Culture
Is Tourism Ruining Barcelona?
A new film makes the case that the city's at risk of losing the very urban vitality that attracts visitors there in the first place.
"Barcelona? It's a theme park."
Spain's second city is so effortlessly attractive that it's hard to believe anyone could fall out of love with it. A new documentary called Bye Bye Barcelona, however, shows some long-term residents wondering aloud how much longer they can stay where they are. The problem? Tourism, specifically a local industry that has become so dominant it risks stifling ordinary, everyday life in the city's heart. Panning across street after street of pedestrian gridlock, fast food joints and souvenir shops, the film's record of locals shooed away by the constant visitor footfall offers a cautionary tale for any city that tourists love.