More than a third of tourist places are holiday housing in 47% the most visited Spanish destinations
Tourism housing have spread throughout the national territory to represent a significant proportion of the accommodations in which travelers are staying. In 50 of the one hundred Spanish cities the most tourist Capacity of vacation rentals announced on platforms on-line It already exceeds the number of hotel placesaccording to him Municipal Tourism Contribution Atlas in Spain Recently published by Exceltur, which blames the proliferation of tourist floors to increase pressure on some destinations and neighborhood reactions in the form of protests against tourist massification.
From the analysis of the 500 main national destinations, the study indicates that The volume of places in tourist homes has increased by 25.3% since 2022a significantly higher rise to the 2% increase in hotel places. The growing irruption of this new accommodative formula in the last two years has been even more marked in large destinations such as Madrid, Barcelona, Seville or Valencia, which are the four capitals with the greatest tourist offer – respectively offer a total 176,702, 137,550, 63,141 and 60,947 accommodation places. At these points the volume of holiday rentals has respectively grown 48.8%, 26.4%, 31.8% and 56.4% in two years.
Also in other busy areas such as Málaga, Benidorm and Marbella the squares in tourist floors have grown more than 20% between 2022 and 2024. The increase exceeds even 50% in traditional sun and beach destinations such as Oropesa del Mar (Castellón), Gandía (Valencia) and Santa Pola (Alicante), as well as in more urban points such as Zaragoza or Gijón. In total, Among the hundred Spanish towns with the greatest tourist offer, the holiday rent has gained weight in the last two years in 92 of them, While the volume of hotel places has grown in 66, being Cádiz the city that has experienced the greatest increase (30.8%).
Fruit of this evolution, In half of these main destinations the offer of tourist floors on platforms on-line Already exceed Hotels. The biggest difference in favor of the first of these formulas is given in coastal areas such as Torrevieja (Alicante), Mijas (Málaga), Denia (Alicante), Jávea (Alicante), Orihuela (Alicante), Santa Pola (Alicante) and Teulada (Alicante), where more than 60% of the accommodation places are holiday rentals.
In 47 of the hundred localities most visited by travelers, more than a third of the offer are tourist floorsalthough the market model varies depending on the area. Faced with this predominance on the Mediterranean coast – especially on the Costa Blanca – of the holiday housing announced on platforms on-linein the five destinations with the greatest capacity, the hotel offer continues to predominate, which concentrates 54.3% of the places in Madrid, 64.5% in Barcelona, 49.4% in Benidorm (Alicante), 49.9% in San Bartolomé de Tirajana (Las Palmas) and 50.3% in Salou (Tarragona).
In the case of provincial capitals, In 13 of them the capacity of tourist floors is greater than that of hotels And in eight holiday housing places represent more than half of the total accommodation offer. This is the case of Valencia (52.3%), Malaga (60.9%), Alicante (53.5%), Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (55.3%), Santander (51%), Burgos (53.4%), Pontevedra (58.5%) and Ourense (52.2%).
“Paradigm shift”
Exceltur points out that, although sun and beach destinations continue to have “greater relevance” nationwide, the attractiveness of urban areas has grown in recent years, already representing 19.5% of the entire national tourist offer. “It is priority that these destinations adopt effective measures to safeguard the elements of local identity and lifestyle in their most emblematic neighborhoodspreventing phenomena of gentrification and expulsion of residents, “warns the Association of Tourism Companies, which underlines the socio -economic contribution of tourism, but invites you to open a” reflection “about the reception capacity of the most tensioning places and advocates a” paradigm shift “in the way of understanding and measuring” tourist success. “
In particular, Exceltur focuses on the proliferation of illegally announced tourist housing on platforms on-line Without having the relevant permits. The Sector Association argues that this accommodative formula is a lower capacity to generate employment and contributes to a lesser extent to both tourist and fiscal income. Among other measures, they ask public administrations to increase “Legal instruments” to prevent the commercialization of tourist floors that do not comply with current regulations.
Illegal ads
In that line, with the aim of pursuing fraud cases, the Ministry of Housing has launched the so -called Single digital window of short -term rentalsa new system that will force from July to all the tourist floors, temporary leases and rooms announced on platforms on-line They have to have an identification number that will verify that they comply with state, autonomous and local regulations.
In parallel, the Ministry of Consumer has warned both Airbnb and the respective municipalities of the detection of a multitude of illegal holidays, urging them respectively to the elimination of ads and forcing their closure. In his last performance, the department of Pablo Bustinduy located almost 66,000 illegal adswhich, according to Exceltur, would be equivalent to 250,000 tourist placesthat is, to the same hotel places that add the cities of Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Seville and Malaga together.
In addition, the government also intends Raise VAT of 21% tourist floors to be taxed as an economic activity. The change would affect all vacation homes located in municipalities of more than 10,000 inhabitants and, in line with the new European regulation, it would be the digital platforms responsible for paying the tax, so the owners could not deduce it. The PSOE has included this measure in a proposal of law registered ten days ago in the Congress of Deputies and prepared together with the Ministries of Housing and Finance to improve access to a roof trying to discourage the use of homes to this end and foster, instead, their exit to the market as residential rentals at affordable prices.
