How Mallorca fell out of love with tourists

Things have gone awry in Mallorca. The sun-soaked island and mass tourism go hand in hand, with around 40 per cent of its working residents employed in the holiday industry. But a colossal 17.8 million tourists, including more than 3.7 million Brits arrived in the wider Balearic islands in 2023 – a record – and it seems many locals have had enough. A summer of discontent is upon us, with barely a week seeming to pass without some kind of anti-tourism protest.

Indeed, only yesterday, 20,000 people took to the streets of Palma for a mass demonstration, demanding changes to the island’s tourism model under the slogan “let’s change course and set limits on tourism”.

At the beginning of the season, a previous demonstration in Palma staged by activist group Banc del Temps was attended by an estimated 10,000 people, chanting “Mallorca is not for sale”.

Hot on its heels, just a few weeks later, flash mobs of hundreds of locals headed to the beach, mobilised by campaigners Mallorca Platja Tour. They headed to two popular coves in the south, Caló des Moro and Cala Galiota. In the spirit of Winston Churchill, febrile organisers rallied recruits to “occupy the beaches” as they greeted bewildered tourists with cries of “Go, go go!” – and cheered as they hurriedly took their leave.

More recently in Soller, in the northwest of the island, scores of banners were hung from balconies with the slogan, “SOS Residents. Stop overtourism.” Ironically, in 2021, following the pandemic, similar banners were unfurled but with the words “SOS Turismo”, meaning, save tourism. How quickly times change.

Since the 1960s, Mallorca, the largest of the Balearic islands, has proved a magnet for British holidaymakers – as well as those from Germany, its biggest source market – starved of sunshine, blue skies and beaches with giddily warm waters. Even that figure of 17.8 million foreign visitors is expected to rise, despite the current face-off, this year.

And while 40 per cent of its working population is employed in the industry, the Balearic Institute, Ibestat, estimates that tourism accounts for 87 per cent of GDP once related services are factoring in.

It’s clear that Mallorca could not survive, economically, without tourism, but has it become a victim of its own success? What has caused the unprecedented revolt, and what does it mean for British tourists this summer?

A crisis ‘turbo-charged by Instagram’

Claire Hyde, a British expat and owner of wedding business Distinctive Ceremonies Mallorca, believes that social media and the pandemic’s aftermath are significant factors. “No one could have predicted the consequences of a huge, delayed bounce-back in tourism, turbo-charged by the likes of Instagram,” she says. “Social media breeds an aspirational desire to visit idyllic hotspots and creates an intense multiplier effect.”

Juan Antonio Amengual, the ebullient mayor of Calvia, the second-largest municipality outside of Palma and a favourite destination of the British, is unfazed, and rejects the notion that the protestors are opposed to tourism. He says: “There is no excess of tourists in Calvia and our municipality is well prepared for visitors. We always welcome British tourists here. To be clear, the demonstration in Palma was not anti-tourism but more about the right to housing.”

Indeed, among the demands mooted by activists, affordable housing topped the list, with a desire to clamp down on illegal holiday lets and Airbnb-style rentals. However, the regional government has already placed a moratorium on new tourist beds until 2026. Campaigners also want to curtail foreign property speculation and to restrict purchases to those with at least five years residency in the region, seemingly unaware that this would prove unenforceable under EU law.

Javier Barbero, one of the organisers of the Palma demonstration, wants a declaration of a housing emergency in Mallorca. He adds: “We are not saying no to tourism, but we want to denounce the existing housing situation and also to rethink the current tourism model.”

‘Locals must shoulder some of the blame’

Salaries are uniformly low in the Balearic islands, with even tiny rental apartments in rural areas priced well beyond the reach of many locals, especially the young. According to a study conducted by real estate company Fotocasa, property rental prices have increased by 158 per cent in the past decade in the Balearics, and by 12 per cent in the past year alone. But Hamlet Ramirez, owner of popular Café Soller and La Sal restaurants in Soller, says Mallorcans must shoulder some of the blame: “It’s really sad that young people cannot find affordable housing, but an uncomfortable truth is that many locals have pushed up the prices of property and land, selling to the highest foreign bidder for personal profit.”

Traffic congestion is another bone of contention, with Ibestat suggesting that the Balearics has the largest concentration of vehicles in Spain, with 900,000 on the road, exacerbated by 80,000 hire cars. Maria Frontera, the president of the Mallorca Federation of Hoteliers (FEHM), has pointed out that as there is nearly one car per resident, locals need to rely more on public transport while conceding that this too needs improvement.

To cope with the sheer volume of hire cars this summer, Soller Council has hastily created resident-only parking zones and temporary car parks. Many locals don’t feel it has gone far enough, with some suggesting restricting the number of hire cars or reinstating the erstwhile toll tunnel with fees charged to non-residents entering the valley. Others have called for a park-and-ride scheme and the creation of low-emission zones for environmental reasons.

Finding peace on a crowded isle

While areas such as the Soller valley and Palma have become saturated with tourist traffic, Es Pla, the agricultural heartland of the island, remains blissfully calm. All the same, luxury boutique hotels have been shooting up like bamboo in the past few years, attracting increasing interest from affluent travellers. Björn Wild, the general manager of Barefoot Hotel in the east of the island, said: “Thankfully, unlike some coastal neighbourhoods, Portocolom has remained a simple fishing village without tourism issues. Parking is easy and free, and we have no traffic problems. Our British clients love the peace here.”

Whether it goes the same way as Deia – once a sleepy spot favoured by Robert Graves, now firmly on the mass tourism trail – remains to be seen. Thomas Moons, the general manager of Belmond La Residencia, admits that Deia is now busy throughout the warmer months. “The town hall organises temporary traffic lights to aid car flow, but our clients are largely unaffected as we provide parking and many onsite activities,” he says. “We very much welcome British visitors as we always have done.”

A sustainable future?

Marga Prohens, the president of the Balearic Regional Government, acknowledged in a recent parliamentary speech that while tourists would always be welcome, it was vital that their numbers were limited after many years of growth. She underlined that the regional government was currently working on a new sustainable tourism plan for the future that would “transform the economic model of the islands.”

Hamlet Ramirez reiterated that “tourism is in our DNA, and we welcome tourists,” while emphasising “the need for better infrastructure and access to housing, which has become a political and macroeconomic issue affecting other global destinations”.

Barry Byrne, an Irish resident of Soller and a community activist, adds: “This feeling that mass tourism threatens to overwhelm the island has gone from a fringe environmentalist stance to a mainstream one, with hoteliers and estate agents now arguing for urgent measures to save the tourist industry from itself.”

In the meantime, more protests are planned. Members of Mallorca Platja Tour are galvanising their troops to pack beachwear and buckets and spades in readiness for the next big beach flash mob.

Although few British tourists will be affected by these events, and can still expect a warm welcome in Mallorca – poor behaviour notwithstanding – it is all too apparent that a new tourism strategy is urgently needed for the wellbeing of both the island and its people.