With plans to visit Spain in late May and tour with Rick from
Barcelona to Madrid, I’ve become a fan of YouTube ( Spain speaks) that is a straight up
Review of Daily Spanish News.
Most of the daily shows have mentioned Drought
conditions worsening and the Spanish government’s efforts to police the situation.
Popular fountains, swimming pools public and hotel owned have been ordered to close.
In your opinion, when will this effect or discourage
Tourism ?
Posted by
Chicago
8165 posts
No. The average tourist has not heard or know anything about this. Barcelona could use a break from over tourism though.
Posted by
Mid-Atlantic area
7157 posts
There are a number of places in Spain that haven’t received normal rainfall amounts in years. Carlos included a link in one of his posts on reservoir levels throughout the country. He has posted a few times advising tourists to avoid Catalonia because of it. So far the drought hasn’t seemed to dissuade people from scheduling trips to those areas.
Since the drought isn’t mentioned is U.S. news, most people are probably completely unaware there is one.
Posted by
Bilbao
743 posts
Northern Spain has an excess of water and it´s not a problem at all. Western Spain (Extremadura, west Castile and León) are doing very well too. The problem is in the Mediterranean area, with southeast (east of Andalucía, Murcia, Valencia) and eastern Spain (Catalonia) with the biggest problems of water shortage. In any case, there´s lots of rains expected in many parts of Spain for next week (Holy Week) and it may alleviate a bit the situation.
Posted by
la rioja
590 posts
Things have gotten better in the last few weeks, in most of Spain.
In Galicia, they even began letting water out of some of the reservoirs. Here in La Rioja we have reached almost 70% capacity. Unfortunately, in Catalonia, the rain and snow just doesn't seem to be getting there.
Embalses.net has lots of information about where there is water and where there is not. Embalse is reservior.
Posted by
Barcelona + Sweden
4180 posts
You might find this helpful: https://community.ricksteves.com/travel-forum/spain/think-twice-about-visiting-barcelona-this-summer-2024
So far the worst hit areas are Catalonia and Andalucía, much of the rest of Spain, especially in the north is doing fine. I think the average tourist to Barcelona are ignorant or simply just don't care about the locals, as long as they can get their paella and sangria on las ramblas.
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
10625 posts
A reliable morning news broadcast here in France said that Barcelona has started importing water from Seville.
Posted by
Barcelona + Sweden
4180 posts
A reliable morning news broadcast here in France said that Barcelona has started importing water from Seville
You are probably thinking of Valencia? Sevilla is on the other side of the country and is also facing serious drought conditions.
Posted by
OP
West palm Beach
9 posts
If this forum has a Rick Steve’s tour administrator, can you explain when this drought situation could
Require change of locations for tours ?
Posted by
Atlanta, GA, USA
722 posts
I think if I was asking about the tour, I probably reach out to Rick Steves directly and not assume they’re going to see this post. They don’t seem to read every post
I did see an interview on BBC America a few weeks ago about this and I’ll be honest I do think it may impact tourist. They’re putting signs in hotel rooms in Barcelona at least asking you to limit your showers to four minutes they’ve turned off all the fountains. They are making a very dedicated effort to reduce water use, and he seemed to be discouraging us from going now whether that wasn’t official statement or not, I don’t know. I didn’t turn it on in time to see really, who he was I just heard part of the interview.