With the slogan: “Malaga to live, not to survive”, nearly 5,500 people, according to the sub-prefecture, gathered in the historic center of the large Andalusian city of 570,000 inhabitants, the center of “sol y playa” (sun and beach) tourism.
At the call of around fifty local associations, they gathered, with signs reading: “Prohibition of tourist accommodation” or “Salary of 1,300, rent of 1,100, how to live? “. “The city has become an amusement park,” assures Quique, a 26-year-old protester, who is worried about these “tourist accommodations which have irregularly taken the place of usual accommodation”.
In Spain, the province of Malaga is the one with the largest number of accommodations for tourist use, at 39,000, including 6,500 in the city itself, according to the National Institute of Statistics. The city attracts many tourists and expatriate workers because of its dozens of beaches and a cultural offering of which Picasso, born in the city in 1881, is the central figure.
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In Cadiz, another Andalusian city, hundreds of people also gathered in the historic centre behind the slogan: “one more tourist, one less neighbour”. “Enough hotels, enough tourist apartments, enough evictions, enough selling the city”, can be read in the text of the call for the demonstration, emanating from the platform “Cadiz Resiste”.
The port of Cádiz, located in the historic center of this city of just 117,000 inhabitants, has become a popular destination for cruise ships, with the arrival of 20 of them in June, according to port data local. The almost daily arrival of thousands of travelers congests the narrow streets of the old quarter.
From the Balearic Islands to the Canaries to Barcelona, movements against overtourism are multiplying in Spain. In the 2010s, residents had already mobilized against overtourism, mainly in Barcelona. But after the Covid-19 break, exasperation seems to have escalated, as Spain welcomed a record 85.1 million foreign visitors last year.
