I spent Easter week in Valencia, Spain, where my wife’s twin sister and family have lived for 20 years.
I have been visiting it for as long.
They live in a central neighborhood of Russafa — in the Valencian language; best not bring up whether this is a distinct language or a dialect of Catalan — or Ruzafa, which is in Castilian, that is, Spanish.
In San Carmen, I noticed the absence of squatters, street musicians, artists and the like, the type of person that gravitates to those areas who might be described as down on their luck. They have moved out, but so have a sizeable number of tourists.
A number of people I spoke to said the recent boom in tourists, who discovered the city in the three to five years before the pandemic and in the two years after it, is no longer as large as it was.
That boom led to apartment rentals, the Airbnbs of this world, taking over such districts as Russafa and forcing rents up for locals to almost London prices.
Many residents have moved out, too.
A search on one apartment-rental website revealed hundreds of rental options, which might be regular apartments or holiday lets, or both.
There is a one-bedroom rental being offered opposite my sister-in-law’s apartment for €1,650 ($1,781) per month, a price I know is not aimed at the city or domestic market.
When you enlarge the website page to a size that first reveals prices per month, 47 selections can be seen, and only three are priced below €1,000 per month.
Supply and demand, you say. Curious travelers seeking new vistas and spending freely in another economy.
Several Spanish cities — notably Barcelona — have tried various ways of at least limiting peer-to-peer holiday apartments, but the system trundles on.
Some owners no doubt like the idea of renting their properties and do not relish the strong arm of the law getting mixed up in their affairs. They also vote. Residents are convinced the rental bubble will burst soon, including a bar owner I spoke to.
Being British, a land obsessed with maintaining property prices, a home is a man’s castle, but I am not so sure there will be any bursting soon.
When I was in Valencia last, before COVID-19, a bill was going through Valencia’s City Hall to try to rein in these rentals.
One idea was to bar rentals above the first floor — that is the second floor for our American readers — but nothing happened legislatively in those six years.
I think hoteliers and tourism officials would want a happy balance, and if the seesaw rises to high on one side of the fulcrum, then the city might stop containing the essence that brings tourists there in the first place.
Remember how COVID-19 was supposed to have been the perfect opportunity to redress this issue? There again, nothing happened.
Barcelona increased its tourism tax again on April 1, but this exercise does not deter anyone, I would have thought, and does not address the problems that many residents express. The highest fee per day will be €6.25, which officials said would deter such tourists as cruise-ship passengers, rather than what it described as “quality” travelers, according to Schengenvisa.com.
On the Saturday of Easter weekend, I spotted a cruise ship moored off Valencia that I estimated had 3,000 berths.
Statistics on the website of Valencia’s principal tourism entity, the Fundació Visit València, shows tourism numbers are up in terms of overnights at hotels and holiday lets.
I would be interested in hearing comments on the above from anyone who lives and works in Valencia.
Did I just talk to grumpy people or happened to walk along streets that did not show life as it is?
Literally, I just received an email from the World Travel & Tourism Council that said revenue from tourism was set to break all records in 2024 to a level of $11.1 trillion.
That is great news for hoteliers, as long as what led to the goose laying the golden egg remains.
Anna, Spain
On one day, my family and I went to the small town of Anna — no tourism tax here — which like Valenica is located in the province of Comunitat Valenciana. Anna has approximately 2,500 inhabitants.
It is known, if it all, for three waterfalls accessed along a difficult path that would have been closed in most countries for liability reasons and the beautiful, 13th-century Palacio de los Condes de Cervellón, a former Arabic/Moorish home turned into a Christian church and home in the very early 17th Century.
There are no hotels in Anna, just two bed-and-breakfast spots, one of which I happened to pass, the Casa Rural La Balsa.
It has three rooms for up to 10 people, and it is offered on several websites, including, yes, you guessed it, Airbnb.
I am fascinated by such places.
Who stays here? When did the owners decide to turn their home into tourism accommodations? Can they break-even just with a handful of stays a year, with domestic travelers or those who were born here and come back for festivals, celebrations and the saint’s day? Are there enough people who crave such an off-the-beaten-path destination? Maybe it does take two days at least to enjoy Anna's sites.
I hope there is demand. It would take the pressure off the Barcelonas of this world.
The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Hotel News Now or CoStar Group and its affiliated companies. Bloggers published on this site are given the freedom to express views that may be controversial, but our goal is to provoke thought and constructive discussion within our reader community. Please feel free to contact an editor with any questions or concern.