According to data provided by Adegi, the association of entrepreneurs in Gipuzkoa, the current offer of 5,200 beds in Gipuzkoa is set to be 7,200 by the beginning of 2019. In Tolosa and Hondarribia, a hotel is being built, but the biggest impact of this expansion will be experienced by the capital: Licenses have been distributed for the construction of 20 new hotels in San Sebastian. For example, a hotel with 151 rooms is planned in the area of Portxuetxe and there will be an offer of around 100 rooms in Amara, the building that used to be the headquarters of the Spanish police. Some of these 20 hotels are already under construction.

In addition to the offer of hotels, the most touristic dwellings –due to the lack of recognition of their owners before the law– have been the subject of controversy in the last region. According to data from the Basque Association of Housing for Tourist Use, in Gipuzkoa there are about 1,500 housing units for rent, of which 1,300 are in San Sebastian. It has a capacity for 7,000 tourists.

Rising rental prices, gentrification, general increase in prices, precarious work, congestion...

The rental price in San Sebastian increased by 22% in 2016, according to the annual analysis of the Idealista portal. Greater economic profitability is achieved by renting houses to tourists with greater purchasing power, so the number of “ordinary” houses that were available to rent in San Sebastián has been reduced and their price has increased. For example, they ask for 1,000 euros for a night in a house overlooking La Concha.

Since the center is the most attractive place for tourists in almost all cities and towns, the citizens who live in the center are the most affected. The increase in prices and the increase in the price of living are most noticeable in the center, especially in relation to the price of housing. And this is what makes those born in the center have to move to the neighborhoods and villages of the periphery: gentrification. The same factors and processes that have forced thousands of people to move to Barcelona, Marseille, Venice or Madrid in the last decade are beginning to be seen in San Sebastian.

Francesc Muñoz, professor at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, adds to these general effects of mass tourism the over-occupation of spaces, the homogenization of commerce, the separation of the urban landscape and the feeling of strangeness in the home of the population.

Holy Week, a sample of what’s coming

The Rise of Tourism has been widespread in the four southern countries during the Easter holiday season. The fact that the streets and places of San Sebastián, Bermeo’s Gaztelugatxe, Zumaia or Elizondo are full has caused concern for many citizens. Here are two examples. Paintings that appeared in Zumaia with people of Gaztelugatxe mucuru and against mass tourism.

We have been informed of some of the paintings that appeared in San Sebastián when this news was published:

@axierL @luz @baleike In Donosti there are also some resistances. For example, this painting of the old town... pic.twitter.com/5WnOes9mvr

— Pitchfork (@Pitchfork) April 21, 2017