Holidaymakers visiting Majorca have been warned of a few major changes that may restrict the large number of tourists visiting the popular holiday destination.
The Spanish island is considering introducing three things to tackle overtourism.
These changes include converting obsolete hotels into housing, no more tourism promotion, and no more attendance at international tourism fairs, according to a report from the Majorca Daily Bulletin.
The call comes as the Balearic Island witnesses a swathe of recent anti-tourism protests, as locals demand tighter controls on holidaymakers, who they accuse of being rowdy and disruptive, as well as the reason for higher housing prices.
Last month, the Forum of Civil Society in Majorca held its first tourism congress which was attended by the president of the Mallorca Hoteliers Federation, Maria Frontera, Spain’s secretary-of-state for tourism, Rosario Sánchez (who is Mallorcan), and President Marga Prohens.
The experts prepared a roadmap for the island’s future tourism model. On Wednesday, the forum presented the conclusions of the congress.
Their document includes more than 200 proposals to combat saturation and reformulate the tourism model of the Balearic Islands which include Majorca, Ibiza and Menorca.
Spokesperson Jaume Garau said: “The public and business sector is simply talking about limiting tourist arrivals, but that would not be sustainable because it is no longer sustainable. There is only one option and that is degrowth.”
Degrowth, he explained, which should be done “little by little” and “without leaving anyone behind” so that it does not result in a loss of employment.
Mr Garau and the forum’s president, Joana Maria Palou, stressed that measures such as those proposed in the congress document will have to be adopted sooner or later in other parts of the world that suffer from the same problems as the Balearics.