In signs of more unrest in the hospitality and tourism sector in the Spanish Balearic Islands, a hoteliers’ organisation has demanded “a strategic plan” to address overtourism.
Overtourism is a hot topic in the Balearics right now. Three popular resort towns have extended restrictions on nighttime alcohol purchases and street drinking in attempts to address rowdy tourist antics and, such is the sense of intrusion in one Menorcan fishing-style village, that it has threatened to close off access to outsiders. The number of cruise ships welcome in Palma has been limited, and there is an ongoing moratorium on accommodation provision.
Critical situation
The situation in Mallorca is now so bad, that the Hoteliers Federation believes it has reached “critical” levels, following years of “more reactive than preventive” action from the government that has failed to find “a balance of coexistence between residents and visitors,” according to the federation’s President, Maria Frontera.
Last year, the hotelier body asked the new government for “a clear picture” with a data overview of all the Balearics and each municipality’s carrying capacity. It has proposed “diverting tourist flows” in the high season away from overcrowded areas to others where the footfall is needed and capacity is better. Improving public transport to ensure visitors can get around is part of that picture.
Balearics brace for more arrivals in 2024
Tourism continues to boom across Europe post-pandemic and a recent European Travel Commission (ETC) report revealed 75% of Europeans are planning to travel in 2024, with a huge preference among them for the continent’s southern destinations such as Spain and Italy.
The Balearics need to brace, brace, brace therefore, but with the sector providing 45% of the community’s GDP, managing tourism is an existential question for the Mediterranean island destination. As such, the federation said it recognises it may be difficult to implement meaningful measures that can be felt immediately, but that decisions needed to be “based on objective data and not certain ideologies.”
Lengthening of traditional seasons
Interestingly, tourist behaviour itself is starting to change, according to Frontera, with seasons lengthening and a blurring between spring, summer, and autumn arrivals. At least 155 hotels and resorts across the island now remain open all year, welcoming winter hikers, as well as summer sunseekers. That’s a one hundred percent increase on 2019.
Balearic Islands president Marga Prohens meanwhile has adopted a “value, not volume” approach to the issue, arguing it is possible to increase the value of the sector on the islands without increasing the volume of arrivals. She has also said she is “proud to be the president of a tourist region and precisely because of this, I believe in tourism and the economic model. The time has come to set the limits that you [previous administrations] did not set.”
