This could be the last summer Barcelonians endure chaos outside the Sagrada Familia. The city has unveiled plans to construct a dedicated space adjacent to Gaudi’s iconic basilica to ease congestion caused by ‘selfie-tourists’ who obstruct traffic and test residents’ patience.
For over a decade, locals have expressed their frustration at the ever-growing crowds clogging roads and pavements around the Catalan’s city site. The Sagrada, which draws 4.7 million visitors a year, is the second most visited site in Spain, after the Alhambra in Granada.
While often a source of disruption, tourism also brings in substantial revenue. In 2023, Barcelona welcomed 32 million visitors, with 12 million of them staying in hotels, hostels, or rental apartments, generating €9.6 billion in revenue. Tourism accounts for 14% of the city’s GDP and provides 150,000 jobs. However, the city estimates the annual cost of maintaining tourism, such as security, cleaning, public transport, and infrastructure, at €50 million.
In an effort to accommodate both tourists and locals, city authorities have unveiled plans to build a 6,200-square-metre ‘anteroom’, a kind of public plaza where tourists can gather, rest, and take photos before entering the basilica. Described as a ‘versatile space for popular gatherings’, the new plaza will sit between the Nativity façade and Plaça Gaudí on Carrer de la Marina, the site of a recent TikTok trend that caused severe congestion.
The trend involved placing phones on metro escalators to film oneself with the basilica in the background and blocking station exits. It was eventually banned.
@viktoria_hedz we found that escalator #barcelona#sagradafamilia#metro#sagradafamiliabarcelona#spain ♬ Pròxima estació – SantBoi_ball 2
Construction is expected to begin after the summer and be completed by April 2026, to coincide with the 100th anniversary of Gaudí’s death. The project, with a €2.7 million budget, is part of a wider €15.5 million plan to improve infrastructure and visitor management around the monument.
Barcelona is not alone in facing the ‘selfie-tourist’ phenomenon, a term used by UNESCO to describe travellers whose main goal is photographing themselves at famous landmarks. Portofino, Italy, has introduced €275 fines for tourists lingering too long in popular photo spots, while the Austrian village of Hallstatt where Frozen has installed barriers to block scenic viewpoints. Just last week, Bali tightened enforcement of behavioural rules for visitors.
Barcelona’s selfie plaza is just one of several measures to tackle overtourism. In 2023, the city launched a €44 million plan to manage crowds across 16 hotspots. The famous ‘Visit Barcelona’ slogan was replaced with ‘This is Barcelona’ in a rebranding effort to shift away from mass tourism. Streets have been removed from Google Maps to divert tourist buses, and an app now warns visitors when attractions are overcrowded. The city also plans to ban short-term tourist rentals by 2028 and cap cruise ship disembarkations.
As early as 2015, then-Mayor Ada Colau warned that ‘any city that sacrifices itself on the altar of mass tourism will be abandoned by its people’. Despite a brief respite during the pandemic, tensions have returned. In recent summers, frustrated residents have also resorted to direct action, including graffiti with messages like “Tourists go home” and “Tourism is killing this city” scrawled on walls, as well as incidents of spraying diners with water.
Barcelona’s message is clear: tourists are still welcome, but not at the expense of those who call the city home.
