A survey of 2,000 tourists placed the Catalonian city ahead of Paris, Rome and Amsterdam, while 80 per cent of those questioned said they believed Britons were deliberately targeted for potential [causing problems] opportunities.
Barcelona has long been known as a hot spot for pickpockets, with tourists on Las Ramblas particularly susceptible.
In April Telegraph Travel reported on a growing problem with pickpockets in the French capital. Cash-carrying Chinese and Russian tourists at the Louvre were said to have been targeted by increasingly aggressive thieves, many of them children.
And in May four British tourists paid an extortionate £54 for ice creams in Rome. The incident prompted the city’s mayor to offer them a free holiday by way of apology.
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If I asked for an ice-cream and was charged £54 for it, I would tell them to stuff it.