The sun shines warmly over the Spanish bay and port of San Sebastian, not far from the old town with its winding streets, historic churches and spacious square.
The stunning landscapes and traditional Spanish food are among the reasons that attract tourists to visit the country's various landmarks, and prompt tour operators to increase the number of visitors.
But residents of San Sebastian and a growing number of Spanish cities are complaining about the crowds and noise caused by the influx of tourists, as well as the lack of housing units as a result of “overtourism”.
The conversion of apartments into hotel rooms for tourists has also been controversial, as it has reduced the number of housing units available to local residents and increased rents.
In response to the residents' dissatisfaction with these conditions, leaflets are currently being pasted on houses in the old town of Pamplona, calling for protest meetings. Among the phrases written on these posters are: “Neighbours live in this place, how can you prevent tourists from staying in the apartments in the building where you live?”
In a demonstration organized in Granada Last month, the focus was on the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Albayzin district, where under the slogan “Our district is not a park,” citizens protested against real estate companies buying apartments and called on MPs to limit the number of housing units allocated to tourists.
Among the protest slogans written on the posters were: “The population is threatened with extinction” and “Don’t take my picture, I am not the subject of your postcard.”
During the summer, tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Spanish cities, from Palma, the capital of Mallorca, to Barcelona, Malaga and even the Canary Islands.
Protesters on the island of Mallorca held signs saying, “Your well-being means our misery,” and “We don't want to be leaders in housing price increases.”
The poster advertising the protests by the island's roughly one million residents featured images of airlines, private jets, cruise ships and luxury yachts, all circling the island like a swarm of flies.
The population of Spain's Balearic Islands is about 1.2 million, and last year 18 million holidaymakers visited the islands, including 4.6 million visitors from Germany and 3.4 million visitors from Britain.
Although tourism is a mainstay of Mallorca's economy, accounting for around 45% of economic output, many islanders complain that only a minority benefits from tourism revenues, while the majority of the population has low-paying jobs and suffers from housing shortages, traffic congestion, noise and pollution.
Spanish media have reported on the conditions facing local residents, with one resident telling El Pais: “I do maintenance work on a luxury villa for a British family, and I get paid between 1,500 euros ($1,630) and 1,800 euros a month.”
The worker was forced to leave his home last February, unable to pay the approximately $1,000 monthly rent for a room. Since then, he has been sleeping in a caravan behind a Swedish furniture store, and showering at a place where a friend lives. His neighbors, who also live in caravans, are earning similar wages.
On the other hand, protests in Barcelona against the influx of tourists reached the point where protesters sprayed customers in restaurants frequented by tourists with water pistols, and waved signs with the phrase in English: “Tourists, go back to your country, you are not welcome here.”
In response to these protests, officials began taking action in various areas, although some residents criticized them as being implemented half-heartedly, perhaps because officials are fully aware of the profits made from tourism.
Among these measures, for example, is that San Sebastian has set a maximum size for guided city tours, with large groups being split among several guides to avoid overcrowding, a measure that is likely to increase the prices of these tours.
To reduce noise, participants on guided tours must use headphones and tour guides are not allowed to use loudspeakers.
Barcelona has also taken steps to limit the number of cruise ships, after 3.6 million tourists passed through the city without staying in its hotels, some of whom spent only a few hours there last year. Barcelona Mayor Jaume Colboni is pushing for a reduction in the number of cruise ships, and also to close one or two marinas for these ships “if necessary.”
The short stay of some tourists is annoying in many cities and towns, including Toledo, which tourists love, for the beauty of its old town, its alleys, its historical monuments, and the presence of a museum dedicated to the painter El Greco.
Toledo receives an average of 50 tourist buses each day, most of them carrying day trippers who do not stay overnight. “Unfortunately, in many cases, these visitors do not benefit the city at all,” says the city's mayor, Carlos Velazquez Romeo. Local officials are considering imposing a tourist tax “to compensate for the burden the city bears.”
Time will tell whether the measures taken by Spanish officials will succeed in bringing calm to an increasingly heated and tense situation.
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