Thousands of demonstrators gather in Mallorca to protest against ‘excessive tourism’ which has inflated property prices, driven up the cost of living and created traffic chaos
Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Mallorca this evening to protest against ‘excessive tourism’, which they say is causing the popular holiday island to become overwhelmed.
Protesters carrying banners with anti-tourism slogans and beating drums gathered in the Plaza de España in the center of the capital Palma de Mallorca.
Police officers armed with batons and stab-resistant vests monitored the area as the demonstration from riot-proof police vans began at 7pm local time.
The city’s main road was closed by authorities as demonstrators marched through the old city. Spectators applauded from the sidewalks as protesters chanted for “help.”
The Spaniards are calling for fewer holiday flights, a stricter approach to cruise ships and reducing the number of available rental cars under this slogan; ‘Mallorca is not for sale!’
Protesters left the march to confront foreigners and tell them to “Go home” as they watched the demonstration go by.
A woman in her sixties shouted: ‘Foreigners Go home, you are killing us! You’re not dropping bombs, you’re killing us with real estate speculation.”
People hold a banner reading ‘Mallorca is not for sale’ as they take part in a protest against mass tourism and gentrification on the island
Locals held up signs reading ‘SOS residents’ and claimed their lives have been seriously affected by tourism on the island
Police officers in riot gear watch as the huge crowds of protesters, including children, march through the city
Protesters holding banners with anti-tourism slogans and beating drums gathered in the capital Palma de Mallorca
People from all walks of life gathered to call for limits on the number of visitors, whom they accuse of ruining the lives of locals by driving up real estate prices, causing traffic jams and driving up the cost of living .
Protesters include teachers, hotel staff, businessmen and pensioners who have told how the huge number of visitors has ruined the once idyllic Spanish sunbathing spot, with one family forced to leave the island due to rising property costs.
Today’s march is the latest anti-tourism protest in Spanish areas, following demonstrations in the Canary Islands, Barcelona and neighboring Ibiza.
Mother-of-three Patri Vecina told MailOnline: ‘We have lived in the same rental house for ten years. But in December the owner told us that he was selling the property to foreigners and that we had to move.
‘I work in the hotel industry and my husband is a builder. We
can’t afford the high price of property in Mallorca, so we were never able to buy our own house.
‘Now that we can no longer afford to live in Mallorca, we are moving to Asturias in the north of Spain.
“It was our dream to raise our children in Mallorca, but that can’t happen.”
Patri and her husband initially paid £500 a month (€500) for the three-bedroom rural house in the center of the island. This rose to £690 a month (€750) before their landlord put the house up for sale.
The country house on the edge of the town of Sencelles is now for sale for £383,000 (€450,000).
Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Mallorca to demonstrate against the impact ‘excessive tourism’ has had on the holiday island (archive photo)
Demonstrators organized another protest on Friday against the overcrowding of tourists in Ibiza
Property prices in Mallorca have more than doubled in the past decade, making the Balearic Islands the most expensive region in Spain after Madrid.
In 2014, a typical 80 square meter house cost an average of £126,000 (€147,000), but this has risen by 208 percent to an average of £263,000 (€308,000), according to Spanish property website Fotocasa. While the national increase across Spain in the same period was 29 percent.
The spike in property prices has been fueled by foreign investors, many of whom have converted family homes into tourist rentals, local campaigners claim.
Laura Lau, from the pressure group El Banc de temps Sencelles which coordinated the demonstration, told MailOnline: ‘Houses and apartments that were family homes have been bought by foreign investors who rent them out to tourists, leaving nothing for locals. This is why property prices in Mallorca have reached unaffordable levels.
‘We need to raise awareness of the housing problem in Mallorca, which already affects us all.
‘Every day someone is looking for a new home because the rent has gone up, or he is being evicted from his house because it is for sale to foreigners.
‘Many of them are now leaving Mallorca because if they work and earn 1,500 euros a month, that is not enough to afford a house.
“We are in a housing crisis. The government should regulate the price of housing.
‘There is no future for Mallorca if the island only benefits property speculators.’
The average salary in Mallorca is around £1,277 (€1,500) per month or £15,324 per year, although the minimum wage on the island is only £965 (€1,134) per month or £11,580 per year.
Teacher Marga Gari talked about how her children will never be able to buy their own house due to the rising cost of living.
Marga, 50, told MailOnline: ‘There are simply too many tourists. My children will never be able to buy their own house because foreigners have increased the price of real estate.
‘Everything is more expensive than it should be because of tourists – food in the market, clothes in shops, everything.
‘You can hardly walk through the streets here in Palma because of the amount of visitors.
‘We don’t blame the foreigners; We blame the government for allowing things to happen so badly.
‘There have to be boundaries; restrictions on the number of aircraft, a limit of one cruise ship per day and a limit on the number of rental cars.’
Protesters in Ibiza hold up posters during a demonstration against tourism on Friday, including one that reads ‘My lawyer lives in a rented car’
Ms Gari claims that many items at Palma’s historic central food market Mercat de l’Olivar are now beyond the reach of locals.
Her colleague Marta Cano, 40, told how she had to move due to the rising cost of housing in the island’s capital Palma.
She told MailOnline: ‘The island is so busy now, in the summer it’s unbearable.
‘I can no longer afford to live downtown [of Palma] because tourists have driven up prices.
‘There are traffic jams and time, and the beaches are so busy.
‘There are people walking around town without their shirts on. This is not the environment I want my two-year-old daughter to grow up in.
‘We leave the island in the summer. I can’t stand it. We go to the north of Spain where there are fewer people, where it is more relaxed. ‘
Businessman Marc Rey told how he is forced to live with his parents because of the cost of real estate.
Marc, 25, a financial adviser, told MailOnline: ‘I have a good job and am well paid, but I can’t afford to buy my own house. So I still live with my parents.
“I have nothing against foreigners, but there has to be a balance between the needs of locals and the visitors who come here.”
Retired banker Pedro Torres claimed that tourists were not solely responsible for overwhelming the island.
He said: ‘In the last ten years around 200,000 people have moved to Mallorca. They are not all tourists, they are people from the mainland and South America. But together they put a lot of pressure on our infrastructure.’
Nurse Catalina Estelrick added: ‘We must limit the number of tourists coming to Mallorca. We are overwhelmed. There are simply too many people.’