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Tourists from the UK are cancelling their summer breaks to Mallorca due to “dangerous” anti-tourism protests, according to a local holiday homes rental company .
“Long-standing clients who have been coming to Mallorca for years and had already made their reservation this year have called – after seeing the news – to cancel,” Maria Gilbert, manager of the Habtur Balears, told Diario de Mallorca.
She added that the company have frequently been asked “if it’s dangerous to go to Mallorca” and if locals are “going to hurt us” ahead of peak summer season.
Alquilair, another holiday rental specialist, shared similar messages of guests “worried about the news of tourism-phobia” and a family in Bunyola that found their hire car “covered with stickers saying ‘tourists go home’”.
Anti-tourism protests have swept Spain in recent months including clashes between residents and holidaymakers in Barcelona, Mallorca and Menorca.
Demonstrations with crowds in their thousands have recently taken place in Palma de Mallorca.
Carrying makeshift models of planes and cruise ships, protesters walked through the streets of the capital of Mallorca with posters reading ‘no to mass tourism’ and ‘stop private jets’.
In the Catalan capital in July, thousands of Barcelona residents squirted diners in tourist areas with water during a protest against mass tourism.
The demonstrators chanted “tourists go home” and “Barcelona is not for sale” as they marched through the streets, protesting against the soaring cost of living and housing prices they attribute to overtourism in their city.
Video footage showed holidaymakers dining outside popular squares in the city being doused with water pistols and cordoned off using hazard tape by a crowd of almost 3,000.
Jordi Hereu, who previously served as Barcelona’s mayor, told reporters that while the demonstrators’ actions were reprehensible, the incident had been exaggerated by the international media.
Last month, Antoni Costa, a regional government spokesman, urged Spanish locals to treat tourists with “respect” while protesting.
Costa said: “We ask for the utmost respect for those who have decided not to demonstrate and urge those who do protest to do so peacefully and not interrupt other citizens and visitors,” reported the Daily Express.
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