The tourism debate in Barcelona has signs of becoming an issue of national identity that divides the population, as also occurs between supporters of potato omelette with or without onion. That's how we are sometimes, it's all or nothing, Barça or Madrid, black or white. With tourism it is difficult to find the key to popular will, but without a doubt it is such an important issue for our economy that perhaps we should try to do it in a more sensible and calm way. The result of the latest survey on the perception of tourism in the Catalan capital showed hopeful data: 70% of Barcelona residents consider that it is beneficial for the city. But instead more than half (61%) think that the city is reaching the limit of its capacity.
Both options make sense and are timely. To combine the benefits of tourism with the control of its annoyances, the affected administrations must think of plans that facilitate coexistence, but without killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. Tourism in Barcelona, and also in Catalonia as a whole, is not a trivial matter. We are talking about the first industry in our environment, and precisely for this reason we must all apply ourselves so that the drawbacks that we find in the sector are minimized as much as possible so as not to risk a key income of the present and the future. We must find solutions that allow all the sectors involved to continue feeding an activity that we have recovered after the pandemic and that is on track to achieve record numbers. In Barcelona we are lucky to have traditional tourism, plus conferences and fairs, plus health, cultural and gastronomic tourism.
The route of dispute, that of tourismphobia, therefore does not seem appropriate. The same thing happens with the need to continue having a strong and competitive territory, and as a society we get lost in long and sterile debates that are responsible for putting the brakes on issues as essential as the expansion of the airport. When you see how other markets compete without restrictions, many of us get a little nervous. We need to think bigger to achieve high levels of success. And since we don't do it, we dedicate ourselves to hatching any plan that could endanger the main sources of wealth generation. We are that way. You have to admit it. But it would be great if one day we could detach ourselves from so much mediocrity and try to grow without complexes.
The serious problems that the city has must be found more in the lack of capacity of the administration to build housing at reasonable prices. Read the article that Enric Sierra wrote yesterday. Demolition Man. Truly governing is finding formulas that solve problems and not hindering areas of activity that work.
