In 2021, as the easing of Covid restrictions prompted a tentative recovery in Europe’s shell-shocked tourist industry, Spain’s Balearic Islands welcomed back holidaymakers with enthusiasm and relief. During the pandemic, overall numbers of visitors dropped by around 80%, laying waste to the local economy. Three years on, however, Mallorca and Ibiza are on the frontline of a different crisis – one that is less dramatic in scale, but growing in profile.
To mark the beginning of this year’s summer holiday season, an estimated 10,000 locals marched through Mallorca’s capital, Palma, last week, protesting against the saturation tourism that they say has rendered their city unliveable. Demonstrations are expected to continue through the summer.
Since British tourists flock to the Balearics in greater numbers than any other nationality bar the Germans, sections of the UK media have predictably responded to the protests with righteous indignation. But the message they send deserves a more sympathetic reception. Across the archipelago, the list of grievances is the same: sky-high rents and often illegal Airbnb-style letting are steadily driving poorer residents out of their own communities. Congestion and overcrowding are at unmanageable levels in peak periods, and scarce environmental resources such as water are being overused. Antisocial behaviour, fuelled by a 24-hour party people culture, is too common. Residents in other destinations where the number of visitors has long exceeded “carrying capacity” will nod in sympathy.
The protests are another sign that as tourism in Europe surpasses its pre-pandemic peak (with further rises expected as the spending power of the global middle class increases), a sustainability overhaul is needed. The industry is an indispensable driver of growth in regions not blessed with many other options, and the advent of mass travel has enhanced lives and deepened cultural connections. But from Bruges to Barcelona, its environmental and social impact now poses dilemmas that public authorities, rightly, are beginning to confront.
The recent introduction of an entry fee for day-trippers to Venice has attracted criticism – not least from the city’s former mayor Massimo Cacciari, who has argued that tourists who sustain its economy should not be obliged to pay to do so. But a plan to regulate the flow of people, and use revenue raised for the maintenance of infrastructure and heritage sites, is desirable and necessary for the 50,000 or so residents who live there all year round.
Amsterdam now levies the highest tourist tax in Europe and is experimenting with ways of discouraging the hedonistic tourism that is increasingly resented by locals, who feel it has altered the feel of their city. More broadly, in urban centres and resorts where foreign investment in property and short-term letting has priced locals out, a housing strategy is required that balances the benefits of tourism with community priorities and needs.
In Mallorca, the average monthly rent for an apartment has risen far beyond the means of many who work in the island’s tourist industry. The gradual emergence of an overpopulated two-tier summer economy, in which some locals feel driven to the side of their own everyday lives, is a depressing development in one of the most beautiful corners of Europe. One of the banners at a recent demonstration read: “Tourism, but not like this.” In the Balearics and elsewhere, the sentiments behind that message should be respected and acted upon.
