Third of people in Spain say local area has too many foreign tourists

A third of people in Spain say their local area now has too many international visitors, according to a continent-wide survey that has found most people across Europe are sympathetic to protests against overtourism and back steps to combat it.

The YouGov survey comes after a summer of demonstrations and urgent warnings against the impact of mass tourism from Santorini to the Canary Islands , and measures aimed at reducing it announced from the Cinque Terre to Amsterdam.

The polling in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the UK found Spain was the country that felt most strongly about the phenomenon, with 32% of respondents saying there were now too many foreign travellers in their area.

That number rose to 48% in Catalonia, the region that includes Barcelona, whose 1.6 million residents receive about 32 million visitors annually, and of which one local columnist said last month: “My city has been stolen from me, and I’m not getting it back.”

At 28%, Spain was also the country where respondents were most likely to have a negative view of international tourists. Both these figures were markedly higher than elsewhere, although significant minorities in some countries shared the same views.

In France, 18% of people surveyed said they felt there were too many international tourists where they lived, and 16% said they had a bad opinion of foreign visitors. The corresponding numbers in Italy were 16% and 11%, and in Germany 13% and 14%.

People in Spain also felt more strongly than others about the short-term holiday rentals sector, which is widely accused of removing accommodation from the local residential market and inflating rents to a point many residents cannot afford.

Spain’s government in July announced a crackdown on short-term holiday lettings, pledging to check that listings on platforms such as Airbnb and Booking.com had licences, while Barcelona’s city council aims to ban all holiday flats by 2029.

The survey showed more than a third of Spaniards (37%) felt the holiday lettings sector brought more harm than benefits, and 45% said they had a negative view of it, an opinion shared by smaller but significant minorities in other countries.

In the UK, 33% had an unfavourable opinion of the sector, followed by 30% in Italy, 28% in France, 24% in Denmark and 21% in Germany. Opinions of the hotel industry were very largely favourable in all countries surveyed, at between 69% and 73%.

France (47%) and Germany (45%) had the strongest negative opinion of another controversial sector, the cruise industry, while in Spain (20%) and Italy (19%), where Barcelona and Venice have taken steps to discourage cruise ships, views were less unfavourable.

Europeans broadly backed anti-overtourism campaigners’ concerns, with sizeable majorities in every country saying they had either a “great deal” or a “fair amount” of sympathy for residents of popular tourist destinations who were protesting.

The highest level of support was again in Spain, at 66%, followed by France, Germany and Sweden (all 65%), then Denmark (63%), the UK (57%) and Italy (53%). As far as authorities’ responses are concerned, the survey also showed broad public support.

Controlling tourist numbers is a difficult balancing act for national, city and local authorities, with compromises needing to be struck between often vital revenues and jobs generated by international visitors and the ­quality of life of residents.

Cities including Amsterdam, Paris, Seville and Venice, top tourist draws including Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia and the Acropolis in Athens, and sites of natural beauty such as Marseille’s Calanques have all adopted recent measures to curb overtourism .

Strategies include regulating or reducing visitor numbers by boosting tourist taxes; introducing entrance fees, time slot systems or advance reservation schemes; or launching mass information campaigns aimed at reducing visitor numbers.

Most popular – and backed by majorities of between 57% and 76% in every country surveyed – was a requirement to book in advance to get admission to popular sites, a policy adopted at attractions such as Rome’s Colosseum and the Louvre in Paris.

At least half (50-62%) of respondents in every country said they would also support capping the number of tourists who could access popular cities or destinations, a measure introduced at the Acropolis in Athens – and a small island in Brittany .

Respondents in all seven countries were also broadly in favour (between 46% and 58%) of banning the construction of new hotels in popular cities, a measure that Amsterdam announced earlier this year , saying it had “to keep the city livable”.

Less popular, though still backed by many in some countries, were “tourist tax” fees to enter overcrowded cities; prohibiting residential properties being let as holiday accommodation; and banning visitors who do not stay at least one night.

“High levels of international tourists have been a persistent challenge for cities across Europe,” said Eva Satkute Stewart, YouGov’s global head of travel and tourism, with the issues “particularly acute in Spain, which is reflected in our data”.

Excessive tourism triggered concerns about rising living costs, housing prices and the erosion of cultural identity, Stewart said, “although locals also acknowledge the benefits, such as job creation and improved infrastructure”.

Increasingly, she said, residents in larger cities were demanding stricter regulations on tourist housing, while medium-sized cities were promoting off-season tourism.