A Spanish journalist has sparked a furious debate online after claiming that foreign tourists are the ‘real invaders’ of towns in Spain, rather than migrants who ‘cross seas in search of a better life’.
The controversial message was shared by social media creator Nacho Deus, known online as @nachxdeu, alongside footage showing a packed restaurant terrace in San Luis de Sabinillas, on the Costa del Sol.
Text superimposed over the video reads: ‘The guiris in your town really are an invasion, not those who cross seas and deserts in search of a better life.’
Guiris is a Spanish term used to describe foreign tourists or expats, typically from the UK, northern Europe or the US.
In the caption, Deus added: ‘If you come by plane, the doors are open to you for everything. If you come looking for work and a better life, only hatred awaits you. Enough with racism.’
The video appears to have been filmed during the Fiesta de la Luna Llena in Sabinillas, an annual celebration which sees thousands of people descend on the beachfront and promenade, traditionally dressed in white.
The 2026 edition took place on July 31 from 9pm, with the Ayuntamiento de Manilva promoting a programme of performances, music and entertainment along the seafront.
But the journalist’s comparison between tourists, colloquially known as guiris in Spain, and irregular migrants prompted an enormous backlash.
One of the most popular responses, attracting more than 5,800 likes, simply said: ‘That may be the stupidest sentence I have ever heard.’
Another comment, liked more than 3,800 times, argued: ‘Calling tourism, which generates employment and taxes, an ‘invasion’, while comparing it with irregular immigration, is a false equivalence. They are completely different phenomena.’
A third wrote: ‘Come on! You’re going to compare educated people who are having dinner and sitting there peacefully with people who come to steal?’
Another commenter claimed: ‘Guiris come, create wealth and employment, and leave. Illegal immigrants enter, survive thanks to public money and create insecurity.’
Other responses went considerably further, making sweeping claims linking migrants to robberies, violence and sexual offences.
Deus also faced criticism over the footage itself.
Photographer Antonio Aparicio claimed in the comments that the scenes had been recorded during Sabinillas’ Full Moon Festival and said many of the people visible were actually Spanish.
‘That was at the Full Moon Festival in San Luis de Sabinillas, and it was a huge party throughout the town, where the guiris were a minority,’ he wrote.
‘In fact, in those images the majority are Spanish, and we were all wearing white that day.’
The Full Moon Festival is indeed centred on the Paseo Maritimo and beach in Sabinillas, with attendees encouraged to dress in white.
Deus hit back, insisting the area was nevertheless packed with foreigners throughout the summer.
He replied: ‘That whole area of the Sabinillas promenade is infested with guiris. I know because I walk through there every afternoon and I have never seen it so full of guiris as this year.
‘In restaurants such as Guru, the pizzeria opposite Walili and others, all you see are guiris. And anyone you speak to from the town will acknowledge it.’
Sabinillas, part of the municipality of Manilva in Malaga province, is a well-established tourist destination on the western Costa del Sol, with its beach and nearby Puerto de la Duquesa among its principal attractions.
The row comes amid an increasingly heated debate in Spain over mass tourism, immigration and pressure on housing and public services – issues which have increasingly collided in some of the country’s most popular coastal destinations.
Read more Andalucia news at the Spanish Eye.
