What keeps Madrid going?
Heat: A capital that no longer cools at night
Retiro logged 78 days at or above 30°C this June to August, and 80 nights that never fell below 20°C — the most in a decade. The city has a heat plan; it does not yet know which cooling spaces visitors and workers can reach.
Homes: Where visitors sleep, residents feel it
Tourist dwellings fell sharply across the city after enforcement tightened, but 5.0% of homes in Centro are still tourist lets — seven times the city average. 80% of residents say tourism raises housing costs.
- INE experimental tourist-dwelling statistics
- Turespaña resident opinion survey
- Agencia de Actividades, 2025 report
Access: One airport, two stations, and a day without power
Barajas carried 68.2 million passengers in 2025. On 28 April 2025 the airport kept flying on backup power, but Metro and rail stopped and buses carried the city. How long each link takes to recover has never been published.
Governance: Money in the bank, none set aside
The tourism promotion budget has grown to €15.82m for 2026, and Madrid Destino holds €33.27m in reserves. None of it is earmarked for a downturn, so promotion would still shrink when a recovery needs it most.
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