Spain's booming tourism industry boosts GDP, jobs – and resentment
Sep 01, 2017
4 minutes
The bright contemporary paintings and dusty antiques at Inaki Gonzalez’s store in this chic seaside city draws upscale tourists seeking the perfect keepsake. But at the entrance, they face a decidedly low-brow message: “Tourist go home” is splashed on the closed shutter of a restaurant in pink paint.
For Mr. Gonzalez, it’s a municipal embarrassment, not to mention a risk to livelihoods in a place that is among the most visited in Spain.
“If I travel somewhere, I wouldn’t want people to treat me like this,” he says. “And if I did get treated like that somewhere, I wouldn’t go back.”
Anti-tourism sentiment
Tourist-phobiaYou’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.
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