‘There is a sense that the city is falling apart’

Kike España gazes at Malaga’s Plaza de la Merced.

It was already morning, and the square was still quiet at this time – it was filled with jacaranda trees, an obelisk monument stood in the center of the square, and in the distance was the house where Pablo Picasso was born.

But what worries Keck are the city’s visitors, many of whom have gathered at nearby cafes.

“The situation is so saturated that Málaga has really reached a turning point where there is a feeling that the city is collapsing,” he said.

“It’s the same feeling you get when you enter a theme park,” he added. “There’s a large group of people who are consuming the city rather than actually living in it.”

Keck is an urban planner and local activist with the Malaga Tenants Union, which has been working to change the way tourism is managed in the southern Spanish city.

The group led a protest in late June that saw thousands of locals take to the streets to express their concerns about the negative impact of tourism on their cities, including driving up housing costs, gentrification and crowding.

It’s not just Malaga. Spaniards have been protesting for the same reason throughout the summer in other major tourist destinations, including Barcelona, ​​Alicante and the Canary and Balearic Islands.

In April, a group of activists in Tenerife held a three-week hunger strike against the construction of a new major tourism project. In Barcelona, ​​demonstrators fired water cannons at foreign tourists and slogans daubed on banners read: “Tourism kills the city” and “Tourists go home.”

Spain first became a tourist center more than half a century ago as Northern Europeans began flocking to its coastlines and islands.

Today, the industry accounts for about 13% of Spain’s GDP and is exceeding records for revenue and arrivals as it rebounds from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The country received 85 million foreign tourists in 2023 and is expected to exceed 90 million this year, closely following France as the world’s most popular tourist destination.

José Luis Zoreda, president of tourism industry association Exceltur, prefers to talk about the revenue generated by the industry – which he estimates at €200bn (£171bn) from direct and indirect activity this year – rather than visitor numbers.

He also highlighted how tourism has ensured that the Spanish economy will perform better than most of its European neighbors in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“We have been responsible for the most important proportion of economic growth over the past few years,” he said. “In 2023, our contribution to Spain’s GDP growth will reach 80%.”

As a result, the sheer size of the tourism industry and its strong growth drive the overall expansion of the Spanish economy.

But there is a growing consensus that the cost of such success is too high, and the recent wave of protests has created a sense of a turning point. Many Spaniards now believe that the towns they live in serve more tourists than residents.

Paco Femenia-Serra said: “Tourism is considered a positive economic activity, accounting for a large part of our GDP, but in terms of international tourists, the volume of tourism has become so large that We are seeing the negative effects now, especially in cities.

“Tourism is competing for space and the number of people on the streets is unbearable for many residents.”

Locals say tourism, in addition to making these places less pleasant, has forced many small businesses out of the city centre. In their place are franchised restaurants, bars and shops, and prices have gone up.

But the most commonly mentioned issue is housing.

Spain’s largest tourist destination has a large number of short-term rental properties aimed at tourists.

A recent study by El País newspaper found that several areas of Málaga have the highest proportion of Airbnb properties in Spain. A quarter of the apartments in the area around Merced Square are dedicated to tourist rentals.

Apartment owners can charge higher short-term rents than long-term tenants, which drives up prices across the board. Locals say it is difficult to find an apartment in the center of Malaga for less than 1,200-1,300 euros per month. With the average salary in the surrounding Andalusia region being just €1,600 per month, they are being priced out of their own cities.

“If the people of Malaga have no place to live, who will provide services for tourists?” asked Isabel Rodríguez, Housing Minister of Spain’s ruling Socialist Workers Party (PSOE).

Speaking at a housing forum in the city in July, she continued: “Where will the waiter who serves us a glass of wine and a plate of sardines live?”

As Ms Rodriguez’s comments indicate, Spain’s political class is now beginning to grapple with tourism’s difficulties.

Catalonia and the Balearic Islands have introduced a “tourist tax”, charging a sliding fee of up to €4 per person per day, depending on the type of accommodation.

Palma de Mallorca has tried to limit the number of people arriving by sea, not allowing more than three cruise ships to dock in the city a day, with only one carrying more than 5,000 passengers.

Measures have also been taken to resolve tourist accommodation issues. This year, Andalusia’s regional government has given towns and city halls the authority to impose their own controls on short-term rentals.

In the northeast, Barcelona has announced its intention to revoke all 10,000-plus tourist accommodation licenses currently in circulation in 2028.

Mr Femenia-Serra described the control of tourism in Spain as “a very difficult issue” given the economic clout of the industry, but argued restrictions were necessary.

“If we want to talk about sustainable tourism or reduced tourist numbers, we should talk about restrictions on activity and higher restrictions and more regulation of an industry that has so far been free to move,” he said. He suggested limits on the number of flights to certain destinations as a possible measure.

In Malaga, Caike España wants to see a rent cap and work to provide more housing for locals as an immediate measure to deal with the tourism crisis.

While he insists he and his fellow activists are not against tourism, just the way it is managed in Spain, he said he also hopes the protests will continue.

“We are opposed to a city model that only focuses on tourism,” he said. “We cannot lose all the dynamism, complexity and heterogeneity of cities.”