Latest news with #SOSResidents
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Yahoo
Majorca's lazy anti-tourism campaign attacks middle-class visitors
First it was the occupation of beaches. Then there were mass demonstrations. Now, the Majorcan anti-tourism protest movement is resorting to artificial intelligence to get its voice heard. A protest group from the town of Soller has launched an Instagram page called 'Welcome to Sollerland', posting AI-generated images highlighting the problems of overtourism in the area. Soller is a popular town in the north of Majorca, known for its handsome port and historic tramline. However, it has suffered from serious overcrowding in recent years, and plans to launch a 'non-resident traffic zone' in the centre of town to reduce tourist traffic. Just last week, the Sa Mola tunnel entering the town had to close due to heavy traffic. The account has posted a variety of AI-generated scenes. These include cartoons of people stacked high on a tram, thousands of people swarming Repic beach, swarms of tourists in sunhats taking selfies, and images of locals holding up signs in Catalan. One computer-generated child stands on the beach holding up a sign saying 'jo jugava aqui' – 'I played here', for example. Or a man in a crowded square: 'I used to drink coffee here.' 'If you ask AI what this summer will be like in Soller, this is the answer,' the protest group says. Municipal figures suggest that residents own 3,000 cars compared to the 20,000 which can occupy the town on busier days. I am sympathetic to the mass tourism protest movement across Europe, and appreciate that the residents of islands like Majorca are at their wits' end. Joana Maria Estrany Vallespir, a leading voice of the protest group SOS Residents, says the plight of locals went far beyond the obvious things like busy beaches and boozy Brits. 'There is a scarcity of water,' she said. 'Hospitals and public places are full. Rich foreigners buy houses in the countryside, but they don't live here. Our way of life is being threatened.' It is understandable and right that Majorcans are making a stand. Wouldn't you, if you had to wake up at the crack of dawn to visit your favourite beach? If a drive that used to take 10 minutes now takes 30? And while I appreciate the ingenuity (and headline-grabbing credentials) of this AI campaign, it misses the mark. If the tourism problem in Soller is so bad, show us. Wouldn't it be more effective to get an actual resident to go and stand in Plaza de la Constitucion in Soller to hold up that sign? If anything, the use of AI may arouse suspicion that the problem isn't as bad as they are saying. An opportunity missed, and a good example of how AI images can't replicate the emotional impact and credibility of human action. This isn't to say a bit of photo tinkering can't be effective. I recall a campaign from 2023 by the UK accommodation site, Canopy & Stars, where they took stills from three popular UK sites over 48 hours (Durdle Door, St Ives and the Lake District) and layered them up to show the scale of footfall over that period. That was clever. Welcome to Sollerland feels lazy, not least because it would have taken less than a minute to create each of these images. Their end goal is also confusing. These hastily thrown together images of cycling groups and selfie-taking tourists aren't going to change the minds of policymakers in the Balearic Government. And, obviously, the locals already know what's going on. Which means they are hoping to educate the tourists themselves. If this is the case (and yes, I am aware of the irony here) using English on the placards would have had a far greater impact. This is why you so often see 'tourists go home' written on the banners or scrawled on walls, rather than the Catalan equivalent. If protest groups want to get heard by politicians, they need to mobilise and continue to demonstrate in great numbers as they did throughout 2024. As I am sure they will. And if they want to get a message across to tourists via the international media, they need to be smarter, wittier and more creative with their direct action. Last year locals continually traversed a zebra crossing in Galicia. In the Balearics we have seen bogus signs at beaches warning of deadly jellyfish. In Venice, on the day the entry charge was launched last year, locals unveiled a great banner saying 'Welcome to Veniceland'. These will go down in the history books chronicling the great European war against mass tourism. The AI Welcome to Sollerland campaign, I am afraid, will not. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
30-04-2025
- Telegraph
Majorca's lazy anti-tourism campaign attacks middle-class visitors
First it was the occupation of beaches. Then there were mass demonstrations. Now, the Majorcan anti-tourism protest movement is resorting to artificial intelligence to get its voice heard. A protest group from the town of Soller has launched an Instagram page called 'Welcome to Sollerland', posting AI-generated images highlighting the problems of overtourism in the area. Soller is a popular town in the north of Majorca, known for its handsome port and historic tramline. However, it has suffered from serious overcrowding in recent years, and plans to launch a 'non-resident traffic zone' in the centre of town to reduce tourist traffic. Just last week, the Sa Mola tunnel entering the town had to close due to heavy traffic. The account has posted a variety of AI-generated scenes. These include cartoons of people stacked high on a tram, thousands of people swarming Repic beach, swarms of tourists in sunhats taking selfies, and images of locals holding up signs in Catalan. One computer-generated child stands on the beach holding up a sign saying 'jo jugava aqui' – 'I played here', for example. Or a man in a crowded square: 'I used to drink coffee here.' 'If you ask AI what this summer will be like in Soller, this is the answer,' the protest group says. Municipal figures suggest that residents own 3,000 cars compared to the 20,000 which can occupy the town on busier days. I am sympathetic to the mass tourism protest movement across Europe, and appreciate that the residents of islands like Majorca are at their wits' end. Joana Maria Estrany Vallespir, a leading voice of the protest group SOS Residents, says the plight of locals went far beyond the obvious things like busy beaches and boozy Brits. 'There is a scarcity of water,' she said. 'Hospitals and public places are full. Rich foreigners buy houses in the countryside, but they don't live here. Our way of life is being threatened.' It is understandable and right that Majorcans are making a stand. Wouldn't you, if you had to wake up at the crack of dawn to visit your favourite beach? If a drive that used to take 10 minutes now takes 30? And while I appreciate the ingenuity (and headline-grabbing credentials) of this AI campaign, it misses the mark. If the tourism problem in Soller is so bad, show us. Wouldn't it be more effective to get an actual resident to go and stand in Plaza de la Constitucion in Soller to hold up that sign? If anything, the use of AI may arouse suspicion that the problem isn't as bad as they are saying. An opportunity missed, and a good example of how AI images can't replicate the emotional impact and credibility of human action. This isn't to say a bit of photo tinkering can't be effective. I recall a campaign from 2023 by the UK accommodation site, Canopy & Stars, where they took stills from three popular UK sites over 48 hours (Durdle Door, St Ives and the Lake District) and layered them up to show the scale of footfall over that period. That was clever. Welcome to Sollerland feels lazy, not least because it would have taken less than a minute to create each of these images. Their end goal is also confusing. These hastily thrown together images of cycling groups and selfie-taking tourists aren't going to change the minds of policymakers in the Balearic Government. And, obviously, the locals already know what's going on. Which means they are hoping to educate the tourists themselves. If this is the case (and yes, I am aware of the irony here) using English on the placards would have had a far greater impact. This is why you so often see 'tourists go home' written on the banners or scrawled on walls, rather than the Catalan equivalent. If protest groups want to get heard by politicians, they need to mobilise and continue to demonstrate in great numbers as they did throughout 2024. As I am sure they will. And if they want to get a message across to tourists via the international media, they need to be smarter, wittier and more creative with their direct action. Last year locals continually traversed a zebra crossing in Galicia. In the Balearics we have seen bogus signs at beaches warning of deadly jellyfish. In Venice, on the day the entry charge was launched last year, locals unveiled a great banner saying 'Welcome to Veniceland'. These will go down in the history books chronicling the great European war against mass tourism. The AI Welcome to Sollerland campaign, I am afraid, will not.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Tourists are being told to stay away from Majorca this summer. Should we listen?
'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.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Telegraph
20-03-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Tourists are being told to stay away from Majorca this summer. Should we listen?
'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 biggest problem we have is the number of tourists' 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.' 'It is like a theme park' 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.' Are British holidaymakers the target? 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.'
Local Spain
18-03-2025
- Local Spain
'We're angry, don't come', locals on Spain's Mallorca tell tourists
'Mallorca is not the paradise they are selling you,' states the letter signed by SOS Residents, Menys turisme més vida, Gob, Gadma, Alternativa per Pollença, Brunzit and Amics de la Vall de Coanegra. These seven organisations recalled that in the 1970s, Mallorca was known as 'the island of calm,' a situation that has changed, they point out, as in recent years the island has become a tourist destination which has been exploited "to unimaginable limits." The protest groups have denounced the fact that mass tourism has led to the deterioration of the Balearic island's ecosystem, the overcrowding of public services, gentrification, and an excessive increase in the cost of living. They accuse hoteliers, politicians and investors of prioritising their economic interests over the wellbeing of residents. The groups go on to lament the problems suffered by the inhabitants of Mallorca due to tourism overcrowding, whilst slamming authorities and local institutions for continuing to promote tourism without considering the consequences for the local population. "The local population is angry and we are no longer welcoming them (tourists) because they are destroying the land we love, and many residents are having to emigrate because the island is uninhabitable," the groups said. "It's time to ask you not to come. We don't need more tourists; in fact, you are the source of the problem," the environmentalists stressed in the letter written in Catalan, Spanish, English and German. They hope the forthright message will make visitors reflect on their impact on the living standards of locals as well as foster a debate about the need for a more sustainable and respectful tourism model in Mallorca. 2024 was the year Spain truly spoke out about the impact mass tourism was having on the life of residents, with numerous protests held in holiday hotspots such as the Balearic Islands, the Canaries, Málaga, Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Alicante and other cities. In truth, their grievances are as much about the country's housing crisis and the rising cost of living as they were about mass tourism, as there is growing awareness that the two often go hand in hand, especially with regard to the steep rise in tourist apartments in residential buildings. There is a growing sense that wealthier foreigners get to enjoy Spain more than struggling locals. In the case of Palma, Mallorca's capital, the cost of living is proportionally the highest in the country according to a 2025 study. Anti-tourism messages such as 'tourist go home' or 'f*ck Airbnb' have become increasingly common on walls and buildings in the form of graffiti, stickers or protest placards, but many Spaniards are aware that it's not the fault of tourists per se, but rather a tourism model that's out of control and has to be overhauled. There are also plenty of locals who welcome tourism and value its importance for the Spanish economy, as it accounts for 13 percent of the country's GDP, and are therefore opposed to the inflammatory anti-tourism messaging that's become more prevalent recently.
