Mallorca – “A neo-tourism in which residents are second or third-class people”

In the spring the forum presented its vision of the future of tourism in Mallorca. This more or less coincided with the Balearic Government’s announcement of its social and political pact for sustainability. Both developments were at a time in early spring when scenes of road congestion appeared to mark a genuine shift in attitude on behalf of the Partido Popular, the party of the government and of the Council of Mallorca. For the first time, the PP began to admit the potential need for tourism limits.

The pact was to offer “spaces for dialogue”. The forum, via its component elements, became involved in what promised to be a process for reaching consensus as to the way forward in tackling the negative consequences of overtourism. On Monday (November 25) the forum will decide whether or not to continue being part of the pact.

“It’s very difficult to reach a consensus, which is what was theoretically intended,” says Jaume Garau. “The number of people and issues to be discussed and the little time we have makes it really cumbersome and very unproductive. There’s very little debate. We all say the same things we’re used to saying all the time. There’s no creativity.

“It’s all supposed to be supervised by a committee of experts. This either doesn’t exist or is being kept secret. Emails are being sent but you don’t know what people are saying or what proposals are being made in order to be able to debate them. There are too many groups and issues that make it a very cumbersome methodology. It’s not just the forum saying this; there are a lot of people who are burned out.

“We proposed that this committee should be made up of qualified people from the private and public sectors and from civil society who could present new ideas. But this has not been done. The debate is not well focused and we told the government this months ago. What has never happened, for example, is for the hoteliers to speak directly with the citizens or their representatives. This said, we have had our own meetings with the Mallorca Hoteliers Federation, with Riu Hotels, with TUI. And we have noticed an interest on their part in having civil society participate in the debate on the tourism model.”

The hoteliers therefore consider the forum a valid “interlocutor” in the debate, but Garau insists that the government doesn’t place the forum on the same level as the hoteliers or tour operators.

“There has only ever really been dialogue between hoteliers and political parties – not with civil society. But tourism has changed so much over the past ten years. There are the large cruise ships, which have caused a disaster in the Bay of Palma; indiscriminate and illegal holiday rentals have grown, which do a great deal of harm to everyone. And there has also been an impossible growth in tourism in general. Yet hoteliers have changed their perception. They know that they cannot pilot a tourism that goes against residents. There is a European awareness of this problem. Wherever you go, they talk about this conflict between tourism and residents.

“Several phenomena came together. First, there was huge youth discontent in Spain that was reflected in the 15-M movement. People couldn’t see a future and the housing problem was already at the centre of this. Then came the so-called collaborative networks, which are nothing other than a business model of large corporations such as Airbnb that have allowed someone in Palma to rent a flat for a week to someone from Germany. The size of cruise ships has doubled. All of this has combined to create highly critical public awareness of tourism. Everything is linked to a kind of neo-tourism that is part of a savage international business controlled by large corporations and in which residents become second or third-class people.”

Garau accepts that holiday lets cannot be singled out as being the sole culprits. However, he points to the huge increase in holiday-let places (beds) in Mallorca over the past ten years – from 10,000 to 100,000. “The illegal offer must be done away with, just like obsolete hotels, which must be transformed into public housing for rent.”

The politicians speak all the time about tourism quality over quantity; they’ve been speaking in these terms since at least the turn of the millennium. On this, Garau says he is not against luxury tourism. “But we shouldn’t fantasise about its possibilities either. There are not that many people who pay 500 or 1,000 euros per night. Those who do, travel all over the world, so they rarely become loyal to a specific destination. If they come, that’s fine, but they are not a strategic target. The target is a responsible tourist who respects the environment and knows not to waste water or electricity. An ecologist tourist – which is the least you can ask today.”