Spain‘s tourism industry is hitting record highs as holidaymakers pivot away from Middle Eastern destinations due to the Iran conflict, flocking to safer alternatives in Europe.
The first quarter of 2026 saw 17.5 million tourists arrive in Spain, a 2.6 per cent increase from the same period last year.
Although the rise in tourism brought a €25 million economic boost to the Spanish economy, locals are frustrated by severe overcrowding and skyrocketing rent prices.
Last month, residents in Seville launched an anti-tourist ‘guerrilla campaign’ after accommodation in the city reached 100 per cent capacity.
Buildings in the city used for temporary stays were graffitied with the words ‘Airbnb out’ and ‘Guiris go home.’
‘Guiri’ is a Spanish slang word commonly used to describe English-speaking tourists from the UK and Australia.
One woman speaking to Spanish media complained that bakeries and cafes had been overtaken by endless queues of tourists.
‘If we don’t cover the walls, it looks like nothing’s happening. But what’s really happening is that we’re being pushed out,’ she said.
Protestors march during an anti-tourism protest on June 15, 2025 in Barcelona, Spain
Demonstrators hold placards during a protest called by the Neighborhoods Assembly for Tourist Degrowth (ABDT), in Barcelona, Spain
People at a restaurant watch as a protestor uses a water gun toward the window during an anti-tourism demonstration in Barcelona
‘The only way we can try to stop this is if people stand up for themselves.’
Now, the country is preparing for an even bigger tourism boom as summer flight bookings to Spain have soared 32 per cent year-on-year with hotel searches up 28 per cent, according to digital travel marketing platform Sojern.
Travel data firm Mabrian reported a notable shift where tourists are no longer booking Middle Eastern destinations and instead heading for the southern Mediterranean.
If the tourism figures from this Spring are repeated or even accelerate in the coming months, Spain could end this year surpassing 100 million visitors for the first time in its history, El Pais reports.
It comes as hundreds of British expats and tourists in the UAE scrambled to flee the Middle Eastern paradise after the Iran war began in late February.
Tourists rushed to rebook holidays away from Dubai and countries near the Middle East amid increased demand for trips to western Europe, travel firms said.
Once a tax-free haven attracting social media stars and countless Brits seeking warm weather and crime-free streets, Dubai’s carefully crafted image has been shattered and some residents believe it is ‘finished’.
For a city that had been hoping to welcome a record 20 million visitors this year – surpassing last year’s 19.59 million incoming tourists – this is ruinous, with the lost business estimated to be costing Dubai as much as £450 million a day.
Beach clubs, high end restaurants and five-star resorts are almost deserted – and more and more of the hotels are actually closed.
At the airport, until March the busiest in the world for international arrivals, the number of incoming flights is at a fraction of normal air traffic.
In the past week alone, as many as seven 5-star hotels have announced that they are closing their doors completely – meaning thousands more hospitality staff either let go permanently or placed on indefinite ‘unpaid leave’.
The closures include some of the city’s most renowned and expensive hotels, including the St Regis on the Palm, where rooms cost from £500 a night, and the Amani Hotel in the famous Burj Khalifa, where rooms are priced from £600.
Other resorts announcing sudden closure included the sprawling Park Hyatt Hotel, the Radisson Blu in Media City and JW Marriott Marquis Hotel.
The latter alone is rumoured to have cut 400 jobs at a stroke.
Last year in Spain, thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Barcelona, Mallorca and Tenerife accusing mass tourism of driving up rents, pricing residents out of their neighbourhoods and overwhelming city centres.
In Barcelona, activists marched through popular tourist zones holding placards and squirting passing sightseers with water pistols in a show of anger at overtourism.
And in Seville, housing costs have risen by as much as 12 to 13 per cent.
The average cost of an apartment has jumped from just over €2,000 per square metre in 2022 to more than €2,700 in 2026, according to local media.
Authorities across Spain have introduced tougher enforcement measures, such as cutting off utilities to illegal flats and restricting new licences in overcrowded areas.
More protests are expected to erupt in the coming months, especially in the Balearic and Canary Islands where a massive influx of beachgoers will arrive this summer.
A spokesman for the campaign group Menys Turisme, Mes Vida (Less Tourism, More Life) in Majorca told GB News that tensions are already rising ahead of the summer season.
The spokesman added that local communities are becoming increasingly ‘combative’ as they feel ignored by authorities.
Marina Beach in Dubai, with mainly empty hotels and few visitors
Anti-tourism protestors hold a sign that reads ‘De-growth of Tourism Now’
In Benidorm, there are now more Brits in the hotspot than Spaniards for the first time in seven years
Meanwhile in Benidorm, there are now more Brits in the hotspot than Spaniards for the first time in seven years.
HOSBEC, the Valencian Community’s Hotel and Tourism Business Association which has a massive presence in Benidorm, says last year’s stats show visitors from the UK made up a staggering 42.5 per cent of all those who stayed in the Costa town’s hotel accommodation.
The number of national visitors reached 38.6 per cent, a throwback to the pre-Brexit situation not seen since 2016 when the equivalent figures were 46 per cent to 41 per cent.
Valencian politician Alberto Ibáñez has said neighbourhoods across Spain are being transformed into ‘sets for tourists’.
He said: ‘We don’t need more tourists, we can’t accommodate any more…We can keep denying it until the day comes when there are no residents left.
‘These are people who come down here and don’t know if they’re in Valencia, Seville or Barcelona. They buy the same souvenir and spend no more than five euros on a beer.’
