Tens of thousands of frustrated residents took their anger at the issues created to their daily lives by overtourism to the streets of Tenerife, Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria in April.
In the weeks that followed, other holiday hotspots in Spain followed through, including Majorca and Menorca, part of the Balearic Islands.
In June, protesters in Majorca called twice on residents to come together and “occupy” a local and popular beach, in a bid to reclaim it from tourists. The second attempt drew around 300 people.
In Malaga, locals plastered the city centre with stickers telling tourists to “go home” or lamenting that “this used to be the city centre”.
Many of the attendees at these protests shared similar complaints. Overcrowding makes it difficult to carry on with their day-to-day lives and increases traffic and pollution.
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Moreover, the increased demand for holiday rentals has reportedly led some landlords to kick out locals from their homes in favour of more profitable short-term lets.
Many people living in holiday hotspots have lamented they are being pushed out from the centres of their cities by rising rent and real estate investors buying up entire buildings for the tourism market.
These protests appeared to have shifted the debate in these locations. During a meeting between critics of the current tourism model, members of local governments and tourism entrepreneurs, attendees agreed the Balearics have exceeded the limits of tourism growth in terms of volume.
The Balearics’ president Marga Prohens said it was “essential to listen to the citizens” and that the islands had “lost the social profitability of tourism”, statements rarely made about the industry by officials in recent years.
While locals and their representatives appear to be finding common ground on the issue of overtourism, people have continued to flock to these hotspots.
Now, Express.co.uk is asking its readers whether these protests and the complaints raised by locals have turned them away from Spain.
