More ‘tourists go home’ graffiti has appeared in Mallorca following a weekend of protests in Palma as activists threaten to bring the island’s airport to a standstill.
About 10,000 residents took to the streets of Mallorca’s capital Palma this weekend, shouting “tourists home” as they demanded curbs on mass tourism.
As reported by El Nationala campaign group known as Menys Turisme, Mes Vida (Less Tourism, More Life), has said they could ‘collapse’ Palma airport, which according to The times received 31.1 million passengers last year.
The tactic, first proposed at a citizens’ meeting in the Majorcan town of Sineu, also involves creating a traffic jam outside the airport.
“It is a proposal that has no place in a society like the one we live in today, a measure currently classified as a crime,” said Jaume Bauza, Minister of Tourism for the Balearic Islands.
Anti-tourist graffiti appeared in Mallorca after a weekend of protests in Palma.
Protesters shout at shocked holidaymakers enjoying dinner and drinks in Palma this weekend.
An estimated 15,000 locals joined the protest which wound through the capital Palma and towards Weyler Square, where holidaymakers were out in droves for food and drinks.
The colloquial expression ‘Guiri’ is used to describe British holidaymakers known for partying and heavy drinking, usually in a mildly offensive manner.
Protesters carrying banners with anti-tourism slogans and beating drums gathered in the center of the capital Palma as tourists headed for their evening meal.
Protesters hold a banner reading ‘Mallorca is not for sale’ during a demonstration to protest mass tourism and house prices
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The groups also discussed the possibility of blocking the main port and other tourist sites such as Calo des Moro and Es Trenc beaches.
Bauza compared the tactic to Tsunami Democratic, a Catalan independence group that closed Barcelona’s El Prat airport in 2019.
He also warned that state security forces would be called in to tackle the protests if necessary, El Nacional reported.
On Wednesday, graffiti with the words ‘Tourists Go Home’ appeared on entrance signs pointing towards the island’s Tramontana Mountains.
This comes after the same anti-tourism slogan was scrawled on a wall under a property promotion billboard in Nou Llevant near Palma last month.
These are just some of the latest examples of anti-tourism sentiment, after foreign visitors enjoying their evening meals in central Palma were harassed by protestors holding placards on Saturday.
Among the banners carried by the activists was one with the offensive message: ‘Salvem Mallorca, guiris arruix’, which in Catalan Spanish means ‘Let’s save Mallorca, foreigners out’.
It played on the colloquial Spanish expression Guiri used to depict Northern European tourists such as the British holidaymakers partying in Magaluf, usually in a mildly offensive manner.
Another sign said in Catalan: “Where you look, it’s all guiris.”
The protest in Palma was organized by Banc del Temps, a group based in the town of Sencelles in Mallorca’s interior and has claimed that 25,000 people took part in the demonstration, although government officials put the number at around 10,000.
Spokesman Javier Barbero said of the attacks on some holidaymakers: “We did not want to attack tourists and that should not have happened.”
However, he warned that “this is just the beginning.”
“If no action is taken, we will continue to take to the streets until we see action.”
The protest, the largest of its kind since last month’s demonstration in the Canary Islands against mass tourism, was the second in 24 hours in the Balearic Islands.
Last Friday evening, about a thousand demonstrators gathered in Ibiza to express their anger about the consequences of mass tourism.
Campaigners held up banners reading ‘We don’t want an island made of cement’ and ‘Tourism, yes, but not like this’ as they gathered outside the Ibiza council headquarters.
The organizers of the Ibiza protest, a group called Prou Eivissa, met with Ibiza’s president, Vicent Mari, before taking to the streets.
Anti-tourist graffiti appeared on walls and benches in and around Palm Mar in southern Tenerife last month.
The image shows the words ‘Go Home’ on a rental car in Tenerife.
Their demands include a limit on the number of vehicles allowed onto the island in summer and a ban on the use of taxpayer money to promote Ibiza as a tourist destination.
After Catalonia, the Balearic Islands were Spain’s second most popular region for tourists last year, with 14.4 million holidaymakers, according to the Spanish National Institute of Statistics.
Tourism generates 45% of the island’s GDP, according to Exceltur.
Protests against tourism in Spain are not exclusive to the Balearic Islands.
Last month, graffiti also appeared on walls and benches in and around Palm Mar in southern Tenerife, Canary Islands, reading ‘tourists go home’ and ‘my misery, your paradise’, after thousands took to the streets calling for to a temporary limit on tourist arrivals.
After local politicians cleared the way for tourists to have to pay a fee to visit the island’s natural areas from early next year, the words ‘Canarias Tiene un limite’ – English for ‘The Canary Islands have a limit’ – subsequently appeared painted on the asphalt of one of the access roads to Mount Teide.
Another message painted on the road read: ‘Moratoria turistica’ – ‘Tourism moratorium’ in English.’
The Canary Islands are Spain’s third most popular tourist destination.
Some foreign holidaymakers have expressed support for the issues raised by the campaigners, but others have accused them of biting the hand that feeds them.