Tourist Go Home? A Front-Row Seat to a Protest in Barcelona

 This morning, or more accurately, afternoon, I got a wake-up call I wasn't expecting- literally. Police sirens and shouting filled the street right outside my hostel. When I got out of bed to look outside the window, around 50-60 protesters were gathered with signs, megaphones, and, yes, water guns, firing them at people who walked out of the hostel. Someone sprayed graffiti on the walls that read, "Tourists Go Home." It turns out my hostel was a main pitstop for this anti-tourism protest. 

While the water guns seemed silly, the protesters were serious. They were calling attention to how mass tourism is transforming the city, pushing out locals, raising housing costs, and eroding community life. In POL 399, I researched about how cities reflect the priorities of the policies in which they make, and how urban space can become contested when local needs and outsiders clash. Seeing this protest made it clear, tourism isn't just about economic questions here, it's a one tied to demographics, land use, and the feelings of belonging. 

From my POL 150 perspective, I started thinking about what it means to be a citizen in a place overrun by outsiders. The protesters weren't just angry at tourists; they were demanding that the state protect their rights to affordable housing, public space, and cultural continuity. This connects to concepts like liberalism, which emphasises individual freedom, versus socialism, which calls for collective protection and regulation. Barcelona is a democratic society, but many locals feel their voices are drowned out by investors and short-term rental platforms, such as my hostel. So, where does democracy go when money speaks louder than votes? 

What struck me the most was how the space the protesters used was a message in itself. They didn't gather in one area but marched across the streets with a destination in mind. The streets, specifically the one my hostel is on, are a hub for tourism. It is a public space where tourists eat, sleep, talk, walk, and take pictures. The local land use, as I researched, is used for these reasons; the protest often reclaims this public space to challenge who it actually belongs to, the citizens. Protest becomes a way to reassert your presence in a city and sometimes your rights. 

It's one thing to research urban politics, and another to hear alarms telling me to evacuate when there are people with water guns outside. This experience showed me how politics shows up in everyday life- quite literally, on the walls, and in the spaces we move. This can be compared to American politics easily, with the protest going on with immigration in California, where ICE was called in to take charge. There are many similarities and differences, especially with the use of violence and how it relates to citizen rights. Also, how land use is essential in being a citizen, and how it relates to the underlying concepts of democracy.