Two major Spanish destinations confirm plan to cap tourist numbers
The holiday hotspots have stated that their '"residents are the priority nowadays", and have hinted at capping tourist numbers.
Palma de Majorca and Barcelona, two tourist hotspots in Spain, have confirmed their plans to cap visitor numbers due to overtourism and its impact on residents.
Addressing residents' concerns at the Spain Talks conference on sustainability that was organised by the Spanish Tourist Office in London, the heads of tourism of Barcelona and Palma de Majorca said: 'Let's not be afraid to discuss limits.'
The managing director of Palma de Majorca Tourism, Pedro Homar, said: 'Residents are our priority nowadays. We slashed marketing budgets in the last three to four years.' Addressing tour operators, he said: 'I'm sorry for that. Limits are good. Let's not be afraid to discuss limits.'
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Mateu Hernandez, the Barcelona Tourism director general agreed and said: 'We're 100% the same in Barcelona. The city began to do this – no more hotels, no more tourism flats, no more cruises, no more tour groups.'
Hernandez went on to note that there has been no increase in tourist numbers in 2024 — which stand at 15 million, the same as 2023 — and said: 'This is not failure. This is what we're looking for, Travel Weekly reports. We don't want visitors to feel crowded.'
Hernandez further added: 'Our challenge is to answer the question – can tourism save us from tourism? This is the key question.' He insisted that the residents of Barcelona 'want this balance'.
Calling the protests against tourism 'sad', Hernandez insisted: 'It's a minority who don't want tourism. We want to prioritise who is sleeping on beds [in the city]. Our key priorities are conferences and events – we're investing €400 million in infrastructure for conferences – and culture.'
Homar said during the conference: 'We have a cap of 12,000 beds in the city – 95% in four and five-star hotels. We hardly have two and three-star hotels. We are positioning ourselves as more upscale and cosmopolitan. We limit daily cruises. We want to manage the destination. We're not in the business of marketing the destination.'
Jaime Martinez, the Mayor of Palma de Majorca, said: 'We have to control the number of visitors. We want Palma to be a reference point in the travel market.'
Ian Corbett, Tui's head of sustainability, said: 'Tui wants to be part of the solution. Destinations have their limits and it's for destinations to decide what tourism they want and how much. It's important we put as little additional strain on destinations as we can. It's about well-planned, well-executed, controlled tourism, not about exclusion.'
Mass protests against overtourism are all set to take place across popular holiday destinations in Europe this summer, with several demonstrations already held over the last couple of months, especially in Spain.
Recently, tourists aboard a sight-seeing bus in Barcelona were blocked and squirted with water by protesters. A protest was launched in the Northern Spanish city on Sunday by the organizers of many of the anti-tourism protests held in Majorca in 2024. The Catalan Police were called to intervene, when several of the campaigners blocked a bus that was ferrying tourists, close to the famous Sagrada Familia.
Brit holidaymakers have also been given a heads-up regarding their upcoming summer escapes, with local residents in top European destinations like Spain, Italy, France, and Portugal not dismissing the idea of targeting airport buildings to dissuade tourists.
The locals argue that unchecked tourism has driven up rental prices and stripped away affordable housing availability as properties are gobbled up for tourist accommodations and lands are bought out for resort development.
This warning emerges just as loads of Brits line up their plans for some sun-soaked relaxation. At a demonstration in Barcelona, protestor Elena Boschi told the Mirror: "We want tourists to have some level of fear about the situation – without fear there is no change."
Significant disruptions can also be expected over the summer; a leader of the Spanish protests informed The Mirror that militant groups might obstruct not just airports but beaches and other beloved tourist draws too, as anti-tourist fury intensifies in Spain.
A protest frontman, referred to here as Lucas due to his condition of anonymity, communicated his caution that demonstrators could escalate their tactics if they continue to be sidelined. He said: "The general mood is one of growing frustration, indignation, and despair. People feel that they are being expelled from their own land and that their fundamental rights are not being protected. People have had enough.
"There is a widespread feeling that the situation has reached a breaking point and that it is necessary to act urgently and decisively to reverse it. The patience of the citizenry is running out. We are not going to stand idly by while we see our homes and our lives threatened by speculation and an uncontrolled tourism model."
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