Spain is expected to welcome even more tourists in 2025 after a record-breaking 94 million foreigners visited last year, Tourism Minister Jordi Hereu said on Wednesday (January 15).
This figure represents 10% more than in 2023, while foreign tourists spent some 126 billion euros (£106 billion) during their stays, up from 16% in 2023.
Hereu predicted that 2025 will see tourists spend 36 billion euros (£30.2 billion) in the first four months of 2024, 16% higher than the same period in 2024 and a visitor number increase of 9%.
Such news will not be welcomed by the locals in many tourist hotspots across the country, including Barcelona, Malaga and the Canary and Balearic Islands, who took to the streets on several occasions last year to protest the current tourism model and demand the government take action to halt the growing affordable housing crisis.
The Minister said that the Spanish government is working on dispersing the tourist influx, citing progress in setting rules and limits on the supply of tourist rental accommodation.
Many of the southern European country’s top destinations have taken action against short-term rentals, such as Barcelona, which plans to shut down all such accommodations, like Airbnb, by 2028 to protect locals from rising housing costs.
“We need to persevere in deconcentrating tourism, but the good thing is that this is happening,” he told reporters, adding that environmentally sustainable tourism was gaining strength in Spain, the Majorca Daily Bulletin reported.
In addition to the predicted tourism figures for 2025, Palma de Mallorca Airport set a new passenger record with almost 33.3 million passengers in 2024. This makes it the busiest year in its history and 7% more than the previous year.
According to the airport authority, AENA, international flights saw the biggest increase, with 24.2 million passengers. Over 243,000 flights were carried out, 6.2% more than in 2023.
In December alone, the airport handled nearly 9,600 flights – a growth of 2.8% – with more than 426,000 passengers (up 9.4%) from overseas.
In April 2024, mass protests began in the Canary Islands, with coordinated demonstrations across the archipelago with up to 50,000-strong crowds. Then in May, 10,000 people protested in the capital of Majorca, with other protests occurring on the smaller islands of Menorca and Ibiza.
In July, a 3,000-strong protest in Barcelona saw a small group of demonstrators use tape to seal hotel exits, cordon-off restaurants and even spray tourists with water guns – a move that was later criticised by Hereu.
