Over Tourism in Barcelona: Impact on Local Residents and Sustainable Tourism Theory

Running Head: TOURISM MANAGEMENT
Tourism management
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TOURISM MANAGEMENT 1
Introduction
Barcelona is known as one of the most beautiful destination all around the world for spending
holidays. It is known for its beautiful architecture, climate and geographical outfits which attracts
the most tourism towards its side. It can be said that there are almost 1.6 million people who are
lucky enough to call this home because almost 32 million people visit this lace as tourist every
year which makes this place overcrowded (Masson and Petiot, 2009). The tourism overcrowd
can be defined in the form of words like in peak season if we move over head around to count
numbers are difficult, even finding way becomes very difficult. The tourism has become a prime
source of business so; the government focuses very little on the zones outside the tourism
especially local resident of the Barcelona (Richards, 2010). As per local resident tourism is
actually ending the creativity of the local youth and are forcing them to adopt this enforcement
without will. Almost every day the local shops are being replaced by bike or car rental shops
which are not within the limits of local youths. Due to this over tourism the city is not able to
provide other industries like IT or manufacturing to explore the market which in turn affect the
local employment ratio (Marine-Roig and Clavé, 2015).
International sustainable tourism theory
The theory simply says that tourism must carry in such a way that it may not only provide a
comfort zone for the tourists but also for the receivers of the city which is hosting this. In this
dynamic world of business especially in tourism industry things and related situations are
changing every year so it has become very difficult to sustain in the market (Spenceley and
Meyer, 2012). Present situation is completely different from the previous conditions where every
aspect whether visitors, receivers and resources were equally proportionate to each other. But
now the population is overcrowded as compared to resources available. When the word
sustainable is used it is not only limited to the aspects related to the local resident but it is also
related to the sustainability of nature, climate which is being impacted due to overloaded
infrastructures in the city (Jamal and Stronza, 2009). As it is known that infrastructure are
directly related to the cutting of trees, leveling the lands are other such activities which naturally
affects the basic nature of that city. In simply words it can be said the over tourism or greed of
over tourism is actually a serious threat for the sustainability of tourism itself. In order to create a
win –win situation, it has become the duty of the entire related stakeholder to take this threat

TOURISM MANAGEMENT 2
seriously and created some kind of solution which should be favorable to both the parties
(Buckley, 2012).
Over tourism in Barcelona
The word does not mean that large numbers of people but it try to indicate number of people at
once in Barcelona. The outside agent or companies which are connected with this tourism
industry restricts the flow of money inside their circle and not allowing it to open for local
resident. Even in case of cruise line, online booking has also impacted the earning of the local
people or resident (Alexis, 2017). It has been noticed that tourist who books accommodation on
an average spent just two nights here, which limits it to only up to few zone and do not provide
the opportunity to explore the main sites of the Barcelona. This over tourism provided the
unnecessary support to overlook rules and regulations of the Barcelona.
According to 2017 report, it was found that around 125,000 legally registered beds in hotels and
in tourist apartments along with 50,000 illegal beds. It has been found that over tourism has not
only affected the quality life of the tourism but it has also affected the ability of the area (Garay
and Cánoves, 2011). This overcrowded tourism has not only affected the loss of opportunity but
it has also impacted the loss of identity and has given rise to antisocial behaviours which was
reported by Barcelona authorities.
(Source: Statistic report of Barcelona, 2018)