The Balearic Islands opens the social and political debate on how to put a stop to mass tourism in the midst of growing citizen unrest due to the massive exploitation of tourism in the archipelago. The president of the community, Marga Prohens, chaired this Wednesday the Table for the Social and Political Pact for Economic Sustainability, which aims to be a focus that generates ideas to decide what measures should be taken to combat the collapse suffered by the islands throughout the year. and not only during the summer months.
A committee of experts from among the 140 entities summoned will collect data and propose measures to stop the saturation. The Balearic president has put herself at the forefront of this debate given the risk that the general unrest that has broken out in the Canary Islands will ignite in the Balearic Islands. This discontent also worries businessmen in the sector, who believe that it is not good for their interests, which is why they have also joined the request to limit tourism.
Social unrest has been increasing in recent years despite the fact that the Balearic Islands are a pioneer in containment measures, such as limiting cruise ships in Palma, limiting cars in parts of the islands, approving a moratorium on tourist places and the announcement of a reduction in places for the first time in the history of the archipelago.
A first mobilization has been called for this Saturday in Palma, but the great environmental organization of the Balearic Islands, the GOB, has already announced that there will be mobilizations with an eye on the great protest that was seen in the Canary Islands a few weeks ago. The Balearic Islands received 17.8 million inhabitants last year and it is expected that this year it will far exceed 18 million in a territory with 1.2 million residents and 600,000 tourist places.
The president has assured that the time has come to put limits on these figures, but she has also asked for patience from society because this debate is coming late. “I am aware that this change will not come in one or two years, but we have to lay the foundations for a change of direction in the Balearic Islands,” she said. The Government of Prohens is preparing a macro-survey on tourist congestion, to find out the opinions of residents and will monitor the flows of visitors in tourist areas, with studies of the carrying capacity of natural spaces, in addition to a mobility study with road data.
The president’s initiative has been generally well received by the invited sectors, although there is some skepticism among representatives of the opposition and environmental organizations, who doubt the true intentions of Prohens since until now the PP had opposed it. to the degrowth measures that his predecessor, Francina Armengol, had very initially implemented.
The islands’ hotel sector fully supports this containment policy, but there are more disagreements among vacation rental representatives, who feel they are being blamed for overcrowding. Part of the increase in the supply of beds that has occurred on the islands in recent years is due to the licenses granted to vacation rental companies, which total some 150,000 beds throughout the archipelago.
Prohens has appealed to the responsibility of entities to approve positive measures to solve these problems and has said that solutions will be achieved if they work “without prejudice, without ideological approaches or the defense of particular interests.” “I only ask you for responsibility to begin a necessary, possible and viable transition,” she concluded.
