If there’s one phrase that has gained a disproportionate level of popularity over recent years, it’s “tourism phobia”. A phenomenon that could also be described as “falling victim to your own success,” in the world of tourism. In Spain tourism currently accounts for 14.9% of GDP, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council’s annual report. The figure gives an idea of the billions in revenue generated by the world’s second most popular tourist destination.
But the relationship between locals and tourists arriving en masse has become tense, upsetting the delicate balance required for both groups enjoy their rights. The problem isn’t caused by tourists as individuals, but is instead mainly driven by factors such as the disruption to daily life, rising house rental prices and the cost of living, the degradation of wildlife and plant life and pollution.
Cities lose their traditional character and no longer feel like home to people who consider them to be “theirs.” As if that were not enough, in recent years, this effect has been exacerbated by “gentrification,” the process whereby affluent incomers gradually displace the long-established residents of city centre neighbourhoods. The latter see their rents soar to unaffordable levels, and are forced to move out of the centre.
In response to this situation, the last few years have seen protests, demonstrations and public meetings, accompanied by chants of “Tourists go home.”
First steps
Last April over a dozen cities came together to form a network of southern European cities opposed to mass tourism and its consequences. This initiative was first mooted in Barcelona several years ago and has gradually taken on its current form. The organisation backs the implementation of measures such as, for example, different housing regulations for tourist and residential accommodation. At the same time, they have made clear the need to differentiate between different cities, because the severity of the impact suffered by cities such as Barcelona or Venice is not comparable to other cases.
The network hopes to raise public awareness and put pressure on administrative bodies to develop criteria for sustainability. This kind of destination tends to offer a surfeit of hotel accommodation options and scheduled activities for tourists, whereas, over the rest of the year, cultural and leisure options for local residents tend to diminish.
This is the context in which we have seen the first acts of anti-tourist vandalism in Spain, widely reported around the world. One example is the emergence in Barcelona of Arran, an activist group linked to the left-wing political party CUP, whose modus operandi centred on acts such as puncturing the tyres of rental bikes and attacks on open-top tour buses. In other cities such as Palma de Mallorca, slogans were spray-painted on yachts or restaurants. Similar events were witnessed in the Basque Country, where radical left-wing groups turned against mass tourism.
The big issue: online vacation rental platforms.
The rise of so-called vacation rental booking platforms deserves special mention. As well as providing stiff competition to the traditional hotel industry, they also represent a problem for residents of neighbouring apartments who are subjected to the sound of suitcases coming and going and parties until the early hours of the morning, all of which is hard to reconcile with daily routines.
Is there anyone who hasn’t heard of Airbnb? The best known such platform worldwide, it has allowed millions of users to earn some extra money by renting out spare rooms or empty apartments. Over time, this possibility has been exploited by companies that clear entire buildings to turn them into tourist rental apartments. For many years, these activities fell into a legal grey area that the Spanish tax office is now attempting to regulate; no easy task, given that these online platforms do not have all the user details requested.
In theory, the new regulations are intended to provide a higher level of oversight, so that the owners of apartments rented through companies such as Airbnb, HomeAway or Niumba declare and pay VAT and include this income in their annual income tax declaration.
While laws continue to be modified and tightened up, several cities have already opted for a total or partial ban on rental agreements of this nature.
The city of Palma de Mallorca has pioneered this approach, with a ban on vacation rentals that will come into effect in July 2018, excepting those located in airports or on industrial estates.
But it is not only in the Balearic Islands that measures have been put in place. The authorities in the city of Valencia have been less strict, but for the upcoming season have placed limits on vacation rentals, allowing only ground floor and first floors apartments to be rented for this purpose, a situation that will be regulated under the city’s general urban land use plan. The city council will have to issue a report certifying that an apartment is suitable for use by tourists.
Valencia’s city council maintains that it is seeking a model for “sustainable tourism”, and that the new measure could affect between 65 and 75% of dwellings in the city, the remaining fraction being covered by the regulations.
Other European cities have begun to limit this kind of tourism not only by regulating overnight stays, but also by setting a maximum number of visitors per day, or by imposing taxes that help alleviate the damage they cause to overcrowded destinations.
One of the best-known examples is Venice, where the city has set up “people counters” to control access to the historic centre. The city receives no fewer than seven million visitors a year, and the city council wants to avoid a situation in which Venetian residents decide to head for quieter areas and abandon the centre. The challenge is to manage the complex balance of a city that is also a living museum.
For the time being, and until such time as the new regulations begin to take effect, vacation rentals will continue to be extremely popular: in fact, one in three travellers say they prefer this kind of accommodation, which they regard as particularly attractive if the host knows the area and can offer them added value as a local guide.
Without doubt, this kind of tourism has made been possible and enormously facilitated by technology. 50% of travellers say they don’t mind whether their trip is planned by a real person or by a computer, as long as all their questions are satisfactorily answered.
We are thus witnessing the worldwide transformation of an industry that urgently needs to change and adapt to the new demands of the market.
