The agreement between the Council of Mallorca and Airbnb has enabled the removal of more than 8,000 listings for illegal holiday accommodation since its launch. This was highlighted by the council’s president, Llorenç Galmés, at the presentation of the Smart Destination Platform (PID) this Friday in Palma.
The removal of more than 8,000 listings means, said Galmés, the withdrawal of more than 40,000 illegal tourist beds that were being offered on the island. He highlighted the Council of Mallorca’s fight against illegal tourist accommodation, through the increase in inspectors and the agreement with the holiday rental platform.
Airbnb are present in 5,300 towns throughout Spain, and almost 70% of Spaniards already use it to travel to non-urban destinations in Spain. In Spain, despite being the world’s second largest tourist destination, Spanish rural destinations register up to seven times fewer nights booked than rural areas in France, three times fewer than in the United Kingdom, and half as many as in Italy, it said.
Airbnb has said it was shifting its local strategy and plans to invest $50 million to promote Spanish villages and expand rental options there. The Spanish government has also launched a campaign to spotlight rural destinations, aiming to persuade the 94 million international tourists who flocked to beaches and big cities in 2024 to visit other parts of the country. For now, the trend is driven mainly by domestic travellers seeking cheaper inland holidays.
Nearly a third of tourists visiting Spain opt to stay in short-term rentals. The number of homes listed for holiday rentals in May dropped 6% from the previous summer to 1.43 million, after regulations were tightened to ease the housing crisis, data from the National Statistics Institute showed.