All the waiters and tour guides can't just re-train as semi-conductor technicians.
Even given time, it's not obvious that Barcelona or Spain has the necessary pre-conditions to be globally competitive in another industry that would bring in the same amount of dollars per capita.
It's an extremely ambitious, all-hands-on-deck type of national undertaking to shoehorn your way into something. Japan did it with auto-manufacturing in the 30s. East Asia in general with high tech manufacturing.
You can argue on the basis of principles that tourism is bad. The fact remains that tourism cannot be stopped cold-turkey without massive job loss as seen during covid. If you wish to stop tourism and preserve the well being of the people that depend on its income, then you need a plan for what replaces tourism and how to re-skill your workforce. There’s clearly no such plan in place.
Even given time, it's not obvious that Barcelona or Spain has the necessary pre-conditions to be globally competitive in another industry that would bring in the same amount of dollars per capita.
It's an extremely ambitious, all-hands-on-deck type of national undertaking to shoehorn your way into something. Japan did it with auto-manufacturing in the 30s. East Asia in general with high tech manufacturing.