The America’s Cup sailing race, the ultimate sporting competition for the super-rich, begins in Barcelona on Thursday, marking the latest attempt by one of the cities at the forefront of Europe’s overtourism crisis to attract “quality rather than quantity” in tourism.

The sponsor of the event, which runs until October 27, is the luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton, which held a fashion show at the end of May in the Park Güell designed by Antoni Gaudí in the Catalan capital.

Emirates Team New Zealand are the defending champions and will be challenged by boats from the UK, Italy, Switzerland, France and the USA. The teams began setting up their bases in Port Vell, the city’s old port, over a year ago.

Ada Colau, the former mayor of Barcelona, ​​beat two other Spanish cities to win the title of host for 2022: Valencia, which hosted the Cup in 2007 and 2010, and Málaga. The radical left, which was ousted in 2023, has since been sharply critical of high-profile events in Barcelona, ​​such as a week-long Formula 1 festival in June, which it condemned as inappropriate in a city trying to reduce car use and struggling with high levels of air pollution.

Some Barcelona residents have expressed their opposition to the boat race, including residents of Barceloneta, the neighbourhood next to Port Vell. Last year, a group of 60 residents and community organisations joined forces to form the Platform Against the America’s Cup.

“It will bring nothing but all kinds of misery to the city,” said the group’s spokeswoman, Esther Jorquera, when the platform was launched, adding that the event was “elitist and opaque.”

Local residents say they are being bombarded with calls from real estate agents and speculators wanting to buy their homes to profit from the event, which they say will lead to rising rents.

Barceloneta is already one of the districts of Barcelona most affected by mass tourism, which has displaced a large part of the local population.

Activists argue that events like the America’s Cup do not attract “better”, more spend-happy tourists, but simply bring more people to a city that is already overwhelmed by the number of visitors.

The city council expects the event to bring up to €1 billion in benefits to the local economy, but critics say the potential revenue will only benefit a few and question why such a lavish competition would use volunteers to organise the event rather than offering paid seasonal jobs.

The America’s Cup, first held on the Isle of Wight in 1851, is considered the oldest international sporting event in the world. It was last held in Auckland, New Zealand, in 2021 and was won by the host country.