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Over the past 18 months, a growing number of people in Spain have been protesting against what they see as " excessive tourism " across the country. Locals say housing costs are spiralling because a huge number of houses and apartments have either been bought by foreigners or are being rented out to them for much of the year . And the latest Malaga resident to complain about the influx of outsiders is, ironically, a Swedish woman. Eva dreamed of leaving behind the chilly gloom of her native Sweden to start a new life under the southern European sun. After looking into a number of options, she settled on a beachfront apartment in Mijas, near Malaga. "When we Swedes turn 60 or 65, many of us want to leave Sweden because of the cold and the darkness," she explained. But she told Spanish news outlet Cope that the area had become so overrun with tourists that at one point she considered selling up and moving back to Sweden. "I was thinking of selling my flat a year or a year and a half ago because I was a bit frustrated by how Málaga is changing with tourism. There are many more people now, many more tourists," she confessed. "Now there is too much tourism. I am a tourist too, but I felt I couldn't take it anymore," she added. She explained that while she's been living on the Costa del Sol for a number of years now, she noticed a real change in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to data published by Spain's Association of Registrars, home purchases by foreigners increased by 30% during the second quarter of the current year. Eva says that, for now at least, she's staying put. "I feel like I don't want to leave Málaga," she said, explaining that she’d be reluctant to leave behind the friends she’s made in Spain as well as the weather and the Mediterranean lifestyle. "I felt like I had a life here, I have many Spanish friends, and that's why leaving was a bad idea," she said. Urban planner Kike España, who is a local activist with the Málaga Tenants' Union, told the BBC that Málaga has reached a "turning point" at which people feel that the city's infrastructure is collapsing under the weight of over-tourism. "It's the same feeling you have when you enter a theme park," he added. "There is a stream of people that are consuming the city and not really inhabiting it." In 2024, the tourism industry was estimated to represent around 13% of Spain's overall GDP and has surpassed records in terms of both revenue and arrivals since recovering from the impact of coronavirus . But whether you're talking about born-and-bred Spaniards like Kike or naturalised residents like Eva, locals are beginning to despair at the intense pressure their cities are being put under.
