Outrage after 13,000 cruise passengers descend on tiny city in southern Spain in just one day

LOCALS in Cadiz are up in arms after the historical centre was inundated with thousands of cruise ship passengers last week.

Located on an island off Spain’s southern Atlantic coast, the entire city is home to just 116,000 people due to its inability to expand.

However, three cruise ships arrived in its famous port on Wednesday July 31, dropping off 13,000 tourists to wander around its mediaeval old town – equal to almost half the number of people who live there.

The largest shop, MCS Virtuosa, deposited over 6,000 sightseers, followed by Norwegian Viva, from which 3,800 tourists disembarked.

READ MORE: This historic town has the worst case of tourism ‘massification’ in Spain, figures reveal

A further 2,648 people arrived from the Aida Stella, meaning that the sudden influx of people overwhelmed the small city, filling up its cafes, bars and restaurants and crowding out its narrow streets.

Cadiz is one of Spain’s few beautiful coastal cities to have avoided some of the ill effects of mass tourism seen in neighbouring Sevilla and Malaga.

Flying more under the radar, the city has been less taken over by tourist rental apartments and waves of visitors, managing to retain more of its traditional character.

Yet the anti-tourism pressure groups are already mobilising for action, with Cadiz Resiste organised a mass protest at the end of June.

Over 2,500 gaditanas (the people from Cadiz) attended a rally on June 29  in Plaza del Palillero, just a two minute walk from where cruise ship passengers disembark, demanding action against tourist numbers in the city.

They chanted slogans such as ‘It’s not tourism, it’s colonialism!’, ‘One more tourist, one less neighbour!’ and complaining that they don’t want their neighbourhoods to ‘become German.’

The local mayor evidently listened, announcing a few days later that no new tourist rental licences would be given out for the city centre.