The people of Barcelona maintain a curious relationship with tourism, a vital activity for the local economy but which causes dysfunction and inconvenience to the residents. This is evident in the responses to the electoral interactive of Public Affairs Experts for La Vanguardia. Four out of ten participants in the survey (more than 22,000 users have already responded) share the opinion that Barcelona is a fantastic city to visit but that policies are needed to modulate the number and type of tourists it receives.
The responses accumulated to date indicate that only 11.58% of Barcelonans are in favor of limiting the cruise industry, while 24.12% believe that tourism should have a fiscal impact on improving investment in the neighborhoods. For its part, a much lower percentage, barely 5.41%, chooses the statement that the tourism industry is "insatiable" and the City Council puts a "red carpet" on it to destroy the city and its neighborhoods. This feeling is more widespread in the districts of Ciutat Vella, Sant Andreu and Nou Barris.
Another aspect evaluated by the questionnaire regarding the candidates for mayor of Barcelona is access to housing, one of the main problems affecting the Catalan capital. A third of the users believe that a city agreement is necessary so that Barcelona can have a significant park of sustainable rental housing in a period of ten or twenty years. While most neighborhoods consider that at least 25% of the total housing should be of this type, the inhabitants of the districts of Les Corts and Sarrià-Sant Gervais opt for applying a public-private collaboration model where the owner Don't be treated as a mere speculator.
A part of those surveyed point to the mayoress Ada Colau as one of those responsible for the housing situation in Barcelona. In this sense, 13.42% of the users who have answered the questionnaire believe that Colau's "inefficiency" "expels the residents of Barcelona", while 12% identify with the statement that his housing policies "They are populists" and have not fulfilled the promises with which they agreed to the mayor's office. Likewise, a similar percentage of participants in this electoral interactive maintains that a market that does not set limits to speculation must be regulated. The highest proportion of residents who endorse this sentence occurs in Ciutat Vella (16.75%).
The Public Affairs Experts survey for La Vanguardia also reveals that 30.58% of Barcelonans believe that it is necessary to promote a model of development and economic growth that is sustainable, cohesive and that always seeks agreement and the achievement of large majorities. In the same way, a third of those surveyed (32.26%) identify above all with the belief that small and medium-sized companies and the self-employed are the motor of the local economy and that they require support that now, because of the heavy tax burden, they do not have.
Precisely about the support for business and business initiatives is another of the issues raised. More than 30% of Barcelonans think that there is not a fair system between what small merchants and large companies pay in taxes. The districts that most adhere to this statement are Ciutat Vella, Horta-Guinardó and Nou Barris. Les Corts is the one that in the highest proportion (28.3%) maintains that Barcelona should have a model of high productivity, with better salaries, territorial balance and an adequate tax burden, especially for companies. Meanwhile, Sarrià-Sant Gervasi stands out for the high percentage of residents (27.74%) who are committed to promoting the return of the companies that left Catalonia as a result of the process.
