Barcelona’s incoming mayor has stated she intends to introduce a cap on tourists in a bid to “stop the city becoming Venice”. Ada Colau has said the city needs to limit the number of tourists with an entry cap.
“If we don’t want to end up like Venice, we will have to put some kind of limit in Barcelona,” Colau told Spanish newspaper El País. “We can grow more, but I don’t know how much more.” The mayor-elect said her administration would come up with a strategic plan that would balance the needs of the tourism sector with those of the city’s residents.
In 2013, 7.57million tourists visited the city, of which more than six million were not Spaniards. In 2000, the number of visitors was 3.14million.
“We have to put a moratorium in place regarding new hotels and tourist apartments, carry out a census and create a preventive policy before things get out of hand,” Colau said, suggesting a city-wide freeze on new hotels and tourism rental apartments for six months.
