Spain's 'Big Brother' Law May Frighten Off Tourists

The protests that have taken place throughout Spain this year—most notably in Barcelona, Málaga, and the Balearic and Canary Islands—have invariably been described as “anti-tourist” in the international press, yet this is not quite accurate. They certainly haven’t put tourists off heading to the world’s second-most visited country—at least not yet. A far greater threat to Spain’s tourism industry is posed by the so-called “Big Brother” legislation set to come into force at the beginning of December, supposedly to increase national security.

Some demonstrators in Spain have fired at foreign visitors with water pistols or held placards telling them to “go home,” but most participants—such as this urban planner and activist in Málaga—have stressed that they are not opposed to tourists visiting their towns and cities. Rather, they want the national government to exert more control over the tourist sector, in order to reduce overcrowding, environmental damage, and house prices. They argue that many Spanish towns and cities are becoming more geared towards visitors than inhabitants, and that regulations should be imposed to reverse that trend.

Some of Spain’s biggest tourism destinations have already taken action. In February, the government of the southern region of Andalusia gave local municipalities the power to limit the number of tourist rental accommodations. Málaga, the capital of an Andalusian province that welcomed a record-breaking 14 million tourists in 2023, passed a law in June according to which only properties with a separate entrance can be used as holiday rentals. According to legislation approved in 2022, only three cruise ships per day can dock in Palma de Mallorca, the capital of the Balearic archipelago (although that limit might be lifted in 2025).

Barcelona has gone much further—arguably too far. Jaume Collboni, the leftist mayor of Spain’s most visited city, has pledged to abolish all of its 10,000 private holiday flats by 2028. Collboni claims that this drastic restriction will help restore affordable housing to residents, who have experienced a 68 percent increase in rental prices over the last decade. But according to the Barcelona Association of Tourist Apartments, less than 1 percent of the city’s housing consists of holiday rentals, so one wonders what difference the ban will actually make to the residential sector. The association has also warned that Collboni’s ban could wipe out 40 percent of the city’s tourism. Perhaps it’s not such good news for the city’s 440 hotels, after all.

Any regulations designed to control tourism in Spain must strike a fine balance. Local governments won’t want to alienate voters concerned about over-tourism; but they will also be aware of the importance of tourism to their regional economies. As well as addressing the concerns of local residents, such legislation must also ensure that the Spanish tourism sector remains competitive. Barcelona’s draconian ban on tourist accommodation fails because it only satisfies the first condition. 

So far, at least, tourists aren’t being diverted away from Spain, a country in which tourism accounts for 13 percent of GDP. (Even in France, the world’s most popular destination, tourism still only constitutes 8 percent of GDP.) By the end of this year, an estimated 95 million tourists will have visited the Iberian country, smashing last year’s record of 85 million. In August, compared to the same month in 2023, visitor numbers increased in all the regions that had staged protests earlier in the year: Catalonia, of which Barcelona is the capital (2.3 million, up 6 percent); Andalusia, where Málaga is located (1.6 million, up 9 percent); the Balearic Islands (2.4 million, up 4 percent); and the Canaries (1.1 million, up 10 percent). Clearly, the water pistols aren’t working.

More likely to have a detrimental impact on Spain’s tourism sector is the legislation that will come into effect at the beginning of December, after a two-month delay. Nicknamed the “Big Brother” law, it will require hotels, vehicle rental companies, and private landlords to provide visitors’ data to the Ministry of the Interior. The information required won’t just be copies of passports or NIEs (residency permits for non-Spaniards), as has always been the case, but possibly also financial and contact details. Visitors may have to provide over 40 pieces of information when checking into accommodation, and more than 60 when hiring a car.

Spain’s interior minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska has claimed that this new legislation is necessary “because of the need to guarantee public security in the face of terrorist threats and other crimes committed by terrorist organizations.” The Spanish tourism sector, it seems, is being recruited as an arm of the country’s defense and police forces—not a task for which it is equipped, or which it has ever had to perform up until now. Industry leaders are justifiably angry.

The Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodation (CEHAT), which represents 1.8 million accommodations across the country, has described the new law as “very deficient and impossible to apply.” It’s concerned that managing the extra data will increase costs for hotels and landlords, thus denting the sector’s competitiveness. The Bank of Spain expressed similar concerns in January, in a report analyzing factors that could “slow down” Spanish tourism. It warned that “a regulatory environment with a large number of rules—increasingly complex and heterogeneous across regions and municipalities—may negatively affect firms’ growth-related decisions.” CEHAT also questions whether the new requirements are compatible with EU laws on data protection and privacy, citing these as the cause of the delay in its coming into effect—not, as the Ministry of the Interior maintains, technological issues.

The Spanish government can’t afford to ignore CEHAT’s concerns, or the criticism that the Big Brother law has received abroad, especially in the UK, a country that accounts for most of Spain’s foreign visitors (over 17 million in 2023). Water pistols and hostile slogans might not, as yet, be scaring off visitors to one of Europe’s most beautiful countries; but a perceived threat to civil liberties, as well as reduced choice in accommodation options, might prove more powerful deterrents.

Mark Nayler writes regularly for The Spectator and Foreign Policy, as well as the Foundation on Economic Education, where this article first appeared.