As for the hospitality guild, I’ll say two things:
- they are the ones who benefit most from tourism, so any action destined to reduce our reliance from tourism will be frowned upon.
- These are the same guys who, last summer, complained on one hand that it was very difficult to hire people (with the usual accusations that -young- people are lazy,e tc) while on the other hand were arguing with the goverment that they could not afford to pay minimum wage nor respect working hours because that would make restaurants not sustainable.
So, honestly, I would take with a grain of salt whatever they say.
In my personal opinion, Collboni has not done anything in favor or against tourism – so far he has been quite meek and conciliatory with most, guessing because he is in a bit of a precarious position, governing in minority. He’s in talks with the Hotel Guild, because they want a piece of the hole left by the AirBnB industry once is gone away - if it really goes away - and the guild has been praising him a lot, though recognizing he still has a lot to prove. They liked him better than the previous mayor, Colau, as she was positively hostile to any ampliation or concession to tourism.
As for the people who protest, my guess is that the lack of short-term action is what is driving them mad, because at this point most of us don’t know if he’s planning long term, or just kicking the can forward.
ETA because I cannot chain more than two replies in a row:
I will add that yes, some people got soaked and got a bad impression of barcelona, but this is what a strike is - and would add, not a riot. Nobody got hurt^*, and we’re a long way to reach that part. The hospitality guild claims “this is not the way” but what they want is peaceful protests that affect no one, and will cause no disruption to their bussiness. The police was quick to identify the strikers but they did not do a hard repression, and the fact that the hospitality guild is complaining about that (one of the things they said is “collboni did not enough to stop this from happening”) says a lot.
Striking action means someone’s vacations will get disrupted, but if this is the only way to get people’s attention (and boy, WE GOT IT), well, I would say mission acomplished.
^* Unlike what we can say about the housing crisis, which evicts dozens of families in precarious positions, and until now, mostly to feed the tourism machine. Just two weeks ago, an elderly household took their lives just when they received an eviction notice.
