IN MANY EUROPEAN CITIES LOCALS ARE FIGHTING BACK AGAINST GROWING INFLUX OF TOURISTS
Nautical tourism in Italy could be developed tremendously if there was real political will to work on a strategic development plan
Millions of holidaymakers visit the Costa de Sol and Málaga, one of its most popular destinations, every year, but now locals are saying enough is enough.
Málaga locals are frustrated by the growing influx of tourists and now they’re expressing their feelings in no uncertain terms.
The Spanish city’s centre has been hit with a wave of stickers, posted on walls and doors, telling visitors what residents think of them.
Walk the streets of Málaga and you’ll see these daubs, ranging from the fairly mild ‘this used to be my home’ ( antes esta era mi casa) and ‘this used to be the city centre’ ( antes esto era el centro) all the way to ‘go home’, ‘stinking of tourist’ ( apestando a turista).
Why are Málaga locals so irate with tourists?
The city on the Costa del Sol has long been a popular destination for visitors, thanks to its sunny climate and relatively low cost of living. However, it’s recently become an even more desirable destination for holidaymakers and digital nomads alike.
Many locals have simply had enough. Bar owner Dani Drunko runs a much-frequented bar in Málaga called Drunkorama. He started the ‘sticker initiative’, having favourite anti-tourist phrases given to him by bar regulars printed and posted around the city.
Speaking to a local newspaper Diario Sur, Drunko explained that he began the campaign after he was apparently “kicked out” of the home he’d lived in for a decade.
He claimed that the landlord refused to negotiate the rent or even sell him the property. The reason? They wanted to turn it into a short-term rental for tourists.
“There’s a lot of hype because locals are tired of the situation; I just suggested the idea of the catchphrases, I offered the spark, and now others have joined,” Drunko told Diario Sur.
“Málaga city centre has been going downhill for a long time, so much so that if for example something in my bar breaks, I don't have a hardware store on hand to buy anything, since the tourist who comes doesn’t need to buy screws,” he added.
Local politician Dani Pérez took to X - formerly Twitter - to add his voice to the growing discontentment.
“You walk the streets of Málaga and it is practically impossible to find a residential building that does not have a lockbox [for tourist rentals],” he wrote, going on to accuse the city’s mayor, Paco de la Torre, of “not lifting a finger for the people of Malaga” and “expelling them from the city where they were born”.
Last November, a local reporter for news website The Local Spain reported that Málaga is “definitely busier than before during low season,” while confirming the existence of lockboxes “everywhere” and commenting that restaurant prices have seen huge hikes in recent months.
What makes Málaga so popular with foreign visitors?
Spain’s Costa del Sol, home to Málaga, has been hugely popular with tourists for years. In 2023, a record 14mn holidaymakers from Spain and abroad visited - and a fair few visitors decided to make the city their home.
Recent data from Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE) shows that eight out of ten new residents moving to Málaga are currently foreigners.
It’s not just individuals changing the face of the city, though. Some 630 tech companies, including Google, have opened offices in Málaga, turning it into a quasi-silicon Valley of Europe.
That has the knock on effect of drawing thousands of international remote workers and digital nomads, attracted by the heady combination of a pleasant work environment and warm climate.
Málaga locals, though, think enough is enough, believing they are being priced out and alienated from their own home city.
Which other European destinations have fought back against overtourism?
Earlier in March, the Canary Islands - a territory of Spain - saw graffiti pop up ordering tourists to ‘go home’.
With its year-round sun and warm weather, the Canaries are an always-popular destination for foreign visitors - and tourism is seen as the island group’s largest money maker.
One of the most popular islands, Tenerife, recently declared a water emergency. That added more fuel to the fire for locals, as some tourist areas there use up to six times more water than residential areas, putting pressure on reserves crucial for drinking water and farming.
In February, nearby Gran Canaria saw walls emblazoned with the message, ‘tourists and digital nomads go home’, something newspaper the Canarian Weekly reported as ‘tourismphobia’.
On the Balearic island Mallorca last August, residents put up fake signs along a number of beaches, reading: ‘beware of dangerous jellyfish’ and ‘caution, falling rocks’.
All written in English, the signs also featured, in smaller print, explanations in Catalan informing locals that warnings are not real. Instead, the text read: ‘the problem isn’t a rockfall, it’s mass tourism’ and ‘beach open except for foreigners (guiris) and jellyfish’.
Overtourism isn’t just a problem in Spanish territories, though.
Many European nations have been putting tourist taxes in place, including Venice which has also banned cruise ships from entering its endangered canal system.
In Amsterdam, authorities and locals alike have been trying for months to encourage - mostly British - drunken tourists to stay away and in Kyoto, Japan, roads have been sealed off to ensure the city doesn't become a ‘theme park’.
Other top tourist destinations are begging people not to visit, with many simply not having the infrastructure to accommodate them.
Hawaii is on many people’s bucket lists, but continues to struggle with hospitality worker shortages, congested roads and 90-minute restaurant waiting times as tourists still arrive in droves.
While the problem does appear to be a global one, it is Spain that is leading the grassroots fight back.
Graffiti in Barcelona last year read: ‘We spit in your beer. Cheers!’ - yet tourists continue to flock there.
You walk the streets of Málaga and it is practically impossible to find a residential building that does not have a lockbox [for tourist rentals] Dani Pérez
It may be a coincidence, but it seems that politicians have turned a beacon on boating. The most active are Nello Musumeci, minister for sea policies, Adolfo Urso, minister for Made in Italy, and Daniela Santanchè, number one for Tourism, who have participated in countless conferences and meetings with mayors, association presidents, and regions.
Unfortunately, apart from generic attestations of attention to nautical tourism, nothing new and significant has emerged. Presentialism and that’s it.
Thus, on second thought, this sudden interest in boating has the flavour of a catwalk around Italy in search of visibility ahead of the European elections to be held on June 8/9.
Yet the development of nautical tourism would be a golden opportunity for Italy’s strategic future. That would bring new investment, jobs and eventually stable revenues for the state’s slender coffers. Italy is firmly in the rankings among the three most desirable nations in the world, ‘Made in Italy’ dominates the luxury sector, and its 8,000km of coastline contains the most iconic locations in the Mediterranean.
It is estimated that the annual spending on tourist activity by boaters in Italy in the territory (excluding boat-related expenses such as repairs/maintenance/port/mooring/buoys) was more than four billion euros in 2022. And if we compare the hotel sector to the nautical sector, daily attendance was over 40mn in one year.
To top it off, there are about 1mn nautical tourists annually.
The size of the nautical tourist market is similar in expenditure to that of ‘moving tourism’ on land, i.e., that of RVS, etc, but with significantly more tourists (about 5mn). The difference is that a nautical tourist spends 4/5 times more on land than a tourist moving on land.
Given these assumptions, the potential for increased revenue from nautical tourism in Italy, especially by attracting the influx of foreigners, is enormous. But a policy is needed to foster this development. Generic policy statements are not enough. A long-term national strategic development plan is needed.
And who does that? Certainly not the old committees of experts used by politics until now, which have involved state associations and agencies that aim in most cases to preserve special interests while inevitably maintaining the status quo.
What is needed are professionals, people who already do this job and know what is needed in the concrete, without particularism.
Nothing unfeasible, just take a cue from more advanced nations in this area, light years ahead of us. We are talking for the Mediterranean about Spain, France, Croatia. And an excellence of nautical tourism are also and especially the Nordic countries.
What should this nautical tourism development plan contain in broad outlines?
It should start with reception, that is, Mooring Infrastructure (Marinas, marinas and buoy fields). It should continue as a logical consequence to the regulations on parking along the coasts, standardising the regulations and encouraging access to Marine Protected Areas as well.
Third, it should think about nautical and tourism services, encouraging the development of facilities to ensure, at fairer and more uniform prices than today, the maintenance of boats throughout the territory and not, as today, in a patchy manner. Not to mention the increase in the fleet of charter boats, for daily or weekly use.
All this by cleverly using the European principles of blue economy development and access to its subsidised financing.
Yes, it is true, we should dismantle the current system of nautical tourism, where “every man for himself with different rules” reigns.
If then the Demanio (the Italian state) which, let us remember, owns the Italian coasts together with Enit (the national tourism agency) were to take the lead and promote this strategic plan for nautical tourism in Italy, leaving it to politicians to pass regulations in order to operate, limiting the interference of local authorities, what has never happened in Italy would happen. Perhaps impossible.