BRITS were told to “go home” to another holiday spot as more anti-tourist graffiti was plastered across the streets of Spain.
Mallorca is now following the Canary Islands in a wave of angry locals calling for “low quality” tourists to stop flocking to Spanish paradises.
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The latest “touristphobic” graffiti has appeared in a Mallorca neighborhood that has seen a massive influx of foreign buyers over the years.
The words “Go Home Tourist” were written in English on a wall beneath a property promotion billboard in Nou Llevant, where most of the houses were bought by Germans.
As no one has yet claimed responsibility for the graffiti, images were published overnight in the local press, less than a month after similar messages appeared in southern Tenerife.
The island’s newspaper, Diario de Mallorca, described it as the first example of tourist phobia in Nou Llevant and said it was aimed at the neighborhood’s “new foreign residents”.
Mallorca residents have now echoed similar complaints that protesters in the Canary Islands have made.
One woman interviewed earlier told local media that it was difficult to communicate with neighbors because most only spoke German and most of the apartments where she lived were being purchased as holiday homes or investment properties for rent.
Residents in the Balearic Islands – which include Mallorca and Ibiza – showed their support for Canary Island protesters, who took to the streets in their thousands on Saturday.
Organizers in Tenerife said 80,000 people joined protests under the slogan: “The Canary Islands have a limit.”
Official estimates put the number of people at around 30,000.
Canarias Se Agota, the main platform behind the protests in the Canary Islands, has expressed demands that include the suspension of two controversial hotel projects, an ecological tax and more sustainable tourism.
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Some British tourists showed their support for the issues raised by the islanders, but others accused them of biting the hand that feeds them.
Six men and women affiliated with Canarias Se Agota, which in English would translate as ‘Canary Islands on the brink’, are now on their 12th day of an “indefinite” hunger strike in front of a church in the northern city of La Laguna from Tenerife.
They were filmed being taken to Saturday’s protest in Tenerife’s capital, Santa Cruz, in wheelchairs.
Activists were quick to distance themselves from the anti-tourist graffiti that appeared on walls and benches in and around Palm Mar in southern Tenerife earlier this month.
Messages in English left on walls and benches in and around the resort read “My misery, your paradise” and “The average salary in the Canary Islands is 1,200 euros.”
In an apparent reaction from the UK, a reply left in English on a wall next to the message “Tourists go home” read: “Fuck you, we pay your wages”.
At the beginning of last week, a photograph was also published in the local press showing the words “Go Home” on a rented car in Tenerife.
Tourist tax
Brits could now face a daily “tourist tax” to visit the Canary Islands, after anti-tourist protesters demanded a freeze on tourists.
As tens of thousands of angry residents took to the streets to revolt against the industry, the President of the Canary Islands, Fernando Clavijo, warned that a daily cost for visitors could be on the table.
Although it is not included in current plans, Clavijo said the government is willing to consider suggestions of a charge of three euros per night.
He said last Friday: “It is true that the ecotax is not included in the government program, but it is also true that we are willing to discuss it; the government will always dialogue.”
Tourists visiting the equally popular Balearic islands – including Mallorca, Minorca and Ibiza – already pay between one and four euros per day if they are over 16.
The president of the Canary Islands has already begged Brits to visit the holiday spot after angry locals branded them “poor quality”.
Residents have labeled UK tourists a “cancer” as prices have soared and claim drunken revelers are destroying their paradise.
President Clavijo said that some of the ideas declared by activists “smack of touristphobia”.
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“People who come here to visit and spend their money should not be criticized or insulted. We are playing with our main source of income,” she said.
Residents of Tenerife have been fuming that they are “fed up” with “poor quality” British visitors who only come to buy cheap beer, burgers and sunbathe.
In addition to a tourist tax, they want fewer flights to the island and restrictions on foreigners owning homes.
Local residents also claim that AirBnbs and other vacation rentals are increasing the cost of living and that they are tired of the noise, traffic and trash that accompany the influx of tourists arriving every year.
‘Many people’
Meanwhile, the son of a famous British poet and writer said his father would not have set foot in the famous Mallorcan village where he is buried because it is overcrowded.
Robert Graves’ son, William, said Deia these days has “a lot of people and two cars.”
His father, who produced more than 140 works during his lifetime, spent most of his life in Deia before becoming the millionaire’s refuge he is today.
Graves, whose house was opened to the public in the summer of 2006 after being remodeled and adapted, is buried beneath a cypress tree in the village churchyard.
The author and poet died of heart failure at the age of 90, in December 1985, at his home in Deia.
But the man responsible for putting Deia on the map wouldn’t be a fan of the modern version, his son told the island’s newspaper, Diario de Mallorca.
The village has a small rocky beach surrounded by the beautiful Tramuntana mountains which is crowded in summer with crowds of tourists and day trippers.
William, who moved to Deia with his father at the age of five and in 1995 wrote a memoir recalling the magic of his childhood there, said the village “relaxed” his father when he returned from conferences abroad.
But when asked whether Robert would move to the village today if he were still alive, his son said: “No, frankly.
“He didn’t want to go because there are too many people and too many cars.”
“The tranquility of Deia can only be preserved in luxury hotels such as La Residencia and Es Moli.”
Asked if his father “created the magic of Deia”, the son of the famous poet seemed to align himself with some of the issues that provoked the huge demonstrations in the Canary Islands, saying:
“My father arrived in an untouched place and left his mark on Deia, but he did not create the red sunsets of the Teix mountain, that magic that is now gone, that has disappeared.
“The Tramuntana mountain range is still there, but it is very overloaded.”
Geologist William, Graves’ first son by his second wife Beryl Pritchard Hodge, is his literary executor.
He translated his father’s influential book ‘The White Goddess’ into Spanish.
William was awarded an MBE in 2021 for services to British culture and literature in Spain.
TOURIST TRAP
GROWING numbers of visitors to idyllic holiday spots are driving out locals.
- Key amenities such as post offices and village shops are being scrapped to make way for more tourist homes and cafes.
- Local residents are also struggling to climb the property ladder as many homes sit empty, being used as second homes and vacation rentals.
- In some critical areas, this has created a major housing crisis, as the demand for accommodation and second homes causes house prices to skyrocket.
- Road infrastructure and parking systems are often unable to cope with greater numbers of tourists – leading to traffic chaos and safety concerns.
- The problems cause younger families to leave the area, which in turn makes it harder for community members left behind.
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
