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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Sam Jones in the Islas Cíes

‘People understand the cap’: how a Spanish eco-beauty spot tackled overtourism

The rugged coast of the Cies Islands
The Cies islands in Vigo, Spain. Between 15 September and 15 May, only 450 visitors a day are permitted. Photograph: Karen Goncalves/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Despite a spring and summer of protests from the Canaries to the Balearics, and from Barcelona to Cádiz, not every part of Spain is overrun with swarms of tourists or, come to that, with beach-occupying, waterpistol-waving activists demanding an end to unchecked mass tourism.

As the high season winds down on the Cíes islands, off the north-western region of Galicia, a young cormorant keeps a beady eye on visitors as they traipse across a breakwater. A kestrel hovers, almost static, above the lighthouse, its gaze on an early, possibly lizard-based lunch.

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