Anti-tourism protests Spain: Thousands of protestors take to streets in popular holiday destination Malaga claiming they're 'strangers in own town'

Thousands took part in the latest slow-walk through Malaga town centre, holding banners that read 'We feel strangers in our own city' and 'Tourism forces us out'. Some of the banners read “one more tourist is one less local resident” and others wrote “padlocks out of our neighbourhoods” in reference to the coded key holders outside tourist apartment blocks.

The demo was organised by the Malaga Tenants Union, with the backing of nearly 50 organisations including Greenpeace and Oxfam, under the slogan: “Malaga para vivir, no para sobrevivir” which in English translates roughly as “Malaga to live in, not survive in.”

The slow walk through Malaga town centre ended with the reading of a manifesto. Protest organisers said: “We’re not going to allow ourselves to be expelled from our own city. We’re staying put. We’re not going to allow Malaga to become a theme park emptied of local residents. We’re not going to allow shops to be replaced by franchises, pavements with terraces and rents with eviction letters.”

Santiago Perez, 67, who attended the march, told local press: “I’m not against tourism but I want it to be regulated so we have quality tourism and not the drunken type of tourism the holiday rentals attract.” The protest comes after stickers were plastered over the front of tourist apartment blocks last year in Malaga with messages in Spanish saying: “F*** off from here” and “Stinking of Tourists.”