Barcelona attack fails to scare tourists away from Las Ramblas

The street that cuts through the heart of Barcelona was as busy as ever

Normal scenes on La Ramblas 24 hours after the attack (Jon Stone for The Independent)

Half way down La Rambla, away from the main floral tribute to Thursday’s van attack, a ticket booth is covered in multicoloured Post-it notes. Most carry messages of solidarity from the global village that visits this city every day: tributes from the US, from Russia, from Mexico, and countless other countries decorate the booth. Above them, someone has attached a sign: Ni miedo ni odio; Neither hate nor fear.

The part-pedestrianised Barcelona street where 17-year old Moussa Oukabir allegedly killed 13 people and injured more than 100 with a van just 24 hours earlier, is again thronged with tourists on Friday afternoon. People from 35 nationalities were wounded in the attack – a testament to both the city’s international nature and the wickedness of the attacker.

The latest European city to be hit by a terror attack is also the latest to get back to work promptly. The now all-too familiar tactic of using a vehicle as weapon is always effective in causing mass media coverage, and often mass carnage. But as elsewhere, it has failed to stop Barcelonans and visitors alike from going about their business for long.

Business owners on the street: mostly cafés, ticket booths, and flower sellers, briefly shut up shop on Thursday in the aftermath of the attack, but after a gathering and a period of silence in nearby square Plaça de Catalunya at noon today the vast majority have reopened in defiance.

“It is important,” Simón, a smartly-dressed cafe worker tells The Independent. “Everyone has reopened after the memorial. We are standing together.” He wasn’t at work during the attack and says he first heard about it when friends asked him if he was OK.

Everyone working on the street who speaks to The Independent is defiant in tone, but some locals fear tourists – a hugely important part of Barcelona’s economy – will stay away in light of the violence. We ask in at four hotels near La Rambla, and all say they have had suffered from cancellations since the attack. One woman behind the reception desk says today has been “messy”, but that she understands why people would stay away and that she hopes it won’t last long.

People from all over the globe left messages of solidarity for Barcelona (Jon Stone for The Independent)

Of the tourists who are out enjoying the Friday afternoon sun, the ones who will talk can’t see why anyone would stay away.

“This is a tragedy, it’s horrible to think someone would do this,” says Christina, a visitor from Toronto, Canada. “I don’t think it’s a reason to go home, though. We win by not being scared, but also it seems it happens anywhere now, you would just never leave the house.”

The attitude seems partly shared by the local authorities. There are increased police patrols around La Rambla, as you’d expected, with marked vans parked at each end – but traffic has been allowed to flow freely in the non-pedestrianised section, and and there’s now no sign the area is a crime scene, despite an ongoing investigation. There are some armed police around the corner, but you have to look pretty hard for them – they seem more on standby than making a statement. Things also seemed normal at the city’s airport on the way in – there was certainly no state of emergency.

This reaction is in contrast to that of other cities – in Brussels, which suffered coordinated suicide bombings in 2016 and another attempted bombing this year, pairs of fully armed and uniformed soldiers are a common sight at major train stations and airports, with extra security checks also laid on.

Tributes were laid in the street (Jon Stone for The Independent)

Before yesterday’s attack Barcelona was hitting the headlines for its anti-tourism movement, rallying under the slogan “tourism kills neighbourhoods”. Some locals say they are being pushed out of the centre by short-term renting to holidaymakers, who will gladly pay through the nose on websites like AirBnB. In recent incidents reported internationally, guided groups have been egged and tour buses have been sprayed with graffiti.

For now, at least, the activists seem to have gone quiet, with tourists and locals alike mourning the dead on La Rambla. A thick throng of people surround a pile of flowers, candles and near Liceu metro station half way down the boulevard, occasionally breaking into solemn applause when a new tribute is laid. Cameramen, reporters, and radio producers hover around asking people for a piece of their time. It is a scene familiar to anyone who was in Westminster in March, Nice in July, or Berlin last Christmas. Sadly, it is extremely unlikely to be the last.