'Your Airbnb used to be my home' - Spain's housing crisis overshadows tourism

Spain welcomed a record 94 million visitors in 2024, a 10 percent increase from 2023, Tourism Minister Jordi Hereu announced last week. But the news hasn't been entirely welcomed.

The country is second on the list of the world's most visited countries, behind only France which welcomed 100 million tourists last year, boosted by the Paris Olympics.

The good news for Spain is that unemployment is at its lowest level in 16 years and this tourist boom is driving growth too, at around 2.5 percent of GDP - five times higher than the European average.

Foreign tourists spent some $130 billion in Spain in 2024, a rise of 16 percent from the previous year with expectations even higher in 2025.

Such good economic news shows no signs of abating, with Hereu predicting a visitor number rise of 9 percent in the first four months of 2025, bringing $40 billion in spending. That's 16 percent higher than in the same period of 2024.

Social cost

Over-tourism has come at a social cost, though. Thousands of people have joined unprecedented protests in tourism hotspots across the country including Barcelona, Mallorca, Valencia and even the Canary Islands, which relies on tourism for 40 percent of its income.

House prices have skyrocketed in Spain, more than doubling over the last 15 years in parts of the country. In Madrid towards the end of 2024 more than 20,000 people, took to the streets chanting about how they were going to simply stop paying rent in protest.

"Your Airbnb used to be my home," read one sign, written on a child's buggy converted into a cardboard house.

"We are very angry at the situation," Alicia del Rio of the Madrid Tenants Association, told CGTN at the protest. 

But what has all this got to do with tourism?

"All the houses are being transferred to tourism houses, tourism apartments," argued Del Rio.

"The price just keeps going up higher and higher and higher. So we cannot pay our rent or we have to give so much money to our landlord that we don't have enough money to live."

She added: "I have a decent job, but there are people in much worse situations."

Industry expert Chris Pomeroy has spent decades working in Spanish tourism and currently works for Hopscotch Tourism.

According to Pomeroy: "This is the consequence of the meeting of the two industries - the property and building and the investments in that area and travel and tourism whereby when Airbnb and short-term rentals disrupted the traditional model of hotels in destinations."

Pomeroy says that Spain has had a huge tourism sector for decades, but the difference is that now it's affecting people's lives directly, particularly those working in hospitality, due to low wage levels and soaring house and rent prices.

He told CGTN: "They say, yes, I rely on tourism, certainly for my salary. But if with the salary I am earning, I am no longer able to buy a basic right, which is to have a property and a home, then the balance is out of skew.

"Tourism is a delicate balance of people, places and planet. And if that balance goes, then we feel the friction."

Spain's 100 percent property tax - will it happen?

Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez made global headlines when he proposed a tax of 100 percent of the price of a property for non-EU buyers as one measure aimed at alleviating Spain's housing crisis.

It was one of many proposals but opposition regional governments are in open revolt, even calling the measure "xenophobic."

At the January FITUR tourism fair in Madrid, it's clear not everyone is on board.

Some of Spain's powerful regional governments which have conservative opposition governments are strongly opposed to the measure, including Madrid, which received over 70 percent of foreign property investment in 2024 - almost $20 billion.

From the capital to the coast, regional governments are voicing their concerns about the tax.

"We are strongly against what Pedro Sanchez and the national government is trying to do," Marian Cano Garcia, Valencia regional government minister of tourism, told CGTN.

"Residential tourism is fundamental for the Valencia region. For us it's unthinkable that this could become a reality and we're working hard to make sure it never does."

Pomeroy sees potential in using tax to control tourism, but isn't sure about the viability of the 100 percent tax on property proposal.

He said: "Tax is one tool for managing tourism. Tourism is an industry, it's a global industry and one in 10 world jobs depend on tourism. It is huge and it needs to be managed - but I'm not sure if it's going to happen."

Spain's shaky ruling coalition means the 100 percent tax bill faces an uncertain future in parliament, so Brexit Brits dreaming of a place in the sun can rest easy, for now at least.

For Spaniards however, the tourism dilemma is clear: the country needs the employment and tourist dollars, but local people also need a home.