Yahoo News UK tourists warned of more anti-tourism protests on Spanish island during school holidays
Holidaymakers have been warned that there could be more anti-tourism protests at a popular Spanish destination as the summer holiday season begins. It comes after tourists were squirted with water guns in Barcelona over the weekend as anti-tourism protests continue to sweep the country.
Thousands of demonstrators in the city - a popular destination among Brits - targeted diners in tourist areas on Saturday. Residents chanted ‘tourists go home’ and held placards that read ‘Enough! Let’s put limits on tourism’, the Independent reports. Video footage showed tourists dining in popular parts of the city targeted with water pistols.
Locals are calling for more sustainable tourism models to be introduced, as well as making the city more affordable to live in. Earlier this year the city’s mayor announced that Barcelona will ban holiday rental apartments by 2028 in an effort to make housing more accessible for residents.
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Anti-tourism protests have regularly taken place at popular destinations across Spain since the spring. In April demonstrations were held in the Canary Islands, while protests have also been held across the Balearic Islands.
Now with the summer holiday season nearly upon us, tourists have been warned that an anti-tourism protest will take place in Palma in Majorca on Sunday, July 21, coinciding with the start of the school holidays. According to the Majorca Daily Bulletin the demonstration is being organised by the Menys Turisme, Més Vida (Less Tourism, More Life) platform which is made up of around 80 sub-groups.
Organisers have said the protests will start at around 7pm and will begin from the Parc de ses Estacions and head for Passeig Born. They said that they want this demonstration to be "a turning point, a statement, and the start of actions and mobilisations on the four islands, not only in Mallorca, which will extend beyond the summer". Spokesperson Jaume Pujol said that the aim of the protests are to decrease tourism and bring a change to the socioeconomic model in the Balearics.
Earlier in May President of the Balearic Islands Marga Prohens said that “limits” needed to be set when it came to tourists. Posting on X, she said: “I am proud to be the president of a tourism community. Precisely because we love tourism and believe in our economic model, the time has come to set limits.”
Introducing a tourist tax is one of the measures which could be implemented to curb visitor limits. Meanwhile, Majorca is considering banning large cruise ships from docking at the island.
