Protesters in Spain, angered by the effects of mass tourism on local housing and services, have once again taken to the streets of holiday destinations popular with Brits and waved signs telling them to ‘go home.’
A peaceful Sunday for tourists trying to relax in both Majorca and Ibiza was destroyed by the loud clamour of thousands of demonstrators who swarmed the streets in a bid to force politicians to take action.
Many looked on, stunned, as angry locals demanded an end to the floods of cruise ships, private jets, and holiday let landlords, that they say are causing housing costs to spike and ruining their beautiful sun-drenched islands in the Balearics.
At one point in the protest, which organisers claim saw 30,000 people march in Palma, Majorca, police had to intervene to protect tourists who were enjoying a drink at a bar in the centre of the city, with protesters gesticulating, banging drums, and jeering at the seated holidaymakers.
The march began at 6pm in the heart of Palma, with a smaller protest also taking place in Ibiza, with the crowds disrupting many of the islands’ visitors’ evening meals while the group chanted “tourists go home” and waved placards reading “Majorca is not for sale,” and “Your vacations, our anxiety.”
Some at the demonstrations also voiced their anger at “guiris”, the local term for Brits or foreigners in general, but the main focus was on the scourge of Airbnb-style landlords who have turned over large swathes of residential housing into holiday lets, causing rents to rise.
A local resident told the Mail: “I’m protesting because I don’t want 80 per cent of my money to go on rent. I don’t want to be forced to speak only English or German in my apartment block.
“I don’t want my friends to have to go to the mainland when they have children just to be able to afford a dignified life, a lot of us are fed up.”
A 32-year-old with a Masters degree who lives in Majorca said: “I’m here because I cannot afford to buy my own place, I’m having to live with my parents because the rent is also too much.
“There are also far too many people coming to the island for holiday, our resources cannot cope, there needs to be a limit.”
Spain’s Balearic Islands received over 15 million international visitors last year, while only having a population of around 1.2 million. Some estimates of the numbers of homes being used as holiday accommodation in some tourism hotspots is believed to be as high as one in three.
More demonstrations like the one on Sunday are planned for the summer and not just in the Balearics, with large-scale protests planned in mainland destinations like Barcelona as well as the sun-seekers’ favourite, the Canary Islands. In previous years, this has seen major disruption for holidaymakers, with protesters confronting people sunbathing on the beach and even getting in full-throated arguments with angered tourists.