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TOURISM

‘Get the f*ck out of here’: Spain’s Málaga plastered with anti-tourism stickers

Málaga city centre is being emblazoned with stickers demanding tourists “go f*cking home” as locals in the Costa del Sol city struggle with the negative consequences of its exploding popularity among holidaymakers and foreign digital nomads.

Published: 13 March 2024 11:48 CET
'Get the f*ck out of here': Spain's Málaga plastered with anti-tourism stickers
Since the advent of remote working during the Covid-19 pandemic, thousands of international remote workers have flocked to Málaga, along with millions of foreign holidaymakers. (Photo by JORGE GUERRERO / AFP)

“This used to be my home” (antes esta era mi casa) , “go f*cking home” (a tu puta casa), “stinking of tourist” (apestando a turista), “this used to be the city centre” (antes esto era el centro) and “Your dead loved ones, mayor” (Alcalde tus muertos) are some of the hostile messages recently adorning walls and doors in the Andalusian city of Málaga. 

This “sticker initiative” was started by local bar owner Dani Drunko who runs a well-known bar in Málaga called Drunkorama, and who selected some of the most liked anti-tourism slogans from his followers and made them into stickers that now decorate Málaga city centre.

Drunko told local daily Diario Sur that he began the campaign after he was “kicked out” of the home he’d been living in for ten years, with the landlords refusing to negotiate the rent or sell him the property because they wanted to turn it into a short-term tourism rental. 

“There’s a lot of hype because locals are tired of the situation; I just suggested the idea of ​​the catchphrases, I offered the spark, and now others have joined,” Drunko added about how other campaign groups such as GuirisGoHome taking part as well. 

READ ALSO: Is the Spanish word ‘guiri’ (foreigner) offensive?

“Málaga city centre has been going downhill for a long time, so much so that if for example something in my bar breaks, I don’t have a hardware store on hand to buy anything, since the tourist who comes doesn’t need to buy screws”.

The Local Spain’s reporter Esme Fox, who last November wrote the article “Why Spain’s Málaga is becoming a victim of its own success”, has recently experienced the change to the Andalusian city first-hand.

“It’s definitely busier than before during low season,” Fox explains.

“A few years ago I visited in August and it was busy as expected, but this time I visited in January and at night it seemed to be just as packed. It was just a regular Wednesday night and it’s as though a festival was taking place given the sheer amount of people in the streets and spilling out of bars.

“There are lockboxes for tourists to self-check at practically every building in the centre! 

“Prices have also increased significantly with regards to food. Tapas in Málaga city were more expensive than what I’m used to paying in Barcelona where I live.”

Spain’s Costa del Sol, where Málaga is located, received a record 14 million national and international holidaymakers in 2023, but its popularity is such that many foreigners are choosing to move there.

Eight out of 10 new residents moving to Málaga are currently foreigners, according to recent data from Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE).

Google and 630 other tech companies have set up shop in Málaga in recent years as well, turning the city into the ‘Silicon Valley’ of Europe and drawing thousands of international remote workers and digital nomads for its combination of cosmopolitan work environment and quality of life under the sun.

Málaga is certainly going places, but as evidenced by this latest anti-tourism campaign, malagueños are angry about the fact that they’re being priced out and alienated from their home city.

READ ALSO: ‘Beach closed’: Fake signs put up in Spain’s Mallorca to dissuade tourists

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TOURISM

Spain’s Canaries rule out tourist tax and property ban for non-residents

The Canary Parliament has voted against introducing an ecotax for holidaymakers or banning the sale of properties to non-residents, following huge protests over the weekend against mass tourism in the Spanish archipelago.

Published: 24 April 2024 14:49 CEST
Spain's Canaries rule out tourist tax and property ban for non-residents

The Canary Islands’ political sphere is attempting to appease their almost two million inhabitants with measures which will protect the islands’ nature from rampant overdevelopment derived largely from their ever-growing tourism industry. 

This comes after on April 20th tens of thousands of protesters took the streets of all eight Canary Islands and European cities such as London, Berlin and Madrid under the slogan “The Canary Islands have a limit”. 

READ ALSO: Mass protests in Spain’s Canary Islands decry overtourism

On Monday, President of Tenerife’s Cabildo government Rosa Dávila proposed an environmental tax, or ecotax, one of the main demands of the protests’ organisers. 

Proceeds from this ecotax “would go entirely to the protection and recovery of protected natural spaces”, Dávila said, such as the Teide National Park or the lush laurel forests of Anaga Rural Park. 

It is unclear if such an ecotax in Tenerife would take the shape of the usual tourist tax that exists in numerous cities in Spain and in 21 countries across Europe, which usually is a small amount added each day to holidaymakers’ hotel bill. 

In any case, at Tuesday’s plenary session in the Canary Parliament the right-wing Popular Party opposed such a measure across the archipelago, with their leader and vice president of the islands Manuel Domínguez saying “we are not in favour of creating a tax for sleeping in a hotel, a caravan or a holiday home”.

The motion presented by centre-left coalition Nueva Canarias-Bloque Canarista (NC-BC) also included other proposals such as a moratorium on new hotel beds, banning the sale of properties to non-residents and limiting Airbnb-style holiday lets, suggestions the PP and other Canary political parties shunned.

The leader of the Canaries’ Ashotel and CEHAT hotelier associations Jorge Marichal has also unsurprisingly voiced his opposition to a possible tourist tax, shifting the blame instead onto the proliferation of short-term holiday lets and their impact on Tenerife’s rental market.

Banner at April 20th’s protest in Tenerife reads “Tourismphobia doesn’t exist, they’re lying, it’s the excuse politicians and hoteliers use to not introduce an ecotax nor change the tourism model”. Photo: Alex Dunham

An NC-BC spokesperson stressed that every 15 days a new emergency is declared in the Canary Islands – water, energy or housing – which is “evidence that something is colliding, that something is not right, and that’s what people expressed during these days”.

READ ALSO: ‘The island can’t take it anymore’ – Why Tenerife is rejecting mass tourism

Catalonia and the Balearic Islands both charge holidaymakers tourist taxes. Spain’s Valencia region was also planning to until the right-wing government now in power revoked the law early in 2024. 

However, the measures that were approved by the Canary Parliament were charging an entrance fee to visit Tenerife’s key sites and natural spaces, from which residents of the Canary Islands would be exempt from paying, and no offering up anymore land to hotels and other tourist complexes.

For his part, the regional president of the Canaries Islands Fernando Clavijo, whose national party Coalición Canaria is also against an ecotax, has suggested that an “environmental VAT” would be a “more efficient” way of improving the quality of life of islanders, as it would redistribute the wealth of tourism and advance social policies.

The reticence of the governing elite to adopt drastic measures that will lead to a more sustainable tourism model in the Canaries is unlikely to go down well among disgruntled locals, whose turnout at Saturday’s protests prove how much they want change.

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