The director general of the Guild of Hotels of Barcelona (Gremi d'Hotels de Barcelona), Manel Casals, called this Monday for a strong response from the public administration towards "tourismphobia" as well as illegal renting of flats to tourists, since he claims that they are the source of the unrest in the city. He also warned that the conflicts between workers and management in Barcelona-El Prat Airport, which happen every summer for one reason or another, are damaging the city´s image.
In an interview with Europa Press, Casals said that he hopes that the extraordinary municipal commission this Monday to deal with the attacks on tour operators -like that by the Arran youth group last week against a tourist bus- will result in an agreement between the parties to stop the problem "at the source". Likewise, he thinks that the politicians have to condemn the acts and take legal actions where necessary, whilst they have to work together to avoid repeats in the future.
Casals claimed that this "tourismphobia" is linked to the exponential growth in tourist apartments since 2010. Then, Barcelona had 70,000 hotel places to which have been added 120,000 further places in tourist flats, of which half are illegal.
In his opinion, the "uncontrolled" appearance of 120,000 places is a consequence of bad management by the public administration, and he criticised the Catalan government for deciding to legalise the use of private houses for tourism.
Fault of the public administration
Likewise, he warned that the Catalan government "will stumble over the same problem again" if with the new tourism regulations they legalise the renting of rooms to tourists without strict limits.
"The public administration has created this problem by legalising tourist flats and they haven't offered solutions", said Casals, although he positively rated the attitude of the Barcelona town council. "In the last year, the Town Council of Barcelona has acted much more decisively than any other administration", he said.
Strikes at the airport
Regarding the conflict at Barcelona-El Prat Airport, Casals pointed out that: "We've seen several summers now with the same story. We keep on wearing away at the image of Barcelona as a tourist destination and we also have a problem as Catalans, who are the first ones to be hurt". Casals reproached the different administrations for "passing the ball from one to another", and he urged them to agree to solve the conflict over the security checks at the airport.