Comment on Tourism boom fires Iberian economies but leaves some cold

Tourism boom fires Iberian economies but leaves some cold

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — With sunny days getting longer and lazier, sparkling beaches warming up and terrorism fears driving customers away from other Mediterranean destinations, Spain and Portugal are reaping an economic bonanza from tourism. With the boom showing no signs of slowing and the summer vacation season approaching, some locals are fed up with throngs of tourists clogging the narrow streets of the peninsula's centuries-old cities and crowding its celebrated beaches. In Barcelona, complaints about overcrowding have grown so much that residents elected a mayor last year who is making good on promises to put a brake on new hotel construction and is exchanging ideas with New York City officials on how to cope with the crush. Tourism analysts say security concerns are helping drive business toward the western Mediterranean areas and away from Europeans' other traditional summer hotspots, especially Egypt, Tunisia and Turkey. "Barcelona has consolidated itself as one of the world's prime destinations, which has its obvious benefits, but also entails high-impact risk that unregulated growth could eventually make the bubble burst," she said recently. "Harmony of the Seas," the world's largest cruise liner, capable of landing more than 5,000 passengers at a time, is due to dock in Barcelona on June 5 on its maiden Mediterranean cruise. In the medieval Lisbon neighborhood of Alfama, a constant stream of tourists in tour buses, taxis and motorized rickshaws called "tuk-tuks" thread their way through narrow, cobbled streets up to St.

 

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