Barcelona and Venice highlight tourism problems - Kevin Buckle

Protest against over tourism in Barcelona

Leading the way was Barcelona, which has a population of 1.6 million but had 26 million visitors last year.

The organisers were keen to explain that touristification was different to overtourism, which implies the answer is to simply have fewer tourists.

Touristification is about how some cities are now being commodified to be consumed by visitors rather than being run for the benefit of the people who live and work there.

Venice, for instance, now has more beds for visitors than it has residents, even though there is a need, as there is in many cities, for more affordable accommodation.

At the same time shops that cater more for the local population are forced to close due to the higher rents those catering for visitors are prepared to pay.

Edinburgh, of course, has the added complication in August that as well as tourists there is also a mass influx of people for the Festival, both to perform and attend.

One thing, however, that has not been a problem is for all these different groups to find accommodation, as Edinburgh’s capacity has grown considerably in the last decade with more hotels being built every year.

This brings us to the second piece of news and that is that Oxford Street in London is to be pedestrianised.

Until recently, of course, Oxford Street was awash with dodgy shops selling American Candy and tourist shops selling overpriced souvenirs – a fate not dissimilar to the one that had befallen Princes Street.

However, a concerted effort by Westminster Council putting pressure on the owners of the shops and monitoring the items sold in them has brought about a big change.

Vacancies on Oxford Street currently stand at 0.5 per cent lower than its pre-pandemic level with shop units taken by Ikea, Abercrombie & Fitch, Søstrene Grene, Puma and Mango while established tenants Nike, Pull & Bear, Moss Bros and Vans have invested substantially more than £100m in upgrading their stores.

The pedestrianisation of Oxford Street is being seen as simply building on the success that there has already been rather than something that will turn the street’s fortunes around.

Princes Street, meanwhile, has not been so successful on all counts and even the units that have been taken have not on the whole been for retailers but hotels, with maybe a shop at street level that may well end up lying empty.

Hotels, of course, take a lot longer to open than a new shop, which is why Princes Street currently looks the way it does. but even when the hotels are up and running, they won’t be adding to the shopping experience the way the new tenants in Oxford Street are.

The council’s official strategy for Princes Street and the Waverley Valley is that it is “a safe, attractive and welcoming place for residents, workers and visitors to experience as a destination for leisure, shopping, culture and wellbeing.”

That is all well and good but actions, as they say, speak louder than words.