A wave of protest against the harmful effects of mass tourism is sweeping Spain’s most popular sites. Euronews journalist Valérie Gauriat travelled to Mallorca, the largest of the Balearic Islands, to listen to locals who feel their future is under threat.
“Get out! Go home!” A group of astonished tourists are greeted by the shouts of a man, shouting at the top of his lungs in a swimsuit, as they head down to Caló des Moro beach, one of the most famous on the Balearic island of Majorca.
The man is among dozens of residents who got up early on Sunday morning to occupy the site and demonstrate against the “massification” of tourism, which is devastating for the islands and the lives of their inhabitants.
“There are cruises every day with thousands of people. There is a flight every minute! Cars, pollution. The beaches and restaurants are full, the streets are full of people! We have had enough,” denounces Joana Maria Estrany Vallespir, from the SOS Résidents collective.
“Tourism is killing us”
“In one day, there are up to a million people who come here! It’s unbearable,” storms Sara, a young protester. “They erase our identity, push us out, because they bought everything! They say that Majorca lives off tourism? No, tourism lives off us, and it’s killing us!”
Majorca, the largest island in the archipelago, has a little less than a million inhabitants. This year it is expecting some 20 million visitors. An absolute record.
Tourism represents almost half of the Balearic Islands’ GDP, an economic windfall that does not benefit everyone.
The “all inclusive” formulas of the big hotel chains, or of the cruise companies whose giant ships dock every day in the port of Palma de Mallorca, the capital, even have the opposite effect on part of the local trade.
“There are a lot of people, but financial means are less since the pandemic,” says Kristina, who works in a bar in the city center. “There are more all-inclusive hotel offers, more vacation rentals. People prefer to stay in an apartment and prepare their own food. At best, they go to a bar for a drink or sangria, sometimes sharing.”
Paz and Cecilia are trying to resist the effects of overtourism, within a collective that seeks to promote sustainable and local trade.
“It’s not bad for business that there is so much tourism, but it’s not exponential,” says Paz Talens, who owns a (gift shop)(La Insular: Inicio). “In other words, it doesn’t mean that because more people come, I sell more. I made the same money with half as many people.”
“And it’s not just about money, because ultimately you have to find a balance between quality of life and business.”
“It takes away our clientele who live on the island,” laments Cecilia Peña Rosselló, who owns a clothing store. “Because when the center is saturated with people, it’s not pleasant to come and shop here. There are almost only franchises left. They are the only ones that can survive on the main roads. The city is losing its identity because traditional commerce is leaving. But we are still trying to fight to be here, and to offer things with soul.”
In addition to the deterioration in the quality of life, there is a housing shortage that is hitting residents hard. The surge in property prices is driving away public service employees in particular.
In a tourism-driven economy, most jobs are seasonal in Mallorca. Diego works 6 months a year as a tourist bus driver. Every day for the past 8 years, he has been transporting holidaymakers between Palma airport and the island’s hotels.
He earns around 2,000 euros per month, and up to 3,000 depending on the amount of overtime he works. But his living conditions continue to deteriorate.
“I love what I do, I love my job,” says Diego. “I love living here, but they’re closing the doors to me, because right now it’s hard to live in Mallorca. There are workers from all over the world. But there are people who haven’t come this year because of the rents.”
After a separation, Diego chose to live in the camper van he owned.
The rental and real estate market have become inaccessible to him. “The only option is to live like this,” he says. “Because the housing is made for foreigners, and the prices are for foreigners, they are prohibitive.” “If a property developer comes to build an apartment worth 350,000 euros, it is not an apartment that any Spaniard can buy. Here, priority is given to building permits for the most expensive constructions. And for normal people there is nothing. I have considered leaving Mallorca several times because of this situation.”
And he is just a few steps from his daughter, Flore, who also lives in a camper van. A life that the young woman prefers to sharing an apartment, an option that more and more young workers in Majorca have to resort to.
“I work as a waitress,” Flore explains, “and I earn a very good living compared to other places in Spain. But even with that, renting a flat for one person is something you can’t afford. You can’t afford the freedom and independence that I have here. Living this way, I’m at peace. I have a freedom that you don’t have in a shared flat.”
The overexploitation of Majorca’s tourist attractions is accompanied by growing insecurity, underlines a former left-wing municipal councillor, who points the finger at international speculation and the complacency of the new right-wing majority.
“Very rich people or companies with a lot of capital come here to invest, to buy houses,” says Neus Truyol, a sociologist living in Palma, “because they know that the price of housing increases every year, and so it is a very profitable speculative activity. Or they use them for their temporary holidays. But the prices of housing or the household basket, because we are on an island where 80% of fresh products come from abroad, are so high that working families cannot make ends meet.”
“Some measures have been taken in recent years, which on the one hand have banned the tourist rental of apartments in Palma, because this obviously also contributed to the increase in the cost of housing. The number of hotels allowed in the city has also been limited. But now all these initiatives are being stopped.”
Both the municipality and the government of Mallorca declined our interview requests.
Faced with growing public anger, local authorities have promised new measures to limit mass tourism.
Solutions considered purely cosmetic by the head of the main environmental protection organisation in Majorca. Climate change, she says, makes radical reform and diversification of the island’s economic model all the more urgent.
“More than half of the 54 municipalities in Mallorca do not have drinking water from their taps,” laments Margalida Ramis, president of the GOB organization. “There are water restrictions in several municipalities. “These water restrictions are never imposed on the hotel sector, which continues to consume two to three times more, per person, per tourist, than per inhabitant.” “The protection of fertile soils and the protection of water resources should be two strategic issues from the point of view of economic policies,” she continues, “but this is not the case. The reality is that there are currently plans to increase the operational capacity of Palma airport, and to expand the port of Palma. There is also a decree-law that allows for an increase in tourist sites on rural land. Clearly, we are continuing and accelerating, let’s say, our path towards collapse.”
The number of tourists to Spain is expected to reach a record high in 2024.