Barcelona: A victim of its own tourism success?

Panoramic view on Port Vell and The Monument of Christopher Columbus at Pl. Portal de la Pau from Montjuïc. It is the calm before the storm, in a couple of hours this very place will be overwhelmed with tourists. Tourist euros increasingly come with a hefty price tag to Barcelona. The city used to be a desirable city for people with taste. Its Modernist architecture, high-end shops and restaurant culture were major pulls. But the city center today suffers chronically from souvenir tat and tourist overload. The infamous Las Rambla and Port Vell are bent double shouldering an endless stream of visitors at the mercy of itinerant sellers, pickpockets and con artists. Last year, just as Barcelona earned the title of the third most visited city in Europe, it got a new mayor, Ada Colau — an outspoken critic of tourists in the city. After being elected to office in June 2015, Colau threatened to put a cap on the number of visitors to Barcelona, fearing it would “end up like Venice”, a city in which tourism has been blamed for driving locals away and to make the city and turning the city into a large self-destructing theme park – Hotel Miramar, Montjuïc, Barcelona, Spain.