Protests over raucous tourists and crackdowns on holiday lets are spreading from Spain’s Mediterranean coastal resorts to other parts of the country that have so far escaped the scourge of overtourism.
After a series of heatwaves made southern Spain less attractive for northern Europeans, and overcrowding pushed up prices in many popular destinations, the cooler – and cheaper – climes of northern and central Spain are proving a major draw for tourists including Britons.
But as holidaymakers steadily expand their presence across Spain’s lesser-known destinations, resentment among residents is growing in cities such as Santiago de Compostela, Toledo, Logroño and other destinations that received few visitors – until now.
On a recent visit to Logroño, in the northern region of La Rioja, signs hanging from houses near the city’s famous cathedral read: “We live here. Neighbourhood yes, noise no.”
Iratxe Apeztegia, of Demanda Casco Antiguo, a residents’ group, said: “What keeps us up at night is the noise from the bars downstairs. It is a real persistent noise – one that seems to be getting worse. Yet it is ignored either [because of a] lack of resources or, quite simply, a lack of will.”
In 2025, there were more than 3,000 complaints of antisocial behaviour, 17.3 per cent more than in the previous year, according to Logroño police figures.
Anti-tourist protest signs in the city of Logroño in the northern region of La Rioja (Photo: Graham Keeley)Over half – 53 per cent – of offences were for urinating in the street or making noise at the weekend and most were carried out by visitors, police said.
“Political figures sometimes claim that Logroño has turned into the ‘Magaluf of the north’,” said Francisco Iglesias, the Logroño councillor responsible for interior affairs, at a council meeting in June.
“We will never be able to stop someone urinating in the street, nor can we prevent someone from acting recklessly and climbing onto a balcony, but that is not the norm in this city.”
British holidaymakers who take the ferry to the coastal city of Santander often pass through La Rioja on their way to other parts of Spain. The region is becoming more popular among foreign tourists, with Americans and French the largest groups by nationality, tourist authorities said. Last year, 936,235 visitors came to La Rioja, 13 per cent more than in 2024.
Meanwhile, the Camino de Santiago, the famous pilgrimage route that stretches across Spain and farther afield and which is walked by thousands from across the world every year, has for centuries been a chance for quiet contemplation.
Not anymore, say residents of Santiago de Compostela, the Galician city where the pilgrimage routes lead, who claim it is increasingly falling victim to the worst excesses of “touristification”.
In a protest staged in June, campaigners plastered the centre of the historic city with posters reading: “RIP Santiago de Compostela”, which lamented the death of the city because of tourism.
El Camino de Santiago convertido en una vdespedida de soltero.La turisficacion destruye todo lo que toca, sea sagrado o profano.Luego diréis que no entendéis porqué los vecinos/as protestan contra el turismo espectáculo. pic.twitter.com/c1nHHHZ7oX
— Manel Márquez (@manelmarquez) August 8, 2026Last year, the number of British tourists visiting Galicia rose 47.4 per cent with 108,246 visitors. Elsewhere in northern Spain in the Basque Country, the increase was 40.1 per cent with 182,876 holidaymakers, while Asturias was up 18.7 per cent, welcoming 35,106 Britons.
Historian Manel Marquez published a post on social media showing groups of tourists chanting, dancing and waving flags and sticks.
“The Camino de Santiago turned into a bachelor’s party. Touristification destroys everything it touches,” he wrote.
About 4,000 pilgrims arrive every day in Santiago de Compostela at the end of the pilgrimage in peak season.
By late August, 376,000 people had collected their certificates, which pilgrims earn by getting a Camino passport stamped along the route – a 6 per cent rise on the same period as last year.
Residents say they are plagued by pilgrims blasting music, drinking, and bathing naked in the public fountains.
Anti-gentrification graffiti in Santander (Photo: Graham Keeley)One resident told Spanish television in a recent report: “They think it is a theme park. We are all tourists in a way but we need a more sustainable form of tourism.”
Sergio del Molino, an author, said that for places like Santiago de Compostela, anti-tourist feeling was ironic because the city depended to a large extent on its visitors.
“Hatred of the tourist is the refrain of tourist spots, but in Santiago it becomes a paradox. Because the city only exists because of the Camino,” he wrote in an article in the Spanish newspaper El País.
Castilla-La Mancha, a central region of Spain, is another increasingly popular draw for tourists. Many come to visit the windmills made famous by Miguel de Cervantes’ masterpiece Don Quixote, the theatre festival in Almagro, and the natural parks. Its capital, Toledo, is known as the city of three cultures after the period of its history during which Catholics, Muslims and Jews lived alongside each other.
A new law proposed by the regional government means that owners of tourist lets will not be able to advertise them on Airbnb and other digital platforms unless they are registered with the tourist authorities.
Windmills in Consuegra, Castilla La Mancha, are a huge tourist draw (Photo: Thomas Coex/AFP)Rental of individual rooms to holidaymakers will be banned so only entire apartments can be used for tourism to ensure locals don’t have to live alongside tourist flats.
Castilla-La Mancha is yet to rival destinations such as the coastal hotspots of Marbella, Malaga and Benidorm, the islands of Tenerife and Mallorca, or the city of Barcelona, which have all been shaken by anti-tourism protests.
But the demand for tourist lets has risen by 257 per cent since 2018. And with heatwaves set to drive increasing numbers of tourists to Spain’s north, locals expect that things will only get worse.
Residents of Castilla-La Mancha, La Rioja and Santiago de Compostela fear their home cities could eventually suffer the same fate as those tourist destinations where protests have become the norm.
But whether protests and restrictions will work to prevent them from succumbing to the curse of overtourism remains to be seen.
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