The Spanish region of Andalusia is home to some of the country’s most popular holiday spots – Malaga, Seville, Granada, and Cadiz, to name a few – but it’s also the latest destination to announce a crackdown on tourism.
Around 12 million people visit Andalusia every year. And while tourism accounts for about 15 percent of the region’s earnings, Andalusia is still struggling with the impact of overtourism, particularly when it comes to housing availability for locals. To tackle the problem, it’s just been announced the region will soon introduce what’s known as a Sustainable Tourism Law.
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The new rules, which were passed on February 18, aim to improve the balance of visitors and residents and introduce more rigorous inspections and severe sanctions for those not abiding by the law, such as by offering unlicensed short-term lets to tourists.
In fact, fines for any kind of breach of the law could lead to fines from between €2,000-100,000, but those who operate ‘unregulated’ tourist apartments could be slapped with staggering fines of up to €600,000 – yep, €600,000.
Until now, apartments and villas avoided such regulations, but local councils will now be granted the power to green-light or block the creation of private properties as places for tourists to stay.
On top of all that, the Sustainable Tourism Law aims to spread tourism to inland, rural areas by establishing new tourism plans, which the local council sees as a sustainable alternative.
According to the Mirror, the Junta de Andalucía, which is the region’s administrative council, said ‘Andalucia will be an example of how to respect local identity, protect our legacy and generate sustainable opportunities within tourism. It will also establish Andalucia as a key part of the Spanish economy and employment.’
Stay tuned for more updates on how this new law pans out. In the meantime, here’s our guide on how to be a better tourist in Europe’s most visited cities.
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Plus: This popular Italian city just introduced a new anti-tourism restriction.
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