At first glance, Barcelona is buzzing. The beach is packed, tourists swarm around the major sites, and restaurants are full.
The pandemic ravaged the tourism industry in Spain, but its second largest city appears to have recovered.
The trouble is, visitors are loving Barcelona — and many other cities and islands in Spain — too much, and the locals are not happy.
It's led residents to hold protests against mass tourism.
In Barcelona, images of one demonstration went viral after activists sprayed visitors with water pistols, while locals living near the popular Park Güell had a bus route taken off online map services to stop tourists taking their seats.
On Mallorca, residents turned out en masse to occupy one of the island's most Insta-famous beaches.
And in Alicante, protesters chanted "mass tourism destroys our neighbourhood" while holding placards reading "Out with holiday flats" and "Stop Airbnb".
High school biology teacher Martí Cusó, 34, who helped organise the largest protest held in Barcelona, said it attracted 10,000 people.
"Tourist destinations in Spain are among the poorest parts of the country. Why? Because tourism is paying its workers the lowest salaries in all the sectors in the economy," Mr Cusó told the ABC.
"So, the paradox is that a lot of people depend on tourism, their jobs depend on tourism, but they are earning less money so they cannot afford to live here.
"This is impoverishing our population, this is breaking up communities, and it is expelling local residents out. People are very angry, their lives are very precarious."
Mr Cusó said mass tourism also put enormous pressure on the city's health, transport, waste, and water systems.
He said protesters did not blame visitors, but rather governments and the tourism industry for allowing expansion without thought for the wider ramifications.
"We must reduce the weight of tourism in the economy," Mr Cusó said.
"For sure we will have tourists, but our economy has to be more resilient and more diverse to ensure residents [can] live here too.
"Our life here depends on that change, and if we don't change the economic model of the city all people in Barcelona will have to live outside the city and the city will become a theme park."
'We end up being second-class citizens'
Around 1.6 million people call Barcelona home, but figures from the Barcelona Tourism Observatory show that last year the city and surrounding province recorded 26 million visitors.
One of the reasons residents say it is increasingly too expensive to live in Barcelona is because tenanted apartments have been turned into short-term holiday rentals.
In an apartment block in Barcelona's west, long-term residents told the ABC their building owner would not be renewing their leases when they next expire.
So far 33 of the 120 apartments have been made into short-term holiday rentals.
Pamela Battigambe, who has lived in the building for 13 years, said the arrival of tourists had completely changed the dynamic of the community.
"Unknown people would change every week so you feel a bit unsafe, you don't know who is coming, there is noise, and we experienced a very bad situation where we had people puking from the balcony to downstairs," she said.
But the thing that worries the 43-year-old the most is where she will go when her lease expires in 2029.
"[I still have a] few years left, but the point is I feel quite scared and worried because the balance now is quite good, just 33 are rented to tourists and the rest are all tenants, but at the very end I am afraid to be among the last tenants living in a hotel," she said.
"I am looking to buy a flat or rent elsewhere, but the price is so high compared to what I am paying now ... and prices are rising very, very fast."
Pamela's neighbour, Maite Martín, has been living in her apartment for 24 years and had planned to enjoy her retirement there when she finishes working in a few years.
"My two boys grew up here and it's very sad that I need to go. I love the flat, I love where I live, I love the neighbourhood, and it's scary that I'm being forced to move," Maite said.
"The majority of us have seven-year contracts which are renewed automatically if there are no problems.
"My contract ends in 2028 so I am pretty scared. I have moments of depression because I don't know where to go and I don't know what to do."
The two women have come together with several other tenants in the building and tenants' advocacy groups to seek legal advice to try to stop the owner's plan.
Maite has also attended one of the larger protests against mass tourism.
"I understand tourism is part of our economy and it should continue, but I think we should search for a balance so tourists and locals can co-exist," she said.
"What we can't do is give priority to tourism and we end up being second-class citizens."
Council's plan to address housing
Barcelona City Council has a controversial plan to try to address mass tourism and tackle the housing shortage at the same time.
It is banning all short-term holiday rentals by 2028, by not renewing any of the 10,000 tourist licenses granted to landlords when they expire that year.
It is a measure the council believes would be the equivalent of building 10,000 new homes.
"We have a housing crisis," Deputy Mayor Jordi Valls told the ABC.
"The apartments have two uses — one is tourists and the other is for the citizens — we want to push the owners of these apartments [by saying], 'this is your asset, you can take profitability of this asset because it is your asset, but focus on the residential'.
"We have to keep a good balance between tourism and apartments for the people of Barcelona."
Mr Valls said that while tourism was an important industry for the city, the social impact on the residents, the density of neighbourhoods, and pressure on transport, public services, and the environment must also be considered.
"Tourists are overwhelming the city and overwhelming the citizens," he said.
Marian Muro, the director general of Apatur which is a lobby group for apartment owners, said owners were fighting the council's short-term holiday apartment ban in the courts.
"It is not my obligation to assist people who do not have housing, it is an obligation of the [government] administration," Ms Muro said.
"Private property is a fundamental right of people, and if you have an apartment or a property ... you can allocate its use to whatever you like, as long as it is legal."
She said apartment owners obtained their tourist licenses legally, so city officials should offer financial compensation if the ban proceeds.
Council has said the long notice period leading up to the ban in 2028 was intended to serve as compensation for landlords.
Ms Muro said tourist apartments account for 40 per cent of all accommodation on offer in the city and injected millions of Euros into the local economy every year.
She added that if Barcelona removed short-term holiday rentals from its accommodation offerings, families would miss out on affordable vacations and the city would not have the capacity to host large events such as exhibitions, conferences, and concerts.
Hotels, she said, would be the big winner.
"Hotel prices would skyrocket and go through the roof because there is less competition and there would be fewer options for the consumer," she said.
"It would also generate a black market."
Once the short-term apartment ban is in place, Mr Valls said inspectors would be policing it.
"In 2028 it is banned, the tourist apartment it's banned. If you do it, you do it, but it's illegal," he said.
A spokesperson for online booking platform Airbnb said it "welcomes regulation and works with governments around the world on rules that balance tourism benefits with protecting housing".
"The root causes of housing and tourism challenges in Europe are a lack of new homes being built and decades of hotel-driven mass tourism," the spokesperson said.
"In contrast, Airbnb accounts for a small proportion of visitors to Europe and helps local families afford their homes, which are typically rented for just three days a month in Spain.
"Authorities in the EU, Spain and Catalonia have all criticised disproportionate rules in Catalonia, such as the Barcelona announcement, and local hosts are challenging those rules in Spanish constitutional courts."
Popular bus route wiped off map
As policy makers work out how to curb mass tourism, some locals are taking matters into their own hands.
Residents living near Antoni Gaudí's famous Park Güell lobbied council for their bus route to be taken off major online maps, because they were fed up with having to squeeze on with tourists.
The park is Barcelona's second most popular attraction after the Sagrada Família Basilica, and attracts about four million visitors a year.
The ABC travelled on the bus with locals up to Park Güell, who said they were relieved to reclaim their route.
"Before the bus was removed from [smart phone] maps, there were many tourists because we're in a very touristy area and it was very difficult for the people who live here to get on and off the bus," resident Andrés Pulito, 18, said.
"Now that it's gone, it is much easier for us to enter with our shopping carts and to be able to get to our homes."
An increase in the tourist tax, online tickets sales only for major attractions, souvenir shop limits, and moving cruise ship terminals away from the city are some of the council's other measures aimed at easing the pressure on the city.
Barcelona residents Pamela and Maite want visitors to know that most people "don't hate tourists".
"Everyone is welcome and actually I feel bad to have this feeling of sort of hate against them," Pamela said.
"I don't want to hate anyone, I am a tourist when I travel, but I want people to be responsible and I absolutely want the administration to take responsibility for this and find a solution."
Residents are hopeful, but sceptical, that the council's 2028 ban will make a difference.
"I hope it's not just propaganda to get re-elected and I hope there are real concrete measures that are put in place," Pamela said.
Australian tourists enjoying the European summer sunshine in Barcelona told the ABC while they had some sympathy for the residents, a city that relied on tourism should tread carefully when it holds protests.
"We have the same problem on the Gold Coast, it's a problem all over the world," Chris, a Queenslander, said.
"Without tourism what have they got? It's an old city and they totally rely on tourism, if people can't afford [living here] they need to move further out where they can get cheaper accommodation, it's simple."
