Alcalá de la Selva is the living portrait of a broken tourist model
“There are people who come because they are overwhelmed by so much heat.” He says it José Edo, Councilor for Culture and Heritage of Alcalá de la Selvaabout his own people. He is not talking about weekend tourists: he is talking about people who buy a house in a municipality of 382 neighbors because he can’t stand the summer where he lives anymore. Alcalá has become, in the mouth of one of its own rulers, a climate refuge. The problem is that this “refuge” has a water network designed for 500 people, not for the more than 6,000 it hosts each summer. A pipe about to burst where it is impossible to perceive a real demographic boom. Nobody registers nor are there any census changes. What there is is a ski resort ten minutes away, eight kilometers away, and a wonderful golf course at 1,475 meters above sea level. It is just a car ride away from half of the Valencian Community. Recognizing someone on the street at this time? Risky sport. The numbers that don’t add up. Alcalá de la Selva, which does not have a jungle but does have a cool climate due to its altitude (1404 m above sea level) and being located between two mountains in the Gúdar mountain range, next to the Alcalá river, belongs to Teruel. It is one of the many Aragonese towns with white and stone houses that grows every summer. However, few grow as big as this one. From 350 to 6,500 peoplea couple of years ago, as recognized by the City Council. And without counting nearby campsites or hostelsE. That is multiplying the population by seventeen, an increase of more than 1,600%. Tourism makes money, right? Not exactly: regional and state financing is calculated only on those registered. The City Council charges the IBI and water and garbage rates from its inhabitants, but neither the Provincial Council nor the State allocates an extra euro to the services consumed by such growth. Furthermore, it depends on Teruel for everything and cannot grow much more on a stone hill. A town designed to have no neighbors. The municipal urban planning itself admits it bluntly: “There is hardly any need for a first home”recognizes the document that Alcalá presented to the European contest Europan in 2011, when the town had 513 registered inhabitants and already admitted peaks of up to 5,000. María Amparo Atienza Chisbert, from the PAR, the Aragonese Party, governs from the 2023 municipal elections. And they recognize a model problem that is suffocating them. The mayor of Cosuenda (Zaragoza) and that of Canfranc (Huesca) described exactly the same asphyxiation with governments of a different color. The El Castillejo golf coursemunicipal, 9 holes, inaugurated in 2003, is the highest in Spain and has incredible views. The Valdelinares ski resort, the closest and with 14 slopes, opened in 1970. And neither facility exists for the 382 winter residents. Along with the historic center, scattered seasonal occupation developments grew since the 80s and 90s, chalets that clean and open at Easter, in August and on snow bridges. The rest of the year, as you know: closed tight. This summer, there is also an eclipse. To finish with a certain irony, it is worth remembering that the Gúdar-Javalambre region, where Alcalá is, isIt has become one of the seven official points in Aragon to see the total solar eclipse on August 12. The area dresses up before the first total eclipse visible on the peninsula in more than a century. Aragon expects about four million visitors just for the phenomenon. Rural reservations in the area already exceed 90% for the days of the eclipseand some rural houses will bill in August 2026 up to four times more than a normal August. When it’s all over, the cold will return, the streets will be empty, the store and pharmacy on duty will no longer have to double stock, and will endure the downpour until the next bridge. The municipality has its own historical story – they fell at the hands of the anarchist “The Avengers” of the Iron Column, so that months later General Varela took the town under Franco’s mandate – and is today one of the many victims of a self-fulfilling wish regarding tourism in an emptied Spain. The national context. According to estimates, Spain will close 2026 with around 100 million tourists, a historical record, and between June and September alone, 43 million international arrivals are expected. Tourist housing reservations Airbnb types have doubled since 2018while hotel overnight stays only increased by 8% in the same period. Yes, since May 2026, all tourist homes advertised on platforms need a unique registration number, the NRUA, required by European regulations, but this has not stopped growth. Although in many regions vacation rentals are “losing its appeal“, the Bank of Spain itself warned that this type of accommodation displaces the traditional rental market, as is the case of Alcalá de la Selva, a miniature version of a country that builds for those who visit it three weeks a year, and that bills cleaning, water and roads to those who stay to live the rest of the remaining three hundred and forty-five days. It is easy to think that cities like Malaga live in worse situations, with almost 30% of the rental market. The reality is that, proportionally, Alcalá de la Selva is congested by more dangerous numbers. Image | Alcalá de la Selva City Council In Xataka | Spain promised them happiness with its airports increasingly full of tourists. Until someone calculated how it affects rents
