Malaga says enough to mass tourism and protests against its harmful effects on the city

Many Malaga residents fear that their city is becoming a theme park for tourists. Activists claim that the rise of tourism after the pandemic has pushed Malaga residents to the limit, distorting the rental market and gentrifying the city center.

With the motto “Malaga to live, not to survive“, last weekend 15,000 people took to the streets to demand affordable housing and protest against mass tourism in the city on the Costa del Sol.

A situation that is getting worse

Bernardo, 39, explains to ‘Euronews Travel’ which was “to support people who try to live with dignity in Malaga.” For many, he assures, the “situation is worsening month by month due to current policies totally oriented towards massification tour”.

This follows a rebound in anti-tourism activism throughout Spain in recent months, with protests in Madrid, Barcelona y Granada, as well as in the Canary and Balearic Islands. More protests are planned in many parts of the country.

Las stickers and painted against tourismThey are already common in the main Spanish cities, and references to “guiris”, a word that is somewhere between ironic and derogatory, which is usually used to describe northern Europeans, are increasingly frequent.

“Since the end of the pandemic, the city’s tourism boom has been enormous”

However, the reaction comes amid a record influx of touriststo Spain. More than 90 million international visitors in 2024according to a study by Caixa Bank, and it is not just the traditional tourism model of short-term hotel stays.

Malaga is no longer the entry point to explore the tourist centers of the Coast of Sol, but has become a tourist center in itself. With more Airbnbs and fewer hotels available, vacationers are increasingly staying in what were once neighbors’ homes and businesses.

From the pandemic in particular, tourism levels have soared. “Since the restrictions of the COVIDthe tourist boom in the city has been enormous,” says Bernardo.

In a world increasingly connected to the Internet, dozens of remote workersmany of whom earn salaries that local people could only dream of, have come to take advantage of Spain’s most affordable cost of living.

But for the Spanish, their city is no longer affordable. According to data from the Idealista real estate website, the rents media in Malaga have soared by 16.5% in a single year, with the supply of residential homes gradually absorbed by the tourist accommodation sector.

It’s scary how fast things move.

Organized by the Malaga Tenants Union, the protesters demanded the regulation of the rental priceand the prohibition of tourist homes. A spokesperson for the group explains to ‘Euronews Travel’ that the people of Malaga took to the streets “for the right to decent housing and to protest the consequences of the tourist monoculture model in the city.”

The number of tourist rental apartments has increased exponentially in Malaga in recent years. Figures cited by the Spanish newspaper ‘The country‘ show that in 2016 there were only 846 registered in the city, but in 2024 that number has grown to exceed 12,000. Malaga, like many large cities in Spain is also home to hundreds, if not thousands, of unlicensed tourist apartments.

Los Airbnbsand tourist accommodation is highly concentrated in the center of Malaga. Data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE) show that in some central neighborhoods the proportion of homes dedicated to tourist accommodation is close to 50%.

“People from Malaga will not be able to live in Malaga”

“The speed at which things are moving is scary,” José, 60, tells ‘Euronews Travel’. In the future, he fears, “it is clear that Malaga residents will not be able to live in Malaga“.

At the beginning of June, the City Council announced measures to limit new licenses of tourist rentals to those with a private entrance, and assured the people of Malaga that he was working on greater regulation. But many believe this does not go far enough.

“The problem with this policy is that it comes too late,” says the Tenants Union. “It is an insufficient measure,” Bernardo agrees, “but it can be a first step if the granting of licenses continues to be controlled,” they add.

Government intervention is necessary to control overtourism in Malaga

Juan González Alegreprofessor of Economics at the University of Malaga, explains to ‘Euronews Travel’ that regulation must go beyond local authorities. “The solution to housing problems and even urbanization and infrastructure strategies, in general terms, cannot be left in the hands of local administrations,” he explains.

He Malaga Tenants Union He also sees a broader reform as necessary. “The housing problem in Malaga must be addressed politically at the three levels of government: state, regional and local. Without price regulation and a total and immediate prohibition [de las viviendas de alquiler turístico]… nothing will change,” says his spokesperson.

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After the protest, the president of the Spanish Government, Pedro Sanchez, has hinted at possible government intervention. “I think there is beginning to be a consensus on this,” says Alegre: “it is necessary to regulate tourist housing“.

In reference to the recent proposals of the mayor of Barcelona BarcelonaJaume Collbonito “eliminate” the tourist rental of the Catalan city to 2029Alegre adds that “they are political areas in which there are too many interdependencies, or externalities, as economists call them.”

“Whatever the mayor of Barcelona decides, that is, it affects the citizens of Sabadell o Cornelláwho cannot vote for him… The State and the regions should get more involved in the problem.”

Where the Café Central was, there is now an Irish pub

But for Malaga residents, it is not just about the economy or the rise in rental prices. For many Malaga residents, the model mass tourism Spanish not only makes life unaffordable, but slowly kills the soul of the city and gentrifica your culture as happens in many other parts of Europe.

Bernardo describes how there are fewer and fewer local businesses in the city center. “There are hardly any butcher shops, fishmongers, bakeries, neighborhood stores. The fiestas and local traditions They stop being something ‘proper’,” he adds, “and are replaced by shows in which the participants are theater actors so that tourists can take photos.”

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“I’m not against tourism,” says José, “but there has to be a limit and control.” “Now the city center is a theme park for tourists“, he adds. “What was previously El Café Central in the main square of Malaga”, – a local institution that closed its doors in January 2022 after 101 years – “today is an Irish pub full of tourists.”