ADVERTISEMENTLast summer, Spain erupted with protests driven by the soaring tourist numbers putting a strain on residents’ daily lives.
More than 90 million foreign visitors descended on the country in 2024, and consultancy firm Braintrust estimates that the number of arrivals will rocket to 115 million by 2040.
Angered by the inadequate government measures to manage the flow, locals across Spain staged hunger strikes, plastered visitor hotspots with anti-tourism messages, and squirted tourists with water guns.
As the Easter holidays approach, the anti-tourism sentiment is brewing once again, and protests are ramping up.
Hundreds of thousands of Spaniards marched in protests held in over 40 cities across the country on 5 April in anger over high housing costs with no relief in sight.
Residents are demanding that authorities step up regulations before peak season sees tourist destinations overwhelmed again.
Why are Spain’s residents protesting against tourism?
The unchecked influx of tourists to Spain in recent years has generated a rash of unwelcome effects for residents.
One major impact is the spiralling cost of housing as accommodation is snapped up for tourist lets and land bought for building new resorts.
Last April, demonstrators in Tenerife organised a hunger strike over two new hotel developments with some locals saying they had been forced to sleep in their cars or caves because they couldn’t afford housing on the island.
“We have nothing against individual tourists but the industry is growing and growing and using up so many resources and the island cannot cope,” Ivan Cerdena Molina, who helped organise the protests, told local news outlet The Olive Press.
“Airbnb and Booking.com are like a cancer that is consuming the island bit by bit.”
Other tourist hotspots like Barcelona and Madrid are also struggling with soaring rental prices for residents.
In June last year, Barcelona’s city council announced a plan to rid the city of tourist flat licenses by 2028. The city hasn’t granted any new licenses since 2014, when it froze the supply at around 10,000 units.
Spain is also planning to introduce a 100 per cent tax on properties bought by non-EU residents in its latest move to protect the housing market from foreign buyers.
Sales of homes to foreigners, including EU citizens, make up roughly 15 per cent of the housing market, according to the Spanish property registry.
ADVERTISEMENT‘The source of our problems’: Anti-tourist protests ramp up ahead of Easter holidays
Despite these moves, resentment continues to ferment with protests already taking place ahead of the Easter break.
Government authorities said that 15,000 marched in Madrid on 5 April, while organisers said 10 times that many took to the streets of the capital. In Barcelona, the city hall said 12,000 people took part in the protest, while organisers claimed over 100,000 did.
Marchers in Madrid chanted "Get Airbnb out of our neighborhoods" and held up signs against short-term rentals.
In Barcelona, one protester carried a sign reading “I am not leaving, vampire", apparently in a message to a would-be real estate speculator seeking to drive him out of his home.
ADVERTISEMENTIn Majorca, locals staged a demonstration demanding solutions to the housing crisis under the slogan ‘Let’s end the housing business’.
"The greed and avarice of hoteliers, politicians, real estate investors, and 'parasites' of all kinds" have also deteriorated the island’s ecosystem, overloaded public services, and triggered gentrification, activists wrote in a letter prior to the protest.
They concluded by imploring tourists not to come to the island, calling them “the source of our problems”.
The fury of residents seems to have resonated with one council already. After protesters descended onto the streets in Malaga, the city authorities announced they would cancel plans to build 1,300 tourist homes in the area.
ADVERTISEMENTThey are also reportedly considering a ban on selling properties to foreigners altogether.
Will there be more anti-tourism protests in Spain this summer?
Across the Canary Islands, employees in the hospitality sector are threatening to strike over the Easter holiday period in an ongoing dispute over pay.
Spain’s two principal trade unions - CCOO (Comisiones Obreras) and UGT (Unión General de Trabajadores) - have proposed a one-time payment or a 7.75 per cent wage increase for hotel, restaurant and bar staff across the Spanish archipelago to mitigate the prohibitive living costs for workers.
33.8 per cent of residents in the Canary Islands are at risk of poverty or social exclusion, according to Spain’s National Statistics Institute, the highest figure for any region except Andalucía.
ADVERTISEMENTLast week, unrest broke out in Tenerife, fueled by anger over mass tourism. Activists vandalised a fleet of rental cars and warned they would escalate actions by targeting airports.
Next month, 15 activist groups from Spain, Portugal, Italy, and France are holding a summit in Barcelona to coordinate efforts to counter unsustainable tourism.
The Majorca-based movement Menys Turisme, Més Vida (Less Tourism, More Life) has said it will redouble efforts this summer.
The alliance of groups campaigns against the adverse effects of excessive tourism, which it blames for exacerbating property speculation, displacing local residents, and inflating living costs.
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