Having visited Barcelona some years ago I was looking forward to revisiting many of the places I remembered, not only the Iconic Sagrada Familia, but also the Padrera and Parc Guell.
So I joined the queue in Placa Catlalunya for the 24 bus.
Ten years ago I alighted from the bus with the indoor critic in her chariot and we wheeled through the park and into the delightful and surreal decorations that Gaudi introduced into what would have been another Iconic housing development in the park. Entry was free, access whilst not easy was manageable and the crowds not overwhelming. The number 24 bus was not overcrowded and lifting the wheelchair into the wheelchair space was relatively easy.
On this visit the bus was so crowded that it would have been impossible to load the wheelchair, I stood all the way from Catalunya to Parc Guell and before catching the bus had to buy timed tickets for entry to the Gaudi designed area of the Parc from tourist information.
There was a queue but thankfully the rain held off.
A similar challenge faced my partner and myself at Sagrada Familia, we arrived at the ticket office at a little before 11 00 am the next available time for entry was 5 30 pm and again the access was carefully policed and entry was not allowed until the exact time.
Barcelona it seems is being overwhelmed by tourism.
Locals complain about the number 24 Bus, it is always full, there is only standing room available and often local people are kept waiting at the bus stop because the tourists have crowded them out.
Clearly one way of ensuring that the crowds are controlled is policing so for example in the Mercat de la Boqueria it is no longer possible to visit in a group. This seems absolutely right. It is first and foremost a market where local people shop for essentials: garlic, tomatoes, olives, olive oil, cheese, meat and fish. The complete Mediterranean diet in fact.
The fact that it is also a tourist destination has to come second to its mercatness surely?
Another way of ensuring control of tourism and tourists is taxation through entrance charges, in effect to monetise the complete experience.
But both policing and monetising is failing to stem the flood of tourists who are increasingly seen as a disbenefit to the City and its population.
So much so that a recent article in the Guardian carried the headline: 'Tourists go home, Refugees welcome'.
The main thrust of the article was that Barcelona views immigrants as people who arrive, commit to Barcelona as a place, work hard to establish themselves, become local and contribute to the flourishing of Barcelona, whilst tourists and tourism mean that prices for housing rise, cafes and bars are overfull and there are no seats on the 24 bus.
But are tourists and immigrants so implacably opposed to each other?
Could it be argued that they both represent the same aspect of global shifts?
One as a function of climate change, extreme poverty in the developing world and young people seeking to improve their well being by searching out jobs and opportunities in the developed world. Whilst the other is also a function of climate change, increased affluence in the developed world and older people seeking to extend their horizons through travel which is said to broaden the mind.
The similarities don't end there.
The Mediterranean is awash with Cruise ships so large that they appear to be small towns afloat on the high seas. The Royal Caribbean's ship Allure carries a crew of 2,170 to serve 6,300 passengers. There are villages in Cumbria with populations in the low hundreds. Barcelona has a population of approx 1.7 million, about 200 cruise ships full, tourism increases this by up to 30% about 60 cruise ships.
So, according to research by Paolo Giacarria, a social scientist at the University of Turin, the case of Barcelona "establishes a connection between two types of mobility that are at odds with each other: northern tourism and southern migration, subverting the common feeling about which kind of mobility is desirable and which is not."
This debate of course spills over into a consideration of the impact of tourism in London versus the effects and benefits of immigration. It further informs both attitudes and politicians rhetoric with regard to immigration in the UK.
One inevitable conclusion is that welcoming immigrants is a matter of human justice, there is a strong biblical underpinning regarding the welcome extended to strangers, it also makes economic sense whereas the rise in tourism and its ill effects on cities and communities needs to be better and more effectively controlled.
More monetisation in the form of a tourism tax or a more generous hand to those who come seeking a better future will be a debate for the future ........
So I joined the queue in Placa Catlalunya for the 24 bus.
Ten years ago I alighted from the bus with the indoor critic in her chariot and we wheeled through the park and into the delightful and surreal decorations that Gaudi introduced into what would have been another Iconic housing development in the park. Entry was free, access whilst not easy was manageable and the crowds not overwhelming. The number 24 bus was not overcrowded and lifting the wheelchair into the wheelchair space was relatively easy.
On this visit the bus was so crowded that it would have been impossible to load the wheelchair, I stood all the way from Catalunya to Parc Guell and before catching the bus had to buy timed tickets for entry to the Gaudi designed area of the Parc from tourist information.
There was a queue but thankfully the rain held off.
A similar challenge faced my partner and myself at Sagrada Familia, we arrived at the ticket office at a little before 11 00 am the next available time for entry was 5 30 pm and again the access was carefully policed and entry was not allowed until the exact time.
Barcelona it seems is being overwhelmed by tourism.
Locals complain about the number 24 Bus, it is always full, there is only standing room available and often local people are kept waiting at the bus stop because the tourists have crowded them out.
Clearly one way of ensuring that the crowds are controlled is policing so for example in the Mercat de la Boqueria it is no longer possible to visit in a group. This seems absolutely right. It is first and foremost a market where local people shop for essentials: garlic, tomatoes, olives, olive oil, cheese, meat and fish. The complete Mediterranean diet in fact.
The fact that it is also a tourist destination has to come second to its mercatness surely?
Another way of ensuring control of tourism and tourists is taxation through entrance charges, in effect to monetise the complete experience.
But both policing and monetising is failing to stem the flood of tourists who are increasingly seen as a disbenefit to the City and its population.
So much so that a recent article in the Guardian carried the headline: 'Tourists go home, Refugees welcome'.
The main thrust of the article was that Barcelona views immigrants as people who arrive, commit to Barcelona as a place, work hard to establish themselves, become local and contribute to the flourishing of Barcelona, whilst tourists and tourism mean that prices for housing rise, cafes and bars are overfull and there are no seats on the 24 bus.
But are tourists and immigrants so implacably opposed to each other?
Could it be argued that they both represent the same aspect of global shifts?
One as a function of climate change, extreme poverty in the developing world and young people seeking to improve their well being by searching out jobs and opportunities in the developed world. Whilst the other is also a function of climate change, increased affluence in the developed world and older people seeking to extend their horizons through travel which is said to broaden the mind.
The similarities don't end there.
The Mediterranean is awash with Cruise ships so large that they appear to be small towns afloat on the high seas. The Royal Caribbean's ship Allure carries a crew of 2,170 to serve 6,300 passengers. There are villages in Cumbria with populations in the low hundreds. Barcelona has a population of approx 1.7 million, about 200 cruise ships full, tourism increases this by up to 30% about 60 cruise ships.
So, according to research by Paolo Giacarria, a social scientist at the University of Turin, the case of Barcelona "establishes a connection between two types of mobility that are at odds with each other: northern tourism and southern migration, subverting the common feeling about which kind of mobility is desirable and which is not."
This debate of course spills over into a consideration of the impact of tourism in London versus the effects and benefits of immigration. It further informs both attitudes and politicians rhetoric with regard to immigration in the UK.
One inevitable conclusion is that welcoming immigrants is a matter of human justice, there is a strong biblical underpinning regarding the welcome extended to strangers, it also makes economic sense whereas the rise in tourism and its ill effects on cities and communities needs to be better and more effectively controlled.
More monetisation in the form of a tourism tax or a more generous hand to those who come seeking a better future will be a debate for the future ........
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