> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://barbarosozturk.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The Amusement Park Economy: Why Tourism Hotspots Are Pricing Out Locals - URL: https://barbarosozturk.com/blog/the-amusement-park-economy-why-tourism-hotspots-are-pricing-out-locals/ - Published: 2026-11-13T19:12:20.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-13T19:12:20.000Z - Description: The US builds the companies, and much of Southern Europe increasingly hosts the people who work for them. When locals earn local wages but compete for homes with visitors paid by stronger economies, affordability breaks. Here's how the amusement park economy works. - Author: Barbaros - Tags: Economy & Markets, Geopolitics & Defence I think the global economy is splitting into two kinds of places. Some build the companies, the technology and the high-paying jobs. Others increasingly earn their living by hosting the people who have those jobs. The United States is the clearest example of the first group. The tourism hotspots of Southern Europe are becoming the clearest example of the second. I call them amusement park economies. They're beautiful, safe, full of history and great food, and priced for visitors. The problem is that locals have to live in the park while earning park wages. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/64/81/648165b7-979e-43dd-9c43-02101159f467/content/images/2026/11/image-131.png) ### The Gap Between Builders And Hosts Mario Draghi's [competitiveness report for the EU](https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2024/0909/1469106-europe-faces-existential-challenge-to-up-productivity?ref=barbarosozturk.com), released in September 2024, laid out how wide the gap has become. It found that real disposable income per person [grew almost twice as much](https://patrickcollison.com/dispatches/draghi-on-europe?ref=barbarosozturk.com) in the US as in the EU since 2000. No EU company worth more than €100 billion was set up from scratch in the last 50 years. All six US companies worth more than €1 trillion were. Draghi put it bluntly: "Europe largely missed out on the digital revolution led by the internet and the productivity gains it brought." The wage gap shows up in everyday life. OECD data for 2024 puts the [average annual wage](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%5Fof%5Fcountries%5Fby%5Faverage%5Fwage?ref=barbarosozturk.com), adjusted for purchasing power, at $82,933 in the US. It's $54,564 in Spain, $51,019 in Italy, $40,002 in Portugal and $32,257 in Greece. Those figures already account for lower local prices, and the gap is still huge for a local trying to outbid a visitor. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/64/81/648165b7-979e-43dd-9c43-02101159f467/content/images/2026/11/image-132.png) ### How A Country Becomes An Amusement Park Spain hosted a record [97 million international tourists](https://www.idealista.com/en/news/node/880116?ref=barbarosozturk.com) in 2025, and they spent about €135 billion. ING estimates tourism made up [12.6% of Spain's GDP](https://think.ing.com/articles/eurozone-quarterly-spain-does-2026-mark-a-turning-point-from-quantity-to-quality-driven-growth/?ref=barbarosozturk.com) in 2024. Spain has also been the fastest-growing major economy in the EU, with the European Commission forecasting [2.9% growth for 2025](https://euroweeklynews.com/2025/11/17/brussels-confirms-spain-is-eus-fastest-growing-major-economy/?ref=barbarosozturk.com). That sounds like a success story. ING calls it growth driven by quantity rather than quality. Relative to the eurozone, Spain's labour productivity per hour rose just 0.4%, and output per worker fell 1.2%. More people and more visitors are doing the work, but each worker isn't producing much more. Policy pushed in this direction for years. Golden visas sold residency to people who bought property. Digital nomad visas invited remote workers paid by foreign companies. Mexico City went even further, signing an agreement with Airbnb and UNESCO in 2022 to [attract digital nomads](https://fortune.com/2025/07/18/mexico-city-protests-gentrification-digital-nomads-sheinbaum/?ref=barbarosozturk.com). When your growth strategy is attracting wealthier outsiders, you shouldn't be surprised when they outbid your own citizens. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/64/81/648165b7-979e-43dd-9c43-02101159f467/content/images/2026/11/image-133.png) ### Why Locals Lose In Lisbon, foreign buyers paid a median of €4,283 per square metre at the end of 2021, against [€1,858 for locals](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-21/foreigners-spend-twice-the-money-on-a-lisbon-home-than-locals?ref=barbarosozturk.com), according to Portugal's statistics institute. Portuguese house prices rose 130% between 2010 and early 2025, more than double the [EU average of 57.9%](https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20250704-4?ref=barbarosozturk.com). In Barcelona, the mayor plans to scrap more than 10,000 tourist apartment licences by 2028, and Spain's top court [backed the plan](https://www.thestar.com.my/news/world/2025/03/14/spain039s-top-court-backs-barcelona039s-plan-to-ban-holiday-apartments?ref=barbarosozturk.com) in March 2025. Locals told reporters that affluent visitors were pricing them out of the housing market. In May 2025, residents across the Canary Islands marched under the slogan ["Canarias tiene un límite"](https://www.euronews.com/travel/2025/05/16/inequality-and-infinite-growth-canary-islands-anti-tourism-protests-reignite-amid-record-a?ref=barbarosozturk.com), or "The Canary Islands have a limit." In Mexico City, protesters in July 2025 carried signs reading "Gringo: Stop stealing our home." The mechanics are simple. A local nurse in Lisbon is bidding for the same flat as a remote worker paid in dollars and a landlord who can earn more renting it by the night. She usually loses. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/64/81/648165b7-979e-43dd-9c43-02101159f467/content/images/2026/11/image-134.png) ### Why It Could Get Worse This is the part I'm most worried about, and it's my own forecast. The biggest productivity gains from AI are likely to land first in the countries that own the frontier labs and the cloud infrastructure. I've written about how the [AI alliance wars](https://barbarosozturk.com/blog/the-ai-alliance-wars/) are concentrating that power, and most of it sits in the US. If those gains widen the wage gap, more people from builder economies will be able to afford a life in host economies. Remote work makes that easier every year. Each new arrival is a rational choice, and together they push up the cost of living for people who earn locally. Governments are already reacting. Spain [closed its golden visa programme](https://www.imidaily.com/europe/spain-plans-100-tax-on-property-purchases-by-non-eu-buyers-who-account-for-fewer-than-5-of-sales/?ref=barbarosozturk.com) on April 3, 2025, and Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez proposed a 100% tax on home purchases by non-resident buyers from outside the EU. Mexico City's mayor proposed limiting rent increases to inflation. I expect more of this: caps on short-term rentals, extra taxes on foreign buyers and two-tier pricing for residents and visitors. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/64/81/648165b7-979e-43dd-9c43-02101159f467/content/images/2026/11/image-135.png) ### Where The Theory Breaks I want to be fair to the other side, because the data doesn't fit the theory neatly. The biggest house price increases in the EU since 2010 were in Hungary, at 260%, and Estonia, at 238%, which aren't amusement parks. Italy, one of the world's great tourist destinations, was the only EU country where house prices fell over that period, by 4%. Greece was the only one where rents fell, by 11%. Foreign buyers made up about 14% of Spanish home sales in 2023, and buyers from outside the EU were fewer than 5%. So visitors and foreign money aren't the whole story. Housing supply, interest rates and local policy matter at least as much, which is the same argument I'd make about Canada. The EU also isn't one economy. Germany's average wage, at $69,433 adjusted for purchasing power, is closer to the US than to Portugal. The amusement park label fits tourist cities and Southern European hotspots much better than it fits the whole continent. And the US has an affordability crisis of its own, so being a builder economy doesn't protect locals either. ### Conclusion: Don't Let Your City Become Someone Else's Holiday The builder economies are pulling ahead, and the host economies are earning more by selling access to their cities. That model brings money in, but locals pay for it through housing they can't afford. Banning visitors won't fix it, because tourism is often what keeps those economies running. The real fix is building more homes and building industries that pay locals enough to compete. **My Take:** An amusement park economy can grow fast for a while, but if a country only hosts and never builds, its own young people will end up working in the park and living outside it. ## Sources Pages I opened for the facts in this post: - [RTÉ: Draghi report on EU competitiveness](https://www.rte.ie/news/business/2024/0909/1469106-europe-faces-existential-challenge-to-up-productivity?ref=barbarosozturk.com) - [Patrick Collison: Draghi on Europe (report excerpts)](https://patrickcollison.com/dispatches/draghi-on-europe?ref=barbarosozturk.com) - [Wikipedia: List of countries by average wage (OECD data)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List%5Fof%5Fcountries%5Fby%5Faverage%5Fwage?ref=barbarosozturk.com) - [idealista: Spain closes 2025 with record 97 million international tourists](https://www.idealista.com/en/news/node/880116?ref=barbarosozturk.com) - [ING: Spain, quantity versus quality-driven growth](https://think.ing.com/articles/eurozone-quarterly-spain-does-2026-mark-a-turning-point-from-quantity-to-quality-driven-growth/?ref=barbarosozturk.com) - [Euro Weekly News: Spain is the EU's fastest-growing major economy](https://euroweeklynews.com/2025/11/17/brussels-confirms-spain-is-eus-fastest-growing-major-economy/?ref=barbarosozturk.com) - [Fortune: Mexico City protests against gentrification](https://fortune.com/2025/07/18/mexico-city-protests-gentrification-digital-nomads-sheinbaum/?ref=barbarosozturk.com) - [Bloomberg: Foreigners spend twice as much on a Lisbon home](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-21/foreigners-spend-twice-the-money-on-a-lisbon-home-than-locals?ref=barbarosozturk.com) - [Eurostat: House prices and rents continue to rise in early 2025](https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-eurostat-news/w/ddn-20250704-4?ref=barbarosozturk.com) - [The Star: Spain's top court backs Barcelona's holiday apartment ban](https://www.thestar.com.my/news/world/2025/03/14/spain039s-top-court-backs-barcelona039s-plan-to-ban-holiday-apartments?ref=barbarosozturk.com) - [Euronews: Canary Islands anti-tourism protests](https://www.euronews.com/travel/2025/05/16/inequality-and-infinite-growth-canary-islands-anti-tourism-protests-reignite-amid-record-a?ref=barbarosozturk.com) - [IMI Daily: Spain plans 100% tax on non-EU property buyers](https://www.imidaily.com/europe/spain-plans-100-tax-on-property-purchases-by-non-eu-buyers-who-account-for-fewer-than-5-of-sales/?ref=barbarosozturk.com)