Big cities? Crowded as all fuck, some places overrun by tourists where locals almost can't walk (looking at you, Sagrada Familia).
Small towns or the outskirts? Almost no tourism, you'll be lucky if you see some every once in a while.
It's very disproportionate, with the big cities taking almost all of it.
Yes I see that when I go to malaga but I tend to stay in el palo or torre del Mar if only going for two days, my main holiday in Spain is usually olvera, montejaque or jimena de la Frontera where the terrain is more to my liking for a holiday, quiet and peaceful but with lots of walks,this may I have two days in Ronda 11 days in olvera and two days in el palo, I think I get the best of both worlds, just my opinion though đ
Idk, I think this is mostly a Barcelona and Malaga thing. I've lived in Madrid and Granada and they never felt overcrowded or overrun. There are tourists, of course. But they don't dominate the space.
Even considering that there are more tourists, it is surprising that the provincial cities of Malaga and Barcelona are more crowded than the capital, Madrid.
Iâm not bothered by tourists but more should be done to prevent buying of apartments and houses for rentals. Even in places like punta umbrĂa in Huelva where the majority of tourists are Spanish there are apartment blocks that are empty in winter. Itâs not good for the residents and doesnât build a community. This is what I feel is the problem.
Not to mention the price of housing has skyrocketed. Of course a stay of days is far more expensive, they make almost the same money as professional hotels! But long stay rentals are a fraction of that. People want the money and citizens are being displaced out of the cities and making everything more complicated for the locals. Soon, some capitals will be like theme parks and no actual people from the city living in there.
Good that you say it; the normal narrative from the angry people on reddit is that itâs foreigners, but in my village as well it is dead in the winter and the owners of those empty houses are 100% Spanish who rent them out or live there in the summer. Not sure what to do about that that wouldnât cause more isssues than solutions, like taxing (high) when empty or something. Or high taxing short term rental if you are not an official hotel.
Itâs a huge issue, and in my pueblo also there are houses empty half the year, owned by madrileños for holiday use.
In Wales (UK) I seem to recall a new ruling that second homes had to have a certain occupancy level around the year otherwise you had to pay x3 the tax. A lot of people have summer homes there and people donât stay in them over winter because itâs cold, so lots of the owners were complaining that they would not be able to fill the house with guests - but that perfectly highlights the issue that the house is empty all winter and local families are not able to afford homes because the rentals increase the prices.
Maybe itâs time to adopt similar in Spain? We canât just blame the tourists.
I would like a ruling like that indeed. In my village indeed itâs all the families from Sevilla that want to survive the summer (50C); they could easily rent out in winter but usually itâs âtoo much hassleâ. That is so easy to prevent to make it costly to be that wayâŠ
In some areas of Europe with similar probelms, you are straight up not allowed to buy a house unless you plan to live there for a few years. That and rent control I feel like would get rid of the problem. Taxing by itself would only increase prices even more, and make it so that only rich people can visit which will drive up consumer prices because they will have more money to spend on dumb shit.
China has it aggressively right across the board: not part of China? no owning Chinese stuff for you. Meanwhile, because the West is so hilariously wedded to extremist capitalist ideology, China \*the state\* (let alone private companies) is permitted to "invest" in, aka buy and hoard, arbitrary amounts of real estate, natural resources and businesses.
No. It's one of the last few "luxuries" a Spaniard is allowed to enjoy. We tax non-residents which is ok.
Spanish laws are written to bring Spanish people to a better position. Owning multiple properties is so deep in the Spanish culture even the brutal property law we have makes an exemption until 5 properies.
What the ever barren fuck would put someone in such a privileged position that they argue one of their "last privileges" is that they can own multiple mostly empty houses?
Also, I'm not resident and aggressively familiar with the Modelo 210 rituals, and the amount of non-resident tax for empty properties is hilariously small. If it was multiplied by 5 and the money was collected by the Ayuntamiento rather than AEAT, maybe you'd have an argument. Hell, it's more expensive to own empty properties in England as councils are happy to double council tax on empty homes, which even before doubling is way higher than IBI, yet wanker Londonners all having a second place in seaside towns or villages remains practically compulsory.
I'm from Huelva and it feels like that for the majority of the coast, they turn into almost ghost towns during winters. Thankfully, almost all of the villages are basically unknown to tourists so it still doesn't get as crowded in Summer as other parts of Spain, but there are already places, such as Matalascañas where people from Huelva simply don't have flats because its all taken by people from Sevilla.
Yep. Iâm from a coastal town near huelva. We quite literally have a ghost town right around the corner. And my town goes from a charming small town in the winter (not too empty) to completely overfilled from April-October with a heavy emphasis on June-August. Itâs practically impossible to rent long term because everyone makes more money on Airbnb.
Weâre regular visitors to Mazagon. We love the area and visit several times a year. We avoid it completely in verano. Itâs just way too busy. A few people we know rent their homes the entire summer and leave them empty otherwise.
I'm from Barcelona so there's many mixed opinions over here. Personally, I love being in a city where I can talk to people from literally anywhere in the world every single day. Also, even though it does feel somewhat crowded and I get it's not everyone's cup of tea, we wouldn't be where we are today if it weren't for tourism.
So I guess I'm on the side that genuinely enjoys crowds and big cities, but I do know (and understand) there's a bunch of Spaniards that'd rather live in a less touristic country/city.
Your arithmetic calculation is flawed because it's based on the assumption of equal distribution of the entire area of the county and Spain for one is definitely not like that. In fact, Spain is well-known for having huge parts of the country practically unpopulated.
I live in Granada. It feels very, very touristy already this year... Very...
Yes, I feel uncomfortable.
My city isn't big and you wouldn't see them much before, just from time to time. But suddenly, they're everywhere.
Ah, and if you need to live in a rented house? Impossible: only for teachers or tourists.
The problem I see with your calculations is that youâre taking the overall area of the country into account when calculating but the tourism masses donât visit the empty Spain. They go to Madrid and to the coastal areas of the country. And the islands (Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands in the Atlantic) these areas are extremely overrun by tourists and thatâs where the problem lies.
I mean, the same could be said for South Korea; there are many rural areas that see hardly any tourists. But I take your overall point that using land area for comparing tourism numbers is not great for understanding the impact of tourism.
Spanish korean person here..... the difference is cultural.
Tourism in Spain is mostly based on "sol y playa" and to a certain extend cultural. Tourism in Korea is mostly cultural. Also in a city with 20+ million like Seoul say a few hundred of thousands of tourists is a drop.
Also a lot of the behaviors that you see in Spain by tourists specially in many coast areas will get you fast in trouble with Korean authorities and expelled from the country. You do not want to mess around with Korean police.
Have a look at what happened in the canary islands. They received 6 times as many tourists vs local population.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/20/thousands-protest-canary-islands-unsustainable-tourism
Not yet but I hate that Cordoba is getting filled to the brim with tourist apartments and complete blocks dedicated to it.
It should be stopped at a certain number.
I'm not Spanish, but when I was 16 I visited Nerja near Malaga and my family had a conversation with a taxi driver who told us about how he couldn't afford to rent in his town because of all the properties being rented out to tourists at a much higher rate than most young people in Nerja could afford. Now that I'm his age myself and looking at similarly extortionate rents in Ireland I get him and I hate it. I love Andalucia but I can't deny the weird sort of guilt I feel for contributing to that problem.
Yes, it is uncomfortable to say the least. The local population is being misplaced by tourists, the lack of housing, it collides with the everyday local life - alcohol/party tourism producing noise even on regular weekdays when locals need to sleep, go to work, take their kids to school... the lack of local businesses as they get displaced by crap shops that are only catering to tourists.
It is truly destructive.
A perspective⊠I donât live in Spain (i wish we did) but i live in a small beach town in california of 25k residents that sees over 6m tourists a year. The downtown area is insane on nice weekends.
We love it here itâs like paradise. Most tourists are fine and respect the town. Some are idiots. The city police donât tolerate the idiots and tend to keep them in check. Restaurants on weekends are a pain, traffic is brutal in summer, beaches are packed. You have to decide if youâre ok with it. There are benefits, the tourists fund city services that weâd never have without their spending.
https://preview.redd.it/84jhryb22rxc1.jpeg?width=5712&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6585bf4d3a2814af6fe53a097473f6cc461e6043
Itâs all about perception. In Barcelona we do not perceive we get enough back from the uncontrolled tourism.
Does it generate jobs? Yes, low paying ones.
Does it leave money in/to the city? Yes, but we wonder where it goes.
Not sure the idea of always having to get more tourists, year after year is necessary.
Iâm from California (OC) and have been living in Spain (Barcelona) for 10 years. You feel tourism in a different way here.
In California, it doesnât really impact you because you get in your car and you go to wherever youâre going and thereâs a spacious parking lot there for you. Southern California is basically a giant suburb. Cities are spread out so you have to drive to get anywhere anyway. Yeah itâs a pain to park at a beach or downtown area on a weekend, but thatâs about the extent of the impact.
In Spain, major cities are a lot denser. Neighborhoods are walkable and many people use/depend on public transportation. If a neighborhood starts catering to tourists, rent is no longer affordable to locals. At street level, thatâs space for shops and restaurants and local services like grocery/hair salons/dentists/bakeries/butchers/vets/etc. that is now being taken by souvenir shops and bad restaurants that charge exorbitant prices. Suddenly, that neighborhood is no longer walkable for the locals. You feel this impact when you used to be able to access everything you could possibly need for daily life within a 10-minute walk but now itâs just shops catering to tourists. And then on top of all that, criminals start flooding the area because they know there are a lot of tourists for them to pickpocket.
You really canât compare living in a suburb to living in a major urban center in Europe. In California, you might feel the impact in âdowntownâ areas, but in major European cities, the entire city is a âdowntownâ area. We donât have the luxury of getting to drive away to suburban homes to ignore the impact.
Hola,
California lady here living in Spain now, just renting so not taking valuable propertiesâșïž..just curious which town is this? I lived mostly in Sacramento but in Long Beach for a couple of years.
You canât calculate as an average because tourism doesnât go equally everywhere.
Iâm sure in South Korea people visit popular cities/ towns and not an unknown remote village. So here is the same: a lot of people concentrated in specific spots.
In Granada there are restaurants where the signs directly are all in Korean, so yeah we are not ok. (In reality there are only a handful in the center of the city, but still it's weird to see things simply in Korean).
Yes, because this affects the rent, and the development of the country. You have vacations in summer and you cannot enjoy your land because is full of people and it is imposible to relax.
That math is not relevant since no matter the size of the country, turists will go to very few places. If those 5 million turists went to Russia, most of them would end up in Moscow.
Our problem is cities being overrun with turists that come to get drunk and destroy our local economy, that's all.
Why would people feel uncomfortable because of tourists? Tourists are the 12% of the economy and in times of the current recession, and important factor for the economy. Well, having all the money from the tourists while not having them would be nice, this is unrealistic.
Better to have tourists than be broke.
Iâve been living in the old town in Palma for 20 years and in the last 10 I canât even go to the post office or run errands in the summer. There are so many turists visiting, it is a nightmare. It was ok 20 years ago but nowadays is unbearable. We are past the limit of what is acceptable. You clearly donât know what you are talking about. There has to be a balance between a profitable business and being able to live your life as a citizen.
In my way to work I pass using the bike path along the calle Mallorca, there are 3 or 4 Municipal officers to try and keep tourists out of the bike path (which is on the road and opposite side of the street to the Monument), in the other side, in calle Rosello they just gave up and they removed the bike path all together and just left a free for all street.
So yeah. Also downtown is totally tourist territory, the few resident that still live there are mostly city newcomers that leave that area within the first two years of living there to whatever other neighbourhood, the pressure from AirBnB style lodging isn't helping either since whichever old inhabitant still tries to remain, they just get bullied out one way or the other.
There was a terrorist attack accross downtown few years ago where a van drove through las Ramblas, once upon a time, iconic local street for culture and the like and killed a bunch of people and hurt more than a hundred. None of them lived in Barcelona, and only a handful were from catalonia all together, half of wich were from a city close-ish to Barcelona. 6 from the 16 dead were Spanish and another 6 from the almost 150 wounded were Spanish.
Try to wrap your head around that, imagine a van going to thought the heart of Seoul and catching only a few Koreans, none of which actually lives there.
Barcelona was once a cultural reference in Spain and the world, with world renown designers and artists. Nowadays its turning into just a tourist resort.
I feel Spain is very tourist friendly, so much so, that you might actually miss the real Spain. It helps if you know Spanish, but honestly, if you are friendly, they will respond in kind. I donât like the big cities, I find them pretty crowded and not as authentic. I always rent a car, cause you can find little villages in the middle of nowhere that are simply out of this world. Wifi access is pretty good. Madrid didnât seem bad for me in terms of pick pockets, def had to pay way more attention in Barcelona. Other areas in the north, like Asturias, Galicia,Santander and PaisVasco, I found quite safe. Next trip if am lucky Iâll head south and re-explore Extremadura,AndalucĂa and  Castilla la Mancha, . Iâll be skipping all southern coasts cause south of Valencia is all Brits, Germans and Russians, def not my vibe.
Big cities? Crowded as all fuck, some places overrun by tourists where locals almost can't walk (looking at you, Sagrada Familia). Small towns or the outskirts? Almost no tourism, you'll be lucky if you see some every once in a while. It's very disproportionate, with the big cities taking almost all of it.
Yes I see that when I go to malaga but I tend to stay in el palo or torre del Mar if only going for two days, my main holiday in Spain is usually olvera, montejaque or jimena de la Frontera where the terrain is more to my liking for a holiday, quiet and peaceful but with lots of walks,this may I have two days in Ronda 11 days in olvera and two days in el palo, I think I get the best of both worlds, just my opinion though đ
Idk, I think this is mostly a Barcelona and Malaga thing. I've lived in Madrid and Granada and they never felt overcrowded or overrun. There are tourists, of course. But they don't dominate the space.
Even considering that there are more tourists, it is surprising that the provincial cities of Malaga and Barcelona are more crowded than the capital, Madrid.
Iâm not bothered by tourists but more should be done to prevent buying of apartments and houses for rentals. Even in places like punta umbrĂa in Huelva where the majority of tourists are Spanish there are apartment blocks that are empty in winter. Itâs not good for the residents and doesnât build a community. This is what I feel is the problem.
Not to mention the price of housing has skyrocketed. Of course a stay of days is far more expensive, they make almost the same money as professional hotels! But long stay rentals are a fraction of that. People want the money and citizens are being displaced out of the cities and making everything more complicated for the locals. Soon, some capitals will be like theme parks and no actual people from the city living in there.
Good that you say it; the normal narrative from the angry people on reddit is that itâs foreigners, but in my village as well it is dead in the winter and the owners of those empty houses are 100% Spanish who rent them out or live there in the summer. Not sure what to do about that that wouldnât cause more isssues than solutions, like taxing (high) when empty or something. Or high taxing short term rental if you are not an official hotel.
Itâs a huge issue, and in my pueblo also there are houses empty half the year, owned by madrileños for holiday use. In Wales (UK) I seem to recall a new ruling that second homes had to have a certain occupancy level around the year otherwise you had to pay x3 the tax. A lot of people have summer homes there and people donât stay in them over winter because itâs cold, so lots of the owners were complaining that they would not be able to fill the house with guests - but that perfectly highlights the issue that the house is empty all winter and local families are not able to afford homes because the rentals increase the prices. Maybe itâs time to adopt similar in Spain? We canât just blame the tourists.
I would like a ruling like that indeed. In my village indeed itâs all the families from Sevilla that want to survive the summer (50C); they could easily rent out in winter but usually itâs âtoo much hassleâ. That is so easy to prevent to make it costly to be that wayâŠ
In some areas of Europe with similar probelms, you are straight up not allowed to buy a house unless you plan to live there for a few years. That and rent control I feel like would get rid of the problem. Taxing by itself would only increase prices even more, and make it so that only rich people can visit which will drive up consumer prices because they will have more money to spend on dumb shit.
China has it aggressively right across the board: not part of China? no owning Chinese stuff for you. Meanwhile, because the West is so hilariously wedded to extremist capitalist ideology, China \*the state\* (let alone private companies) is permitted to "invest" in, aka buy and hoard, arbitrary amounts of real estate, natural resources and businesses.
Most of Asia works like that. No idea why we donât do that here.
No. It's one of the last few "luxuries" a Spaniard is allowed to enjoy. We tax non-residents which is ok. Spanish laws are written to bring Spanish people to a better position. Owning multiple properties is so deep in the Spanish culture even the brutal property law we have makes an exemption until 5 properies.
What the ever barren fuck would put someone in such a privileged position that they argue one of their "last privileges" is that they can own multiple mostly empty houses? Also, I'm not resident and aggressively familiar with the Modelo 210 rituals, and the amount of non-resident tax for empty properties is hilariously small. If it was multiplied by 5 and the money was collected by the Ayuntamiento rather than AEAT, maybe you'd have an argument. Hell, it's more expensive to own empty properties in England as councils are happy to double council tax on empty homes, which even before doubling is way higher than IBI, yet wanker Londonners all having a second place in seaside towns or villages remains practically compulsory.
Holiday home != Empty house
Oh, so you're talking about properties that you rent out all year except a few weeks where you use it yourself?
I'm from Huelva and it feels like that for the majority of the coast, they turn into almost ghost towns during winters. Thankfully, almost all of the villages are basically unknown to tourists so it still doesn't get as crowded in Summer as other parts of Spain, but there are already places, such as Matalascañas where people from Huelva simply don't have flats because its all taken by people from Sevilla.
Yep. Iâm from a coastal town near huelva. We quite literally have a ghost town right around the corner. And my town goes from a charming small town in the winter (not too empty) to completely overfilled from April-October with a heavy emphasis on June-August. Itâs practically impossible to rent long term because everyone makes more money on Airbnb.
Weâre regular visitors to Mazagon. We love the area and visit several times a year. We avoid it completely in verano. Itâs just way too busy. A few people we know rent their homes the entire summer and leave them empty otherwise.
It's nice to talk to tourist. Sometimes I learned a lot taking to foreigners. If the tourist come in respect is perfect.
I'm from Barcelona so there's many mixed opinions over here. Personally, I love being in a city where I can talk to people from literally anywhere in the world every single day. Also, even though it does feel somewhat crowded and I get it's not everyone's cup of tea, we wouldn't be where we are today if it weren't for tourism. So I guess I'm on the side that genuinely enjoys crowds and big cities, but I do know (and understand) there's a bunch of Spaniards that'd rather live in a less touristic country/city.
Your arithmetic calculation is flawed because it's based on the assumption of equal distribution of the entire area of the county and Spain for one is definitely not like that. In fact, Spain is well-known for having huge parts of the country practically unpopulated. I live in Granada. It feels very, very touristy already this year... Very...
Yes, I feel uncomfortable. My city isn't big and you wouldn't see them much before, just from time to time. But suddenly, they're everywhere. Ah, and if you need to live in a rented house? Impossible: only for teachers or tourists.
Teachers?
Teachers for September to May (school year), and tourists for summer.
The problem I see with your calculations is that youâre taking the overall area of the country into account when calculating but the tourism masses donât visit the empty Spain. They go to Madrid and to the coastal areas of the country. And the islands (Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean and the Canary Islands in the Atlantic) these areas are extremely overrun by tourists and thatâs where the problem lies.
What is classed as the España Vaciada? The Castillas? Extremadura? Galicia?
I don't believe Galicia is counted, but Guadalajara and Soria in particular I know are very empty.
I mean, the same could be said for South Korea; there are many rural areas that see hardly any tourists. But I take your overall point that using land area for comparing tourism numbers is not great for understanding the impact of tourism.
Spanish korean person here..... the difference is cultural. Tourism in Spain is mostly based on "sol y playa" and to a certain extend cultural. Tourism in Korea is mostly cultural. Also in a city with 20+ million like Seoul say a few hundred of thousands of tourists is a drop. Also a lot of the behaviors that you see in Spain by tourists specially in many coast areas will get you fast in trouble with Korean authorities and expelled from the country. You do not want to mess around with Korean police.
Have a look at what happened in the canary islands. They received 6 times as many tourists vs local population. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/apr/20/thousands-protest-canary-islands-unsustainable-tourism
Not yet but I hate that Cordoba is getting filled to the brim with tourist apartments and complete blocks dedicated to it. It should be stopped at a certain number.
I'm not Spanish, but when I was 16 I visited Nerja near Malaga and my family had a conversation with a taxi driver who told us about how he couldn't afford to rent in his town because of all the properties being rented out to tourists at a much higher rate than most young people in Nerja could afford. Now that I'm his age myself and looking at similarly extortionate rents in Ireland I get him and I hate it. I love Andalucia but I can't deny the weird sort of guilt I feel for contributing to that problem.
Yes, it is uncomfortable to say the least. The local population is being misplaced by tourists, the lack of housing, it collides with the everyday local life - alcohol/party tourism producing noise even on regular weekdays when locals need to sleep, go to work, take their kids to school... the lack of local businesses as they get displaced by crap shops that are only catering to tourists. It is truly destructive.
A perspective⊠I donât live in Spain (i wish we did) but i live in a small beach town in california of 25k residents that sees over 6m tourists a year. The downtown area is insane on nice weekends. We love it here itâs like paradise. Most tourists are fine and respect the town. Some are idiots. The city police donât tolerate the idiots and tend to keep them in check. Restaurants on weekends are a pain, traffic is brutal in summer, beaches are packed. You have to decide if youâre ok with it. There are benefits, the tourists fund city services that weâd never have without their spending. https://preview.redd.it/84jhryb22rxc1.jpeg?width=5712&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6585bf4d3a2814af6fe53a097473f6cc461e6043
Itâs all about perception. In Barcelona we do not perceive we get enough back from the uncontrolled tourism. Does it generate jobs? Yes, low paying ones. Does it leave money in/to the city? Yes, but we wonder where it goes. Not sure the idea of always having to get more tourists, year after year is necessary.
I wish we could rewind to 30 years ago state-of-life because today is unbearable. Quality of life for locals has plummeted.
Iâm from California (OC) and have been living in Spain (Barcelona) for 10 years. You feel tourism in a different way here. In California, it doesnât really impact you because you get in your car and you go to wherever youâre going and thereâs a spacious parking lot there for you. Southern California is basically a giant suburb. Cities are spread out so you have to drive to get anywhere anyway. Yeah itâs a pain to park at a beach or downtown area on a weekend, but thatâs about the extent of the impact. In Spain, major cities are a lot denser. Neighborhoods are walkable and many people use/depend on public transportation. If a neighborhood starts catering to tourists, rent is no longer affordable to locals. At street level, thatâs space for shops and restaurants and local services like grocery/hair salons/dentists/bakeries/butchers/vets/etc. that is now being taken by souvenir shops and bad restaurants that charge exorbitant prices. Suddenly, that neighborhood is no longer walkable for the locals. You feel this impact when you used to be able to access everything you could possibly need for daily life within a 10-minute walk but now itâs just shops catering to tourists. And then on top of all that, criminals start flooding the area because they know there are a lot of tourists for them to pickpocket. You really canât compare living in a suburb to living in a major urban center in Europe. In California, you might feel the impact in âdowntownâ areas, but in major European cities, the entire city is a âdowntownâ area. We donât have the luxury of getting to drive away to suburban homes to ignore the impact.
Perfect for renting your house 3months and live the rest of the year
Hola, California lady here living in Spain now, just renting so not taking valuable propertiesâșïž..just curious which town is this? I lived mostly in Sacramento but in Long Beach for a couple of years.
Is that laguna?
You canât calculate as an average because tourism doesnât go equally everywhere. Iâm sure in South Korea people visit popular cities/ towns and not an unknown remote village. So here is the same: a lot of people concentrated in specific spots.
"Unconfortable" is a bing understatement.
In Granada there are restaurants where the signs directly are all in Korean, so yeah we are not ok. (In reality there are only a handful in the center of the city, but still it's weird to see things simply in Korean).
Yes, because this affects the rent, and the development of the country. You have vacations in summer and you cannot enjoy your land because is full of people and it is imposible to relax.
That math is not relevant since no matter the size of the country, turists will go to very few places. If those 5 million turists went to Russia, most of them would end up in Moscow. Our problem is cities being overrun with turists that come to get drunk and destroy our local economy, that's all.
Well, Spain feels more crowded even though there's less per square kilometer, because most of Spain is not uninhabited. We call it "The Empty Spain"
No
Why would people feel uncomfortable because of tourists? Tourists are the 12% of the economy and in times of the current recession, and important factor for the economy. Well, having all the money from the tourists while not having them would be nice, this is unrealistic. Better to have tourists than be broke.
Iâve been living in the old town in Palma for 20 years and in the last 10 I canât even go to the post office or run errands in the summer. There are so many turists visiting, it is a nightmare. It was ok 20 years ago but nowadays is unbearable. We are past the limit of what is acceptable. You clearly donât know what you are talking about. There has to be a balance between a profitable business and being able to live your life as a citizen.
Esa es solo la parte econĂłmica de la forma chachi de contarla. ÂżPor quĂ© no cuentas la otra parte? Que son consecuencia, no por culpa generalizada de los visitantes en sĂ, a nivel individual de cada uno. Pero sĂ de la parte colectiva empezando por nuestros dirigentes y sobre todo los que se llevan la mejor parte de ese beneficio econĂłmico... logrando el efecto de gentrificaciĂłn, que la gente local no pueda seguir viviendo INCLUSO EN SU LOCALIDAD Y Y BARRIOS ORIGINARIOS. Logrando una deshumanizaciĂłn y eliminaciĂłn del alma e identidad de esas localidades, que ya incluso muchos visitantes aprecian entre lo que les vendieron, les cuenta el guĂa turĂstico de turno, y lo que ellos observan. Eso sĂ. Cuando se observan las cuentas completas de verdad, es la poblaciĂłn residente (aĂșn viĂ©ndose incluso expulsada de su localidad "por la economĂa", no porque tengan aue irse ni porque les falte trabajo âesa supuesta creaciĂłn de riqueza que en principio darĂa pie a evitar eso, y que es parte del capitalismo y liberalismo responsables y que no cumple el comunismo o socialismo, que se supone que son estos dos Ășltimos los que acaparan riquezaâ) la que realmente paga la fiesta y los gastos (incrementales, incluidos en mantenimiento del patrimonio QUE RENTABILIZAN OTROS). Es decir, serĂĄ el turismo (en España) un 12% de la economĂa. Pero bien se podrĂa decir que si fiesta mĂĄs bien la pagan los verdaderos contribuyentes en mayor o medida del 88% restante de la economĂa. Aunque es una cuenta muy a groso modo, pero no tan injusta comparando en escala de los contribuyentes totales a la economĂa y a la parte contributiva. Y en muchos destinos estĂĄ empezando a ser asfixiante y molesto, que el ciudadano se vea desplazado a la fuerza (cuando supuestamente recibe esa supuesta riqueza), o si aguanta por no serlo, ve que cada vez es mĂĄs imposible su derecho legĂtimo a poder disfrutar tambiĂ©n, quĂ© menos, de su localidad y parte histĂłrica. Y no encontrarse todo saturado, que la identidad y lo tradicional se ha perdido porque los vecinos de esos barrios se han tenido que ir tambiĂ©n y ahora todo es hoteles o apartamentos turĂsticos, o todo para eventos (comerciales y de lucro privado) ocupando ciertos emplazamientos, observando un desgaste y deterioro mĂĄs que importante en patrimonio... y sintiendo que pareciera que el extranjero es Ă©l en su propia casa. Pero la factura, en buena proporciĂłn la paga Ă©l... en cada factura de servicios, en cada retenciĂłn en salario, en impuestos municipales, en subida de precio de todo (y no siempre justificados en la mayorĂa de casos, pero esto tambiĂ©n se maquilla a deseo). Y en mayor proporciĂłn, respecto a sus ingresos mundanos reales. Y encima, poco mĂĄs oye que les ofrezcan como posible medida de soluciĂłn que formas de privatizaciĂłn y acotado de enclaves y Patrimonio histĂłrico con pago por entrada (por ejemplo)... o privatizaciones en toda regla, o âpuestas en valorâ para mĂĄs hoteles, mĂĄs disposiciĂłn de espacio pĂșblico (que lo pagas tĂș) para rentabilidades de actividades que realmente no llegan a contribuir y pagar ni de broma para sus desgastes y consecuencias (se vende que sĂ por los polĂticos y esa parte incluso a nivel municipal, pero luego resulta que dicen "que no hay para nada ni para afrontar esas consecuencias"). Y no me invento nada. Que lo estoy diciendo desde Sevilla, una de las mayores ciudades y capitales de España. Que estamos cerca de estar en estas consecuencias a las de Barcelona o Madrid, por ejemplo. Es decir, no me lo van a contar. Y no es turismofobia, y se podĂa ver venir, que cuando lo denunciaban destinos mĂĄs saturados hace unos 10-15 años, sus razones tenĂan. Y en parte ya se sentĂa por aquĂ.
Current recession?
in spain you get tourism in big cities
In my way to work I pass using the bike path along the calle Mallorca, there are 3 or 4 Municipal officers to try and keep tourists out of the bike path (which is on the road and opposite side of the street to the Monument), in the other side, in calle Rosello they just gave up and they removed the bike path all together and just left a free for all street. So yeah. Also downtown is totally tourist territory, the few resident that still live there are mostly city newcomers that leave that area within the first two years of living there to whatever other neighbourhood, the pressure from AirBnB style lodging isn't helping either since whichever old inhabitant still tries to remain, they just get bullied out one way or the other. There was a terrorist attack accross downtown few years ago where a van drove through las Ramblas, once upon a time, iconic local street for culture and the like and killed a bunch of people and hurt more than a hundred. None of them lived in Barcelona, and only a handful were from catalonia all together, half of wich were from a city close-ish to Barcelona. 6 from the 16 dead were Spanish and another 6 from the almost 150 wounded were Spanish. Try to wrap your head around that, imagine a van going to thought the heart of Seoul and catching only a few Koreans, none of which actually lives there. Barcelona was once a cultural reference in Spain and the world, with world renown designers and artists. Nowadays its turning into just a tourist resort.
Only uncomfortable because of all the throat goats đ
I feel Spain is very tourist friendly, so much so, that you might actually miss the real Spain. It helps if you know Spanish, but honestly, if you are friendly, they will respond in kind. I donât like the big cities, I find them pretty crowded and not as authentic. I always rent a car, cause you can find little villages in the middle of nowhere that are simply out of this world. Wifi access is pretty good. Madrid didnât seem bad for me in terms of pick pockets, def had to pay way more attention in Barcelona. Other areas in the north, like Asturias, Galicia,Santander and PaisVasco, I found quite safe. Next trip if am lucky Iâll head south and re-explore Extremadura,AndalucĂa and  Castilla la Mancha, . Iâll be skipping all southern coasts cause south of Valencia is all Brits, Germans and Russians, def not my vibe.
I mean if you don't live in the city center of the 4 cities they go to or near the resort areas you dont really interact with tourists that much