New data shows the cities in Spain oversaturated with tourists as holidaymakers outnumber locals.

A STUDY by the vacation rental search engine, Holidu, analysed the places in Europe where over-tourism is a major problem and three of Spain’s cities make the list.

Rather than looking at the number of visitors at a destination, they investigated the ratio of inhabitant to tourist. 

Spain is a country of 47 million inhabitants but will receive 85 mil tourists in 2023. 

The population in Spain is not evenly distributed but neither are the holidaymakers.

However, it is dependent on tourism as in 2022 it accounted for 61% of the country’s economic growth and 12.2 % of its GDP.

Due to the high amount of tourism, quality of life has dropped for the locals.

During the holiday season, the streets swarm with people, rents increase, and the population cannot keep up with the pressure put on their city.

The Spanish cities facing over-tourism:

1. Barcelona

As you may have expected, Barcelona is the highest ranking Spanish city for problems with over-tourism.

According to the data, there are 4.8 tourists for every resident in the city.

It sees seven million visitors over an average year and has a population of 1.45 million.

However, the Catalan capital may be the most oversaturated in Spain, but it only came 20th place in the European rankings, showing how overcrowded other cities on the continent are.

2. Sevilla 

Andalusia’s capital comes in second place for the country and 31st in Europe.

Sevilla has two million visitors every year and with a population of 695,000, there are roughly three tourists for every Sevillian. 

3. Madrid 

In 3rd position for Spain and 33rd in the European ranking is Madrid. 

The Spanish capital welcomes 2 holidaymakers per inhabitant. 

It receives 5.59 million travellers annually against its population of 2.8 million.

The top cities in Europe for overpopulation are Croatia’s Dubrovnik (36 visitors per inhabitant), Venice, Italy and Bruges, Belgium (both with 21 tourists per inhabitant).

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