Majorca warns UK 'tourism has gone too far' and island 'has to turn back'

Majorca has warned it has "gone too far" over a plan to crackdown on UK tourists. Majorca tourism and travel bosses have conceded they have "gone too far" and they "have to turn back" over a new tourist crackdown planned for "overcrowded" parts of the Balearic Island.

The island is determined to curb the overcrowding problems amid tension with locals, after protests across Majorca as well as Tenerife and Lanzarote as residents take issue with "overtourism" and the influx of British holidaymakers and tourists.

Locals have branded some Brit visitors "low quality" and demanded strict curbs and restrictions. Majorca is "determined to find ways to curb mass tourism" Ultima Hora reports and member of Palma XXI association Jaume Garau said: "There is a general feeling that we've gone too far and have to turn back."

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He stressed the issues the Balearic islands are facing due to the high number of tourists and warned: "There will come a time when people here won't be able to go anywhere." Another forum member, Margalida Ramis said: "Tourism must decrease and reconvert."

A third member, David Abril, stressed that "tourism is more than an economic activity" and it "cannot be separated from issues such as immigration or housing". He concluded by saying that the current saturation problems in other leading destinations on the planet, "are a final wake-up call in what is becoming a global trend."

The Congress is expected to be held on June 26. Key issues, the forum believes, include cutting the number of tourist accommodation places, addressing policies for the "commercialisation" of land, the conservation of protected natural spaces, the water cycle, and anchoring in Balearic waters.

Senor Abril, a former member of the Balearic parliament for Més, is a tourism expert and attended the Congress having wrote a book with the title 'Rethinking Tourism'.