While qualifying his views on the attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils that killed 15 people on August 17, 2017, Pere Mariné, executive member of Al Poblenou Ens Plantem, one of the most active neighborhood associations against the tourism boom in the Cantalan capital said, “What has happened is dramatic, that is why I want to make clear that we are not against the tourist sector or the tourists, but against massified tourism.”[1] At least 130 people were injured when a driver deliberately slammed a van into crowds on Barcelona’s most popular street in what police confirmed was a terror attack. Citizens of 24 countries were among those killed and injured in Barcelona. [2]
The attacks seem to have put on hold the intense debate over the country’s tourism model. A truce was reached after months of protests experienced in the Catalan city of Spain to force greater regulation of the sector; to prevent the granting of new tourist apartments licenses and encourage a more controlled increase in the number of hotels.
