BRITS heading to Mallorca this bank holiday weekend are facing major disruption as thousands of people take to the streets in anti-tourist protests.
The popular holiday island is the latest Spanish destination to see demonstrations, following Tenerife and the other Canary Islands last month.
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The protests in Mallorca will take place on Saturday night, starting at 7pm in the capital Palma.
Organizers say they are shocked by the number of groups that have pledged their support.
“Initially we thought there would be around 2,000 people, but now it will be considerably more,” said a spokesperson for the organizing group, Banc de Temps de Sencelles.
The main focus of the march will be the difficulty that local people have in purchasing houses in Mallorca, whether to rent or to sell, due to the higher prices that owners can obtain for holiday rentals.
But protesters will also focus on all the other aspects of tourist saturation that they say are ruining Mallorca.
Last week, another group “Més turisme, menys vida” (“More tourism, less life”) said they planned to cause chaos at Palma Airport next weekend so that it would come to a standstill.
Tourist saturation has become the biggest issue in Mallorca in recent months.
Locals say there are too many cars on the roads, traffic congestion, overcrowded beaches, blocked access roads, beautiful sites in ruins and too many tourists flocking to the island, which is expecting record numbers this summer.
Opposition party Mes is calling for a reduction in the number of flights at Palma airport, saying: “Mallorca is no longer overcrowded, Mallorca is collapsing. You cannot have airports that, year after year, break records.”
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The Balearic government claims to be willing to change the tourist model and has started a round of talks with the public.
But no concrete measures have yet been agreed.
The Banc de Temps de Sencelles labeled its campaign “Mallorca is not for sale!” and is so surprised by the promised support that he has asked the government to provide more buses and trains so that people across the island can participate.
“The demonstration aims to highlight the problem of access to housing in Mallorca, a general problem, but not isolated, because it cannot be separated from the tourist saturation, from the purchase of properties by foreigners”, said Carme Reynés from the Banc de Temps de Sencelles.
The group says the protest will be followed by “other actions” in the coming weeks.
Local people are particularly outraged by traffic jams across the island, including in and around Palma, and have described the center of the capital as “unbreathable” in the middle of the tourist season.
Beauty spots are also crowded, with queues of up to four hours for some beaches and viewpoints.
The Balearic Government held its first meeting on Wednesday to “lay the foundations for a new tourism model” in the face of “social unrest” and congestion on the islands.
“The time has come to make difficult decisions and transform the tourism model,” said Balearic President Marga Prohens.
He said that the Balearic economy has developed so far with a growth pattern based mainly on “volume and quantity” and that it has been “incapable” of growing in “value or quality”.
But she cautioned that the model change won’t be live for a year or two.
“Today we begin to work for a great social and political pact for social, economic and environmental good sustainability of the Balearic Islands,” she said.
“The path to reaching agreements will not be easy but we owe it to the whole of society given the current situation of overcrowding in the archipelago and mobility problems”.
The Balearic Islands welcomed almost 18 million tourists last year and this year bookings for the summer increased by 15 percent, confirmed the president.
The government will now launch a macro survey of Balearic Islands residents to find out their opinionquantify it summertraffic on the main roads and monitor the flow of visitors to tourist areas and certain natural enclaves.
It comes after another tourist hotspot sparked fury over its anti-tourism plans, which include hunting down “illegal” visitors and a “fascist” list of foreigners.
TOURIST REPRESSION
Residents and businesses in Girona, Spain, argue that they have reached their limit with “excessive tourism” and have called for urgent measures as “it is already too late”.
Residents of the Catalan city have proposed increasing the number of patrols to find illegal tourist apartments and creating a list of all foreign residents living in Girona.
The controversial plans have left many expats furious, with some branding the proposals “fascist”.
One user said: “Far-right nationalism in Girona. It appears that populism is taking hold even in traditionally left-leaning liberal areas.”
A second added: “Foreign resident list? What does this have to do with tourism? It seems a bit fascist to me.”
Another replied: “Scratch Girona off my list of places to visit.”
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This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
