“This is sort of a battle,” says Joana Maria Estrany Vallespir, dialling into our name from her sunny kitchen someplace within the Majorcan countryside. “It’s a must to do what’s going to work.”
Joana Maria is referring to an open letter, printed final week, which was signed by a number of Majorcan marketing campaign teams. It opens with the phrases “Expensive vacationers” and it outlines the stark numbers behind Majorca’s tourism development.
The letter pulls no punches, portray an image of an overpopulated island the place it has turn out to be unattainable to dwell. Nevertheless it made ripples around the globe for its closing traces.
“DO NOT COME,” it reads (the capital letters are theirs, not mine). “We don’t want extra vacationers; in actual fact, you’re the supply of our downside. Locals say: ENOUGH. STAY HOME!”
Joana Maria Estrany Vallespir is a number one member of Majorca’s SOS Residents protest group
Tourism protest teams have lengthy referred to as for “menys turisme”, much less tourism, or maybe a greater form of tourism. However now we’re lastly being instructed to remain away.
The primary within the record of seven signatories is an organisation referred to as SOS Residents, of which Joana Maria Estrany Vallespir is a number one member. I wished to know what compelled the marketing campaign teams to ramp up the messaging forward of the 2025 season. Do Majorcans need British holidaymakers this summer season, or not?
‘The largest downside now we have is the variety of vacationers’
The open letter, the primary half of which was directed on the Balearic Authorities, was printed in response to a collection of coverage bulletins made in latest weeks. Probably the most notable was the introduction of a brand new Sustainable Tourism Tax, starting from from €2.50 to €6 per evening through the excessive season.
“We name this in Spain ‘moist paper’,” says Joana Maria. “It signifies that it’s nothing: phrases, however empty of that means. They by no means speak about lowering [tourist numbers]. The one phrase they use is ‘include’, however what does this imply? The largest downside now we have in Majorca is the variety of vacationers, and it’s due to the variety of vacationers that we’re overpopulated.”
In 20 years, Majorca’s inhabitants has grown from 727,000 to 960,000, a rise of 32 per cent. The variety of non-Spaniards residing throughout the Balearic Islands has risen from 15.3 per cent to 27.6 per cent. Whereas British and German retirees used to kind the biggest international populations, now they’re decrease down the record behind Moroccans, Argentines, Colombians and Italians: nationalities which make up a big a part of Majorca’s immigrant workforce who serve the tourism trade.
A number of protest teams have signed an open letter asking vacationers to keep away from Majorca – Getty
“We talked rather a lot about what to say,” says Joana Maria, reflecting on the method of writing the open letter. “We wished to open the consciousness of vacationers. We ask them to not come as a result of we can not belief our flesh pressers. We are attempting to be well mannered, not aggressive, however we thought we needed to say what we predict.”
Does she consider that this extra direct method, addressing the vacationers themselves, will have an impact?
“Some folks, I’m positive, received’t come. Nevertheless it’s not going to make a distinction. The actual fact we wrote the letter will not be going to make a distinction. However we thought: now we have to say one thing about this.”
‘It is sort of a theme park’
There’s a standard counter-argument to the so-called “anti-tourist” protest motion. It goes like this: prefer it or not, Majorca’s financial system is now constructed on tourism. British holidaymakers, lots of whom are fiercely loyal to Majorca, plus Germans, French, Spanish mainlanders, pump cash into the island and create jobs. Shouldn’t the residents of the island be glad about such prosperity, in a world the place so many international locations have so little?
“There’s a shortage of water,” says Joana Maria, hitting residence the realities of residing on the island. “There are automobiles all over the place, however not all for vacationers. They’re automobiles for folks working for the vacationers. Hospitals and public locations are full of individuals. Wealthy foreigners purchase homes within the countryside, however they don’t dwell right here, what they do is lease their properties. Majorca has turn out to be a land for hypothesis. We’ve got a language, Catalan, that’s our tradition. However they don’t care about Majorca. Our lifestyle is being threatened.”
Joana Maria lives round 12 miles (20km) exterior of Palma de Majorca. As soon as upon a time, she might drive into the capital in round quarter-hour. Now, it could possibly usually take 45 minutes. In spring, cyclists clog up the roads in huge numbers and decelerate the site visitors. Her favorite mountaineering spots at the moment are overrun. It’s unattainable to stroll right into a restaurant with out a reserving. If locals wish to go to the seaside in the summertime, they must go at 8am to keep away from the vacationer crowds.
The journey trade usually cites “seasonality” as a repair for mass tourism. Go within the quieter months, and it’ll relieve the pressure on the summer season, is the logic. Joana Maria says it doesn’t fairly play out like this in apply.
“It means spreading vacationers all yr spherical,” she says. Moderately than detracting from the summer season hordes, it simply extends the busy season early and later within the yr, rising the entire annual arrivals. “Final yr we [the Balearic Islands] had 18.7 million vacationers. This yr we’re imagined to have 20 million vacationers.
“You may’t think about what it’s wish to dwell right here in the summertime. The island is for them. It is sort of a theme park. You wish to dwell your regular life, however you’ll be able to’t as a result of there are folks all over the place. And now? It’s all yr spherical.”
Are British holidaymakers the goal?
One suggestion, standard within the British tabloid press, is that the so-called “anti-tourist” sentiment is focused at British holidaymakers. Does speak about diversifying away from low-cost tourism and, in the identical breath, away from core British and German markets, have an undertone of any kind?
“The issue will not be folks coming from England,” says Joana Maria. “Positive, we don’t need hooligans, we don’t need folks making noise. However that’s true for all over the place, in Majorca, in England. For those who go to a spot it’s important to respect this place.
“What politicians need is to have the identical quantity of vacationers, however wealthy vacationers. We are saying no. That will be a much bigger downside, as a result of that may make a much bigger hole between the wealthy and the poor, making a divided society. Already, some employees can’t afford to dwell in a correct home. Many residents have needed to transfer away. There are folks residing in caravans, in automobiles.”
Protests usually are not aimed particularly at British vacationers, says Estrany Vallespir – Getty
So what’s the answer? I ask Joana Maria what she would do if she had been the president of the Balearics. First, she would put a cap on the variety of vacationers arriving into Majorca. Flights could be additionally made costlier (worldwide, not simply in Majorca). There could be a restrict on the quantity of housing out there for vacationers. International buyers could be banned from shopping for and constructing within the countryside.
However, after all, no answer is easy. Decreasing vacationer numbers would imply job losses. Making flights costlier might imply interesting to a richer form of vacationer and perpetuating the wealth hole on the island. Many Majorcans make their earnings by renting out their properties on websites like Airbnb, not simply international buyers. Joana Maria accepts it’s a tough puzzle to unravel.
“This can be a monster with so many heads, you don’t know the place to assault. It’s very sophisticated.”
Earlier than we wrap up, I ask Joana Maria if there are plans for extra demonstrations and seaside occupations like those in 2024. On this, she doesn’t want to remark. I ask if she thinks it was justified when protesters focused vacationers with water pistols in Barcelona final summer season.
“The act of focusing on vacationers by spraying water? We received’t say ‘do that’. I can let you know. But when folks do it? That’s OK, as a result of they’re fed up. There are completely different teams, and completely different folks see issues in numerous methods. If you recognize one thing goes to work, do it.
“That’s why we wrote the letter. We’re saying: sufficient.”
Source link