Spain’s anti-tourism activism has arrived in Málaga, where locals are angry over soaring rent prices. Many in Málaga fear that their city is becoming a theme park for tourists. Activists say the post-pandemic tourism boom has pushed locals to the limit by distorting the rental market and gentrifying the city centre.
Marching under the slogan ‘Málaga for living, not surviving’, last weekend 15,000 people took to the streets to demand affordable housing and protest mass-tourism in the Costa del Sol city. Bernardo, 39, tells Euronews Travel that he went “to support people who are trying to live with dignity in ”. For many, he says, the “situation is getting worse month by month due to the current policies totally geared towards .
” This follows an uptick in anti-tourism across Spain in recent months, with protests in Madrid, Barcelona and Granada, as well as the Canary and Balearic Islands. Further protests are planned in many parts of the country. and graffiti are now common across Spain’s major cities, with references to ‘guiris’, a word usually used to describe northern Europeans, increasingly prevalent.
Yet the backlash comes amid record numbers of arriving in Spain. Over 90 million international visitors are expected in 2024, according to research from Caixa Bank, and it’s not just the traditional tourist model of short-term hotel stays. Málaga is no longer the entry point to explore resorts along the but has become a resort in itself.
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