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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Travel
Rita Sobot & Milo Boyd

Majorca, Menorca and Ibiza to be hit with new tourist limits over summer

Majorca, Menorca and Ibiza are the latest holiday destinations in Spain to start plotting how to stop so many Brits visiting.

The government of the Balearic Islands has announced they will have an "absolute ceiling" when it comes to tourist numbers in the future.

In 2022 16,475,579 holidaymakers arrived on the islands, which will be the maximum in the future.

Last year's number is just 397 fewer than 2019, pre-Covid, and 76,000 fewer than in 2018, the year which marked the all-time high.

Tourist chiefs will try and reduce the impact of tourism by encouraging people to visit at the different times of the year and try out less popular areas.

The government wants to set an absolute limit on tourist numbers (Getty Images)

Spanish newspaper Ultimahora.es said the plan was to cut visitor numbers in the summer months, when "the feeling of saturation has become suffocating for both residents and tourists".

It comes hot off the heels of similar proposals announced last week by officials in Lanzarote, which declared itself "saturated".

The Canary Island's tourism bosses want to limit tourists and get away from dependency on the Brits who currently represent 50% of the market.

The island wants to attract less tourists who spend more, putting "quality before quantity."

Iago Negueruela, minister of tourism for the Balearic Islands, said: “We believe that it is feasible to have more occupancy with fewer tourists.

"The number of visits reached this year is a maximum that should not be exceeded but should tend to decrease. There must be a clear trend towards the reduction of tourist places."

As with Lanzarote, however, precise details of how numbers will be controlled or limited have not yet been revealed.

Tourist bed numbers in the Balearics are also likely to be cut and it has previously been suggested that lower standard hotels of one or two stars might be closed down.

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