{"id":343549,"date":"2025-08-14T09:53:12","date_gmt":"2025-08-14T09:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/343549\/"},"modified":"2025-08-14T09:53:12","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T09:53:12","slug":"spain-italy-france-and-portugal-tourist-warning-as-new-rules-come-into-force","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/343549\/","title":{"rendered":"Spain, Italy, France and Portugal tourist warning as new rules come into force"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Spain to Greece, authorities are stepping up inspections, introducing new licensing systems, and demanding greater cooperation from booking platforms\"CrowdsTourists are facing new rules (Image: Alexander Spatari via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Several of the UK’s favourite holiday spots are taking a firm approach to illegal tourist apartments in an effort to tackle overtourism<\/a>. Spain has joined Italy, France, the Netherlands, Portugal and Greece in clamping down on unlicensed properties.<\/p>\n

The issue with these unlawful holiday lets is not new, as protests against overtourism<\/a> broke out across Spain last summer. Locals blame these apartments for the housing crisis, with rental prices soaring to unprecedented levels and reducing available housing for residents.<\/p>\n

In Majorca, many locals are already distressed over the state of the housing market, with prices rising by another 15% in the past year alone. It comes as a Greece travel warning has been issued with wildfires breaking out across the country<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Our ChronicleLive Daily newsletter is free. You can <\/strong>sign up to receive it here<\/strong><\/a>. It will keep you up to date with all the latest breaking news and top stories from the North East.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In an attempt to address the problem, authorities in Spain<\/a>, Italy, France, the Netherlands, Portugal<\/a>, and Greece<\/a> are increasing inspections, implementing new licensing systems, and demanding more cooperation from booking platforms.<\/p>\n

Despite earlier warnings of hefty fines this year, a Spanish government report claimed that there are still 7,000 holiday apartments being rented out illegally in the Balearic Islands, reports the Express<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It is hoped that this stringent crackdown will create a fairer market for legal operators and protect communities. Authorities in these popular holiday destinations say their message is clear: tourists are welcome but only when it is done legally and there is respect between locals and visitors.<\/p>\n

The housing crisis in Spain<\/a> has become so severe that the Spanish government has branded it a “social emergency”, estimating that between 600,000 and a million new properties must be constructed over the next four years to satisfy demand.<\/p>\n

The cost-of-living crisis is also having an impact, with a third of Spaniards acknowledging they cannot afford a week-long break away, according to the National Statistics Institute.<\/p>\n

Barcelona is spearheading efforts with strict measures to tackle holiday rentals as the city is currently eliminating tourist flats, with plans to remove all licensed short-term lettings by 2028.<\/p>\n

Mayor Jaume Collboni has declared that the City Council will not extend any permits for tourist-use flats once they lapse in November 2028.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From Spain to Greece, authorities are stepping up inspections, introducing new licensing systems, and demanding greater cooperation from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":343550,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2000,299,36,8879,1014],"class_list":{"0":"post-343549","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-france","11":"tag-spain-travel","12":"tag-travel-advice"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115026513561247156","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=343549"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/343549\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/343550"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=343549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=343549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=343549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}