Barcelona cannot absorb infinite tourism growth, needs curbs, mayor says

By Joan Faus

BARCELONA (Reuters) - Barcelona cannot absorb an ongoing, unbridled growth in the number of tourists and has to impose restrictions so as not to become a "theme park" without residents, the mayor of Spain's most visited city by foreigners told Reuters on Tuesday.

Last month, Barcelona pledged to shut all short-term lets by 2028 to contain soaring rental prices for residents. And earlier this month, images of an anti-tourism protest went viral after a few protesters used water guns to spray tourists amid growing rallies against mass tourism in Spain.

Socialist Mayor Jaume Collboni said he would continue efforts to limit the offer since he can't influence demand, which he said estimates show is infinite and could grow between 3% and 8% a year, which "no city could absorb".

"If you have a theatre with a 300-seat capacity, you cannot sell 500 (tickets) even if you have 200 people queuing... Everything has a limit," Collboni said in an interview at his office, its walls adorned with a Joan Miro painting and with a picture of U.S. gay rights icon Harvey Milk on his desk.

Last year, some 26 million tourists visited the 1.6-million city, where tourism accounts for 15% of its economy, and officials are bracing for a potentially record 2024.

"Tourism needs to be serving the city's model, not the opposite. That's what we are doing in Barcelona," Collboni added, expecting others to replicate the tourist apartments ban as he had been contacted by officials from other cities.

But visitors increasingly favour renting holiday homes when travelling, with short-term rentals by foreign tourists in Spain up by 24% between March and May, according to tourism industry association Exceltur.

Collboni, whose mandate ends in 2027, ruled out relaxing the ban, which he defends is legal, despite being challenged in courts and popular, with a poll by the local government showing 75% of Barcelona residents support it.

When the 10,000 tourist apartments the city has now end up in the market by 2028, that would be an equivalent of property that gets built over a decade, he said.

Neither does he plan to ease an existing ban on opening new hotels in the city centre, while also seeking to raise the city tax that cruise ship passengers staying less than 12 hours pay. The goal, he said, is that arrivals by sea stop growing after reaching a record 3.6 million cruise passengers in 2023.

Meanwhile, Collboni called the water-spraying protest "absolutely reprehensible" and not representing Barcelona's spirit, arguing that all tourists were welcome and the protests should not scare off visitors.

(Reporting by Joan Faus, editing by Andrei Khalip)