Empty beaches? Reduction in tourist numbers?

[TheAmusedQuail]

Is this real? The media keep reporting on empty beaches, lack of tourists in bars, hotels with empty rooms.

I think this is mainly supposed to be in Spain and the Canaries. Having lived in Spain, I know over tourism was horrific. But I also know a huge amount of gross national income in Spain comes from tourism.

Is this a real thing though? Or is the media over hyping it. Has anyone seen evidence of this personally? No one I know who lives in the resorts in the areas I used to live in has reported any evidence of it.

Well here are some stats "Spain is the region with the most tourist arrivals worldwide – and globally. In 2024, Spain registered almost 138 million international visitors, increasing by 9.6 percent versus the previous year. This number also represents a new record, surpassing the 126.2 million visitor arrivals recorded in 2019. As it stands, the international tourism volume represents almost three times Spain’s total population, which added up to around 49 million people in 2024. Tourism is, therefore, one of the major drivers of the Spanish economy. That same year, the gross value added (GVA) of industries related to tourist accommodation and food services in Spain reached over 90 billion euros." Source Statista

OP I haven't been on holiday in Europe this year but what I've noticed in the comments on those "empty beaches" articles are plenty of people saying they're in those locations right now and that there are plenty of tourists. So IDK how legit they are either, or if the reporters are going very early in the morning to photograph empty beaches/towns etc.

It was as busy as ever when I went to Spain. I think the stories have been twisted.

My brother and SiL are in Majorca at the moment and have said it’s quieter than when they’ve been before - SiL works in a school so they always go away in school holidays and places are usually rammed.

It’s not empty by any means, but easier to get a table in the more popular restaurants, sun lounger by the pool, etc.

Holidays in the school summer hols are expensive and it's getting hotter in Europe. I.know lots of people who are going away May and October instead. We are in Croatia and I know lots have come to the eastern side of the EU.
DS friends are in Spain x 3, Mexico, Japan and Italy. My friends France x2 Croatia x2 Montenegro, Crete and Ireland over the summer.

Plus it's (finally) being a decent summer in the UK, so maybe people who would have gone on short-notice holidays have decided they might as well get a tan at home?

Have they done a 'compare and contrast' article on how packed British beaches are?

sounds rubbish to me, went to spain recently and it was pretty busy. Nowhere was "empty". Plane was full, airport was heaving etc

however I do think there's more of a trend to move away from the traditional august season though due to extreme heat and costs. Very tricky for families though.

Funnily enough the DM’s top story is about some migrants being tackled by sunbathing tourists as they landed on a very crowded beach in Spain. It was quite a contrast with all those supposedly empty beaches in the same country they’ve been running stories about all summer. Schrodinger’s beach or something, I guess.

Been looking at a holiday at end of Sept (we often leave it late to book) and the available selection seems to be less this year. dont know if that is more people are leaving it later and out of school holiday time or less availablity.

Or people are struggling to afford overseas holidays or heeding the spanish and others protests re tourist overload

Good point!

I don't trust British media for a second so did presume it was a bit hyped up.

We've had 3 short stays in Spain over the last month and every local we have spoken to about it (taxi drivers, bar/restaurant owners etc) have said the same, that tourism is down and businesses are struggling as a result.

Have to say that where we went didn't look particularly empty, but certainly weren't 'heaving' if you see what I mean.

Have recently got back from Spain, and although we don't go to the most popular areas (e.g., not Malaga, Barcelona) we did notice it being quieter than previous years. Beaches were noticeably emptier and roads/airport where we were was very empty. This was first week of school hols for England, and usually its busier at that time. I also noticed less flights to the area of Spain we holiday in too - usually a couple of flights per day there from most London airports but this years options were much reduced.

I’ve heard about this here more than Europe. I have a friend who runs a hotel and one who has a rental holiday home and I rent out a holiday lodge, all on the IOW. They told me takings are way down and I’ve had to drop my prices to get booked up. The cost of the ferry is partly to blame, but I’ve heard that same for other traditional holiday destinations like Cornwall.

It's seemingly less busy here in Corsica and numbers are definitely lower than in the glory years of about fifteen years ago which were probably an strange peak in themselves but:

AirB&B, Booking etc has completely changed the market. People don't eat out as much, don't go to the beach as much and so on and so forth. They tend to stay more in their bubble as it were. Maybe covid has something to do with that.

There’s fashions in tourism as well. Croatia has been very popular for a few years now and looks very similar to us in pictures yet is a lot cheaper.

I wouldn't like to own a small hôtel or "Real B&B" or gite style business anywhere right now. Or else I'd market specifically to hikers or some kind of special interest group.

Funnily enough, some of the best clients we ever had at the small family run hôtels I used to work at were bikers. Motorbike sort, not cyclists.

Just back from Mallorca and their local press said they were 20% down. It was busy but not packed - could always get a table on the view edge in every restaurant straight away at any time and lots of empty tables further back.

I think this is exactly what was hoped for (not by businesses I know) in Mallorca. The protests there have been pretty bad.

gingercat02 · Yesterday 12:35
Holidays in the school summer hols are expensive and it's getting hotter in Europe.

I agree - I think the increasingly hot summers in southern Europe and elsewhere will put people off. We went to Majorca recently and it was boiling.
Also presumably increasingly hot and dry weather will affect water supplies.

Tourist numbers were supposedly down In Cornwall last year. I wonder if some of it is due to cost of living?

Good point because I'm not aware of any protests in Cornwall? Could be wrong.

Maybe not on the scale of Teneriffe but the Cornish are very vocal about second homes.

I wouldn’t be surprised if numbers are down a bit, because of people wanting to avoid extreme heat - especially after what we had recently in parts of the U.K.

It was a few years ago now, but we met some Italians in Cornwall who’d come to escape the heat back home- though it was a reasonably good summer in Cornwall anyway. They told us that previously they’d had a summer holiday walking along Hadrian’s Wall! I said what about rain and damp, and they said they loved it! 😂

DH is in France atm and the area he's in is very quiet, they're telling him it's shocking how quiet they are compared to usual.

Not sure why though, probably cost of living.

We holiday in self catering cottages in Cornwall every year and the prices went crazy immediately post-Covid. I did notice that a couple of years later a lot of places that had always previously been fully booked quite early on were struggling to fill the summer, I assume because they’d priced themselves too high and CoL had put it out of reach of a lot of people.

If it is happening, I would imagine it's COL and the heat. Anecdotally, I know a couple of friends visiting different parts of Europe, Germany, Holland and Scandinavian countries, we are doing that but I do have family that I'm visiting in a Scandinavian country, even so all these people were regular visitors of Spain, the Med. I think what is more likely is affordability, anecdotally speaking with colleagues at work, fewer people in middle ranking jobs and below can afford to go away but that includes this country and in the past they would have done.

I've recently been to Majorca - much quieter than usual. Not a single queue in or out of PMI - straight through security