Thousands of people on Saturday protested in Spain’s Balearic Islands against mass tourism ahead of the summer travel season.
Holding posters reading “SOS Residents” and “Enough Mass Tourism,” protesters marched through Palma, the capital of the largest Balearic Island, Mallorca.
About 10,000 demonstrators took part, a Spanish National Police spokesperson said.
Photo: Reuters
A smaller protest with a few hundred people was staged in Menorca.
“We want the authorities to stop people who have not lived here more than five years from buying properties and to put more controls on holiday accommodation,” said Carme Reines, from a collective that organized the protest in Palma.
Real-estate agent Javier Carbonell said more than half of rental properties were used for holiday rents and were not affordable for locals.
“We want less mass tourism and more sustainable tourism,” Carbonell said.
After Catalonia, the Balearic Islands was the second-most popular region of Spain for tourists last year, attracting 14.4 million people, the Spanish National Statistics Institute said.
About 18 million tourists visited Catalonia and 13.9 million people visited the Canary Islands.
Tourism generates 45 percent of the Balearic Islands’ GDP, data from industry organization Exceltur showed.
On Friday, about 1,000 protesters took part in a demonstration against mass tourism in Ibiza, one of the most popular Balearic Islands.
“We want a limit on new tourist places and a ban on more illegal flats. With less flats around on the market, it pushes up the price,” said Rafael Gimenez, a spokesman for Prou Ibiza, which organized Friday’s protest.
Last month, thousands of people protested in the Canary Islands, calling for a temporary limit on tourist arrivals to stem a boom in short-term holiday rentals and hotel construction that is increasing housing costs for locals.
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