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TOURISM

Spain’s Valencia to limit tour group numbers

Valencia's city council is intent on developing a more 'sustainable' tourist model that doesn't inconvenience locals.

Published: 11 April 2024 09:27 CEST
Spain's Valencia to limit tour group numbers
Tourists stand in the shade with their bicycles amid a heatwave in Valencia. Photo: JOSE JORDAN/AFP.

Valencia council and the city’s Association of Official Tourist Guides have signed an agreement to limit tourist groups to 25 people throughout the city and 20 in the ‘Ciutat Vella’ (old town) area of the city centre.

Tourism has increased markedly in the Mediterranean city in recent years. In the city centre, it is not uncommon to see groups of sixty or more tourists arrive together on a coach and move around the city in one group.

“We are committed to the consolidation of a sustainable tourism model, guaranteeing the profitability of businesses, improving employment figures, but always preserving the value of our natural and cultural resources and our Mediterranean lifestyle,” the city’s Councillor for Tourism, Innovation and Investment, Paula Llobet, said at the presentation of the agreement.

READ ALSO: Nine things you should never say to a Valencian person

In addition to capping tourist group numbers, the agreement also aims to ensure that tour guides working in the city can coordinate their routes and itineraries to avoid overlapping with another in the same places so that visitors can enjoy their tours without inconveniencing locals.

They will also choose the most suitable places around town to make stops and do their explanations, and find alternative routes to allow a smooth flow of visitors, locals, and traffic.

READ ALSO: Where in Spain to locals ‘hate’ tourists?

Tourists on guided tours will use individual headset systems to avoid excessive noise in keeping with a municipal noise ordinance prohibiting the use of megaphones and microphones.

In addition, the council will demand that guides working in Valencia have the necessary qualifications recognised by the Generalitat so that only accredited tour guides can work in the city.

The council will also monitor flows of people in the city through the deployment of sensors to record visitor levels at tourist attractions and provide guides with the data they need to optimise their routes and avoid crowds.

“This agreement seems to us a very useful tool because it focuses on the commitment to balanced development, the preservation of heritage and the quality of life of locals,” said Llobet.

Llobet also stressed that tourist guides are “the best ambassadors to ensure that visitors respect the rules, such as not sitting down to eat on the stairs of protected buildings.” The city council also hopes that tour guides can encourage local hospitality and promote sustainability.

The city council will also, through coordination with local police, try to prevent intrusiveness on daily life in the city through inspections.

READ ALSO: Barcelona to hand out €3,000 fines to tour guides with groups of more than 15

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MADRID

Madrid to suspend holiday-let licences as rent prices spiral

Madrid City Hall has announced it will temporarily suspend the granting of new licences for so-called tourist apartments in a bid to rein in a ballooning industry that's impacting prices and stock of long-term rents in Spain's capital.

Published: 29 April 2024 13:14 CEST
Madrid to suspend holiday-let licences as rent prices spiral

Madrid authorities also announced they will not authorise the transformation of commercial properties into tourist accommodation in the centre of the city and will increase the fines for tourist properties that do not comply with regulations.

Madrid, like many other cities in Spain, has been suffering from a rise in illegal tourist accommodation with thousands swiftly popping up across the capital.

One of the main obstacles for regulators is how difficult it is to find out exactly how many there are. Madrid authorities have counted 14,699 tourist establishments in the city, 92 percent of which are for tourist accommodation. But, only 941 of these have a municipal licence, meaning the rest are illegal.

READ ALSO: Why Madrid is struggling with its explosion of illegal holiday lets

According to the Inside Airbnb platform though, there are 25,543 tourist apartments listed in the city.

In order to combat the issue,  Madrid City Hall will increase the amount of fines for owning and running one of these illegal holiday lets.

They will set the first penalty at €30,000, the second at €60,000 and the third level at €100,000. Those committing serious infringements or who keep renting out their flats without licences, even after warnings, may have to pay up to €190,000.

Current fines are only €1,000 for the first infringement. If they still don’t comply, a second fine of €2,000 is issued, and if the situation persists, a third penalty of €3,000 will be given.

The number of inspectors to check on tourist rentals will also be increased by 15 percent, up to 75.

In order to help holidaymakers know whether or not an apartment they’re interested in is legal or not, the city will also publish a list of flats with licences and their location on an official website.

“People who want to stay will know if they are in a legal or illegal accommodation and the consequences that may arise because of this” explained Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida.

In early 2019, former mayor Manuela Carmena approved a special Accommodation Plan to regulate tourist accommodation in the city. The new rule established among other requirements that tourist apartments should have an independent entrance from the rest of the neighbours.

According to her calculations, this would affect 95 percent of holiday lets in the city, essentially rendering them illegal. The rule was appealed by the sector, but the courts ended up agreeing with the City Council in 2021.

These rules were found to be insufficient as many holiday lets have continued to operate in the capital without a licence, and in late 2023 Martínez-Almeida promised to create new ones. 

Initial approval of the new plan is scheduled for September 2024 and final approval is expected to be in the first half of 2025. 

READ ALSO: Who really owns all the Airbnb-style lets in Spain?

The problem is not only the number of tourist rentals, but the issues they cause for residents. The Inspection and Disciplinary Service received 51 percent more complaints in 2023 than in 2022 that involved homes and apartments for tourist use: 686 compared to 454. 82 percent of which came from citizens.  

Of the total inspections carried out (4,093), it was verified that 478 homes were dedicated to tourist use and 243 were for residential use.

Not everyone is in agreement with the new plan. The Regional Federation of Neighbours of Madrid (FRAMV) believes Almeida’s plan is not enough and that the regulations should apply to the entire municipality not just the central areas.  

The spokesperson for Más Madrid in the City Council, Rita Maestre, has also spoken out against the plan. Maestre believes that the vast majority of tourist apartments already operate freely without a licence, and that the new legislation will do little to change that.

For Exceltur, Spain’s main tourism and hotelier association, there is not enough inspection capacity anywhere in Spain to be able to control that legislation is complied with.

Spain’s Housing Minister Isabel Rodríguez recently called on the 17 regional governments to implement restrictions on short-term holiday lets in areas where rents for locals have spiked, as the national government continues to look for ways to address the country’s housing crisis.

“Wherever there is a greater concentration of apartments for tourists, there is also pressure in the property market ,” Rodríguez said.

Even Madrid’s populist regional president Isabel Díaz Ayuso, whose policies are usually in favour of “freedom” and liberalisation, has said that they “are studying how to regulate holiday accommodation so that higher prices do not expel neighbours”.

Average monthly rent prices in Madrid currently stand at €20.7 per square metre, after registering an increase of 18.2 percent over the last twelve months and 4.8 percent in a quarter-on-quarter rate.

“Vacation rentals are having an impact on the market, especially in the historic centres of cities,” Madrid’s general director of Housing and Rehabilitation of the Community María José Piccio-Marchetti Prado, told Business Insider Spain.

“In Madrid you see it around Puerta del Sol, Plaza Mayor… where there are many tourist homes”.

READ ALSO: Which cities in Spain have new restrictions on tourist rentals?

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