Jet2 CEO Steve Heapy has blasted ‘incompetent governments’ over their failure to address the escalating anti-tourism protests in Spain, as the country preps to introduce more stringent rules affecting travellers in 2025.
Amid rising controversy regarding housing costs and protests, the new regulations dictate that personal details of holidaymakers, such as home addresses, must be collected by travel agencies, hotels and platforms including Airbnb.
Speaking his mind at a Jet2 conference, Heapy said: “[They are protesting] incompetent and impotent governments that have failed to regulate unlicensed tourism. They’re not stupid, they know tourism generates income for the economy, and tourism’s been around for decades – licensed tourism.”
Popular tourist destinations from Barcelona to the Canary Islands have seen waves of demonstrations this year as local residents struggle with never-ending rent increases and a lack of affordable homes. This year alone has seen an expected 10 per cent surge in visitors, with 95 million tourists descending on the country, leading to Spain cracking down on the short-term lets that have replaced residential housing.
TTG Media reports Heapy saying: “We operate licensed tourism. We send people to hotels. It’s easy to work out how many people there will be. And that model has worked very well for decades. You could predict what the demand for tourism would be.”
He took aim at the unregulated rental market, suggesting massive €200,000 penalties for landlords not aligned with hotel sector regulations. “The number of properties will drop by 95 per cent overnight,” he warned.
“That will mean the protests stop. [Otherwise] these protests will get bigger and bigger. They will start to affect our destinations. They will start to put people off travelling. This will get worse and worse,” he said.
“To be honest, I don’t blame people for being upset about it and protesting. I’d probably do the same if it happened in my area.”