Majorca in 'crisis' with UK tourists warned Balearic Island 'has failed'
Majorca is in "crisis" due to tourism with UK holidaymakers heading to the European Union holiday destination warned the model has "failed". British holidaymakers have been warned by experts in the Balearic Island holiday hotspot amid the autumn getaway.
Lourdes Royo Naranjo is a professor in the University of Seville's faculty of architectural history, theory and composition. On Friday, she spoke at a conference in Palma and said: "I've been working for twenty years on the relationship between historic centres and tourism. In Malaga there was love at first sight, but right now it is in crisis.
"We are going through a bad period, the benefits are out of control, there are imbalances. Destinations have become objects of desire but are showing signs of fragility and exhaustion, and coexistence is suffering." She said: "There are common consequences at a sociological, architectural, urban and anthropological level. There is great unrest and the concerns are the same."
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"Tourism is an industry that consumes the city. There is a mass that goes to the destination and there is a theatricalisation of the historic centre. In addition to tourist pressure, there are problems of gentrification, coexistence and the replacement of traditional housing and shops," she said.
"Given all this, it is natural that there is a rejection by residents because there is conflict. The right to housing and rest are compromised. The model has failed and we have to stop and think about how to change the management.
"The identity of cities is being distorted. They are all the same, due to the same multinationals and the modification of facades. Tourism consumes, exhausts and is capricious. When they (tourists) tire of our cities, we will have a serious problem."
The comments come after a summer of protests and demonstrations across the sun-kissed holiday hotspot.