Mallorca announces the elimination of 18,000 tourist places of the 430,000 on the island, which will mean a decrease in places for the first time in the history of the Balearic archipelago. The president of the Consell de Mallorca, Llorenç Galmés, of the PP, has unexpectedly announced this measure, which completely breaks with the policy that this party had defended until now. The Balearic president, Marga Prohens, had also assured this week that the islands have reached their tourist limit.
The previous left-wing government in the Consell de Mallorca had already announced the suppression of these positions, but established a series of exceptions that in practice allowed some 6,000 to be activated. The places, both hotel and vacation rentals, had previously been frozen after the approval of a moratorium that did not allow them to go on the market. After winning the elections, the PP announced that it would lift the moratorium on places, but had not taken any steps in this direction, so the announcement made today by the president of the insular institution represents a 180-degree turn in what had until now been the case. said his party.
The Balearic Islands are experiencing a growing sense of tourist unrest and the authorities fear that this embryo will end up turning into protests like those that brought thousands of citizens into the streets in the Canary Islands. The major tourism businesses in the Balearic Islands have been warning for years that it was necessary to set limits and blame holiday homes for the increase in tourists and the feeling of saturation. Meanwhile, social entities on the islands have also warned for years that the brakes must be put on hold.
The decision of the Consell de Mallorca will mean the elimination of 18,000 places out of a total of 430,000 on the island. It is a minimum figure, but it means that, for the first time in history, the ceiling of tourist places in Mallorca is lowered, which until now has been growing despite successive containment measures that have so far had no effect. The first containment measures were approved by Jaume Matas when he was president of the Balearic Islands.
Galmés has assured that the decision is agreed upon with all tourism sectors. “We must manage tourist flows to end overcrowding,” he said. The president of the Consell has blamed the previous Government for having caused tourist overcrowding with measures such as allowing the establishment of some 86,000 holiday homes and tourist rentals.
The Balearic Islands received 17.8 million tourists last year and this year it is preparing to surpass the record, but this massive arrival of visitors has been creating a growing wave of unrest among the population. There are areas of the Island, such as the Formentor peninsula, where traveling by private car is prohibited during certain summer months. In Formentera the arrival of cars is limited during the summer.
