Press
More than 18 million holidaymakers are expected on the Balearic Islands this year. That’s 15 tourists for every local. At a new demonstration in Palma, people are demanding a limit.
Palma – On the holiday island of Mallorca, which is popular with Germans, Britons and other Northern Europeans, several thousand locals have once again demonstrated against the excesses of mass tourism. However, according to observers on site, at the start of the protest march in the island’s capital Palma, slightly fewer people took part than at the large demonstration eight weeks ago, also in Palma.
On the poster announcing the large demonstration against mass tourism on Mallorca, holiday planes, private jets, cruise ships and luxury yachts circle the small island like a swarm of flies. “Let’s change course” (Canviem el rumb) is written above the photomontage. The aim is to “set limits on tourism,” it says in slightly smaller print on the poster.
People held signs with slogans such as “Your luxury, our misery” or “We don’t want to be the pioneers of rising housing costs.” The demonstrators then made their way from Ses Estaciones Park through Palma’s old town. The rally was called for by the organization “Less tourism, more life.”
According to the organizers, eight weeks ago up to 25,000 locals took to the streets in Palma under the slogan “Let’s say basta!” and “Mallorca is not for sale!” Discontent is also growing in other Spanish tourist metropolises such as Barcelona and Malaga, as well as on the Canary Islands.
![Demonstration against mass tourism in Barcelona](https://www.merkur.de/assets/images/35/144/35144023-demonstration-gegen-massentourismus-in-barcelona-RrBG.jpg)
For Mallorca, however, tourism is vital. The industry accounts for 45 percent of the island’s economic output. And the tourism industry warns against sawing off the branch that many are sitting on. But the demonstrators complain that only a minority is profiting, while the vast majority are getting jobs in the tourism industry with low salaries that are not enough to pay for the increasingly expensive apartments. In addition, traffic jams, noise and dirt are getting on the nerves of the islanders. dpa
#Demo #mass #tourism #Mallorca