, Columnist
Barcelona Is Throwing Tourists Under the Bus
No one likes overcrowding, but cities should be careful not to make things too difficult for visitors.
Park Güell: a great place to visit, even for locals.
Photographer: Picture Alliance via Getty Images
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As the summer tourism season approaches, a perennial question arises, and technology is giving it a novel twist: Is a place primarily for those who live there, or for the entire world?
The latest salvo in this conflict comes from Barcelona. Bus No. 116 goes to Antoni Gaudí’s Park Güell, one of the top tourist destinations in the city. Neighborhood and bus crowding, however, induced the city council to remove the bus route from Google and Apple maps. So getting to Park Güell is now harder for tourists — which doesn’t bother the locals one bit.