Campaigners are looking to ‘regroup’ and ‘redouble’ efforts ahead of peak holiday season. A Spanish group campaigning against overtourism has called on its members to “regroup” and “redouble” its efforts against the impact the tourist industry has on island residents. The campaign group said it would “intensify” its actions in response to an announcement of a billion-euro investment into the tourist sector, the rise of real estate and luxury tourism speculation while the housing crisis continues to worsen.
The group was behind a large anti-tourist protest that filled the streets in Palma de Mallorca last summer against skyrocketing housing prices in the wake of a tourist boom on the popular holiday island. Around 10,000 protesters showed up to take part on 21 July, with people walking with models of planes, cruise ships and posters reading “no to mass tourism” and “stop private jets”. The group has now called out Balearic authorities and claimed they were prioritising investing in the tourist sector rather than infrastructure that would benefit permanent residents.
“While the Balearic Government exceeds the billionaire investments of 1.12bn euros to defend tourist interests, the public infrastructure, healthcare, the territory... is on the verge of collapse,” it wrote in a translated statement on social media. “While the tourist lobby continues to get rich and prices skyrocket, wages are stagnant and the living conditions of the working class continue to become more precarious,” the group continued.
“The extraordinary measures of the state are nothing more than anaesthetics to not solve the problem. “And the sustainability pact is nothing more than a strategy that only wastes time. “That's why on 15 February we will meet again to regroup and redouble our commitment to continue collectively building the alternative to this socioeconomic model.”. Menys Turisme, Més Vida says that the profits of tourism companies grow twice as much as the wages of workers.
“While they make us believe that we live off tourism, the reality is different,” it said. “Workers are getting poorer, salaries are not rising… and are not enough for housing.”. Speaking to Reuters last year amid the large-scale protests, Pere Joan Femenia, of Menys Turisme, Més Vida, said that mass tourism was making it difficult for local people to afford to live on their own island. "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.".
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