Mallorca locals protest against overtourism on the Balearic island
In response to an ever-worsening quality of life on the island, locals in Mallorca have taken to the beach to protest the huge surge in tourism, following in the footsteps of the recent Barcelona anti-tourism marches.
A lack of affordable housing, a struggling healthcare system, and behaviour from tourists that they perceive to be downright disrespectful are all thought to be behind the recent stance that Majorcan are taking against local authorities.
The popular Balneario 6 area of S’Arenal beach in Palma was occupied by several members of the ‘Occupem Les Nostres Platges’, which translates to ‘Occupy Our Beaches’, movement, with many of them laying down towels and going for a symbolic swim.
A young woman had taken part in the protest and offered her verdict on the tourism trade in Mallorca, noting (per EuroNews), “We have come here to demand that residents should be able to enjoy our beaches, which nowadays are only enjoyed by tourists.”
The tourism problem in Mallorca has been going on for some time now, and last year, locals put out fake signs on a number of the island’s beaches that said that tourists should stay away, hoping that they would be able to enjoy them for themselves.
Last year, Mallorca registered a huge 14 million foreign visitors, including many before summer had even begun. Explaining their reasons for protesting, another disgruntled local said, “From the disappearance of local culture, the increasing cost of living, the impossibility to live here, and the worsening of public services, many tourists understand this because they are aware of what it means in their home places.”
The wider issue with mass tourism across the world
In a recent piece on the modern tourism trade and the backlashes in Mallorca, Barcelona and other parts of the world, Far Out wrote, “Quite simply, the world is getting smaller, and it’s all too easy to book a budget flight to a given European capital and plunder its wares without considering the impact on locals and the environment.”
The piece continued, “What is clear from such instances of resentment is that there is a desire to retain and celebrate the cultural and historical ethos of a city from the one-size-fits-all nature of mass tourism and that a city ought to be for locals first with the concerns and needs of tourists coming way down the list of priorities.”
Local governments across the Balearic Islands, and across Spain as a whole, have committed to reducing the negative effects of tourism, the likes of which are causing great upset amongst local communities.
