Another summer of disruption? Spain’s anti-tourism demonstrations reign before the Easter holidays

Last summer, Spain burst out demonstrations motivated by the number of tourists in arrow putting pressure on the daily life of residents.

More than 90 million foreign visitors went down to the country in 2024, and the Braintrust consulting company estimates that the number of arrivals will be headed for 115 million by 2040.

Angry by the inadequate government measures to manage the flow, the inhabitants of Spain organized hunger strikes, hot dots with anti-tourism messages and tourists squirt with water pistols.

While the Easter holidays are approaching, the anti-tourism feeling is preparing again and the demonstrations accelerate.

Tens of thousands of Spaniards walked for demonstrations organized across the country on April 5, angry with high housing costs without relief in sight.

Residents demand that the authorities intensify the regulations before the high season sees tourist destinations exceeded again.

Why do residents of Spain protest against tourism?

The uncontrolled influx of tourists to Spain in recent years has generated a wave of undesirable effects for residents.

A major impact is the spiral cost of housing, because accommodation is broken for tourist dishes and land purchased to build new stations.

Last April, Tenerife demonstrators organized a hunger strike More than two new hotel Developments with certain inhabitants saying that they had been forced to sleep in their car or their caves because they could not afford accommodation on the island.

“We have nothing against individual tourists, but the industry is developing and developing and using so many resources and the island cannot face,” said Ivan Cerdena Molina, who helped organize the demonstrations, said at Olive Press.

“Airbnb and Booking.com are like cancer that consumes the island little by little.”

Other tourist hotspots such as Barcelona and Madrid are also struggling with torchor rental prices for residents.

In June of last year, the Barcelona municipal council announced a Plan to rid the city’s flat licenses of tourists by 2028. The city has not granted any new license since 2014, when it has frozen the offer to around 10,000 units.

Spain also plans to introduce a 100% Tax on properties Bought by EU residents in its last decision to protect the housing market against foreign buyers.

Sales of houses to foreigners, including EU citizens, represent approximately 15% of the housing market, according to the Spanish goods register.

“The source of our problems”: anti-tourist demonstrations accelerate before the Easter holidays

Despite these movements, resentment continues to ferment with demonstrations which are already taking place before the Easter holidays.

Government authorities said 15,000 paraded in Madrid on April 5, while the organizers said 10 times that many have come into the streets of the capital. In Barcelona, ​​the town hall said that 12,000 people had participated in the demonstration, while the organizers said more than 100,000.

The walkers of Madrid sang “released Airbnb from our neighborhoods” and organized panels against short -term rentals.

In Barcelona, ​​a demonstrator wore a sign by reading “I am not leaving, vampire”, apparently in a message to a potential real estate speculator seeking to chase it from his house.

In Mallorca, the inhabitants organized a demonstration requiring solutions to the housing crisis under the slogan “end, let’s finish the housing sector”.

“The greed and greed of hoteliers, politicians, real estate investors and” parasites “of all kinds” have also damaged the island’s ecosystem, overloaded with public services and triggered gentrification, activists wrote in a letter before the protest.

They concluded by imploring tourists not to come to the island, calling them “the source of our problems”.

Through the Canary Islands, employees In the hotel sector, threatens to hit the Easter vacation period in an ongoing dispute on remuneration.

The two main Spanish unions – CCOO (Obreras commission) and UGT (Unión General de Trabajadores) – proposed a punctual payment or a wage increase of 7.75% for hotel staff, restaurants and the bar through the Spanish archipelago to mitigate prohibitive life costs for workers.

33.8% of residents of the Canary Islands are at risk of poverty or social exclusion.

Last week, troubles broke out in Tenerife, fueled by anger against mass tourism. Activists Vandalized a fleet of rental cars and warned that they would increase the actions by targeting airports.

Next month, 15 militant groups from Spain, Portugal, Italy and France are holding a summit in Barcelona to coordinate efforts to counter unbearable tourism.

The movement based in Mallorca Menys Turism, Més Vida (less tourism, more life) said that he Redouble efforts this summer.

The alliance of groups campaigns against the negative effects of excessive tourism, which it blames for exacerbating the speculation of the property, moved from local residents and inflating subsistence costs.