Spain’s prime minister says the new body will map the impact of tourism on housing and help balance visitor numbers with local life.
Pedro Sánchez has announced the creation of an Observatorio de la Vivienda Turística (Tourist Housing Observatory) to analyse the relationship between tourism and residential life in Spain’s most visited cities and neighbourhoods. The aim, he said, is to “reconcile tourism with residents’ quality of life”, particularly where rising housing costs and saturation have become serious issues.
The new observatory will be approved by the Council of Ministers next week as part of the government’s España Turismo 2030: Cuidando el futuro strategy, presented during the fifth Turespaña Convention held in Cáceres. The strategy, developed in consultation with almost 300 public and private organisations, sets out 50 measures designed to make Spain’s tourism sector more sustainable, coordinated and technologically advanced.
A bid to tackle overtourism and housing pressure
Sánchez acknowledged that Spain’s tourism sector is thriving—with 94 million visitors in 2024 and a “record-breaking summer” in 2025—but warned that “we cannot afford to die of success”. Tourism now represents 12.3% of Spain’s GDP and 13.2% of total employment, but the rapid growth has created “problems” in some areas, including gentrification, which the government says affects 27% of tourist cities.
The Observatory will compile an “atlas of tourist intensity” to help policymakers and local authorities respond to housing pressures, particularly the spread of short-term holiday rentals that make it increasingly difficult for residents to find affordable homes.
“Tourism fills our cities with life,” Sánchez concluded, “but it must not empty our neighbourhoods.”
