A water fight on the streets of Barcelona. Some locaux spraying tourists with water guns as they ate at popular restaurants, sending visitors fleeing from their tables. Thousands of protesters walking through the city over the weekend, chancing tourist go home, ' and carrying signs with anti-tourist slogans.

Restoration and hotels is the group that makes really big money, but all the people are in a very poor situation, and they don't have enough money to live. That's a problem.

Barcelona is one of the top tourist destinations in the world, home to iconic sites like La Sagrada Familia and Park Güell, in addition to beautiful beaches. Officials reporting more than 33 million people from all over the world visited the city in the first five months of 2024 alone. Tourism bringing in a whopping €9.6 billion in 2023, according to the tourism Tourism Observatory of Barcelona. But some locals say mass tourism is not only overwhelming the city, but also making the cost of living unaffordable to its residents.

I would stress the declining quality of life for local residents, and that would include the increasing cost of housing, the noise, the litter, the displacement of long-term residents, and the relentless construction.

Rents in Barcelona has risen nearly 70 % in just the last decade, according to Mayor Jaume Colboni. In June, the mayor announced a plan to stop renewing permits for rentals used by foreign visitors by 2028 after saying a boom in short term rentals is to blame. The city, assuring the move, would make 10,000 when it's available to locals in four years.

The last year, the city has turned completely for a tourist. And what we want is a city for citizens and not in service of tourists.

A dilemma for a welcoming city to shift focus and take care of its own.

Guard Venegas joins us tonight from the Telemundo Center in Miami. So, Guard, people visiting Barcelona or planning to visit Barcelona in the months ahead, could they expect to see more of these protests and possibly be hit by these water guns?

Well, Tom, for the people that were at those establishments, they was at the wrong place at the wrong time, right? I mean, there's a lot of visitors in Barcelona. It's just unfortunate that they were right there when the protesters came. But this is a sign of that anti-tourism sentiment in Barcelona, which we expect to continue. It's not only the protest, there's also signs around the city that are asking tourists to go home. Now, the city has already approved increasing the tourist tax from €3.25 to €4. That's a small increase. But again, it's another sign that Barcelona wants to limit the people that are coming into the city. In the future, what we can expect is Barcelona to become a much more expensive destination for the tourists that do decide to go. Things are going to change, Tom. A lot of the people that that visit this city do it because it's known to be a welcoming city with vibes from people that come from all over the world. That perhaps will change as local official make these new changes to make it much more difficult for those that want to visit and more affordable for the people that live in Barcelona.

So all of this should be kept in mind when someone is planning to go to the city, Tom.

Guadalajara for us from Miami, Guadalajara. We thank you for that.

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