Re your article (Third of people in Spain say local area has too many foreign tourists, 13 September), as a Spaniard living in Barcelona, I want to explain why tourism has become a major concern for us. While noise, littering and security are issues for many councils of touristic cities, the most severe impact is on housing. We may tolerate crowded streets, local businesses turning into tourist spots and disappearing, or emergency rooms overwhelmed during tourist season. But the real tragedy is how unaffordable housing has become.
Whenever an article promotes a “new fantastic place to visit and live in Spain”, it signals its decline for locals soon after. Once concentrated in a few coastal cities, this problem has now spread to the Canary and Balearic islands, Seville, Valencia, Cádiz, Málaga and even Madrid.
