San Sebastian, a picturesque tourist destination in northern Spain’s Basque Country, has been plagued by anti-tourism protests this summer. Organized by leftist youth group Ernai, one incident saw a tourist train stopped by demonstrators.
Tourism is worth 13 percent to San Sebastian’s economy, and the city was deemed 2016’s European Capital of Culture.
Eneko Goia, the city’s mayor, told CNBC that the protests were “clearly motivated by political reasons,” and not representative of the views of most locals. But, tourism in the city is being managed with a firmer hand.
San Sebastian will announce “much more restrictive” rules on tourist apartments in the coming weeks, which are blamed for pushing up rent prices, and have closed almost 100 illegal rentals in the past two years, Goia said.