foreigners at least make an effort to communicate in their native tongue because it shows a willingness to embrace the local culture – which is why you’d be coming to Spain in the first place, right?

READ ALSO: Good tourist, bad tourist: How to travel responsibly in Spain