Bookings for tourist apartments in Malaga witnessed a substantial drop in demand over a six-month period last year.
According to economists, between July and November 571,773 people stayed in apartments – such as through Airbnb – compared to 609,277 reservations during the same period in 2023. This marks a drop of around 37,000, The Olive Press reports.
The decrease is in the domestic market and experts have attributed it to a drop in demand from the rest of Spain.
The picture for foreign tourists, including those from the UK, was very different, however. A total of 419,581 travellers were logged last year – up from 395,679 in 2023.
August, unsurprisingly, was the most popular month with 160,683 bookings in total, of which 51,612 were Spanish residents and 109,071 were foreigners. November, meanwhile, was the quietest, with 17,216 residents and 57,334 foreigners.
The figures are based on licenced apartments and do not take into account properties which are not regulated and have no official data as a result.
Figures from the Tourist Apartment Occupancy Survey, show that 152,193 Spanish residents stayed in regulated accommodation in 2024, compared to 213,598 the previous year.
The economists have suggested that one reason for the drop is that the number of registered apartments fell by 11,441 last year.
However, it remains unclear whether these domestic residents were influenced by the major protests that took place last year over the “saturation” and overcrowding of tourist areas.
Throughout last year protests in Spain against overtourism occurred – specifically in the most-visited destinations in Spain by tourists, such as the Balearics, Canaries, Barcelona and Malaga.
Among their, and local government’s, concerns is the fact that rather than sustaining the locations, the overtourism has contributed to a reduced quality of life and increased cost of living for residents.
In Barcelona, between 2007 and 2019 – even before the pandemic and the surge in tourism since restrictions ended – some city areas experienced a 45% decrease in resident population. This was largely attributed to the influence of Airbnb, causing investors to purchase apartments to use as short-term rentals and reducing the availability of property for residents.
According to the Spanish National Statistics Institute, in 2024, there were around 94 million tourists in Spain, compared to its 48 million population.
In April, mass protests began in the Canary Islands, with residents calling for a temporary limit on tourism until legislation to combat the negative effects of overtourism could be introduced. As many as 50,000 people across the archipelago took part in coordinated protests, which campaigners argue has damaged the welfare of the population and the islands’ environment.
In May, about 10,000 people protested in Palma de Mallorca, with other protests occurring around the same time on the smaller Balearic Islands of Menorca and Ibiza. Protesters in Majorca specially called on the government to prevent new residents from buying property and new tourist spots being opened, while in Ibiza concerns were raised about the island becoming a party hotspot.