Overcrowded Costa del Sol – myth?

Over recent months, we have heard plenty of gripes about overcrowding on the Costa del Sol by mass tourism. But, It could be worse.

The foreign press have been awash this year with claims that Spaniards are sick of tourists, suggestions that we might be at ‘breaking point’ on the Costa del Sol, and even local water authorities suggesting that tourist overcrowding might be in part to blame for the drought we are suffering. But how real is this stereotype?

Mallorca town tops list of most touristy

Holidu, a tourist rental website, has gathered together data that suggests the Costa del Sol is far from the top of Spanish destinations suffering overcrowding. According to their data, there’s not one Costa del Sol resort in the top 20 of most overcrowded. Torremolinos is at the number 22 position with a 17.7 tourists per every 1 local, but that’s as high as it gets. Compare this figure with Sant Llorenç des Cardassar in Mallorca with a staggering 73.1 tourists per inhabitant, and Torremolinos doesn’t seem all that bad at all.

Torremolinos not overcrowded with tourists

Mayor of Torremolinos, Margarita del Cid, commented ‘in Torremolinos there is no problem of saturation and there is no feeling among the population of overcrowding’. Nerja has less of a population of holidaymakers at 9.92 per inhabitant, Benalmadena with 9.28 tourists for every one resident, Marbella with as few as 5.87.

And the most overcrowded tourist destinations in Spain? Overcrowded resorts of note include Peñiscola in the Valencia region with an index of 51.7 tourists per resident, and Salou in Catalonia with 48.7.