As the issue of overtourism escalates, locals in Europe are facing challenges related to beach access during the busy summer months. Recent reports indicate that tourism within Spain has dropped by 800,000 visitors, while foreign tourism has surged by nearly 1.94 million people.
Wendy Davila from Spain reminisced about her childhood holidays in Alicante, expressing her sadness about the current situation. “I won’t go on vacation like before. I love it everywhere, but it’s just everywhere now,” she shared. She also noted, “Prices have skyrocketed. The whole Spanish coastline is quite pricey.”
Protests took place last month in both Barcelona and Mallorca as residents voiced their concerns over rising rents and the overwhelming number of tourists. Jose Maria Basanez, president of the price monitoring firm Tecnitasa, remarked that the ability for locals to purchase beachfront properties is increasingly hampered by the influx of tourists.
Interestingly, data reveals that most summer beachfront rentals were already booked by the start of the season, with a noticeable 20.3% increase from mid-2023. In 2024, Spain welcomed a staggering 90 million international visitors, a figure that underlines the country’s popularity.
Juan Pedro Aznar, a researcher at Esade Business School, provided insight into the situation, describing the “refuge effect” where the purchasing power of foreign visitors often outstrips that of local Spaniards. He mentioned, “When I visit my family in Cadiz, it’s striking how many more foreign tourists there are now. When a cruise ship arrives, the population practically doubles.” This phenomenon can feel overwhelming at times.
The Associated Press noted a significant trend: Spanish locals made approximately 400,000 fewer trips to their own cities last year, while foreign visitors soared by nearly 3 million in the same timeframe. Local government officials are also taking steps, such as proposing a ban on tourist apartment rentals in Barcelona by 2028, in a bid to restore some balance to the city’s livability. This follows years of stagnant short-term rental figures, which have remained around 10,000 since 2014.
