Last month, residents throughout southern Europe, significantly in Spain, Italy, and Portugal, protested in opposition to “overtourism”. They held placards that learn ‘tourists go home’, ‘your holidays, my misery’, and ‘mass tourism kills the city’, making clear their disapproval of unregulated tourism. This month, hoteliers in Mallorca, Spain hit again by placing up posters welcoming vacationers.
This isn’t just cultural stress; it’s rooted in structural points. Data reveals that tourism, when unregulated, reshapes housing markets in these cities, costs out residents, and creates jobs that provide little safety.
The COVID-19 pandemic precipitated a dip in the contribution of tourism to the GDP of all international locations. But by 2022, the sector rebounded quickly. In normal, in Italy, Portugal and Spain, tourism contributes shut to six% or extra of the international locations’ GDP, which makes it a big supply of income. In comparability, tourism contributes to solely 2% of India’s GDP. The chart reveals contribution of tourism to the GDP in choose European international locations.
While tourism is a money-spinner, growing dependency on the sector places those that govern these hotspots in a dilemma — ought to they prioritise vacationers over their residents economically, spatially, and socially?
The European Union’s Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP) — an inflation measure which excludes dwelling possession and renovation prices — hovered at lower than 2% from 2015 to 2020, solely to extend to eight% in 2022. In distinction, the Owner-Occupied Housing Price Index (OOHPI) — an inflation measure which incorporates shopping for, renovating, and proudly owning a house — was already hovering across the 3-4% mark from 2015 to 2020, solely to spike to 11% in 2022. Similarly, the Housing Price Index (HPI), an inflation measure which tracks how costs in the housing market change, additionally surged past the ten% mark in 2022. The chart reveals the European Union’s Harmonised Index of Consumer Prices (HICP), Owner-Occupied Housing Price Index (OOHPI) and Housing Price Index (HPI) — all measures of inflation — for the 2011 to 2022 interval
Put merely, housing prices rose a lot quicker than general client costs. For residents, it has turn out to be costlier to reside in these cities than it’s for the vacationers to come back and keep in them quickly.
The protests in opposition to vacationers are most pronounced in Spain, Italy, and Portugal, which collectively account for over 45% of all tourism-related lodging in the EU in 2023. These three nations additionally hosted 33% of all of the lodge beds in the EU. The chart reveals Italy, Portugal and Spain’s share in the EU’s tourism-related lodging, lodge beds and tourist nights spent (2023)
The huge scale of tourist lodging in southern Europe highlights how deeply the financial system is being formed round vacationers. As per Eurostat, in 2022, vacationers spent practically 450 million nights in Italy and 485 million in Spain. Meanwhile, Portugal, which has a inhabitants of 10 million and simply over 8,000 tourism-related institutions, hosted practically 85 million in a single day stays. The time period ‘tourism night’ is a metric generally used to measure the amount of tourist exercise.
The newest Eurostat report reveals that almost all tourist spending comes from in a single day guests — 93% in Italy, 97% in Portugal, and 89% in Belgium versus simply 30% in Luxembourg. The chart reveals the inbound tourism expenditure, vacationers who keep in a single day and the same-day guests (%) for choose international locations in the EU, for the yr 2022
As a end result of this sample of in a single day tourism, houses are become “stays”, thus inflicting larger strain on the housing markets and different long-term spatial strains.
Of all tourism-related companies in the EU, 37% are in Spain, Italy, and Portugal. The chart reveals Italy, Portugal and Spain’s share in the EU’s tourism-related companies (2022)
This uneven focus positions these nations not merely as journey locations, but additionally as key pillars of Europe’s tourism financial system. However, locals in these international locations are shouldering the hidden prices of a sector that, although worthwhile, impacts their lives. Tourism, for them, has additionally turn out to be a driver of inequality.
The information for the charts had been sourced from Eurostat, the statistical workplace of the European Union and Our World In Data. Latest accessible information was taken for all of the charts
Niranjana V B is interning with The Hindu Data Team
