The summer of 2024 in Spain was one of anger from residents and local governments against overtourism, particularly in the Balearics, including Majorca, the Canaries and Barcelona.
These locations are among the top three most visited by tourists in Spain.
Rather than sustaining the locations, they believe that over-tourism has contributed to a reduced quality of life and increased cost of living.
This anger manifested itself in the form of many protests across Majorca, including taking over beaches and gathering in their thousands to march through the streets of Palma, organised at times to disrupt tourists on their holidays deliberately.
However, one luxury tourism business owner has shared concerns with Express.co.uk that these protests are not the best way to publicise the issue of overtourism and instead run the risk of turning people away from Majorca and sending them to friendlier islands in other countries where they would feel more welcome.
Olivier Heuchenne, co-founder of Insider Villas, a luxury villa rental agency with deep roots in the Balearics, particularly in Majorca, warned that protesting is “not the best” way to get the image out there, as it “can come back like mud, [it] can come back like a raw egg in your face.”
“People are then going to say, ‘I’m not going to Majorca, they made so much noise, then I’m going to go to Sicily where they are not protesting’, where it’s the same sea, the same weather, landscape, it’s Italian food. They could easily switch destinations [from] Majorca.”
In 2023, Sicily had nearly 16.5 million visitors, a 10.8% increase from the previous year. This included over eight million foreign visitors. Majorca, by comparison, received just under 12.5 million visitors. Yet, there was no trace of an over-tourism protest on the Italian island.
“I don’t think it’s the best way, but I think there is a way to get through to those people that can impact… there is a disconnect at the moment, between who can impact and those that are protesting,” Mr Heuchenne continued.
“Mass tourism, mass protests, isn’t possible, it is only going to blow up the infrastructure. There has got to be better ways to negotiate, to bring it to the table, so that people are heard… that’s the frustration, they’re not being heard.”
Defending their protests, Júlia Isern, a spokesperson for the “Menys Turisme, Més Vida” (Less Tourism, More Life) organisation, told Express.co.uk that protests were the final step that goes with a lot of other works, such as assemblies.
“It is always difficult to mobilise a population, so protests have historically been the time when everyone goes on the street and it’s very visually impressive, we are all part of the same cause,” Ms Isern said. “As citizens, we want, for one day, to go out and release this anger that you keep to yourself so much.”
Ms Isern insisted that the organisation is not against tourism and the tourists themselves. When asked that the very action of protesting affects the tourists more than the government they are trying to force change from, Ms Isern explained that the locals have been suffering the consequences of “touristification” for the last 10 years due to “a model that is not taking us into account and we are paying a very high price because of that model”.
“This year is the first time tourists are also suffering these consequences.”
Meanwhile, in the Canary Islands, in October, a separate organisation of protesters stormed a beach in Tenerife, surrounding tourists who were laid out on the sand.
“It is the first time for British people to feel what it is to be in a place surrounded by people where you feel you don’t belong,” argued Ms Isern, defending the protest”. “This is how we constantly feel in Majorca.”
Directly confronting the tourists, however, “is not our intention,” Ms Isern explained.
