Thousands of anti-tourism activists have marched through the streets of Spain's Palma de Mallorca holding banners that read: “Your paradise is our nightmare”.
Carrying makeshift models of planes and cruise ships, protesters rallied through the streets of the capital of Mallorca with posters reading “no to mass tourism” and “stop private jets”.
Around 10,000 protesters took part in the demonstration on Sunday, police said.
Anti-tourism activists have staged a series of protests this year in Barcelona, and other popular holiday destinations like Palma de Mallorca, Malaga and the Canary Islands, saying visitors drive up housing costs and lead to residents being unable to afford to live in city centres.
Some tourists supported the march while others appeared uncomfortable.
Pere Joan Femenia, of Menys Turisme, Mas Vida (Less Tourism, More Life) which organised Sunday's protest in Mallorca, told Reuters protesters wanted less tourists on the island.
"Mass tourism is making it difficult for local people who cannot afford to live on their own island because tourist flats push up prices. Tourists fill up beaches and put a strain on public services in the summer," he said.
"We want to cut mass tourism and to ban non-residents from buying houses which are just used for a few months a year or for speculation."
After Catalonia, the Balearic Islands was the second most popular region of Spain for tourists last year, attracting 14.4 million holidaymakers, the Spanish National Statistics Institute said.
Tourism generates 45 per cent of the Balearic Islands' gross domestic product, according to data from Exceltur, an industry organisation.
In the first quarter of this year, 16.1 million people visited Spain, an increase of 18 per cent compared with the same period last year.
Read More
Visitors spent 109 billion euros ($118.56 billion) in Spain last year, versus 63.5billion euros in France.
Earlier this month water pistols were fired at foreigners eating outdoors at popular tourist restaurants along the Las Ramblas in Barcelona.
The wet and wild scenes were part of a larger rally against mass tourism, which saw around 2,800 people take to the streets under the banner “Enough! Let’s put limits on tourism.”
Rent in Barcelona has increased by 68 per cent in the past decade and 18 per cent in the past year but the issue of affordable housing is not entirely recent. For years, locals in the city have been graffitiing walls with messages such as “tourists go home”.
A similar rally was held in Ibiza in May as an activist group called for restrictions on tourism to the popular party island.
This follows similar protests in other tourist hotspots like Tenerife, where locals have gone on hunger strikes to express their frustration.
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
