Benidorm local warns 'tourism might collapse' as Spanish protests 'have done nothing'

There are concerns in Spain that the country's tourism industry could be on the brink of 'collapse' as people continue to flock to popular holiday hotspots like Benidorm in their millions

A Benidorm local has said the tourism industry "might" be at risk of collapse.

Ana, known for her YouTube channel 'Benidorm by Ana', has more than 17,000 subscribers and regularly shares news, weather updates and insights from the holiday hotspot.

In a recent video, Ana said Benidorm's hotels had been 90% full during September, which "no one expected" given that we're now in the off-season. "The places are still really busy, the bars, restaurants, cafeterias," she explained.

Ana then went on to discuss Spanish news headlines in recent weeks, which have been talking of a potential "collapse" to come in tourism. Looking at one article in particular, Ana highlighted the phrase "die of success".

She said: "This is a typical Spanish phrase, 'die of success', that [something's] so, so, so successful that it's not even good any longer. This might be the case. Only in August, around 11million people arrived in Spain, and up until now, up until October month, there has been around 64million tourists here in our country."

Ana suggested the Spanish model of tourism "prioritises quantity over quality in some places". She went on: "Spain was always tracking the number of how many tourists arrive, and a lot of places had very cheap holidays, like drinking stag/hen party holidays, people were coming in crowds but as a result it's not as good as it seemed at first.

"Because spending is not as high and having so many people makes extra work and effort for cleaning services, for staff of the tourism industry in general. So it's not as good as it seemed."

Ana also addressed the anti-tourism protests that have taken place this year across several Spanish cities and resorts, with locals angry about rent increases due to properties being bought up for the tourism sector.

She said the demonstrations are "slowing down", which is understandable given that Spanish tourism has entered a "quieter season", and added: "All I'm going to say is that these protests did not affect tourism at all, because we're hitting record numbers!"