{"id":125799,"date":"2024-09-01T23:15:08","date_gmt":"2024-09-01T23:15:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/01\/malaga-tourism-people-feel-the-city-is-collapsing\/"},"modified":"2024-09-01T23:15:08","modified_gmt":"2024-09-01T23:15:08","slug":"malaga-tourism-people-feel-the-city-is-collapsing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/09\/01\/malaga-tourism-people-feel-the-city-is-collapsing\/","title":{"rendered":"M\u00e1laga tourism: ‘People feel the city is collapsing’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"M\u00e1laga<\/div>


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\"GuyGuy Hedgecoe<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Kike Espa\u00f1a says with so many tourists M\u00e1laga feels like a theme park<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Kike Espa\u00f1a gazes across M\u00e1laga\u2019s Plaza de la Merced. <\/b><\/p>\n

It\u2019s late morning and it’s still a peaceful spot at this time of day – jacaranda trees fill the square, an obelisk monument sits at its centre and on the far side is the house where Pablo Picasso was born. <\/p>\n

But it\u2019s the city\u2019s tourists, many of whom are already gathering in the host of nearby caf\u00e9s, who concern Kike.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation is so saturated that M\u00e1laga has really reached a turning point at which people feel that the city is collapsing,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the same feeling you have when you enter a theme park,\u201d he adds. \u201cThere is a stream of people that are consuming the city and not really inhabiting it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kike is an urban planner and a local activist with the M\u00e1laga Tenants\u2019 Union, which has been campaigning for a change in how the southern Spanish city manages tourism. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"GettyGetty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

One banner carried by protestors in M\u00e1laga read “M\u00e1laga to live, not to survive”<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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The organisation led a protest in late June in which thousands of local people took to the streets to voice their concern at the negative impact that tourism is having on their city, including pushing up housing costs, gentrification and crowds.<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s not just M\u00e1laga. Spaniards have been protesting throughout the summer for the same reasons in other major tourist destinations, including Barcelona, Alicante and the Canary and Balearic Islands. <\/p>\n

In April, a group of activists on Tenerife staged a three-week hunger strike against the building of new tourist megaprojects. In Barcelona, demonstrators fired at foreign visitors with water pistols and among the slogans daubed on their banners were: \u201cTourism kills the city\u201d and \u201cTourists go home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spain first established itself as a tourist hub more than half a century ago, as northern Europeans started to flock to its coastline and islands. <\/p>\n

Today, the industry represents about 13% of Spanish GDP and, having bounced back from the Covid-19 pandemic, it is surpassing records in terms of both revenue and arrivals.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"GuyGuy Hedgecoe<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Spain’s coastline has been attracting northern Europeans for more than 50 years<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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In 2023, the country received 85 million foreign visitors and more than 90 million are expected this year, putting it close behind France, the world\u2019s most popular tourist destination.<\/p>\n

Jos\u00e9 Luis Zoreda, president of the Exceltur, a tourism industry association, prefers to talk about the amount of revenue the industry generates \u2013 \u20ac200bn (\u00a3171bn) in direct and indirect activity this year, he estimates \u2013 rather than the number of visitors. <\/p>\n

He also highlights how tourism has ensured that the Spanish economy has outperformed most of its European neighbours in the wake of Covid-19.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been responsible in the last few years for the most important percentage of growth of our economy,\u201d he says. \u201cIn 2023, we were responsible for 80% of the whole GDP growth of Spain.\u201d<\/p>\n

So the sheer size of the tourism sector and its strong growth have driven the overall expansion of the Spanish economy. <\/p>\n

But there is a growing belief that the cost of such success is too high and the wave of recent protests has created the sense of a tipping point. Many Spaniards are now convinced that the towns and cities they inhabit are catering more for visitors than for residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cTourism was perceived as a positive economic activity that is a huge part of our GDP, but the numbers have become so huge in terms of international arrivals that we are now seeing the negative impacts, especially in cities,\u201d says Paco Femenia-Serra, lecturer in tourism and geography at Madrid\u2019s Complutense University.<\/p>\n

\u201cTourism is competing for space and the number of people out on the streets is unbearable for many residents.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"GuyGuy Hedgecoe<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Locals say tourism results in small businesses being replaced by chains<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Besides making these places less pleasant, locals say tourism has also pushed many smaller businesses out of the centre of cities. In their place have come franchise restaurants, bars and shops – and prices have risen.<\/p>\n

But the most-cited problem is that of housing.<\/p>\n

Spain\u2019s biggest tourist destinations have large numbers of short-term rental properties aimed at tourists. <\/p>\n

A recent study by El Pa\u00eds newspaper found that several areas of M\u00e1laga had the highest proportion of Airbnb properties <\/b>in Spain. A quarter of all apartments in the area around the Plaza de la Merced are dedicated to tourist rental.<\/p>\n

Owners of apartments are able to charge more for short-term rentals than they would charge longer-term tenants and this has the effect of pushing up prices across the board. Locals say it is difficult to find an apartment for less than \u20ac1,200-1,300 per month in the centre of M\u00e1laga. With the average salary in the surrounding Andalusia region at just \u20ac1,600 per month, they are being priced out of their city.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the people of M\u00e1laga don\u2019t have somewhere to live, who will provide services for the tourists?\u201d asked Isabel Rodr\u00edguez, housing minister for Spain’s governing Socialist Workers\u2019 Party (PSOE).<\/p>\n

Speaking at a housing forum in the city in July, she continued: \u201cWhere will the waiters who serve us a glass of wine and a plate of sardines live?\u201d<\/p>\n

As Ms Rodr\u00edguez\u2019s comments suggest, Spain\u2019s political class is now starting to grapple with the tourism conundrum.<\/p>\n

Catalonia and the Balearic Islands have already introduced a \u201ctourist tax\u201d, charging a sliding sum of up to \u20ac4 per person per day, depending on the type of accommodation used. <\/p>\n

Palma de Mallorca has sought to limit numbers of arrivals by sea, with no more than three cruise liners allowed to dock at the city per day, only one of them carrying more than 5,000 passengers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"GuyGuy Hedgecoe<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Spain expects to receive more than 90 million foreign visitors this year<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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Measures are also being taken to tackle the tourist accommodation issue. This year, the regional government in Andalusia has handed town and city halls the power to introduce their own controls on short-term rentals. <\/p>\n

In the north-east, Barcelona has already announced its intention to revoke all of the 10,000 or so tourist accommodation licences currently in circulation in 2028.<\/p>\n

Mr Femenia-Serra describes the reining in of Spanish tourism as \u201ca very tricky problem\u201d given the economic weight of the industry but he believes restrictions are needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we want to talk about sustainable tourism or a lower number of tourists we should discuss limits on activity and higher restrictions and more regulation of the sector, which until now has been kind of free to act,\u201d he says. He suggests introducing limits on the number of flights to certain destinations as a possible measure.<\/p>\n

In M\u00e1laga, Kike Espa\u00f1a wants to see caps on rental prices and efforts to provide more housing for locals as immediate measures to counter the tourism crisis. <\/p>\n

While he insists that he and his fellow activists are not opposed to tourism, just the way it is being managed in Spain, he says he also hopes the protests will continue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are against city models that only focus on tourism,\u201d he says. \u201cWe cannot lose all the energy and complexity and heterogeneity of our cities.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Read more global business stories<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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Guy Hedgecoe Kike Espa\u00f1a says with so many tourists M\u00e1laga feels like a theme park Kike Espa\u00f1a gazes across M\u00e1laga\u2019s Plaza de la Merced. It\u2019s late morning and it’s still a peaceful spot at this time of day – jacaranda trees fill the square, an obelisk monument sits at its centre and on the far […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":125800,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[604],"tags":[122,95843,7823,101869,124,1238],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125799"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=125799"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":125801,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125799\/revisions\/125801"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/125800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=125799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}