{"id":69147,"date":"2026-08-11T14:11:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T14:11:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/69147\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T14:11:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T14:11:15","slug":"spain-tourism-reputation-on-the-rise-but-criticism-persists-over-house-prices-and-overcrowding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/69147\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain tourism reputation on the rise, but criticism persists over house prices and overcrowding"},"content":{"rendered":"

The reputation of Spain<\/a>\u2019s tourism sector has improved over the past year, closing the second quarter with an average rating of 5.4 out of 10 \u2013 an increase of seven tenths compared with the same period in 2025 \u2013 according to the latest edition of the Tourism Perception Barometer compiled by the consultancy firm LLYC.<\/p>\n

The study, based on an analysis of nearly 1.2 million digital messages over the past year (5.8 million since 2022) on social media, online media and specialist forums, notes that, despite this progress, the sector\u2019s overall image continues to be affected by overcrowding, its impact on housing affordability and the persistent sense of resentment in the most popular destinations.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, the report identifies a rise in public discontent linked to safety, the state of infrastructure and a lack of investment in transport. In terms of conversation volume, the Community of Madrid, Catalonia and Andalusia continue to account for more than half of the digital interactions related to tourism recorded over the past year.<\/p>\n

In the breakdown by autonomous community, only three regions saw their scores decline compared with the previous year: Castile and Le\u00f3n (-0.5 points), Andalusia (-0.2) and Castile-La Mancha (-0.1). This decline places Andalusia as the autonomous community with the lowest overall rating in the country, with a score of 4.1 out of 10 (1.3 points below the national average), weighed down by the debate over holiday rentals<\/a>, overcrowding and incidents on the high-speed rail network.<\/p>\n

The other two autonomous communities that failed to achieve a passing mark are Catalonia (4.3) and the Valencian Community (4.9), although both recorded positive year-on-year performance. Catalonia has increased its score by 1.3 points \u2013 boosted by cultural milestones and the positive reception of the rise in Barcelona\u2019s tourist tax \u2013 whilst the Valencian Community has risen by nine tenths following measures to control the supply of holiday<\/a> flats, although gentrification continues to be the focus of criticism.<\/p>\n

For their part, the Balearics<\/a> (5), the Basque Country (5.1), the Canary Islands (5.2) and Madrid (5.6) have managed to emerge from the negative territory they had been in a year ago, driven by overseas promotion and air connectivity, although the Canary Islands have seen a rise in mentions regarding security and Madrid in relation to infrastructure shortcomings.<\/p>\n

At the opposite end of the spectrum, the regions in the north and the interior of the mainland \u2013 with the exception of Madrid \u2013 maintain the strongest reputation scores, underpinned by their cultural offerings, natural environment and the perception of a distinctive experience.<\/p>\n

Extremadura tops the national ranking for tourism perception with 7.7 points (up five tenths year-on-year), followed by Arag\u00f3n and Asturias, both on 7.5 (after rising by four tenths). Next come Navarre and the Region of Murcia, both with a score of 7.2 points.<\/p>\n

Bringing up the rear in terms of positive ratings are Castilla-La Mancha (6.9), Cantabria (6.8), La Rioja (6.7), Castilla y Le\u00f3n (6.6) and Galicia (6.2). All of these regions have seen an improvement in their figures compared with the second quarter of 2025, with the exception of Castile and Le\u00f3n and Castile-La Mancha, which were affected by overcrowding in historic town centres or isolated incidents involving tourist infrastructure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The reputation of Spain\u2019s tourism sector has improved over the past year, closing the second quarter with an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":69148,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12045,1254,1391,950,598,16246,605,599,600,19872,6654,4943,17,603,19873,357],"class_list":["post-69147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-spain","tag-anti-tourism","tag-balearics","tag-british-tourists","tag-flights","tag-holiday","tag-holiday-rentals","tag-latest-headlines","tag-majorca","tag-mallorca","tag-mass-tourism","tag-palma","tag-soller","tag-spain","tag-summer","tag-tourist-overcrowding","tag-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}