Spain has begun to evaluate the impact that whirlwind tourism is having on the country.
Fate conspired to deliver a bountiful year, the best tourist season in 15 years, with visitors seeking not only sun and sea but also safety from terror incidents.
By the end of August this year, visitor numbers soared by 10% over 2015, reaching a total of 52.5 million people.
That number is expected to climb to as many as 75 million people by the time the year is out, including nearly four million who had been regular visitors to other warm spots, such as Turkey and Egypt.
The total in 2015 was 68 million foreign visitors, placing Spain as the third most frequented holiday destination in the world after France and the US.
But retailers and hoteliers have not always reaped the benefit, and city centre infrastructure and delicate ecological balances elsewhere have been trampled.
Business tourism has declined because Spain, for the whole of this year, has been looked after by a caretaker government which does not have full power.
Holidaymakers this year have not been spending as much as last year and they have been staying for shorter lengths of time.
Moreover, tourists have flocked to private rentals through websites such as Airbnb. In the last two years, rentals through such platforms has rocketed by 75%, according to the tourism employers’ association, Exceltur.
This phenomenon has hurt hotel as well as limiting rental properties for locals and forcing up prices.
Some destinations have reached saturation point, such as Barcelona and the Balearic Islands. Before the season even began, environmental groups had been declaring that Majorca’s infrastructure would not be up to the demand.
During the summer, the treatment of waste water broke down and dirty water backed into the island’s natural park.
Other resorts have begun attempting to shift their reputations away from being tolerant to drunken or loutish behaviour in the hope of regaining family holidaymakers. The resorts are also often the location for ‘balconing’, an attempt to leap among balconies or to dive from one into a swimming pool.
Barcelona’s civic authorities are having to pay more to maintain the city centre infrastructure, which is bending under the weight of tourists, especially from daytrippers disembarking from massive cruise liners.
Authorities there are trying to build up the popularity of other local destinations, such as the Montserrat mountain range.
