Majorca removes 1,700 sun loungers from beaches after anti-tourism protests
According to reports, Palma's council has said it plans to reduce sun beds on the city's beaches by 20 per cent by 2026.
The reduction is partly in response to beach erosion, but also in response to complaints from residents that the cost of sun beds and umbrellas have meant there are few free spaces left where they can enjoy their local beaches, German-language local news outlet Mallorca Zeitung reports.
In total, 1,644 loungers will be removed from Palma's four beaches. Playa de Palma will go from 6,000 sunbeds and 2,503 umbrellas to 4,436 loungers and 2,218 umbrellas, the news outlet reports.
On Cala Major, sunbeds will be reduced by 300 to 250, Ciutat Jardi's sunbeds will be reduced from 300 to 288 and Cala Stancia will go from 150 to 132 loungers.
Can Pere Antoni beach, which is managed by the coastal protection agency rather than Palma council, will also have its sunbeds reduced, going from 200 to 94.
In another change, the council also plans to let beachgoers reserve loungers and umbrellas via an online app by 2027, Mallorca Zeitung reports.
The changes come after the mayor of Palma, Jaime Martinez, announced the council's plan to invest 300 million euros in improving Playa de Palma over the next decade, according to the Majorca Daily Bulletin. The initiative also includes a ban on the building of any new tourist hotels, and existing hotels must either be upgraded or turned into residential apartments.
Overtourism has been an ongoing issue in Spain, and on Sunday water-pistol protest will be held across popular tourist destinations including Mallorca, Ibiza, Menorca, Barcelona, Tenerife and Malaga, as well as Venice and Lisbon, the Majorca Daily Bulletin reports.
The protests have been organised by the Southern Europe Network Against Touristification (SET) in reaction to a tourism boom that has led to housing shortages in popular tourism hotspots.
Majorcan anti-tourism activists published an open letter in March, urging tourists not to come to the island over summer as forecasts indicate this summer will see record numbers of visitors travelling there.
'Mallorca is not the paradise they are selling you. The local population is angry and no longer hospitable because the land we love it's being destroyed and many of us have to leave the island because it is uninhabitable. Put yourselves in our place!' said the letter, signed by a number of community groups.
'Our leaders do not listen to us, so we, the residents, ask you: DO NOT COME. We do not need more tourists; in fact, you are the source of our problem.'
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