More beds than residents: 90 Catalan municipalities overwhelmed by tourism

According to data from the Agència Catalana de Notícies (ACN), coastal and mountain towns are seeing visitor accommodation far exceed the local population.

Examples such as Sant Pere Pescador, Espot and Naut Aran show an extreme imbalance, with up to six tourist beds for every resident. In these municipalities, daily activity may be shaped more by visitors than by the residents themselves.

The phenomenon is not limited to highly tourist-oriented enclaves such as Salou, Lloret de Mar or Cambrils. It also affects small villages such as Arnes, Àger and Prullans, where tourist-use housing is growing without restraint. In total, Catalonia has more than 776,000 registered tourist beds, concentrated above all on the Costa Brava, Costa Daurada and in the Pyrenees.

In the face of this growing pressure, the Generalitat has started to limit licences and allows municipalities to impose caps, but the tourism-based economic model continues to gain ground. While Barcelona suspends new licences, the rest of the territory faces the challenge of reconciling tourism and local life without losing its identity.