A POPULAR hotspot in Spain is cracking down on day-tripping holidaymakers, calling them a "plague of locusts".
The city of Barcelona is popular with tourists, especially those on cruises who visit for the day.
In 2019, a record number of more than 2million cruise ship tourists visited Barcelona.
However, Barcelona deputy mayor Janet Sanz slammed the cruisers, saying they don't spend any money and don't contribute to the city.
She said: "You will be walking and all of a sudden there’s this mass of people who appear together in the street
"They don’t consume anything and they don’t have an economic impact
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"They just wander for four or five hours and leave."
City counseller Gala Pin previously called cruise travellers a "plague of locusts [kind of] tourism".
New rules want to cap cruise ships to just three ships a day, working out to 200,000 passengers a month – compared to the current 400,000 a month.
However, the city port refuted the negative claims, saying around 58 per cent of cruise ships were not day-trippers, as the trips would start or end in the city.
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Not only that, but a 2018 study found that cruise tourists who stay overnight spend around €230 on average in Barcelona.
But Sanz warned: "It’s the responsibility of everyone, especially those in the tourism sector, to ensure Barcelona doesn’t become a theme park."
A new cruise levy could also be enforced on cruise passengers, who already pay around £4 a day to visit.
Yet to be confirmed how much it will be, tourists are already charged €3 (£2.58) if they stay at the Spanish port for more than 12 hours, and €1 (86p) for a stay of less than 12 hours.
These costs are also on top of an existing €1.75 (£1.50) surcharge.
It's not just Barcelona cracking down on cruise ship tourists.
Majorca, one of the Balearic Islands, will be limiting the number of cruise ships arriving on the island.
For the next two years, only three cruise ships will be allowed to dock at Palma's port every day.
Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands, also plans to limit tourists in a move that will see the island welcome fewer tourists who have greater spending power.
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