Over 20,000 anti-tourism activists protested in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, on Sunday, highlighting concerns about rising housing costs. This is the latest in a series of protests in popular destinations like Barcelona, Malaga, and the Canary Islands. Some 20,000 protesters hit the streets of Sunday for a mass demonstration against overtourism, demanding changes to a touristic model they say is harming the Spanish Mediterranean island.
Under the slogan "Let's change course and set limits on tourism", the demonstrators formed a sea of brightly-coloured flags and banners as they surged through the city's most visited streets, in the latest in a wave of mass anti-tourism protests in Spain. "Your luxury, our misery," read one sign, while another placard said: "This isn't tourismophobia, it's numbers: 1,232,014 residents, 18 million tourists." The protests were called by some 80 organisations and social groups who want limits to be placed on excessive tourism in the Balearic Isles, whose main three islands are Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza.
They say the current model of tourism has stretched public services to breaking point, harms natural resources and makes local access to increasingly difficult. Organisers claimed that 50,000 joined the protests, with police estimating 20,000 participants. Earlier, the central government's delegation in the islands had said 12,000.
Last year, a record 17.8 million people visited the Balearic Islands, from mainland Spain and abroad, and the figures are expected to be even higher this year. Read also:.
