Overcrowded Malaga reaches tourist ‘saturation point’ ...Middle East

MADRID – Once the gateway to the Costa del Sol for sun-seeking British holidaymakers, Malaga has now reached tourist “saturation point”, a report has found.

The southern city is one of several hotspots on Spain‘s popular coastlines that have long attracted tourists from the UK.

However, the city is experiencing “levels of tourist saturation without precedent”, a report by the council found, thanks to the arrival of new museums and other cultural institutions over the past 20 years.

The arrival of the Picasso and Thyssen art museums, the Soho Theatre set up by the Spanish actor Antonio Banderas and the Pompidou Centre made the city a cultural draw to tourists who have flooded the city centre.

Malaga also became a tech hub popular with digital nomads, bringing foreign workers who rented out flats in the city centre, pushing up prices beyond the reach of local residents, which has sparked protests.

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The influx of too many tourists has “reduced the quality of life and the experience of visitors”, the report said.

Malaga may be suffering the same fate as cities such as Barcelona and Venice, which have “died because of their success”.

Malaga’s city council is one of the first authorities to officially recognise the problem of overtourism.

In 2024, the city received 1.6 million visitors, almost three times the population of nearly 600,000, according to government figures.

“Tourist pressure causes the expulsion of native and value-added businesses, which are replaced by souvenir shops and other businesses orientated exclusively towards tourists,” the report said.

The effect has been to increase the number of “illegal or low-quality accommodation affecting both the safety of visitors and the image of the city”.

Low-quality restaurants have also sprung up selling fast or frozen food.

Carlos Carrera, president of the residents’ association in Malaga’s old town, said traditional businesses had practically disappeared from the city centre.

“It seems like they are pushing us out, both the residents and the businesses,” he told The i Paper.

'I want to escape miserable UK - now Spain doesn't want me, I'll go elsewhere'

In 2005, the Observatory of the Urban Environment, which is part of Malaga council, predicted that “tensions” could spring up between Málaga residents and tourists if the number of visitors increased.

In November, Malaga’s council banned more tourist flats in a number of areas where there were residents in the same buildings. There are currently 12,000 tourist flats.

Pedro Marín Cots, president of the Institute of Urban and Social Studies, a think-tank, said all this was predictable.

“The damage to the city centre because people have had to abandon their homes because of this extreme gentrification is almost irreparable,” he told The i Paper.

Malaga city council has introduced seven tourist routes to redirect the flow of visitors and relieve the pressure on the most saturated areas.

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