Tourists are being told to stay away from Majorca this summer. Should we listen?

Yahoo

20-03-2025

'This is like a war,' says Joana Maria Estrany Vallespir, dialling into our call from her sunny kitchen somewhere in the Majorcan countryside. 'You have to do what's going to work.'
Joana Maria is referring to an open letter, published last week, which was signed by several Majorcan campaign groups. It opens with the words 'Dear tourists' and it outlines the stark numbers behind Majorca's tourism growth.
The letter pulls no punches, painting a picture of an overpopulated island where it has become impossible to live. But it made ripples around the world for its closing lines.
'DO NOT COME,' it reads (the capital letters are theirs, not mine). 'We do not need more tourists; in fact, you are the source of our problem. Locals say: ENOUGH. STAY HOME!'
Tourism protest groups have long called for 'menys turisme', less tourism, or perhaps a better sort of tourism. But now we are finally being told to stay away.
The first in the list of seven signatories is an organisation called SOS Residents, of which Joana Maria Estrany Vallespir is a leading member. I wanted to know what compelled the campaign groups to ramp up the messaging ahead of the 2025 season. Do Majorcans want British holidaymakers this summer, or not?
The open letter, the first half of which was directed at the Balearic Government, was published in response to a series of policy announcements made in recent weeks. The most notable was the introduction of a new Sustainable Tourism Tax, ranging from from €2.50 to €6 per night during the high season.
'We call this in Spain 'wet paper',' says Joana Maria. 'It means that it's nothing: words, but empty of meaning. They never talk about decreasing [tourist numbers]. The only word they use is 'contain', but what does this mean? The biggest problem we have in Majorca is the number of tourists, and it's because of the number of tourists that we are overpopulated.'
In two decades, Majorca's population has grown from 727,000 to 960,000, an increase of 32 per cent. The number of non-Spaniards living across the Balearic Islands has risen from 15.3 per cent to 27.6 per cent. While British and German retirees used to form the largest foreign populations, now they are lower down the list behind Moroccans, Argentines, Colombians and Italians: nationalities which make up a large part of Majorca's immigrant workforce who serve the tourism industry.
'We talked a lot about what to say,' says Joana Maria, reflecting on the process of writing the open letter. 'We wanted to open the consciousness of tourists. We ask them not to come because we cannot trust our politicians. We are trying to be polite, not aggressive, but we thought we had to say what we think.'
Does she believe that this more direct approach, addressing the tourists themselves, will have an effect?
'Some people, I'm sure, won't come. But it's not going to make a difference. The fact we wrote the letter is not going to make a difference. But we thought: we have to say something about this.'
There is a popular counter-argument to the so-called 'anti-tourist' protest movement. It goes like this: like it or not, Majorca's economy is now built on tourism. British holidaymakers, many of whom are fiercely loyal to Majorca, plus Germans, French, Spanish mainlanders, pump money into the island and create jobs. Shouldn't the residents of the island be grateful for such prosperity, in a world where so many countries have so little?
'There is a scarcity of water,' says Joana Maria, hitting home the realities of living on the island. 'There are cars everywhere, but not all for tourists. They are cars for people working for the tourists. Hospitals and public places are full of people. Rich foreigners buy houses in the countryside, but they don't live here, what they do is rent their properties. Majorca has become a land for speculation. We have a language, Catalan, that is our culture. But they don't care about Majorca. Our way of life is being threatened.'
Joana Maria lives around 12 miles (20km) outside of Palma de Majorca. Once upon a time, she could drive into the capital in around 15 minutes. Now, it can often take 45 minutes. In spring, cyclists clog up the roads in vast numbers and slow down the traffic. Her favourite hiking spots are now overrun. It's impossible to walk into a restaurant without a booking. If locals want to go to the beach in the summer, they have to go at 8am to avoid the tourist crowds.
The travel industry often cites 'seasonality' as a fix for mass tourism. Go in the quieter months, and it'll relieve the strain on the summer, is the logic. Joana Maria says it doesn't quite play out like this in practice.
'It means spreading tourists all year round,' she says. Rather than detracting from the summer hordes, it just extends the busy season early and later in the year, increasing the total annual arrivals. 'Last year we [the Balearic Islands] had 18.7 million tourists. This year we are supposed to have 20 million tourists.
'You can't imagine what it's like to live here in the summer. The island is for them. It is like a theme park. You want to live your normal life, but you can't because there are people everywhere. And now? It's all year round.'
One suggestion, popular in the British tabloid press, is that the so-called 'anti-tourist' sentiment is targeted at British holidaymakers. Does talk about diversifying away from low-cost tourism and, in the same breath, away from core British and German markets, have an undertone of any sort?
'The problem is not people coming from England,' says Joana Maria. 'Sure, we don't want hooligans, we don't want people making noise. But that's true for everywhere, in Majorca, in England. If you go to a place you have to respect this place.
'What politicians want is to have the same amount of tourists, but rich tourists. We say no. That would be a bigger problem, because that would make a bigger gap between the rich and the poor, making a divided society. Already, some workers can't afford to live in a proper house. Many residents have had to move away. There are people living in caravans, in cars.'
So what is the solution? I ask Joana Maria what she would do if she were the president of the Balearics. First, she would put a cap on the number of tourists arriving into Majorca. Flights would be also made more expensive (worldwide, not just in Majorca). There would be a limit on the amount of housing available for tourists. Foreign investors would be banned from buying and building in the countryside.
But, of course, no solution is straightforward. Reducing tourist numbers would mean job losses. Making flights more expensive could mean appealing to a richer sort of tourist and perpetuating the wealth gap on the island. Many Majorcans make their income by renting out their homes on sites like Airbnb, not just foreign investors. Joana Maria accepts it is a difficult puzzle to solve.
'This is a monster with so many heads, you don't know where to attack. It's very complicated.'
Before we wrap up, I ask Joana Maria if there are plans for more demonstrations and beach occupations like the ones in 2024. On this, she does not wish to comment. I ask if she thinks it was justified when protesters targeted tourists with water pistols in Barcelona last summer.
'The act of targeting tourists by spraying water? We won't say 'do this'. I can tell you. But if people do it? That's OK, because they are fed up. There are different groups, and different people see things in different ways. If you know something is going to work, do it.
'That's why we wrote the letter. We are saying: enough.'
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