Spain cracks down on tourists in holiday hotspot with new restrictions

It comes amid growing resistance in Spain

It comes after three popular Spanish holiday destinations were deemed 'forbidden' for travel in 2025 by a leading travel guide, last week.

Fodors' 2025 named Majorca, Barcelona and the Canary Islands on its forbidden list due to tourist saturation.

The guide acknowledged that Spanish locations were a victim of their own success, being unable to cope with the sheer number of tourists, warning that visiting such busy places 'rarely results in happy travellers'.

The guide said: “Touring cities full of tourists is frustrating; Sightseeing in villages where locals resent your presence is disturbing and wandering through nature plagued by garbage is depressing."

Now, Alicante Council has stopped issuing new licences for tourist apartments for potentially up to two years as part of the new restrictions in Spain.

Rocio Gomez, an Urban Planning councillor, said during this time an update to laws governing holiday rentals with take place.

It is said this will "purify all those homes that do not comply with the regulations".

Most councillors voted in favour of the move.

Gomez said an assessment on each area will take place to determine the most suitable number of holiday homes per neighbourhood.

A public registry is to be set up that will keep track of all properties that comply with the regulations, with a goal of establishing a "competitive and quality market".

This follows on from a study by the council and Estrategia y Organisation SA (EOSA) on tourist housing.

A spokesperson for Vox party, Carmen Robledillo has previously called for a crackdown on holiday renting by "eradicating tourist apartments with more inspections".

According to an EOSA report, 2.31% of all housing stock in Alicant are tourist apartments, which almost 75% not having proper licensing, as per Birmingham Live.

One Compromis councillor, Rafa Mas, one of the two left-wing members who abstained during the vote, commented that: "Our neighbourhoods are being occupied and speculators are making housing more expensive."