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Spanish Tourism sets records in 2023

More than 85 million tourists visited Spain last year and spent 108.662 billion euros

Spain closed 2023 with record tourism figures, according to data collected by the Spanish Statistics Institute (Instituto Nacional de Estadística, INE). A total of 85.1 million international travellers visited our country between January and December. The increase over the previous year was 18.7%, although the real benchmark was 2019, the last year with records unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The number of foreign tourists grew therefore by 1.9% compared to 2019, when 83.5 million travellers were registered. December 2023, with 5.2 million visitors, helped to leave that benchmark behind after increasing by 26.2% with respect to the last month of 2022 and 21% with respect to the same month in 2019.

Growth in tourism expenditure Spending per tourist grew even more exponentially in 2023. Foreign exchange increased by 24.7% compared to 2022 and by 18.2% compared to 2019. Non-resident tourists in Spain actually spent 108.662 billion euros in our country last year.

The United Kingdom was the main country of origin of travellers, with 17.3 million (up 14.6%), followed by France, with 11.8 million (up by 17%), and Germany, with 10.8 million (up by 10.6%). The British were also the biggest spenders, up to 19.947 billion euros (+16.3%). They were followed by the Germans with 12.978 billion (+12.6%) and the French with 9.767 billion (+19.7%).

Most visited communities In 2023, Catalonia was the autonomous community most visited by foreign tourists, with 18 million travellers, 21.2% more than in 2022. It was followed by the Balearic Islands, with 14.4 million visitors (up 9.1%), and the Canary Islands, with 13.9 million (up 13.1%).

Catalonia was also where they spent the most, up to 20.878 billion euros (26.7% more than in 2022). It was followed by the Canary Islands, with 20.334 billion (16.5% more), and the Balearic Islands, with 17.722 billion (16.4% more).

These figures, which have been provided by the INE, are provisional and will be reviewed next March.

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Spain: Tourism and employment boom puts economy back on track

The first quarter of 2022 will be impacted by the Omicron wave, but from the second quarter onwards we expect the economy to grow faster again. A strong labour market, an uplift in public investment, and a further recovery of the tourism sector will boost economic activity. Inflation is high, but we expect it to come down this year

Stronger growth from 2Q onwards

The Spanish economy ended 2021 on a strong note. GDP growth came in at 2% quarter-on-quarter, which was higher than expectations. Due to the Covid-19 Omicron wave consumption contracted, but investment and exports grew sharply. The economy is now about 4% smaller than pre-pandemic levels. This is in contrast to the eurozone as a whole, which reached its pre-pandemic level in 4Q21.

Survey data, however, points to a weakening in the first quarter of this year caused by Omicron. But from the second quarter onwards we expect the economy to grow faster again. The main reasons for this are a vibrant labour market, a boost to public investment, and a continued recovery of the tourism sector. High inflation, however, is currently a threat, even though we think it will come down over the year.

Evolution of GDP and components during the pandemic (4Q 2019 = 100)

A very strong labour market will support consumption.

Historically, the negative impact of a recession on the Spanish labour market is quite extreme and long-lasting. But the impact of the pandemic is already digested. Indeed, there are currently more people registered with the social security system and fewer people are jobless than before the pandemic. The unemployment rate was 13.3% in the final quarter of 2021, which is lower than before the pandemic. Looking ahead, it is likely that the unemployment rate will continue to fall. Demand remains strong as industrial companies indicate that their order books are richly filled, even more so than before the pandemic. And the number of businesses that report labour shortages is still limited, certainly compared to the eurozone.

Figure 2: Spanish companies are less labour strapped (% of businesses saying that labour limits their production)

Structural problems in the labour market are still with us.

All this is obviously good news for short-term economic activity, but that does not mean the structural problems in the labour market are history. Indeed, the Spanish unemployment rate is still almost double the rate of the eurozone, youth unemployment is very high, and almost one in four Spanish workers is on a temporary contract.

The latest labour market reform, which tweaks the 2012 measures and focuses on limiting the use of temporary contracts, caused a lot of discussion on the political front. It is backed by businesses and unions, but initially it did not have sufficient support in parliament. Surprisingly, it did pass recently… by accident . This could obviously cause some political tension.

Rise in public investment will support growth

The labour reform is also important for short-to-medium term activity as it would help to secure new NextGenerationEU (NGEU) funds which should boost public investment. The Spanish government wants to frontload the EU money and spend 77% of the €70bn in grants (about 4.5% of 2021 GDP) over the period 2021-23. The next instalment of €14bn should be requested before April. Even though we think this rate of absorption is very ambitious, the NGEU will still have a positive impact on growth in 2022 and 2023.

Another issue that will support public investment is the budget for 2022, the largest in Spanish history. It was approved at the end of last year, which lowered political uncertainty and includes €40bn of investments (including NGEU funds).

Tourism sector will further recover

During the first quarter of this year, the tourism sector will still be affected by the Omicron wave, but we think that from the second quarter onwards the sector will be able to continue its recovery. In 2021 the tourism sector was able to recuperate but less than expected due to travel restrictions and new Covid waves. The number of international tourists grew from about 19 million in 2020 to about 31 million in 2021, but this is still about 52 million (!) less than in 2019. Since this sector has not yet fully recovered, this of course gives more potential to support growth in the years to come.

Inflation should come down during 2022

As for the whole of Europe, rising inflation is a threat to the Spanish economy. Headline inflation was about 0% at the beginning of 2021, but in January 2022 it equalled about 6%. Core inflation started to rise in the middle of 2021 from about 0.2% to 2.4% in January 2022. The biggest contributor to the rise was higher energy prices, and this item has a larger weight in Spain than the eurozone as a whole. But the sharp rise of core inflation warrants caution. Indeed, higher energy prices can feed into other consumer prices and on top of that more and more companies are saying that they will increase their selling prices. We nevertheless expect that inflation will come down during 2022 as we do not expect energy prices to rise as much in 2022 as they did in 2021. They might even come down. However, due to second-round effects, we expect about 2.5% headline inflation at the end of 2022, which is higher than pre-pandemic levels of about 1.0%.

All in all, the economic outlook is good for Spain. We expect the economy to grow by about 5.0% in 2022, matching the 5.0% growth in 2021. For 2023 we expect about 3% growth. In this scenario the Spanish economy would reach its pre-pandemic level in the first half of 2023. Indeed, the firm labour market, a push of public investment, a further recovery of the tourism sector and declining inflation should all help to push the economy further.

10 February 2022

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Tourism In Spain Ends 2020 With Worst Figures In 25 Years

Posted By: The Corner 6th January 2021

The Covid-19 pandemic has caused a great crisis for the tourism sector, which in Spain will end 2020 with the worst figures in decades.

In 2019, Spanish tourism saw growth for the seventh consecutive year , with over 83.7 million tourists and a total expenditure of 92.278 billion euros. This was despite the fact the sector was affected by the bankruptcy of tour operator Thomas Cook.

However, the coronavirus broke the upward trend. In April, due to the complete closure of the borders to prevent the spread of the virus, tourism fell by 100% compared with the previous year.

The latest data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), which measures the evolution until October, shows that Spain received 17.9 million international tourists during the first ten months of the year. Meanwhile, spending declined by 77.3%.

In the following months, the EU countries again tightened restrictions on mobility. In Spain, there was a new state of alarm, with the approval of different lockdowns. And on November 23rd, it introduced the obligation of having to present a negative PCR test to access the country . The tourism sector considered this a “dissuasive” measure. In light of all this, tourism agents estimate the total figure for international visitors in 2020 will not exceed 20 million.

In its latest estimates, made in October, Exceltur expected that the levels of tourism GDP and income from foreign tourism in 2020 will be equivalent to those of 25 years ago , with a fall in tourism activity of 106.16 billion euros. So the direct and indirect activity of the sector in 2020 would be 46.43 billion euros, equivalent to the levels of 1995.

In June, the Government approved a plan to boost Spain’s tourism sector valued at 4.262 billion euros . The aim is to seek the transition to a “more sustainable and inclusive” economic model, taking advantage of the fact the industry has strategic status.

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Analysis-Tourism a Boon for Spain's Economy but a Bane for Some Locals

Analysis-Tourism a Boon for Spain's Economy but a Bane for Some Locals

Tourists from China take photos at an outdoor market in the downtown district of Salamanca, in Madrid, Spain, May 18, 2024. REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura/File Photo

By Belén Carreño and Corina Pons

MADRID (Reuters) - Fresh from a tour of Real Madrid's glittering Santiago Bernabeu stadium in the Spanish capital, Guadalupe Rebollo says a holiday in Spain with her 15-year-old daughter is a better deal than one on the beach in her native Mexico.

The Rebollos are part of a record surge in foreign visitors to Spain that is helping its economy outperform European peers and create jobs at a rapid rate. However, it is also straining services such as housing and transport and stirring resentment among locals.

How to make the boom sustainable and share its benefits more widely are the tasks facing Spain's decision-makers, and some of them think driving tourism upmarket is the way forward.

But for the Rebollo family from Mexico, affordability is one of the factors that makes Spain so attractive, along with its cultural highlights.

Rebollo, 45, said their recent vacation at home had cost them the equivalent of 2,500 euros ($2,700).

"Here we are going to spend a little more than that, but getting to know other countries, paying for plane tickets and tours," she said. "The truth is that it is very good value for money."

Millions of other visitors agree and the tourism surge has helped put Spain, long the laggard among Europe's big economies, into the lead, now outperforming the wider 20-country euro zone, which grew a scant 0.3% in the first quarter of 2024 compared to Spain's 0.7%.

While France cut its 2024 growth forecast and Germany only just skirted a recession, held back by a dependence on industry and a vulnerability to fluctuations in commodity prices and geopolitical tensions, Spain expects its economy to grow 2% this year.

Expansion is being driven by growth in services as well as public and private consumption fueled by job growth, said Angel Talavera, head of European economics at Oxford Economics.

Tourism accounted for 71% of real growth in the Spanish economy last year, according to tourism lobby group Exceltur. Consumption by non-residents accounted for nearly a third of Spain's 2.5% growth in 2023, according to BBVA.

But many Spaniards feel they are not reaping the benefits, and the driver of Spain's success is increasingly being met with protests.

"It is true that we are going like gangbusters, but this phenomenon must be managed," Tourism Minister Jordi Hereu said on May 8. "We are not going to ban people from coming to Spain, but we can put limits on the tourist offer."

Measures are already being taken, with local governments placing limits on new holiday home permits.

In Barcelona, local authorities asked for a bus route to be removed from smartphone apps to the popular tourist destination Park Guell because the service was saturated.

Nor are Spaniards getting the feel-good factor from the boom. An April survey by the Spanish Sociological Research Centre found that although 60% of Spaniards acknowledged that their personal economic situation was "good", 59% also said the situation in the country was "bad" or "very bad".

Cheaper wages are drawing investment in new hotels, which are opening at a rate of one every four days, allowing Spain to overtake the UK this year as the most attractive country in Europe for hospitality investors, according to CBRE.

UNDER-PRICED

Antonio Catalan, president of AC Hotels, Marriott's partner in Spain, said his hotels had seen a 17% rise in foreign visitors in the first quarter who were spending 27% more, due mainly to higher room rates.

"Spain is under-priced and has too many customers," he said.

A record 85 million people visited in 2023 and that upward trend continued in the first quarter of this year, with visitor numbers growing nearly 18% to 16.1 million, although that may have been boosted by Easter falling within the period this year.

Those who come are spending more, thanks in part to efforts to develop the luxury market, which some regions see as a solution to overtourism.

Visitors to Spain last year spent 109 billion euros versus 63.5 billion euros in France as tourists flexed their credit cards in restaurants and designer stores.

Foreign tourist spending grew by 27% in the first quarter from a year earlier.

Tourism has also helped boost job growth, with unemployment falling to a 16-year low even as immigration helps fill vacancies in the services sector.

The sector created 197,630 more jobs in the first quarter compared to last year, representing one out of every four jobs created during the period, according to Turespaña, the state-run agency that promotes Spanish tourism.

Those new jobs are helping to boost private consumption to complement spending by tourists.

But Oxford Economics' Talavera warned Spain's economic boom was not sustainable.

"Tourism cannot grow at this rate permanently, nor can public spending continue its expansion," he said.

Rebollo and her daughter, meanwhile, planned to spend two weeks in Europe, including a few days in France, "but we'll spend more time in Spain because we've noticed it isn't expensive and Paris is," she said.

($1 = 0.9245 euros)

(Reporting by Belen Carreño and Corina Pons; additional reporting by Joan Faus and Inti Landauro; writing by Charlie Devereux; editing by Toby Chopra)

Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters .

Tags: Europe , Spain

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Pushback against over-tourism in Spain is reflected in new signs across Madrid

Miguel Macias

Tourism is important to the Spanish economy but critics are arguing the country is too reliant on it.

Copyright © 2024 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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The economic impact of the tourism industry in Spain

In 2012, Spain consolidated its third position in the world tourism ranking in terms of foreign visitors, and its second in terms of revenue. Tourism therefore appears to be considerably important for the economy as a whole, as further confirmed by a more thorough analysis of data on the sector. Nevertheless this is a highly seasonal industry, resulting in the extensive underutilisation of the resources available throughout the year. Let us look at the details.

In order to assess the overall role played by tourism in Spain's economic activity and employment we need to take into account both the direct or immediate effects and also the indirect or knock-on effects. The former are generated in the production units or companies that supply the goods and services acquired directly by tourists while the latter include the chain effects occurring in the rest of the economic system when the tourism industry demands production inputs and factors to be able to carry out its business. This capacity of an industry, in this case tourism, to lead to the development of other economic sectors by using the intermediate inputs produced by these sectors is called «total backward linkage» or the «diffusion effect». According to INE's symmetrical input-output table (2005), the total backward linkage index for the tourism sector is 1.68, a notable figure. 1 Consequently, if the tourism industry expanded by one unit, the final increase in production for the economy as a whole would be 1.68 units (the indirect effect would be 0.68). More specifically, according to this methodology the tourism industry's direct contribution to GDP was 6.5% in 2012 and, thanks to its knock-on effect, its total contribution reached 10.9%.

On the other hand, the trend in tourism business also has significant impact on the labour market as the industry is labour-intensive. According to data provided by the INE's Tourism Satellite Account, in 2012 employment in tourism exceeded 2.1 million people, accounting for 11.9% of all employment. Once again, not all employment was generated directly in the tourism industry per se; a proportion was created indirectly in other sectors. For example, according to the input-output table, if GDP in tourism increased by 1%, it would generate around 2,200 new jobs in the commercial sector and around 10.400 new jobs in the hotel and catering sector and would also create employment in other sectors less directly related to tourism (800 in agriculture and 680 in construction). As a benchmark, it should be noted that, historically, a 1% increase in tourism's GDP is usually related to an increase of approximately 3% in overnight stays, which in 2013 rose by 2%.

Tourism therefore has a huge effect on economic activity and employment. However, Spain's large share of «sun, sea and sand» tourism means that the industry is markedly seasonal throughout the year, in turn resulting in the considerable underutilisation of tourism infrastructures. Nonetheless, other countries that offer a similar type of tourism, such as Italy, are even more seasonal, as can be seen in the corresponding graph. The data also show that, in spite of a considerable rise in the total number of tourists over the last few decades, this pattern has remained very stable. The seasonal nature of tourist service production also extends to the labour market, with employment being more concentrated in the summer months.

There can therefore be no doubt that Spain's tourism industry is still highly seasonal and it comes as no surprise that one of the seven priority objectives set by the Secretariat for Tourism in the country's Comprehensive National Tourism Plan (2012-2015) was to develop specific measures to reduce this feature. 2 With the aim of deseasonalising the flow of tourists as much as possible to avoid both the levels of congestion in the high season (June to September) and also the under-utilisation of resources (facilities and people) in the low season, among other initiatives, the Secretariat asked AENA to introduce a flexible tariff system based on the number of passengers and the capacity of each airport. As commented in the article in this Dossier entitled «Recipes for success in the tourism industry: different ways to reach the same destination», it would also be advantageous to boost the supply of tourism aimed at segments that are less seasonal, more profitable and have a high growth potential, characteristics all enjoyed by cultural tourism, for example.

In conclusion, the tourism industry is one of the Spanish economy's key sectors, both due to its direct impact and also to the considerable knock-on effect it has on the rest of the sectors. Moreover, given the good projections for global growth in tourism (as discussed in the article mentioned previously), it will probably become even more important in the coming years. We should take advantage of this to reduce the industry's extremely seasonal bias and thereby make better use of the infrastructures available.

Maria Gutiérrez-Domènech

European Unit, Research Department, "la Caixa"

1. For the calculation, tourism is divided into different sectors following the structure of tourism demand provided by Spain's Tourism Satellite Account (see the Tourism Balance for 2012 by the Institute of Tourism Studies), adapting it to the structure of the sectors in the input-output table.

Analysis: Spain to beat all tourism records this year as visitors spend more than ever – but that might not be good news for locals

NEW data from Caixabank suggests the Spanish tourism industry is growing at nearly twice the rate of the rest of the economy, bringing in unprecedented income as visitors spend more each year. 

The data comes as Spain is set to top 90 million tourist arrivals by the end of 2024, surpassing the record breaking 85 million in 2023. 

And tourists are spending an average of €1,300 each — 19% more than they were pre-pandemic — leading to the sector representing a staggering 13% of the national GDP. 

But, as locals have been quick to note, this wealth isn’t so evenly distributed. 

It comes amid historic protests against mass tourism across the country, sparked by the April 20 demonstrations and hunger strikes in the Canary Islands led by the organisation Canarias Se Agota .

The industry that on paper appears to be generating wealth has been accused of contributing to gentrification, overcrowding , housing, and cultural clashes in tourist hotspots.

Residents claim governments want to cash in from deep-pocketed foreigners at the expense of their quality of life. 

To complicate matters, many of the country’s most popular tourist destinations are poor regions with relatively weak economies.

Governments in said regions are reliant on the tourism industry for income, but these days, the benefits seldom reach the working class that staff the hotels and restaurants.

The Canary Islands is a particularly striking example of this catch 22. The islands are Spain’s third most popular community for tourism after Catalunya and the Balearic Islands.

It has a population of just 2.2 million but received nearly 14 million tourists in 2023.

But after Andalucia, the Canaries is also the second poorest autonomous community, with statistics from the European Anti-Poverty Network revealing that in 2022, more than one-third of the population was at risk of poverty or social exclusion, a rate nearly 2% higher than the previous year and 44% higher than the national average. 

Some 21.5% of the population earn minimum wage salaries — the second highest rate in Spain — while average salaries hover around just € 1,900 per month, or 26% below the national average. 

The islands are also Spain’s most inflationary region, at 3.8% inflation compared to the 3.1% national average.

Poverty is also visible and striking in the so-called “ barrios chabolas , ” or “shanty towns” of Tenerife.

These are essentially tent encampments, often in eyeshot of the island’s numerous ultra-luxury resorts.

They are populated by homeless hospitality workers unable to afford rent in the tight housing market despite their salaries, many of whom work in the very hotels that gaze down upon their slum-like living conditions. 

All the while, tourism companies double down on their activities, buying out residential apartment blocks to convert to vacation rentals and increasing the pressure on the already tight rental market.

According to Idealista data , this is leading to rising rental prices in Spain, breaking records nearly every month for the past year. 

While Barcelona appears poised to crack down on tourist apartments, with left-wing mayor Jaume Colboni announcing on June 22 that the city would revoke licences from all 10,101 of its tourist apartments in the coming years, the situation remains bleak elsewhere. 

In Madrid, beloved local businesses are forced to relocate after receiving notices in the mail that their property has been purchased by an investment firm and will be converted to tourist apartments. 

And back in the Canaries, the highly controversial 2013 Tourist Law has entire regions declared as tourist zones, forcing homeowners to abandon their properties — even if it’s their primary residence — and sell them to a tourist exploitation company or face up to €30,000 in fines. 

Meanwhile, tourism has brought staggering economic growth to the Canarian economy, growing 3.8% in 2023 alone — largely due to the tourism sector — significantly more than the national GDP, which grew just 2% in 2023. 

Interestingly, the hotel price index — a statistic used to gauge the evolution of average hotel prices over time — increased by 8.9% percent in 2023, indicating hotel profitability is on the rise. 

Compare this to the increase of average salaries over the same time period — just 2.75% — and one might begin to recognise the grave contradictions in this economic model and understand what has infuriated residents, pushing them to take to the streets in historic numbers back in April. 

The story of the Canary Islands’ unsustainable relationship with tourism is one that is repeated all over Spain and Europe more broadly, which probably explains why the movement that began in the Canaries in the spring has spread like wildfire throughout the peninsula, igniting peaceful demonstrations and galvanising communities to demand more from their governments who, so far, seem to have prioritised growing their GDPs over the wellbeing of their citizens. 

• Cadiz joins ‘anti-tourism’ movement in Spain: Locals accuse visitors of ‘stealing our city’ as they plan huge protest this month
• Huge anti-tourism protest is planned for Malaga: Fuming locals to ‘take to the streets’ to decry ‘property exploitation’ and ‘s**t salaries’ that have made the city ‘unliveable

• anti tourism
• canarias se agota
• canary islands
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Spain Tourism Revenues

Tourism revenues in spain increased to 7521 eur million in april from 6656 eur million in march of 2024. tourism revenues in spain averaged 3609.39 eur million from 1993 until 2024, reaching an all time high of 10934.00 eur million in august of 2023 and a record low of 0.00 eur million in april of 2020. source: bank of spain,   markets,   gdp,   labour,   prices,   money,   trade,   government,   business,   consumer,   housing,   taxes,   energy,   health,   climate.

Pushback against over-tourism in Spain is reflected in new signs across Madrid

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

What's not to love about Spain? - Barcelona, Toledo, Madrid, 5,000 miles of coastline, paella, Rioja. But as Miguel Macias reports, some locals feel like their country is overloved.

MIGUEL MACIAS, BYLINE: Let me start by sharing an anecdote, something that happened to me recently. I was visiting Madrid for a conference, so I figured I would stay for the weekend with the family. One night after putting the baby to sleep at our Airbnb apartment, I went outside to wait for a delivery. That's when I noticed a pink, round sticker on the building's intercom. It read, this used to be my home. And then hashtag, curse word that I can't say on the radio, Airbnb.

PICU: (Through interpreter) About two years ago, a good friend of mine saw her building being sold to an investment fund that was going to turn her entire building into housing for tourists.

MACIAS: That's Picu. She's the person who makes the stickers I saw in Madrid. We're not using her last name because what she does could be considered vandalism. That friend Picu is talking about had to leave her apartment after the new owner started construction and made the building uninhabitable for her and her partner.

PICU: (Through interpreter) And I said, we need to do something. People need to know that they are kicking us out of our apartments. I think it's important that Airbnb users learn that they are staying at places that used to be people's homes. They're turning our cities into theme parks.

MACIAS: Picu is not alone in feeling this way. In fact, she's now a part of a national movement that is protesting what they say is the negative impact that mass tourism is having on Spanish cities. In 2023, more than 85 million people visited the country. So in 2024, we've seen the reaction to that with protests in Madrid, Malaga, the Canary Islands and, of course, Barcelona.

(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Tourists, go home. [inaudible] Tourists, go home.

MACIAS: During this protest, on July 6 in Barcelona, some participants used water guns to target tourists. That surely caught the attention of the media.

DANIEL PARDO: (Through interpreter) Well, this is a bit silly, but given the attention, they're giving us reasons to use water guns again. By the way, this wasn't really organized. It was improvised by some of the protesters.

MACIAS: Daniel Pardo is a member of a neighbor's assembly that fights mass tourism. They helped organize that protest in Barcelona. Pardo cites problems with health, the environment, income inequality and simply the fact that the city is not welcoming to its own people anymore. But above all...

PARDO: (Through interpreter) The impact that worries us the most at this point is the impact in housing access, which is the most serious social problem that we face, not only in Barcelona but in other cities in the country.

MACIAS: In some neighborhoods, in the historic center of cities like Seville, there is more housing for tourists than for locals. That means locals are pushed to other areas away from the city center. But in some cases, that is not even possible, like in the Canary Islands, the Spanish archipelago off the coast of northwestern Africa.

ALFONSO BOULLON: (Through interpreter) We have grown exponentially, without any control, without any kind of plan and, in some cases, even breaking the law.

MACIAS: Alfonso Boullon is a spokesperson for an ecologist grassroots organization in the Canary Islands. He says that some of the urban development on the islands breaks environmental laws.

BOULLON: (Through interpreter) In the Canary Islands, there are many hotels that have an order to be demolished, and they're not demolished because the local government lobbies in favor of the economic interest instead of enforcing the law.

MACIAS: But Alfonso Boullon also makes something clear.

BOULLON: (Through interpreter) We are not against tourism. We are all tourists at some point. We love to travel and see the world. The problem is the magnitude of the industry, the model that we are following.

MACIAS: Picu in Madrid, the woman who made those stickers to post them around town - she disagrees.

PICU: (Through interpreter) We all complain about tourism, but we should all travel less. We need to exercise some self-control, as well.

MACIAS: Whether it's all about less tourism or more about self-control, activists in Barcelona, Madrid, the Canary Islands and many other Spanish cities are not done protesting. But with tourism making up about a tenth of economic growth and 1 in 10 jobs, Spain's economic reliance on the sector will be difficult to undo.

For NPR News, I'm Miguel Macias in Seville, Spain. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Pushback against over-tourism in Spain is reflected in new signs across Madrid

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

What's not to love about Spain? - Barcelona, Toledo, Madrid, 5,000 miles of coastline, paella, Rioja. But as Miguel Macias reports, some locals feel like their country is overloved.

MIGUEL MACIAS, BYLINE: Let me start by sharing an anecdote, something that happened to me recently. I was visiting Madrid for a conference, so I figured I would stay for the weekend with the family. One night after putting the baby to sleep at our Airbnb apartment, I went outside to wait for a delivery. That's when I noticed a pink, round sticker on the building's intercom. It read, this used to be my home. And then hashtag, curse word that I can't say on the radio, Airbnb.

PICU: (Through interpreter) About two years ago, a good friend of mine saw her building being sold to an investment fund that was going to turn her entire building into housing for tourists.

MACIAS: That's Picu. She's the person who makes the stickers I saw in Madrid. We're not using her last name because what she does could be considered vandalism. That friend Picu is talking about had to leave her apartment after the new owner started construction and made the building uninhabitable for her and her partner.

PICU: (Through interpreter) And I said, we need to do something. People need to know that they are kicking us out of our apartments. I think it's important that Airbnb users learn that they are staying at places that used to be people's homes. They're turning our cities into theme parks.

MACIAS: Picu is not alone in feeling this way. In fact, she's now a part of a national movement that is protesting what they say is the negative impact that mass tourism is having on Spanish cities. In 2023, more than 85 million people visited the country. So in 2024, we've seen the reaction to that with protests in Madrid, Malaga, the Canary Islands and, of course, Barcelona.

(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Tourists, go home. [inaudible] Tourists, go home.

MACIAS: During this protest, on July 6 in Barcelona, some participants used water guns to target tourists. That surely caught the attention of the media.

DANIEL PARDO: (Through interpreter) Well, this is a bit silly, but given the attention, they're giving us reasons to use water guns again. By the way, this wasn't really organized. It was improvised by some of the protesters.

MACIAS: Daniel Pardo is a member of a neighbor's assembly that fights mass tourism. They helped organize that protest in Barcelona. Pardo cites problems with health, the environment, income inequality and simply the fact that the city is not welcoming to its own people anymore. But above all...

PARDO: (Through interpreter) The impact that worries us the most at this point is the impact in housing access, which is the most serious social problem that we face, not only in Barcelona but in other cities in the country.

MACIAS: In some neighborhoods, in the historic center of cities like Seville, there is more housing for tourists than for locals. That means locals are pushed to other areas away from the city center. But in some cases, that is not even possible, like in the Canary Islands, the Spanish archipelago off the coast of northwestern Africa.

ALFONSO BOULLON: (Through interpreter) We have grown exponentially, without any control, without any kind of plan and, in some cases, even breaking the law.

MACIAS: Alfonso Boullon is a spokesperson for an ecologist grassroots organization in the Canary Islands. He says that some of the urban development on the islands breaks environmental laws.

BOULLON: (Through interpreter) In the Canary Islands, there are many hotels that have an order to be demolished, and they're not demolished because the local government lobbies in favor of the economic interest instead of enforcing the law.

MACIAS: But Alfonso Boullon also makes something clear.

BOULLON: (Through interpreter) We are not against tourism. We are all tourists at some point. We love to travel and see the world. The problem is the magnitude of the industry, the model that we are following.

MACIAS: Picu in Madrid, the woman who made those stickers to post them around town - she disagrees.

PICU: (Through interpreter) We all complain about tourism, but we should all travel less. We need to exercise some self-control, as well.

MACIAS: Whether it's all about less tourism or more about self-control, activists in Barcelona, Madrid, the Canary Islands and many other Spanish cities are not done protesting. But with tourism making up about a tenth of economic growth and 1 in 10 jobs, Spain's economic reliance on the sector will be difficult to undo.

For NPR News, I'm Miguel Macias in Seville, Spain. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Travel, Tourism & Hospitality

COVID-19 impact on travel and tourism in Spain - statistics & facts

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Balance of payments of the travel and tourism sector in Spain from 1st quarter 2018 to 4th quarter 2022 (in million euros)

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• Premium Statistic Monthly inbound visitors in Spain 2019-2022
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Transport industry

• Premium Statistic COVID-19 impact on passenger traffic in main Spanish airports 2020-2022
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Change in the number of passengers at leading airports in Spain from 2020 to 2022 versus 2019

Monthly air passenger traffic in Spain 2019-2022

Number of air passengers in Spain from January 2019 to December 2022 (in millions)

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Annual change in the revenue index of the accommodation industry in Spain from January 2019 to December 2022

Monthly room occupancy in accommodation establishments in Spain 2019-2022

Room occupancy rate of hotels and hostels in Spain from January 2019 to December 2022

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Number of nights spent by guests of hotels and hostels in Spain from January 2019 to December 2022 (in millions)

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Travel agencies

• Premium Statistic Quarterly online revenue of travel agencies & tours operators in Spain 2014-2022
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Pushback against over-tourism in Spain is reflected in new signs across Madrid

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

What's not to love about Spain? - Barcelona, Toledo, Madrid, 5,000 miles of coastline, paella, Rioja. But as Miguel Macias reports, some locals feel like their country is overloved.

MIGUEL MACIAS, BYLINE: Let me start by sharing an anecdote, something that happened to me recently. I was visiting Madrid for a conference, so I figured I would stay for the weekend with the family. One night after putting the baby to sleep at our Airbnb apartment, I went outside to wait for a delivery. That's when I noticed a pink, round sticker on the building's intercom. It read, this used to be my home. And then hashtag, curse word that I can't say on the radio, Airbnb.

PICU: (Through interpreter) About two years ago, a good friend of mine saw her building being sold to an investment fund that was going to turn her entire building into housing for tourists.

MACIAS: That's Picu. She's the person who makes the stickers I saw in Madrid. We're not using her last name because what she does could be considered vandalism. That friend Picu is talking about had to leave her apartment after the new owner started construction and made the building uninhabitable for her and her partner.

PICU: (Through interpreter) And I said, we need to do something. People need to know that they are kicking us out of our apartments. I think it's important that Airbnb users learn that they are staying at places that used to be people's homes. They're turning our cities into theme parks.

MACIAS: Picu is not alone in feeling this way. In fact, she's now a part of a national movement that is protesting what they say is the negative impact that mass tourism is having on Spanish cities. In 2023, more than 85 million people visited the country. So in 2024, we've seen the reaction to that with protests in Madrid, Malaga, the Canary Islands and, of course, Barcelona.

(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Tourists, go home. [inaudible] Tourists, go home.

MACIAS: During this protest, on July 6 in Barcelona, some participants used water guns to target tourists. That surely caught the attention of the media.

DANIEL PARDO: (Through interpreter) Well, this is a bit silly, but given the attention, they're giving us reasons to use water guns again. By the way, this wasn't really organized. It was improvised by some of the protesters.

MACIAS: Daniel Pardo is a member of a neighbor's assembly that fights mass tourism. They helped organize that protest in Barcelona. Pardo cites problems with health, the environment, income inequality and simply the fact that the city is not welcoming to its own people anymore. But above all...

PARDO: (Through interpreter) The impact that worries us the most at this point is the impact in housing access, which is the most serious social problem that we face, not only in Barcelona but in other cities in the country.

MACIAS: In some neighborhoods, in the historic center of cities like Seville, there is more housing for tourists than for locals. That means locals are pushed to other areas away from the city center. But in some cases, that is not even possible, like in the Canary Islands, the Spanish archipelago off the coast of northwestern Africa.

ALFONSO BOULLON: (Through interpreter) We have grown exponentially, without any control, without any kind of plan and, in some cases, even breaking the law.

MACIAS: Alfonso Boullon is a spokesperson for an ecologist grassroots organization in the Canary Islands. He says that some of the urban development on the islands breaks environmental laws.

BOULLON: (Through interpreter) In the Canary Islands, there are many hotels that have an order to be demolished, and they're not demolished because the local government lobbies in favor of the economic interest instead of enforcing the law.

MACIAS: But Alfonso Boullon also makes something clear.

BOULLON: (Through interpreter) We are not against tourism. We are all tourists at some point. We love to travel and see the world. The problem is the magnitude of the industry, the model that we are following.

MACIAS: Picu in Madrid, the woman who made those stickers to post them around town - she disagrees.

PICU: (Through interpreter) We all complain about tourism, but we should all travel less. We need to exercise some self-control, as well.

MACIAS: Whether it's all about less tourism or more about self-control, activists in Barcelona, Madrid, the Canary Islands and many other Spanish cities are not done protesting. But with tourism making up about a tenth of economic growth and 1 in 10 jobs, Spain's economic reliance on the sector will be difficult to undo.

For NPR News, I'm Miguel Macias in Seville, Spain. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Barcelona to up tourist tax as Mallorca seeks visitor cap

Locals in Spain's tourism hotspots are increasingly frustrated about mass tourism. Authorities are clamping down.

Barcelona plans to increase the tourist tax for cruise passengers staying in the city for less than 12 hours, the mayor revealed in a Sunday interview.

"We are going to propose.. substantially increasing the tax for stopover cruise passengers," Jaume Collboni told El Pais newspaper.

It is the latest in a series of measures that he has announced to reduce the impact of mass tourism .

It comes just weeks after protesters in Barcelona, chanting: "Tourists go home," sprayed visitors with water as part of a demonstration against mass tourism .

Fewer, higher paying tourists wanted

According to Statista, Barcelona reported the highest number of cruise passengers last year, roughly 3.6 million passengers.

The current tourist tax for stopover cruise passengers was €7 ($7.61) daily.

Collboni did not say how much he would raise the tourist tax, but his reasons are clear.

"In the case of stopover cruise passengers (less than 12 hours) there is intensive use of public space without any benefit for the city and a feeling of occupation and saturation," he said.

"We want to have tourism that is respectful of the destination," Collboni added.

Collboni announced last month that the city will bar apartment rentals to tourists by 2028. He has also introduced other tourist taxes.

Fresh protests against mass tourism in Mallorca

Anti-tourism activists have protested in popular holiday destinations across Spain, such as Palma de Mallorca, Malaga, and the Canary Islands .

The blame for plummeting living standards is often placed on visitors who drive up prices, including housing costs. Some places also struggle with what is called party tourism.

Mallorca is one such place and wants to attract fewer tourists, but only those who are willing to spend money.

On Sunday, the activists again plan protests against the excesses of mass tourism.

Just eight weeks ago, around 10,000 people took to the streets of Palma under the slogans "Enough is Enough!" and "Mallorca Is Not for Sale!"

Tourism is essential for Mallorca, accounting for 45% of the island's economic output.

However, many argue that only a minority benefit from the industry, while the vast majority are left with poorly paid jobs and experience housing shortages, traffic jams, noise, and pollution.

lo/fb (dpa, Reuters)

Pushback against over-tourism in Spain is reflected in new signs across Madrid

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

What's not to love about Spain? - Barcelona, Toledo, Madrid, 5,000 miles of coastline, paella, Rioja. But as Miguel Macias reports, some locals feel like their country is overloved.

MIGUEL MACIAS, BYLINE: Let me start by sharing an anecdote, something that happened to me recently. I was visiting Madrid for a conference, so I figured I would stay for the weekend with the family. One night after putting the baby to sleep at our Airbnb apartment, I went outside to wait for a delivery. That's when I noticed a pink, round sticker on the building's intercom. It read, this used to be my home. And then hashtag, curse word that I can't say on the radio, Airbnb.

PICU: (Through interpreter) About two years ago, a good friend of mine saw her building being sold to an investment fund that was going to turn her entire building into housing for tourists.

MACIAS: That's Picu. She's the person who makes the stickers I saw in Madrid. We're not using her last name because what she does could be considered vandalism. That friend Picu is talking about had to leave her apartment after the new owner started construction and made the building uninhabitable for her and her partner.

PICU: (Through interpreter) And I said, we need to do something. People need to know that they are kicking us out of our apartments. I think it's important that Airbnb users learn that they are staying at places that used to be people's homes. They're turning our cities into theme parks.

MACIAS: Picu is not alone in feeling this way. In fact, she's now a part of a national movement that is protesting what they say is the negative impact that mass tourism is having on Spanish cities. In 2023, more than 85 million people visited the country. So in 2024, we've seen the reaction to that with protests in Madrid, Malaga, the Canary Islands and, of course, Barcelona.

(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Tourists, go home. [inaudible] Tourists, go home.

MACIAS: During this protest, on July 6 in Barcelona, some participants used water guns to target tourists. That surely caught the attention of the media.

DANIEL PARDO: (Through interpreter) Well, this is a bit silly, but given the attention, they're giving us reasons to use water guns again. By the way, this wasn't really organized. It was improvised by some of the protesters.

MACIAS: Daniel Pardo is a member of a neighbor's assembly that fights mass tourism. They helped organize that protest in Barcelona. Pardo cites problems with health, the environment, income inequality and simply the fact that the city is not welcoming to its own people anymore. But above all...

PARDO: (Through interpreter) The impact that worries us the most at this point is the impact in housing access, which is the most serious social problem that we face, not only in Barcelona but in other cities in the country.

MACIAS: In some neighborhoods, in the historic center of cities like Seville, there is more housing for tourists than for locals. That means locals are pushed to other areas away from the city center. But in some cases, that is not even possible, like in the Canary Islands, the Spanish archipelago off the coast of northwestern Africa.

ALFONSO BOULLON: (Through interpreter) We have grown exponentially, without any control, without any kind of plan and, in some cases, even breaking the law.

MACIAS: Alfonso Boullon is a spokesperson for an ecologist grassroots organization in the Canary Islands. He says that some of the urban development on the islands breaks environmental laws.

BOULLON: (Through interpreter) In the Canary Islands, there are many hotels that have an order to be demolished, and they're not demolished because the local government lobbies in favor of the economic interest instead of enforcing the law.

MACIAS: But Alfonso Boullon also makes something clear.

BOULLON: (Through interpreter) We are not against tourism. We are all tourists at some point. We love to travel and see the world. The problem is the magnitude of the industry, the model that we are following.

MACIAS: Picu in Madrid, the woman who made those stickers to post them around town - she disagrees.

PICU: (Through interpreter) We all complain about tourism, but we should all travel less. We need to exercise some self-control, as well.

MACIAS: Whether it's all about less tourism or more about self-control, activists in Barcelona, Madrid, the Canary Islands and many other Spanish cities are not done protesting. But with tourism making up about a tenth of economic growth and 1 in 10 jobs, Spain's economic reliance on the sector will be difficult to undo.

For NPR News, I'm Miguel Macias in Seville, Spain. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

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Spain's GDP seen growing by brisker 2.4% this year - economy minister

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Take Five: Feeling the heat

There is rarely a dull moment in markets and the week to come will be no exception, with make-or-break U.S. inflation data and tough questions over international financing for Ukraine - all against a backdrop of a fraught U.S. presidential race.