Snippets from Spain
Tourists welcome―sometimes
When the residents of our building heard in the spring of 2019 that some Americans had bought an apartment on the first floor, they passed a resolution banning short-term rentals like Airbnb and VRBO. When I got wind of this, I took it as an insult. We were coming to be neighbors. Nowadays, if the topic came up, I’d write the resolution myself.
Eighty-five million international tourists soaked up Spain’s delights in 2023. In June alone this year, there were 38 million overnight stays by tourists. This is a 5.4 percent increase compared to the prior June. Foreigners vacation in Spain more than any other country. The tourism industry makes for 11.7 percent of the GDP and 12.2 percent of employment.
This escalation in tourism has baited real estate companies to scour Madrid and other cities and towns for properties to convert to short-term rentals to house hordes of tourists. At first, I didn’t understand the problem. Higher housing prices also mean the value of people’s homes rises. They live in gold mines. It took my friend and neighbor Angel, who’s lived around the corner for decades, to explain to me that most madrileños rent their homes. Folks who’ve lived a lifetime in these neighborhoods can’t afford them anymore. Whether retired or elderly, rent or own, many struggle with increasing prices of food, clothes, and utilities that tourists pay.
From the door of our building, I walk one block in each direction to witness this trend. On the corner, Homeart, a former apartment building now houses 31 rental units for €455 for a minimum two-night stay. The company offers homeowners enticing ways to let their apartment for 40 percent greater than the value of most rentals.
Across the Plaza de Olavide, an eviction of a music school stirred up a neighborhood protest in July against a real estate company that announced, ironically by fax, it planned to sell the building. This school, Escuela Popular de Música y Danza de Madrid, founded by two women saxophonists has provide lessons, musical theater, testing facilities, and concerts to our neighborhood and beyond since 1996. Instructors started a big band and two choirs. Even toddlers attend. Twenty instructors will lose their jobs and over 400 students need to find someplace else to study.
This year, Madrid has experienced the highest increase in the cost of a night in a hotel (18.5 percent). Other cities have seen increases in the single digits. It’s not just hotels; Airbnb, VBRO, booking.com, and other services jack up rates for rental lodging. Brits and Germans made up the largest percentage of tourists, followed by the French, Americans, and Dutch. Most stayed in Barcelona, Madrid, and Malaga, and on the island of Mallorca.
Apparently, my friend Beth and I weren’t the only tourists in Mallorca in May. This year, about 20 million tourists partaking of the beaches, restaurants, bars, night clubs, and ocean coves will overrun the million islanders. One 16th century town, Sant Llorenç des Cardassar, will receive 73 tourists per inhabitant―595,340 this year.
Though half of the GDP of the Balearic Islands, where Mallorca lies, comes from tourism, not everyone benefits from the deluge of funds. Most seasonal workers must live elsewhere because they can’t afford housing. Over half the municipalities in Mallorca lack drinking water. Municipal governments have restricted water use, but it flows freely in the hotel sector.
Cities such as Barcelona where residents shot tourists with water pistols and Palma in Mallorca where they protested and yelled at tourists to go home want to be cities offering tourism, not tourist cities.
The Spanish government is developing a strategy “Sustainable Tourism of Spain 2030,” based on three pillars of sustainability: socio-economic, environmental and territorial. It’s changing the fun-in-the-sun focus to promoting sustainable growth. To remain competitive in the industry, it’s moving from volume of tourists to value for them by prioritizing ecological and social integrity.
Before living in Madrid and the massification of tourism, I was on the other side. Fabio and I owned an apartment two blocks from our current place that we rented through Airbnb and VRBO. It served as our pied-à-terre when we vacationed here. We made just enough money to keep the lights on and the water hot. I believed short-term rentals provided an excellent and welcome service to tourists eager to explore our beloved city. I didn’t consider that we’d made one more property out of reach for the people who live here.
When our tourist friends and family visit, Fabio and I take them to lesser known places such as the Sorolla and other small museums. We direct them to local small businesses such as Alma, a gourmet bakery, and Cafetando for coffee. When visitors don’t stay with us, they lodge in legal hotels or Airbnbs. In the past, Fabio exchanged our New York apartment with Spanish families. In 2013, we arrived at a house outside a town in Cantabria in northern Spain where cows and sheep outnumbered people. In 2015, we found ourselves at Vera Beach in southern Spain, which unbeknownst to us, was the most popular beach in Europe for naturalistas, nudists. This kind of travel gave us an intimate look at Spain. These tourists spend almost nothing on bathing suits and clothes, keeping them affordable for the locals. Maybe this isn’t quality over quantity the government touts but it comes close enough.
This is a well researched and interesting piece. The writing is polished and engaging, and this is a true and timely "snippet" from Spain. Well done!
So informative and glad to know what's going on in the fast-paced world.