Majorca hotels slam Balearic Islands over 'three changes' UK tourists face

Hotel owners in Majorca have slammed recent changes to tourist taxes, holiday rentals and water rates in the Balearics. The European Union holiday hotspot's President Marga Prohens, who is President of the Balearic Islands, has made an announcement in parliament about the approach to current mass tourism.

She revealed that when the current ban on new tourist accommodation is lifted, there will be a ban on new holiday rental permits for apartments. The Mallorca Hoteliers Federation reacted angrily to the changes, accusing President Prohens of showing little courage and ambition and warning that the government had missed “a golden opportunity” to return properties to residential use.

The Federation argued that continuing to distribute properties for holiday rentals will “exacerbate the shortage” of available apartments on the housing market for “citizens, public and private sector workers and young people striving to emancipate themselves”.

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They also said: “The ground is being set for the continued proliferation of illegal supply.” They added: “We don’t see how tourists will understand that we are welcoming them to the islands by charging them even more without any improvement or transparency in the way the tax is used.”

President Prophen also spoke of an increase in the water rate for ‘bulk consumers’ in 2025. Hotel owners called the rule ‘discriminatory’. However, the president shared that the idea behind it is that “those who consume more, pay more.”

abriel Escarrer, the CEO of Mallorca-based Meliá Hotels International and president of the Exceltur alliance of leading companies in the travel and tourism sectors, believes that the Balearic government's decision to increase the tourist tax between June and August will be "disastrous".

The Civil Society Forum has been in discussions with the Mallorca Hoteliers Federation about the island’s current overtourism issues, and there are hopes they can come up with bilateral proposals before Christmas and “make things easier for the government”, with a meeting scheduled for November 25.

Escarrer argues that the measure will be "ineffective".