Majorca warned over its 'sun and beach' tourism crackdown against Brits

Majorca has been warned over its crackdown of "sun and beach" tourism. UK holidaymakers have faced rising anti-tourist sentiment in the Balearic Islands in recent months, with demonstrators and locals lodging their complaints over an influx of Brits.

The Spanish holiday hotspot has come under fire for its crackdown on Brits, though. A new report by Braintrust has warned of the high seasonality of Spanish sun and beach destinations, as they account for 69.8 per cent of spending in the summer months between July and September.

Braintrust notes that this model, “without ceasing to be important because of its weight”, makes activity precarious and prevents the deseasonalisation which is “so detrimental to some mature destinations, not only in Spain, but worldwide”.

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Its director, Ángel García Butragueño, said: "In Spain we continue to exploit the sun and beach model, when we have excellent other markets to promote, other niches are increasingly important, such as culture, sport, shopping and nature”.

He said demonstrations against high levels of tourism call for the model to be “much more sustainable” and tourism that is “much more diversified, deseasonalised, respectful, and that returns greater benefits to the destination”.

Javier Vich, who is the president of the Palma Hoteliers Association and CEO of the Summum Hotel Group, fears that fewer travellers will book holidays to the Balearic Island after reading reports of the protests on Palma’s streets and beaches.

He says that he would not go to a destination where he did not feel welcome: “It is very difficult to build a destination and very easy to destroy it.” Carme Reines, from a collective which organised the protest in Palma de Mallorca, said: “We want the authorities to stop people who have not lived here more than five years from buying properties and to put more controls on holiday accommodation.”