if the Spanish don't want us,don't go there

Tiley

We have spent a lot of time in Spain over the years, before Brexit often for6 months at a time. If you avoid the tourist areas such as Barcelona, Benidorm etc it is fine. Unfortunately the Brits behave so badly it has given us all a bad name. Inland Spain is lovely as is Northern Spain albeit the weather is not so hot as the Costas. Try to integrate and learn some Spanish and they will greet you with open arms.

No, the British don’t behave badly. Some British behave badly, so do some Germans, some Dutch, some Russians and some of all other nationalities.
We have never been to Benidorm or Torremolinus, nor any other over populated resort. We never stay in ‘resorts’ where everything is provided and you don’t need to leave the grounds. We find little privately owned rentals and explore places that are not rammed with tourists. I’m afraid though, that if tourism is to be discouraged or even stopped, then the locals will be the poorer for it. Tourism brings enormous financial benefits and everyone is richer for it. Spain was dirt poor before it embraced tourism and the EU.
We prefer Greece to Spain anyway, although we did visit Seville recently. The many restaurants were full. How many would fail without the tourists? Perhaps the Spanish prefer unemployment to tourism.
No, we wouldn’t visit the Canaries or Balearics at the present time because we would clearly be unwelcome.

The people owning and running Air B n B's
Are for the main investors with money, they are not the 'local'working population.
They are now run for profit.

I went to the Balearics in May with no problems at all. Everyone was very friendly. Although there was a small protest in one nearby town apparently, while I was there.
It's like walking a tightrope though, they really need tourists. Just not in such great numbers. I think it's a lot to do with locals being unable to buy a home since the growth of airbnbs.

Jackiest

The problem is some of the British have behaved so badly that we are not welcome in many parts of the world.

We are being judged by the actions of a small number which is wrong and we should not do it either.

I agree with all of this!

I was in Spain (Costa Del Sol) visiting an old friend. Many bars and hotels have barred “groups” of Brits, eg Hen/Stag do’s, as they’re literally sick of the damage done to premises and fixtures and fittings and the “fights” caused by drunk, out of control, Brits!

I would imagine the Greek and Turkish tourist boards are rubbing their hands 😂

Not just Brits Cossy.
The Germans are known for their bad behaviour.
The Serbians were very badly behaved in Germany at the Euros.
There are indeed badly behaved Brits, but why the rush to criticise the British without either acknowledgment or condemnation of other nationalities who misbehave.

henetha

I went to the Balearics in May with no problems at all. Everyone was very friendly. Although there was a small protest in one nearby town apparently, while I was there.
It's like walking a tightrope though, they really need tourists. Just not in such great numbers. I think it's a lot to do with locals being unable to buy a home since the growth of airbnbs.

The cost/lack of affordable housing is certainly a very major issue in Majorca, where a Swedish friend has a house. She inherited it from her dad who bought it - a very old village house with very few mod cons - in the early 70s, so not one of the more recent waves of buyers, but she understands the local feeling very well.

Well said, Maddyone.

Jackiest

The problem is some of the British have behaved so badly that we are not welcome in many parts of the world.

We are being judged by the actions of a small number which is wrong and we should not do it either.

Personally, having travelled very widely over many years, I have never felt at all unwelcome anywhere.

IMO a great deal will depend on where you choose to go or stay. Some areas/resorts (e.g. Magaluf) are notorious for attracting the ‘wrong sort’ - if I’m allowed to say that.

By contrast the hotel manager of a family-friendly beach hotel in Crete, where we stayed with dd and family shortly before the Brexit vote, told us he was very concerned that if there was a leave result, Brits would stop coming. He thought his Brit guests were particularly pleasant and ‘easy’.

We hastened to reassure him that we were sure they’d still be coming in much the same numbers.

Much further afield, when we were visiting Bali some years ago, a dd who’d been before strongly advised us to steer well clear of a particular seaside resort. ‘It’s an Aussie Blackpool - you’d hate it!’

The type of stag and hens that go to maraud around any town both home and abroad, drunk dressed up in stupid matching outfits sometimes carting around an inflatable willy, give that town a feral atmosphere, Bournemouth's been ruined by too many of them. God they're the pits complete embarrassments. Particularly those who may be using it as an excuse to have one final -shag- sexual experience, begs the question "why are you getting married in the first place?". I remember passing through Malaga airport, 3 generational parties garbed up in ridiculous outfits, one including ancient granny complete with angelwings and skimpy outfit Not dignified imo

When I was in Australia nearly 40 years ago that was the impression I had about "some" Aussies and Bali, even back then. The British equivalent to Magaluf type resorts it appeared.

The Swedish person you know Witzend is part of the problem. Using up a house, which would have been modernised by now whoever lived in it, but not being there all the time using the shops and other facilities, is definitely part of the problem. No one likes to think that by buying up houses abroad they are contributing to a housing shortage, but in reality they are. And unless they live in it permanently, they are contributing little to the local economy.

On a tour of Turkey we stayed for just one night (fortunately) at a hotel obviously favoured by Russian tourists. Families, not groups of youngsters. They were loud and obnoxious to staff, they fought amongst themselves, some were sick on the floor, others lay completely out of it in the middle of corridors - one was witnessed being kicked awake by his wife, with a baby in her arms. It was so riotous the tour company gave our group an upgrade on our next hotel.

We visit the Canary islands regularly and have always been welcomed. What they need to do is clamp down on the loud, drunken, dysfunctional families (not just Brits I may add) and ban them from returning. I shudder sometimes at the behaviour of some "adults" especially those with young children, drunk, swearing and being abusive to anyone that takes their fancy. Get the guarda to fine them and ensure they are sent home with a notification to say not welcome back. It's not all young folk that cause the problems 😕

I can understand the anger of those who can no longer afford to buy or rent in their city due to holiday lets, this applies to the Highlands, Cornwall, North Norfolk and many other places in the Uk as well. It is not as simple as blaming stag and hen parties, however repellent they are to most of us. As a previous poster said, when it started AirBnB was all about letting your spare room, about people staying with a resident; now they are often corporate investments. Walk around any coastal town and you will see the tell tale key safes by the door, we were in Cromer and in Rye last autumn, and there were lots, all in small terraced, pretty cottages which would at one time been first time homes.

I don't know what the answer is, other than hefty taxation of AurBnB profits, and seriously limiting the licensing of them.

Inflammatory headlines about the Spanish 'hating Brits' do not help to resolve this problem.

Jackiest

The problem is some of the British have behaved so badly that we are not welcome in many parts of the world.

We are being judged by the actions of a small number which is wrong and we should not do it either.

It's not to do with behaviour, it's mainly to do with short term accommodation which means lack of accommodation for locals and rising rents.

Cornwall have exactly the same issues in their popular resorts.

BigMamma

I totally agree, if a country objects to visitors from other countries then we should all stop going. When the hotels and stores start closing down due to lack of tourists they will know who they have to blame.

I don't believe they object to visitors from other countries - it's about the numbers and the effect it is having on the locals.

I have seen a tourist destination in the UK - one I live close by - where those locals are complaining that they are swamped by tourists in the high season. And it is, I have been there. I have seen tourists peering into the windows of people's houses, going into their gardens, picnicking on a small bridge making it impossible for anyone to walk on it, paddling in a tiny stream which is not meant to be used as a public pool, thronging the narrow pavements making it impossible to walk along them.

The locals have to live and work in the small town, and they are objecting to the sheer numbers of tourists - here in our own country. So it isn't just Spain complaining about visitors. No town or city, anywhere in any country, can cope with an overwhelming number of tourists.

It's down to governments and local authorities to deal with the issue and if they don't then of course the locals will complain.

I live in a small Cotswolds tourist 'trap' - but the numbers are manageable, and we are pleased to see them and make them welcome, whichever country they are from.

So it's not really as simple as "objecting to visitors from other countries".

HousePlantQueen

Inflammatory headlines about the Spanish 'hating Brits' do not help to resolve this problem.

Precisely. And the Spanish don't hate the Brits.

The headlines are all part of the anti-EU agenda.

I went with another widow on an organised trip to Andalusia last October. The Spanish people with whom we came into contact could not have been more friendly and helpful.
It was my first trip to mainland Spain and would love to go back. I'm well into Duolingo Spainsh!
It's not the likes of us that the Spanish are fed up with!

halfpint1

The people owning and running Air B n B's
Are for the main investors with money, they are not the 'local'working population.
They are now run for profit.

Let me speak up for AirBNB, which I have just joined and for a very specific reason.

Until Easter this year we had a holiday home in France, we had had it over 30 years and we feel that the area of Normandy it was in as much 'home' as the area of England we live in.

But time takes its toll and the maintenance was getting harder and harder work, so we sold it, but home is home and we still want to go back there regularly and we do not want to stay in a hotel, we want to 'live' there as we always did. Our visits, like the one due to start this week are for less than a week, or mid-week to mid-week and the official Gites de France sites only work in calendar weeks.

So I have signed up with AirBNB and we have a Thurs-Tues booking for a small house, converted form an outhouse in someone's courtyard in a small town close to where we lived. None of the properties I browsed, within a 10 mile radius of our previous house gave me any impression that they were owned by other than local people, making the most of the extra odd buildings which every home in Normandy seems to have, much the same as the Gites. We have one of those booked for a one week week-end-week-end holiday later in the year.

Property in Normandy is very cheap and the plethora of ruined houses that litter the countryside show that there is no lack of housing in the area for those with very modest incomes.

halfpint1 Your comments may apply in tourist hot spots, but their are many AiRBNB properties thata are far from the madding crowd and those are owned and run by local people glad of a little extra income.

Sweeping inflammatory generalisations do no favours to either “side”

This is xenophobia of the worst tabloid type (apologies to tabloids) - well behaved visitors are a welcome boost to the economy of so many areas and can hardly shoulder the blame for rising property prices because the locals seek to make a profit from Air BnB s

It’s nothing to do with the Spanish not wanting us they are angry that their government have given over masses of buildings ( that are needed for local people) rich people buying up big apartment buildings to turn into to AirB&B and rent out apartments The locals can’t get starter homes The same has happened in a smaller way in Cornwall and Wales
The Spanish are not Anti British or anti holiday makers they are just wanting to be able to house themselves first
Not unreasonable at all

TerriBull

The northern coastal areas such as San Sebastian have not been tainted in the way that the Costas have been, somewhat cooler but un-spoilt, or was when I went there, a while back now.. I do love the Moorish part of Spain though which is predominantly in the south.

San Sebastián can get very crowded with tourists, especially 'foodie' ones and I've seen many large parties of (eg) Japanese tourists being led around by tour guides to the best tapas and pinxtos bars.
Not that I blame then for that, the food is really special.
But it can get very busy.
It's also busy during the International Film Festival which is held inSeptember.
Still a great place to visit. But Bilbao is also a very good foodie destination as well as a vibrant city and seems to be more popular with Spanish tourists than foreign. So it's less rowdy overall....

M0nica

Like so many things, what starts as being a movement that brings economic growth and prosperity to a resort/area/country, over the years grows so large that the conomic advantages begin to fail as the very things that made somewhere popular begin to degrade it.

So many areas that drew tourists in because of the beautiful beaches/ wonderful architecture, peace and quiet now have so many tourists that the beaches are full, so much housing has become holiday accommodation that the locals cannot find homes, streets are heaving masses of people. I am not surprised that the people in many tourist areas of Spain are fed up.

50 years ago I fell in love with Oxford, I wanted to live there, couldn't afford it, but for the last 30 years have lived 10 miles away. I used to go there a lot, parking was easy, if expensive, you could walk round the colleges and their quads, and no one would stop you. In the vacations they were quiet and peaceful. The town was full of indpendent shops.

Now, you cannot move in the city because the pavements are blocked by tourist parties, the shops have all closed to be replced by chain restaurants. The colleges only let people in to visit at certain times and charge a fee, I do not blame them. I now rarely go to Oxford, all I loved has gone, it is just a tourist destination full of eateries and booths selling tawdry souvenirs.

My sympathies are all with the protesters of Barcelona.

Pleased to see that there is a complete understanding in reference to the excessive amount of tourists on the coasts and the islands.

It does create havoc for the locals especially the elderly and also families.