Barcelona, a notable holiday hotspot for British and international tourists, is the latest Spanish location to propose plans to help lower visitor numbers.
The city's Mayor Ada Colau, who is seeking a bid for re-election, has said she wants to cut the number of cruise ships visiting Barcelona due to the number of tourists flocking there for a getaway.
In her eight years in office, the official has introduced a number of visitor reducing measures, which include enforcing how many beds a hotel can have and halting plans for new accommodation in Spain's second largest city.
She has also called for plans to expand Barcelona airport to be scrapped. As reported by The Mirror, Mayor Colau stressed that it is not built for "infinite" visitors.
"The great challenge is tourism," she told the Times. "Barcelona is a very densely populated city, hemmed in between the mountains and the sea, with restricted space. We can’t take infinite numbers of tourists. There has to be a sense of limits and order."
Barcelona is known for its stunning architecture, bustling nightlife and sandy beaches, but this doesn't always work in its favour. 27million people go there every year - about 16 times more than its standing population.
Deputy mayor Jaume Collboni has said Barcelona is trying to attract "quality over quantity" when it comes to visitors to the city, meaning fewer visitors who spend more money.
Earlier this month, Majorca, Menorca and Ibiza also announced plans for visitor limits. The government of the Balearic Islands said they will have an "absolute ceiling" when it comes to tourist numbers in the future.
In 2022, 16,475,579 holidaymakers arrived on the islands, which will be the maximum in the future. Last year's number is just 397 fewer than its pre-Covid numbers in 2019 and 76,000 fewer than in 2018, the year which marked the all-time high.
Tourist chiefs will attempt to reduce the impact of tourism by encouraging people to visit at different times of the year and to try out less popular areas.
Spanish newspaper Ultimahora.es said the plan was to cut visitor numbers in the summer months when the "feeling of saturation has become suffocating for both residents and tourists".
It comes hot off the heels of similar proposals announced earlier this month by officials in Lanzarote, which declared itself "saturated".
The Canary Islands' tourism bosses want to limit tourists and get away from dependency on the Brits who currently represent 50 per cent of the market. Similar to Barcelona, the island wants to attract fewer tourists who spend more, putting "quality before quantity."
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