Truth about Spain’s ‘three-year tourist ban’

Spain is cracking down on tourism as tensions between locals and foreigners grow – but one measure is not as drastic as people have been led to believe.

It is no secret Spain is cracking down on tourism as tensions between locals and foreigners grow.

But Australians need not worry, recent talk of a three-year tourist ban is incorrect.

The truth is there have been many new measures to create more sustainable tourism in the country and one of the more recent ones is the city of Malaga prohibiting new holiday rental properties in 43 neighbourhoods for three years from this month.

Properties that were registered after February 22 last year may also lose their licenses if they do not have their own entrances or separate facilities – meaning tourists who have rented only rooms on sites like Airbnb may be in trouble.

However, tourists are not banned from Malaga, and they are certainly not banned from Spain.

The tourism sector in Spain accounts for around 13 per cent of its GDP.

A record 94 million foreign tourists flocked to Spain in 2024. Picture: Jose Jordan / AFP

Holiday hotspots across the globe are desperately trying to find new ways to cope with a massive boom in tourism post-Covid and avoid the trend dubbed “overtourism”.

More and more popular destinations are introducing tourist taxes to develop better infrastructure.

In more extreme cases, there are caps on the number of tourists allowed to visit because the huge crowds are doing more harm than good to communities.

Protesters have demanded change in popular tourist spots across Spain and visitors dining in the city of Barcelona were even squirted with water pistols last July.

A ban on short-term holiday rentals in that major city is due to be implemented from 2028, with the mayor saying it will increase housing supply for residents.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez unveiled a 12-point plan this month to tackle the country’s housing crisis, which also took aim at short-term holiday rentals that are blamed for driving up rental prices. He wants to bring in higher taxes for properties used to host tourists.

Brett Mitchell, the Australian managing director for the Melbourne-born global company Intrepid Travel, described the impact mass tourism can have on local communities in an interview with news.com.au last year.

“When tourism is not done well it does lead to overtourism, and overtourism can have insidious effects on local communities,” he said.

“I think the biggest one is inflation. It really pushes up the price of rent, housing [and] basics like food. What that does is push people out of their local communities. People who have lived there for generations find themselves having to move and when you do that you lose your local heritage, your culture is destroyed a lot, big business moves in, and all of a sudden the beautiful part about travel, learning new cultures and the authenticity of meeting locals, all of that goes away.

“[There is also] pressure on local infrastructure and the environment. It becomes a pretty sh** experience for the traveller as well. It’s just not sustainable at the end of the day.”

More recently when speaking about Kyoto in Japan, he said he believes tour operators need to work with local councils, governments and communities to “help co-design what tourism looks like” for more responsible destination management.

“That I think is going to be the real next evolution,” he told news.com.au.

“If we can do that that will help with this concept of having sustainable tourism that’s fantastic for the traveller but also for good local communities and local government.”