Clara Margais/picture alliance via Getty Images
- Thousands protested against overtourism in Spain earlier this year, telling tourists to "go home."
- Spain's tourism is still booming, with record numbers of international visitors.
- A travel industry expert said mass protests are unlikely on their own to deter travelers.
Protesters in Spain staged massive demonstrations against overtourism this year that made headlines worldwide — especially after spraying tourists in Barcelona with water guns.
But don't expect American visitors to the country to have heard about them, let alone to have altered their travel plans as a result.
Spain recorded a record number of international tourists this summer, despite the mass demonstrations in places such as Barcelona, Mallorca, and Malaga throughout the year, according to data compiled by the Spanish government.
The country recorded 10.9 million international visitors in July and August, a 7.3% increase from the same months in 2023, according to government data. Spain's National Statistics Institute also said overnight hotel bookings were up 2.6% in August compared to 2023. In the first eight months of the year, overnight hotel stays were up a total of 5.6% from the year prior.
A survey conducted by Mallorca's tourism board and released last month found 89% of US tourists were not even aware the protests occurred, according to Skift, a travel industry news site. The survey, which included 1,000 American respondents, found that nearly 70% of those who were aware of the protests said they did not impact their plans to visit the Spanish island. The board did not respond to a request for the survey from Business Insider.
Spain is among the global destinations dealing with the impacts of overtourism, such as overcrowding, expensive housing, and high costs of living. The tourism protests intensified in April when an estimated 20,000 to 50,000 people in the Canary Islands demanded tourism limits be enacted. In July, thousands took to the streets of Barcelona to protest overtourism, which many blamed for the high costs of living in the city. Demonstrators shot tourists with water guns and shouted at them to "go home."
But that message alone is unlikely to be enough to significantly curb tourism numbers, according to Amir Eylon, president and CEO of Longwoods International, a market research consultancy that specializes in the travel tourism industry.
"When you are looking at where to go, where not to go, it's really the perception of safety that will drive that," Eylon told Business Insider of how tourists decide where to travel.
Though the Spain protests made headlines, tourists were not physically harmed in a way that created a negative safety perception, which he said historically can have a significant impact on the number of tourists choosing to visit a destination.
Spain, in particular, is a destination that many tourists plan and save for, he said, adding that tourists are unlikely to be deterred by these demonstrations, even if they do hear about them.
The protests, however, could impact government policy in a way that may help curb or better manage tourism in the future, Eylon said.
Officials in the Canary Islands said earlier this year that they planned to add additional limits and regulations to short-term rentals. Barcelona, which enacted a partial ban on short-term rentals in 2021, said in June it would ban all short-term rentals in the city by 2028.
Eylon said every country and local jurisdiction typically requires a unique approach to managing the impacts of tourism, while still getting the economic benefits. In addition to short-term rental bans or limits, those measures could include visitor caps, increased tourism taxes, or initiatives to build more permanent housing.