OPEN DEMOCRACY (9/1/2019)
Tourism is booming in Portugal, but so is housing speculation. Gentrification has been causing the displacement of the poor, a proliferation of hotels and shrinking public space.
“The bookshop closed, the greengrocer and the florist closed. The city will turn into a tourist’s hotel”, sings the band Samba sem Fronteiras. They sing in the Worst Tours kiosk in Porto, used by local associations and artists to promote an alternative to the touristic side of the city. Closed down last May, the kiosk warned against the gentrification taking over Portuguese cities. “The tavern closed, the pastry shop and the antiquarian closed. Everything transforming into one big, huge hotel”, sing the Porto-based musicians.
Portugal has long been popular for its beaches and historical sites, but in recent years tourism has broken records. Porto, the second biggest city, was included in the world’s Top 100 City Destinations 2018 and elected Best European Destination in 2017. Over the past decade the city saw an unprecedented rise in visitor numbers. To recover from its financial crisis, Portugal tried to attract foreign investment, focusing on tourism and even providing buyers of properties worth half a million euros or more with a “golden visa” to increase the flood of foreign capital.
The tourism boom attracted a lot of foreign investors, helped reduce unemployment and renovated derelict buildings in the city