Over the course of many weeks in July, thousands of locals hit the streets of Spain’s major tourist destinations saying they’ve had enough of tourists. The protests are the latest in an anti-tourist sentiment gripping much of Europe, with experts warning that they could have ripple effects all over the world.
From Barcelona to Mallorca, Spanish protesters have called for a more balanced approach to tourism, arguing that the sector has been contributing to the country’s housing crisis.
In an interview to British daily The Guardian, Peter DeBrine, UNESCO’s senior project officer for sustainable tourism, said the protests could spread beyond Europe.
“What we’re seeing is that we’re breaching a threshold of tolerance in these destinations,” he told the Guardian. “It’s really trying to rebalance the situation. It’s totally out of balance now.”
Signs displaying the words “tourists go home” have become a common sight in Spain.
Anti-tourism activists have staged a series of protests this year in Barcelona and other popular holiday destinations like Palma de Mallorca, Malaga and the Canary Islands, saying visitors drive up housing costs and lead to residents being unable to afford to live in city centres.
Other countries, too, are cracking down on tourist activity.
In April this year, the City of Venice, Italy, launched a pilot program to charge day-trippers a five-euro (US$5.35) entry fee that authorities hope will discourage visitors from arriving on peak days and make the city more livable for its dwindling residents.
“We need to find a new balance between the tourists and residents,’’ said Simone Venturini, the city’s top tourism official. “We need to safeguard the spaces of the residents, of course, and we need to discourage the arrival of day-trippers on some particular days.”
With UNESCO officials worried about the scope of such protests expanding, tourism industry representatives in Canada hope that these sentiments don’t affect people’s livelihoods here.
According to the Tourism Industry Association of Canada (TIAC), domestic and international tourism contributed approximately 1.6 per cent of Canada’s total GDP ($42.7 billion) and employs nearly two million people annually.
“More than half of tourism businesses are small and medium-size enterprises, with deep roots in the communities they are based in and serve. Tourism businesses represent five per cent of all businesses in Canada,” TIAC CEO Beth Potter told Global News.
Concerns about how tourism may impact housing also seem to be affecting housing policy in Barcelona, one of Spain’s largest cities.
To safeguard and expand the housing supply for full-time residents, local authorities want to rid the Spanish city known for its architecture, beaches and Catalan culture of the 10,000 apartments licensed as short-term rentals.
Barcelona City Hall announced in June that it would not renew any tourist apartment licences after they expire in 2028. Deputy Mayor Laia Bonet said the city wants tourism, which accounts for 15 per cent of the local economy, but must help residents cope with skyrocketing rents and real estate prices.
“Our housing emergency obligates us, forces us, to change the way we do things and to put the priority on housing above our policies for accommodating tourists,” Bonet told The Associated Press.
A similar debate is taking place here in Canada.
Potter said the industry was working with all levels of government to ensure the industry saw “sustainable growth.”
“As a highly interconnected sector, any enhancements must be well thought to ensure that communities and residents benefit from the positive outcomes of tourism while also feeling supported by its growth,” she said.
The number of short-term rentals in Canada has grown sharply since 2017, with units that could be considered usable for long-term housing growing even faster, a new Statistics Canada report said last week.
According to the report, the total number of short-term rental units in Canada grew by 60 per cent between 2017 and 2023. The number of units considered “potential long-term dwellings” (PLTDs) – or units that could be long-term housing – rose by 80 per cent.
In 2017, there were 58,441 short-term rental units that could be considered potential long-term dwellings. By the end of 2023, this number had risen to 107,266, the report said. In 2017, potential long-term dwellings made up 27.2 per cent of all short-term rentals. By 2023, this share was 30.2 per cent.
The report describes potential long-term dwellings as entire housing units being listed for more than 180 days. This does not include vacation-type properties.
The share of potential long-term dwellings in the total housing stock was significantly higher in tourist areas. For example, in Whistler, B.C., potential long-term dwellings made up 35 per cent of the total housing stock.
A spokesperson for Airbnb said the number of potentially long-term homes was a small percentage of the total housing stock.
“Despite some concerns with the methodology used, as the report concludes, the number of short-term rentals that could be used as a potential long-term home is less than one per cent of the overall number of homes in Canada – a small fraction of the 22 million homes needed by 2030 to achieve affordability,” Nathan Rotman, policy lead in Canada for Airbnb, told Global News in a statement.
Rotman said restricting short-term rentals would not solve the housing crisis.
While the share of potential long-term dwellings as a share of Canada’s housing stock may appear low, John Pasalis, Realtor and broker at Realosophy Realty, said the absolute numbers also tell a story.
“There are over 100,000 short-term rentals that could have been used as homes for families,” he said.
He said this number is very high for a country where annual housing starts barely exceed 200,000. According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, housing starts in centres with a population over 100,000 declined nationally from 240,590 in 2022 to 223,513 in 2023.
Pasalis said this speaks to a philosophical question in housing policy: is housing an investment or a right?
“These units are being used as standalone hotel rooms for investor profit rather than as housing,” he said. “We (in Canada) value investor profit over housing.”
— with files from Reuters and The Associated Press