‘Málaga for living, not surviving’: Locals protest tourism amid rising rents and gentrification

12.07.2024 - 16:49 / euronews.com / El Pais

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 Málaga”. 

For many, he says, the “situation is getting worse month by month due to the current policies totally geared towards tourist overcrowding.”

This follows an uptick in anti-tourism activism 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.

Anti-tourism stickers 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 tourists 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 Costa del Sol but has become a resort in itself. With more Airbnbs and fewer hotels available, holidaymakers increasingly stay in what were once locals’ homes and businesses. 

Since the pandemic in particular, tourism levels have ratcheted up. “Since the COVID restrictions ended, the city's tourist boom has been enormous,” Bernardo says.

In the increasingly online world, scores of remote workers - many of whom earn salaries locals could only dream of - have come to take advantage of Spain’s more affordable living costs.

But for locals their city is no longer affordable. According to figures from property website Idealista, average rents in Málaga have shot up by 16.5 per cent in a single year, with the supply of residential housing stock slowly sucked into the tourist accommodation sector.

Organised by the Málaga Tenants’ Union, protestors demanded rent price regulation and bans on tourist properties. A spokesperson for the group tells Euronews Travel that locals took to the streets “for the right to decent housing and in protest against the consequences of the tourist monoculture model in the city.”

The number of tourist rental flats has increased exponentially in Málaga in recent years. Figures cited by Spanish newspaper El País show that in 2016 there were just 846 registered in the city, but by 2024 that number has grown to more than 12,000.