A record number of passengers were recorded travelling to the 46 major airports in Spain in July – despite locals continuing to protest against overtourism in the popular country.
El Prat airport in Barcelona saw a record number of passengers for this month of the year, with 5,381,969 people landing or taking off from the Catalan airport.
This is a nine percent increase compared to last year, and 0.4 percent more than 2019 – the last year of normalcy before the shock of the Covid pandemic.
Since January, Barcelona has already registered more than 31.4 million tourists, 12.2 percent more than in the same period in 2023.
This pick-up in activity at the airport is mainly explained by the 11 percent increase in passengers who travelled on international flights, which accounted for a total of 4,008,024.
All 46 AENA airports in Spain closed July with a historic record of passengers and aircraft movement – more than 31.9 million people in a single month, an increase of 7.2 percent.
This is despite locals in major Spanish cities and towns protesting against overtourism, which they say has pushed up rent and caused residents to suffer with skyrocketing prices.
In July, thousands of locals in Barcelona marched through the streets holding signs, many of which said ‘tourists go home’.
Some even carried water pistols and squirted tourists as they went by.
There have also been similar demonstrations in the Canary Islands and Majorca.
According to official figures, almost 26 million visitors made an overnight stay in the Barcelona region in 2023, spending almost £11 billion (€12.75 billion).
But the protest organiser group Assemblea de Barris pel Decreixement TurÃstic claims these visitors increase prices and put pressure on public services, while profits from the tourism industry are unfairly distributed and increase social inequality.
In June, the city’s mayor, Jaume Collbon, announced that it would end apartment rentals for tourists by 2028 by scrapping short-term rental licenses for more than 10,000 apartments to make housing more affordable for long-term residents.