There’s a lot of discontent towards tourism across Spain right now. In 2024, destinations like Malaga and Majorca announced new restrictions and fines for tourists not respecting public spaces, and Barcelona and Madrid both announced plans to crackdown on short-term holiday lets.
Now, Alicante is the latest destination to confront the impact overtourism is having on the lives of locals.
In December, Alicante councillors voted in favour of cracking down on short-term holiday lets, and a temporary ban on new holiday rental licenses has since been passed (with just two abstentions and one vote against, according to the Olive Press).
The temporary ban will be in place for two years, and that window will be used to review all laws over short-term holiday lets and ‘purify homes that do not comply with regulations,’ according to Manchester Evening News.
Right now, of the 4,108 tourist apartments in Alicante (around 2.31 percent of housing in total), a whopping 3,292 are unlicensed, but that’s not the only thing they’re planning to sort while the ban is in place.
Due to the impact short-term holiday lets have on rising housing prices, Alicante’s Urban Planning councillor Roclo Gomez plans to redress the imbalance by assessing each neighbourhood’s capacity for rentals.
We’ll have to wait and see whether the ban has the desired effect. In the meantime, here are the best things to do in Alicante and Spain’s most underrated cities. And if you can’t find a holiday let, here are the best hotels in Spain.
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