The demonstrators marched in Palma de Mallorca, the capital of the largest island in the Balearic Islands, on Saturday evening. A smaller protest with a few hundred participants was held on the same day in Minorca.
The demonstrators in Palma carried banners with slogans such as “Enough with mass tourism.”
– We want the authorities to prevent people who have not lived here for more than five years from buying property and to introduce more regulations for holiday homes, says Carmi Raines from the group that organized the protest.
14.4 million tourists
Real estate agent Javier Carbonell says more than half of the rental properties are used as holiday homes that locals cannot afford to rent.
– Carbonell says: – We want less mass tourism and more sustainable tourism.
Last year, the Balearic Islands were the second most popular tourist area in Spain, after Catalonia, where Barcelona is located. 14.4 million people spent their vacations in the archipelago, according to the Spanish statistics agency. Catalonia was visited by 18.8 million tourists, while the Canary Islands off West Africa received 13.9 million visitors.
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Profitable nutrition
Tourism represents 45 percent of the Balearic Islands' gross national product, according to industry organization Excellator.
On Friday, a thousand demonstrators participated in a demonstration against excessive tourism in Ibiza, one of the most popular Balearic islands.
In April, several thousand people also demonstrated in the Canary Islands. They are calling for temporary restrictions on the number of arriving tourists. The aim is to limit the growth in short-term rental housing and hotel construction, which increases housing costs for local residents.
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