Spanish island limits number of holiday beds saying 'we are suffering a tourist collapse'

The number of tourists staying on the Spanish island of Mallorca is being cut after the government decided to restrict the number of beds for tourists. Officials on the island said the number of tourists was putting the coexistence between visitors and residents ‘at risk’.

The crackdown comes as the Balearic Islands increase curbs on street drinking and further restrict party boats in an effort to deter alcohol-fuelled holidays. This week Marga Prohens, the conservative president of the Balearic Islands government said: “The time has come to set limits and ask ourselves where we are going and what we want to be.”

Lluís Apesteguia of the left-wing More for Mallorca coalition added: “Nineteen million tourists in a territory of 1.3 million inhabitants is unacceptable, it is not good for the territory, nor for the residents, nor for the tourists themselves. In Mallorca we are no longer overcrowded, we are suffering a tourist collapse.”

Mallorca has announced a cut of 18,000 tourist beds on the island, 4.2 per cent of its 430,000 beds, the Mallorca Daily Bulletin reported. President of the Council de Mallorca, Llorenç Galmés said at a press conference “It is time to set limits,” because the growth has put the coexistence between tourists and residents “at risk”.

The island’s tourism councillor admitted that this season will be “complicated and difficult”, but he said that this is the first step to “begin to minimise the effects” of overcrowding. “We cannot increase the number of beds any further,” he said.

“What we have not tried to solve in eight years, we are not going to solve immediately,” he said, adding that “to be honest” the situation will be “complicated” and the president made it clear that “there will be more measures”.

A social debate is growing about the island’s tourist “saturation”. In recent weeks concerns have mounted over traffic jams in villages. Until recently, they were limited to the months of July and August.

Movements against mass tourism have called rallies on May 24 in Ibiza and May 25 in Mallorca. Authorities fear protests such as those that brought thousands of citizens onto the streets in the Canary Islands last month including some threatening hunger strikes. Ibiza has announced that it will limit the entry of vehicles to the island to reduce congestion during the high season. The number of vehicles entering Ibiza has quadrupled from 51,000 in 2001 to 206,960 in 2022, with 40 per cent of all arrivals occurring in July and August.

Last week the Balearic Islands government toughened a law passed in 2020 to curb excessive drinking. The restrictions will apply to hotspots including Playa de Palma and Magaluf in Mallorca and Sant Antoni in Ibiza. People caught drinking outside authorised areas will be fined between €500 to €1,500. They will also be barred from buying alcohol in shops between 9.30pm and 8am.

The legislation introduced tougher rules against party boats, which will be banned from going within one nautical mile (1.852 km) of the designated areas. Picking up or dropping off passengers will continue to be banned.

Under the law, which came into force on Saturday, the number of sanctions taken against foreigners will be counted and sent to the embassies of the countries involved.

A commission on “the promotion of civility in tourist zones” will be expanded to include representatives of the countries whose tourists are most associated with problems — the UK and Germany.