Residents of tourist areas eventually become overwhelmed with their presence, as has been the case in Barcelona and now with Granada.

This historic quarter of Granada, with its Muslim past and privileged view of the Alhambra across the narrow valley, has long attracked thousands upon thousands of tourists, many of them bohemian backpackers.

However, it is not the strolling tourist lacing the streets with selfies that is causing the problem but the proliferation of tourist-orientated accommodation; i.e., flat’s etc. Yet it is not so much the existence of these flats that is enraging locals but the noise and trouble that their occupants cause.

In this small area of the city there are 479 active ones, according to one resident association (AirDNA) which searches the web for AirB&B and HomeAway adverts.

Now, at the moment the City Hall is drawing up the Plan Especial de Protección y Catálogo del Albaicín y Sacromonte so social platforms, associations and neighbourhood communities and even individuals are demanding that it includes in its draft measures to check this kind of acivity and the problems that it produces.

Along these lines SOS Alhambra has pointed out that “the level of leisure that this kind of accommodation requires isn’t always compatible with day-to-day life.” In other words, you trying living in this mayhem.

Even the green-minded have protested, such as the Ecologistas en Acción, Greenpeace, Ateneo de Granada, Opidum Iliberis, Vega Educa and Salvemos la Vega, who have all banded together to have their conditions included in the said Plan Especial.

The above entities are also opposed the City Council’s idea to put blue-zones in places such as Fajalauza, The Colegio Ave María de San Cristóbal, The Muralla de la Alberzana, Cristo Rey, or anywhere near Sacromonte – in short; they don’t want blue zones. Why? Because they consider that the main motivation behind this plan is to turn any available space into parking areas, which would increase traffic problems and pollution by enticing more cars to go up there.

(News: Albaicin, Granada, Andalucia)