Concerned about the effects of “overtourism”, Spain will break a new attendance record this summer 2024
|La Costa Blanca, en juillet dernier. MAXPPP – Patrick Lefevre
Le nombre de touristes étrangers en Espagne a augmenté de 13 % au premier semestre 2024, une hausse qui annonce une nouvelle année record pour le pays.
The number of foreign tourists in Spain increased by 13% in the first half of 2024, an increase that heralds another record year for the country where the population denounces the harmful effects of “overtourism”, particularly in terms of accommodation.
According to the INE, the National Institute of Statistics, 42.5 million international visitors travelled to Spain between January and June, and the latter month alone saw a 12% increase in entries, or 9 million tourists with the resumption of the summer season.
The year 2024 is therefore shaping up to be another record year for Spain, which is already the second most visited country in the world after France, and which could exceed last year's 85 million tourists in 2024.
Tourists spent 12.3 billion in June
The influx of tourists and its impact on the cost of accommodation, in particular, is causing growing unease among Spaniards living in popular destinations such as Palma de Mallorca, Barcelona and the Canary Islands. Demonstrations took place with the slogan of greater regulation of the sector.
The government is under pressure to strike the right balance between tourism and local interests at a time when housing stock is under pressure. In April, thousands of people demonstrated in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, to demand temporary limits on tourist arrivals, and last month in Barcelona, a small group of protesters fired water pistols at tourists, shouting “Tourists, go home!” (“Tourists, go home!”), an action that made headlines around the world.
According to the INE, tourists spent 12.3 billion euros in Spain in June, 17% more than in the same month last year, which helped boost economic growth.
Barcelona wants to ban seasonal rentals by 2028
The city of Barcelona, the Spanish city most visited by foreign tourists, announced in June that it would ban holiday rentals by 2028 in a bid to stem soaring housing costs, a move partly blamed on the rise of short-term rentals on platforms such as Airbnb and Booking.com.
According to the INE, tourists are increasingly choosing short-term rentals for their holidays: the number of visitors staying in this type of accommodation in the first half of the year increased by 30%, while the number of visitors choosing a hotel increased by 11%.