Tourism and Politics in Barcelonaby Melissa VargasThe LIU Global Europe center visited the city of B

Tourism and Politics in Barcelonaby Melissa VargasThe LIU Global Europe center visited the city of Barcelona, located in Spain’s autonomous region of Catalonia, for four days last month. Academic focuses of the trip included the study of Modernism and Surrealism, the politics of Catalan separatism, and the impact of tourism. An emphasis was placed on understanding the relationship between art, culture, and politics rather than viewing them as separate entities.Political situationThe streets of Barcelona breathe political air. Everywhere you look, there are flags and political banners. Whether it be the Cataluñan independence flag or the Spanish flag, these flags serve as symbols of a deep-seated identity conflicts.Personally, I found the topics of politics and tourism most interesting.PoliticsCatalonia has been considered an autonomous region by the Spanish national government since 1979. There are sixteen other autonomous regions in Spain, however, each region’s agreement with the national government and level of autonomy varies. Spain has granted Cataluña the right to self-governance and recognizes Catalan as an official language of the region in addition to Spanish. While Catalonia has been considered autonomous for almost forty years, a desire for greater autonomy and even succession has persisted throughout the region’s history.At the mention of Catalonia, the first thing that might come to mind is the referendum that took place just over a year ago on whether or not the region should become independent from Spain. Although the Spanish state refused to acknowledge the legitimacy of the referendum, grassroots efforts still managed to make the vote happen. The referendum was met by the central government with violent and punitive responses, most notably raids on polling stations and both the incarceration and exile of Catalan government officials. While Catalonia’s turbulent political climate during the referendum caught international media attention, the coverage was ephemeral. Visiting Catalonia and learning about its history made clear that the region’s political unrest wasn’t born when global coverage of the referendum began, nor did it dissipate when the referendum ceased making global headlines.  The city of Barcelona breathes a political air, as distinct political flags and banners stuck out on nearly every street that I walked on. Some banners have messages advocating for the release of political prisoners by the Spanish government, while others simply have the word ‘sí’ printed on them in reference to the referendum vote. The different flags hung throughout the city give insight into the nuanced opinions that exist on the issue of separatism. The official flag of Catalonia is yellow with four red stripes. The popularly recognized Catalonia independence flag, which resembles the official flag but incorporates a white star within a blue triangle, was most prevalent throughout the city. Another flag, with the base of the official flag and a red star within a yellow triangle, also represents independence but has communist and socialist ties. I also saw Spain’s national flag hung as an expression of anti-separatism from time to time. Just walking the streets of Barcelona put into perspective the distinctions that exist even within parties generally in agreeance.TourismPrior to the trip, our class discussed the negative impact of tourism within the city of Barcelona in our Bibliographic Research course. We particularly focused on the comparison of tourists to immigrants, in terms of their contributions to the city. Residents of Barcelona appreciate immigrants over tourists because they contribute to society in a lasting, impactful way. Imagining the specific ways that tourists might negatively impact a city, such as pollution and gentrification, was near effortless. However, one statistic from the Guardian mentioned during our discussion was inconceivable: Barcelona recorded 32 million tourists in 2018, which is 20 times the population of the city’s residents. For this class, we were tasked with being acutely aware of the impacts of tourism on the city throughout our visit and taking field notes on our observations.There is a large immigrant population in Barcelona and it quickly became clear why the city prefers their presence over the presence of tourists. Over the span of our four day trip, I encountered and spoke with a Colombian woman who works in a shoe store, a Pakistani restaurant owner, and a woman running an art exhibit from Madagascar. The immigrants I encountered are all individuals who are in Barcelona to stay, whereas tourists are not.The once unfathomable number of 32 million tourists truly came alive upon arriving in Barcelona. Streets, public transport, and famous landmarks are heavily congested with tourists. In our Global Studies course, we’ve been learning about the concept of space and how to analyze it. What better place to analyze space than Barcelona? I found the Barrio Gótico quarter, a heavily commercialized area located in the center of the city, a particularly interesting space to analyze. Contrary to its name, Barrio Gótico is not authentically gothic; the quarter’s medieval buildings were restored in a gothic style during the late 19th and early 20th centuries in order to appeal to tourists.As I walked through the quarter knowing its history, I couldn’t help but feel like I was walking through an artificially constructed space. Endless modern shops and restaurants, nestled along cobblestone alleyways and next to large gothic buildings, seemed rather incongruous. The quarter consists of many tall buildings with balconies overlooking the narrow streets below. From these balconies hang independence flags and political banners. While independence flags were hung from a minority of the balconies, the symbolism of these flags exudes a very political climate into a space largely occupied by tourists. It was interesting to see small, spatially elevated expressions of residentiality and local identity juxtaposed with the predominantly tourist-filled space below. It’s difficult to imagine, as a local, looking down onto a space every day that tourists dominate.While there isn’t a simple solution to the issue of tourism in Barcelona, witnessing how tourists can negatively impact a society causes me to question my role as a traveler and think more deeply about the way I may be affecting a city when I visit it. -- source link
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