Spanish beach bars demand urgent action as they reveal cost of Brits staying away
Beach bar owners in one of Spain's most popular resorts say they are facing a dire August and are attributing a lot of the blame to what they call "tourism‑phobia".
The lobby group has warned that August, normally a busy month for Majorca, will not produce any sort of boom as tourists watch their spending and stay away from the island en masse. The president of the Association of Entrepreneurs of Concessions has demanded that the Balearic government take urgent action to head off this summer's negative results before more businesses and jobs are lost.
The president, Onofre Fornés, says that "results are far below expectations, with July closing with a 20% drop in turnover compared to 2024 and August not looking any better." He argues that high visitor numbers this summer hide the reality, which is a slump caused in part by tourists' falling spending power. The intervention came after some locals said holidaymakers had been 'scared away' from Majorca.
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"The authorities must adopt urgent measures to control the rise in tourist prices, counteract tourism‑phobia and preserve the purchasing power of traditional tourists," Mr Fornés said. "Incomes are not buoyant, costs are rising and the demand for essential services for them such as hammocks and sun loungers is contained." The two key resorts of Playa de Muro and Can Picafort are being singled out as suffering the most.
In March, visitors from Majorca's third-largest market, the UK, were down 23.2 % to 48,741. For the Balearics as a whole, the UK fell 25.3 % to 52,170. Other markets showed notable decreases as well, with France down 39.4 % in Majorca and Italy 40.1 %.
Mr Fornés has blamed "irresponsible" protestors who send out "negative messages against tourism, "deteriorating the perception of the destination and having a direct impact on the sector's income."
Those protesters may not agree with the lobbyist's arguments, however. They have long stressed that the cost of living in Spanish resorts such as the Balearic Islands, as well as the Canary Islands, is too high and the wages they can earn too low.
In their eyes, a major part of the problem is the cost of housing, which has been aggravated by the demand for holiday lets such as Airbnbs.
Tourism is booming across Europe. George Washington University revealed that in 2024, 747 million travelers visited Europe, more than the population of Europe itself, and this inevitably puts a "strain on local infrastructure, environment, and communities."
In Spain, the government is acting. Already this year, it has called for the removal of nearly 66,000 unregulated Airbnb listings and pulled back on social media influencer campaigns that bring selfie tourists to its small and easily overwhelmed beaches.
Jessica Harvey, head of press at the Spanish Tourist Office, told the BBC: "We are working with a sustainable tourism model leading with smart technology. We have developed a digital platform that monitors how many people are on beaches, as well as the air quality, sea temperatures, weather and even jellyfish in the water."
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