A leading hotelier on the Costa del Sol has waded into the so-called ‘anti-tourism’ debate ahead of the 2025 summer season.
Jose Luque, president of the Costa del Sol Hotel Owners’ Association (AEHCOS), insisted in an interview this week that policy and urban planning are to blame for local anger over a lack of affordable housing.
Speaking to Malaga Hoy, Luque said the mentality that tourists are to blame for the housing issue is ‘extremely dangerous’ for the vital industry.
Luque said AEHCOS is ‘very concerned’ about the lack of housing, especially as it directly affects the thousands of employees who work at hotels and other tourism businesses.
He said: ‘We need people who have decent housing and can finance it with the money we pay for hotels, and this is not possible today. When we interview someone, if they are not from the same municipality, there is a high risk of turnover.’
However, he said the lack of access to affordable housing cannot be blamed on tourism but instead poor urban planning.
He continued: ‘Secondly, there is a rental law that prevents anyone from renting long-term due to the risk of having tenants who will eventually become squatters.
‘And third, the exponential growth of tourist housing, which has cannibalized homes that would be ideal for long-term rentals.’
In Spain, tenants have much stronger rights compared to landlords. If they stop paying rent, it can take years for them to be evicted, often costing the homeowners thousands in legal fees.
When asked about so-called ‘anti-tourism’ sentiment, Luque said that there has been a ‘very bad simplification’ which equates to ‘we don’t have housing because there’s too much tourism.’
‘That’s not true,’ he said, ‘We don’t have housing because there hasn’t been proper urban planning, because we have an urban rental law that scares owners away from long-term rentals, and because there’s been an exponential growth in tourist housing.’
Luque said making a direct link between lack of housing and tourism is ‘erroneous and extremely dangerous because every public demonstration against tourism our competitors virally replicate in the international press.’
