President Marga Prohens has warned “firm and brave decisions” to tackle overcrowding in Majorca and the wider Balearic Islands will be taken and will be in place before the start of the 2025 season.
At a dinner organised by the Economy Circle think tank in Palma on Tuesday, Prohens said that the working parties under the government’s social and political pact for sustainability will launch long-term changes. However, the government will adopt measures against overcrowding earlier, without waiting for that long-term change.
These “brave” new measures will be implemented through consensus.
The political and social pact for economic, social and environmental sustainability “roundtable” was convened in May to discuss the sustainability of tourism in the Balearic Islands and is made up of representatives of around 100 political parties, local authorities, associations, organisations and unions.
“We have to listen to the citizens, to listen to a growing and general social discontent that goes far beyond the protests,” Prohens said, adding that this discontent indicates a shared opinion that “we can no longer grow in volume. We have to talk about limits and we have to talk about containment”.
She did stress, however, that the measures would not imply a complete revision of the archipelago’s current tourism model.
Prohens emphasised that tourism is, and will continue to be, the Balearics’s main industry and called on the public to feel proud of it.
“The tourist is always welcome and well treated on our islands. Tourism has been and will continue to be the main source of wealth generation and income to sustain our well-being for many years.”
The president also pointed out that the changes to the model must be supported by a process of reindustrialisation in which the business sector must play an essential role. She said that the government wishes to take a leading role in attracting innovation and investment, through its legislation for administrative simplification and the implementation of a “project accelerator unit”, reported the Majorca Daily Bulletin.
Looking at the 2024 season, Prohens spoke of a six percent increase in the number of visitors and a 13 percent rise in tourist spending – largely because of increased spending on holiday costs as opposed to at restaurants – which has resulted in a further increase in employment.
She noted that 56 percent of new employment contracts are permanent, which represents a change of model towards a high quality contract in the archipelago.
The moves follow a summer plagued by protests by residents of the islands, over mass tourism and its impacts on their lives. In May, around 10,000 people protested in Palma de Mallorca, with other protests occurring the day before on the smaller islands of Menorca and Ibiza.
Protestors in Majorca called on the government to prevent new residents from buying property and new tourist spots being opened. In Menorca, residents complained that the island government was ignoring the local concerns even while promoting their streets to tourists, and in Ibiza there were specific concerns about the island becoming a party hot-spot.
At the time, Prohens criticised relevant tourism authorities for trying to expand tourism volume instead of aiming for sustainable quality tourism.