Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic ADVERTISEMENTBefore visiting Barcelona in March, I\u2019d read the headlines with a healthy mix of scepticism and concern.Tourists sprayed with water guns. Locals shout: \u2018Tourists go home!\u2019 More protests planned.They painted the picture of a people fed up with the economy of coming and going. And there was no escaping it: my presence could contribute to the problem. I was travelling to run the city\u2019s marathon \u2013 one of its biggest international events \u2013 and wondered if I\u2019d picked the wrong time.As is so often the case, the reality was more nuanced.Big events bring big money \u2013 but also big crowdsInternational marathons are big business. According to its title sponsor, Bank of America, the 2022 Chicago Marathon generated about \u20ac340 million, created almost 3,000 jobs and pumped \u20ac145 million into the local economy.Barcelona\u2019s marathon isn\u2019t quite on that scale, but still 27,000 people signed up for the March race \u2013 7,000 more than ever before.\u00a0That\u2019s roughly the number nine cruise ships would carry at full capacity, all descending on the city for one morning of hard work and one night of celebratory cava and verm\u00fat.Would the city bristle at yet another influx of visitors eager to get lost in the Gothic Quarter, marvel at Gaud\u00ed\u2019s masterpieces and feast their way through the mercats?\u00a0Not at all. I wasn\u2019t met with water guns \u2013 although they would\u2019ve been welcome at points along the 42-kilometre course \u2013 but with cries of encouragement.Thousands of locals lined the streets. The energy was electric. The city felt proud.None of this was a surprise. Marathons have yet to become targets for anti-tourism protestors, even if \u2018race-cations\u2019 are on the rise.Still, the tension is real, and the impacts of overcrowding aren\u2019t hard to find.Why some locals are reaching their limitBarcelona is one of Europe\u2019s most visited cities. More than 12 million people visit each year, and about five million make a beeline for Park G\u00fcell and Sagrada Fam\u00edlia alone. The pressure on these places \u2013 and on the people who live nearby \u2013 is immense.Yet tourism accounts for more than 125,000 jobs and nearly 15 per cent of the city\u2019s economy.For many locals, this isn\u2019t about banning tourists. It\u2019s about finding a sustainable balance.ADVERTISEMENT\u201cBarcelona is a much calmer, safer and more welcoming city than what is reported, but sometimes we pay more attention to isolated events that make a lot of noise,\u201d says Jordi Luque Sanz, a Barcelona native, food writer and senior culinary attach\u00e9 at Bon Vivant Communications, a firm that manages chefs and high-end restaurants around the world.\u201cHaving said that, I will not deny that tourism has grown enormously in recent years, that we lack an adequate model because no government has been interested in developing one seriously and that some areas are very overcrowded.\u201dDuring my trip, checklist destinations like La Rambla and Sagrada Fam\u00edlia were packed, despite grey, wet and unpredictable weather. At one restaurant, I watched as a waiter \u2013 with the patience of a saint \u2013 repeatedly turned away diners who had ignored a \u201creservations only\u201d sign and barged in to ask for a table, always in English.At Park G\u00fcell, confused visitors, unaware they needed to book tickets online, met with exasperated workers. There, I overheard one staff member exclaim to a Spanish-speaking couple: \u201cWhat a miracle to hear people speaking Spanish in this place!\u201dADVERTISEMENTCruise ships and short-term lets are under scrutinyMuch of the strain stems from how people visit the city.\u00a0Among the biggest flashpoints are short-term rentals and cruise ship tourism. Many apartments have been converted intoAirbnbs, pricing out locals and turning once-quiet streets into party zones.\u00a0\u201cHere we don\u2019t have \u2018suburbia,\u2019\u201d says Ann-Marie Brannigan, an Irish expat and co-founder of Runner Bean Tours who has lived in Barcelona for almost 20 years. \u201cSome people don\u2019t know much about neighbourhood or flat living. It took me years to get used to it.\u201dShe says that many tourists will often sit out on balconies or terraces, drinking and talking long after midnight \u2013 a taboo in Barcelona communities.\u00a0ADVERTISEMENT\u201cIf you want to have fun and party, you should go out to zones where there are clubs,\u201d she advises.Meanwhile,cruise ships unload thousands of day-trippers who rarely stay long enough to contribute meaningfully to the local economy.Last May, Barcelona\u2019s mayor, Jaume Collboni, warned that the volume of short-term travellers was overwhelming popular areas and crowding public transport. \u201cWe are reaching a limit, and we need to put a cap [on one-day visitors],\u201d he said.The cultural toll is just as concerning.\u00a0ADVERTISEMENTLongtime residents are watching their city change as historic bars, restaurants and neighbourhood markets are rebranded to suit the tastes of a transient crowd, and chintzy shops now occupy historic buildings in El Born and the Gothic Quarter.What travellers can do differentlyBeyond the big-name attractions, though, a less saturated and more rewarding Barcelona still exists.The Recinte Modernista de Sant Pau offers a remarkable look at Barcelona\u2019s modernist movement with a fraction of the crowds of Sagrada Fam\u00edlia just down the road.\u00a0Small coffee shops like Dalston and Sip pair locally roasted beans with friendly service.\u00a0ADVERTISEMENTLess-frequented venues like the historic Mercat de Sant Antoni and pintxo favourite Quimtet & Quimtet \u2013 standing tables only \u2013 offer antidotes to overcrowded hotspots.These are the kinds of experiences experts like Luque suggest seeking out.\u201cThe great monuments \u2013 La Sagrada Fam\u00edlia, Casa Batll\u00f3, the Picasso Museum \u2013 are fabulous, but it\u2019s worth trying to get to know other places, such as the neighbourhoods of Poble Nou or Sants, where everything is much more real,\u201d he says.Luque recommends local markets like Mercat del Ninot and Mercat de Galvany over the packed Boqueria and encourages travellers to explore quieter corners of Eixample, \u201cnot just along and around Paseo de Gracia, which is a wonderful street but too crowded.\u201dADVERTISEMENTDunnigan suggests places like Montju\u00efc and Gl\u00f2ries if you want to see more local \u2013 and overlooked \u2013 sides of the city. \u201cThe cemetery in Montju\u00efc is absolutely beautiful, and no one goes there,\u201d she says, highlighting the Art Nouveau-style mausoleums built by the city\u2019s bourgeois for their loved ones around the turn of the 20th century.Gl\u00f2ries, she adds, offers a window into the city\u2019s modern architecture, including landmarks like the excellent Design Museum of Barcelona and Encants Market.And she encourages visiting community festivals instead of just big ones like La Merc\u00e8.\u00a0\u201cEvery neighbourhood has two a year, with food and sardanas (traditional music dancing),\u201d says Brannigan. \u201cThey\u2019ll give you a much more local feel.\u201dADVERTISEMENTIt also helps to know \u2013 and follow \u2013 local etiquette. Luque has a few suggestions.Don\u2019t go shirtless, he says. Avoid rowdy antics in residential neighbourhoods. Drinking in the street? Not allowed. And learn a few Catalan or Spanish phrases. \u201cA \u2018gr\u00e0cies\u2019 for thank you or \u2018hola\u2019 for hello always helps and a smile opens many doors,\u201d he says.Is Barcelona at a crossroads?At a recent summit in the city, protestor Elena Boschi made a pointed declaration to the media members in attendance: \u201cWe want tourists to have some level of fear about the situation \u2013 without fear, there is no change.\u201dHer words underline the growing tension between a city that depends on tourism yet struggles to manage its impact \u2013 a tension that\u2019s evident to anyone visiting the city.ADVERTISEMENTWith protestors planning Europe-wide disruptions on 15 June \u2013 across Barcelona, Venice, Lisbon and beyond \u2013 the atmosphere is more volatile than ever. But it\u2019s also clear that Barcelona isn\u2019t vehemently anti-tourist. It\u2019s simply asking for a different kind of tourist: one who comes with curiosity and listens as much as they look.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic ADVERTISEMENTBefore visiting Barcelona in March, I\u2019d read the headlines with a healthy mix of scepticism and concern.Tourists sprayed with water guns. Locals shout: \u2018Tourists go home!\u2019 More protests planned.They painted the picture of a people fed up with the economy of coming and going.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":301942,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-301941","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-travel"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301941"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":301943,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301941\/revisions\/301943"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}