Spain faces anti-tourism protests again
- Activists across Spain revived anti-tourism protests ahead of summer, with Barcelona, the Canary Islands and Balearics again becoming the main flashpoints. - In the Canary Islands, more than 23,000 people marched in May 2025, after 54,000 had demonstrated a year earlier over housing and crowding. - The fight now matters beyond tourism — it has fused with Spain’s wider housing crisis and local politics.
Spain’s anti-tourism protests are back because the argument never really ended. Residents in places like Barcelona, Mallorca, and the Canary Islands say tourism has outgrown the cities and islands that depend on it. The complaint is not just about crowds on beaches or packed old towns. It is about rents, housing supply, wages, and the feeling that daily life is being reorganized around visitors instead of residents. That tension is flaring again as Spain heads toward another heavy summer season. (dw.com) ### Why are people angry again? Because last year’s protests did not produce the kind of reset many residents wanted. Organizers in Spain and elsewhere in southern Europe called fresh demonstrations as the 2025 summer season approached, and the same complaints kept surfacing — overcrowded centers, pressure on housing, and local s(dw.com)ind of protest symbol, spraying tourists and blocking a tour bus near the Sagrada Família to make the point impossible to ignore. (dw.com) ### Is this really about tourists? Not exactly. Tourists are the visible part. Housing is the deeper fight. In Spain’s big tourism hotspots, residents keep arguing that too many homes have been diverted into short-term rentals or investor-driven uses, while ordinary long-term rentals have become scarce and expensive. That is why(dw.com)nant groups and housing activists were mobilizing in 40 Spanish cities, and one of their demands was to recover tourist apartments for regular housing. (elpais.com) ### Why do the Canary Islands matter so much? Because the islands make the contradiction really obvious. Tourism there keeps breaking records, but many residents say everyday life is not getting easier. In May 2025, more than 23,000 people pr(elpais.com) a rethink of the whole model. The backdrop was stark — the islands had just posted their best first quarter ever for tourism and had logged 21 straight months with more than 1 million foreign tourists. In 2024, the Canaries received a record 17.7 million visitors. (elpais.com) ### What about Mallorca and the Balearics? That is where the politics get messy. You might expect every new rule to clamp down on tourism. But turns out some measures have gone the other way. In April 2025, the Balearic government approved a decree that effectively locked in around 9(elpais.com)ion and illegal supply, but hotel groups blasted it, arguing it would worsen the housing crunch. So even inside tourist regions, there is no clean consensus on how hard to restrict the sector. (elpais.com) ### Why is Barcelona always in the middle of this? Because Barcelona is the clearest urban example of what residents mean by “touristification.” The city has spent years dealing with packed central districts, crowded transit corridors, and a constant fight over short-term ren(elpais.com)plaining about bad tourist behavior. It is wrestling with how a successful global destination keeps functioning as a place to live. (dw.com) ### So what is the real split here? Spain needs tourism. But many residents think the current model asks too much from the places that host it. That is the catch. This is not a simple anti-visitor backlash. It is a demand to rebalance who cities and islands are for — and who gets priced out when tourism keeps growing faster than housing, infrastructure, and wages. (english.elpais.com) ### Bottom line The protests are back because Spain’s tourism boom keeps colliding with a housing crisis that local governments still have not solved. Until that changes, every new summer will look less like a celebration and more like a stress test. (dw.com)
