World News for Students of English

09-07-2024 07:00

Around 3,000 people protested in Barcelona against too many tourists in the city.

These protests already happened in the Canary Islands and Mallorca. Over 150 groups joined the protests and sealed off some hotels and restaurant terraces. Barcelona is Spain’s most visited city. They want to reduce tourism before the busy summer season. Some people believe that the city should focus on fairer business and reduce tourism. Barcelona gets about 32 million visitors every year, many on cruise ships.

The city plans to increase the tourist tax to 4 euros per person from October. They also plan to remove about 10,000 tourist flat licenses in the next five years to help with the housing crisis and make homes for people who live in the city. Many cities in the world are fighting to reduce the bad effects of mass tourism on local life.

Difficult words: seal off (to stop people from entering an area or building), cruise ship (a large ship which carries many people and travels to several places), remove (to take away).

You can watch the original video in the Level 3 section.