Barcelona protests: holiday hotspots need fairer tourism for local communities

The debate on the relationship between host communities and visitors has been an issue since mass tourism took off in the 1970s. Introduced in 1975, the Irridex model – known as “the irritation index” – suggests that residents’ attitudes toward tourism evolve, like grief, through several stages: starting with euphoria, then apathy, irritation, and eventually, antagonism. This progression occurs as the perceived costs of tourism begin to outweigh expected benefits with the growth of tourist numbers and destination development.

So is this antagonism a natural evolution of tourism in popular destinations? Or is it caused by untenable visitor numbers, bad behaviour, and a lack of co-ordinated vision for tourism by cities? Disentangling the complexity of the reasons for recent protests requires considering all of the above.