It’s difficult not to be charmed by Barcelona. The playful Gaudi mosaics everywhere, the colour on Las Ramblas, the zingy restaurants in Barce­loneta, the turrets of Sagrada Familia, the buzzing energy of the place and the general vibrancy of the place. It’s no wonder that tourists love Barcelona.

So it comes as a bit of a shock to hear that Barcelona doesn’t like them. Or to rephrase that – most Barcelona residents aren’t too keen on so many tourists thronging their city.

More than 7.2 million visitors would have checked into Barce­lona this year and mayor Ada Colau Ballano thinks the city just can’t cope with those huge num­bers. Residents are complaining about the litter, the noise and being priced out of the housing market (That sounds familiar, doesn’t it?).

Last year there were protests over an explosion of short-term rentals that residents said were turning apartment buildings into ‘youth hostels’.

Yes, tourism was bringing in the cash and the jobs but was it making Barcelona uninhabitable for its 1.7 million inhabitants? The mayor seems to think so.

She said she doesn’t want the city to turn into another Venice – basically a tourism theme park with few actual residents raising families. She was mooting mea­sures such as a moratorium on permits for more tourism estab­lishments in the city.

Now that may sound a bit extreme and it’s not going to go down very well with the thou­sands who make a living from the industry, but the dilemma Barce­lona is facing is the same one troubling other tourist hotspots like Malta – at which point does tourism become unsustainable?

Who is going to strike a balance between the demands of the tourism industry and residents’ quality of life? Is anybody even thinking about addressing these issues? Are we equipped to en­force any regulations that make residents’ lives bearable?

As things stand it doesn’t look like it. Rather, it seems as if it’s all systems go for anything that attracts tourists, and if it poses any inconvenience to residents, they can jolly well lump it or up sticks to another area. Last week there were reports of loud music blaring out continuously from tourist establishments at St George’s Bay. Residents re­ported the disturbance to the police practically on a daily basis but to no avail.

It doesn’t have to be a Tourist vs Resident scenario if only government intervened minimally to enforce regulations

That’s just one example of inconvenience caused to residents by the authorities’ inaction. The awful litter prob­lem, which is especially evident in localities with high tourist density, is another. Residents are banging on about it and the government resolutely ignores us, despite the ‘Gvern Li Jisma’ claim.

Now the government is gagging to push through its new policy facilitating the placement of tables and chairs in open public spaces. According to the minister that’s because outdoor catering is a selling point for the country that we need to promote.

I suppose that’s fine if it means stylish French and Ita­lian-type al fresco dining outlets.

The more probable rea­lity is that the policy will encou­rage the further proli­feration of those hideous plastic gazebo things flapping in the wind and offering microwaved burgers – and po­sing an insur­mountable obstacle course to pedestrians.

I say this with the conviction of experience, and while noting that the policy speaks solely of faci­litating the setting up of street furniture but does not simplify or facilitate enforce­ment proce­dures. Because it always ulti­mately boils down to enforcement – or the lack of it – and the fact that the govern­ment’s enforcement agency is non-existent or still-born and the clear indication that the government prizes the tourism income far more than residents’ quality of life.

It doesn’t have to be a Tourist vs Resident scenario, if only government intervened mini­mally to enforce regulations. This was the conclusion reached by Elizabeth Becker in Overbooked: The Exploding Business of Travel – her work about the effects of tourism. She wrote: “On its own, travel is neither good or bad. The travel and tourism industry has good and bad impacts, and governments are central to determining what their outcome is.

“The flash points of tourism are the same around the world: local communities feeling powerless in the face of their government and big industry; the industry feeling powerless by opaque regulations and corrupt government officials; civil societies feeling ignored when they try to protect their forests and beaches, neighbour­hoods and children; scientists and environmentalists being silenced and threatened when they warn that travel is one of the human activities that is changing our climate.”

If we don’t even acknowledge the fact that we have to find ways of making tourism sustainable, there is little hope of success­fully dealing with the situation when we reach the tourism tipping point.

cl.bon@nextgen.net.mt