Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Majorca this evening to protest against “excessive tourism” which they say is overwhelming the popular holiday island.
Protesters holding banners with anti-tourism slogans and banging drums gathered in the Plaza de España in the center of the capital Palma de Mallorca.
Police armed with batons and wearing body armor monitored the area as the protest from riot police vans began at 7 p.m. local time.
People from all walks of life have come together to demand a limit on the number of visitors, who they accuse of ruining residents’ lives by inflating property prices, causing traffic jams and driving up the cost of living.
They included teachers, hotel workers, businessmen and retirees who told how the large number of visitors had ruined this once idyllic spot in Spain, with one family forced to leave the island in due to the dizzying rise in the cost of real estate.
Spaniards are calling for fewer holiday flights, a crackdown on cruise ships and a drastic reduction in the number of rental cars available under the slogan: ; “Majorca is not for sale!”
It is the latest anti-tourism protest across Spain’s territories, following demonstrations in the Canary Islands, Barcelona and neighboring Ibiza.
Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Majorca to protest against the impact of ‘excessive tourism’ on the holiday island (file photo)
Demonstrators protest against tourist overcrowding in Ibiza on Friday.
Mother-of-three Patri Vecina told MailOnline: ‘We have been living in the same rented house for ten years. But in December the owner told us he was selling the property to foreigners and we would have to move.
“I work in the hotel industry and my husband is a builder. We
We can’t afford the inflated property prices in Mallorca, so we have never been able to buy our own house.
“Now that we can no longer afford to live in Majorca, we are moving to Asturias, in the north of Spain.
“It was our dream to raise our children in Mallorca but it can’t happen.”
Patri and her husband initially paid £500 a month (500 euros) for the three-bedroom rural house in the center of the island. This amount rose to £690 per month (750 euros) before their owner put the house up for sale.
The country house on the outskirts of the town of Sencelles is now for sale for £383,000 (450,000 euros).
Property prices in Mallorca have more than doubled over the past ten years, making the Balearic Islands the second most expensive region in Spain after Madrid.
In 2014, a typical 80 square meter house cost on average £126,000 (147,000 euros), but this increased by 208 percent to an average of £263,000 (308,000 euros), according to the Spanish property site Fotocasa. While the national increase across Spain as a whole was 29 percent during the same period.
The surge in property prices has been fueled by foreign investors, many of whom have turned their family homes into tourist rental accommodation, local activists say.
Laura Lau, of the pressure group El Banc de temps Sencelles which coordinated the protest, told MailOnline: “Houses and apartments that were family residences have been bought by foreign investors who rent them out to tourists and leave nothing to the local population. This is why property prices in Mallorca have reached unaffordable levels.
“We need to raise awareness about the housing problem in Mallorca, which already concerns us all.
“Every day, people are looking for new accommodation because their rent has increased or because they are being evicted from their accommodation because it has been put up for sale to foreigners.
“Many of them are now leaving Mallorca because when they work and earn 1,500 euros a month, it is not enough for them to afford accommodation.
“We are in a housing emergency. The government must regulate the price of housing.
“There is no future for Mallorca if the island is solely for the profit of property speculators.”
The average salary in Majorca is around £1,277 (1,500 euros) per month or £15,324 per year, although the island’s minimum wage is just £965 (1,134 euros) per month or 11 £580 per year.
Teacher Marga Gari said her children will never be able to afford to buy their own house due to the skyrocketing cost of living.
Marga, 50, told MailOnline: ‘There are just too many tourists. My children will never be able to buy their own house because foreigners have pushed up house prices.
“Everything is more expensive than it should be because of tourists: food in the market, clothes in the stores, everything.
“Here in Palma, it is difficult to walk the streets due to the number of visitors.
“We don’t blame foreigners; we blame the government for allowing things to deteriorate to this point.
“There must be limits; limits on the number of planes, a limit of one cruise ship per day and a limit on the number of rental cars.
Protesters in Ibiza hold up posters, including one reading “My lawyer lives in a rental car”, during an anti-tourism rally on Friday.
Ms Gari says many items at Palma’s historic Mercat de l’Olivar central food market are now out of reach of locals.
Her colleague Marta Cano, 40, told how she had to move due to skyrocketing housing costs in Palma, the island’s capital.
She told MailOnline: ‘The island is so crowded now that in summer it’s unbearable.
“I can no longer afford to live in the center (of Palma) because tourists have driven up prices.
“There are traffic jams and schedules, and the beaches are very busy.
“There are people walking around town without shirts. This is not the environment I want my two-year-old daughter to grow up in.
“In summer, we leave the island. I can not support it. We are going to the north of Spain where there are fewer people, where it is more relaxed. ‘
Businessman Marc Rey has told how he is forced to live with his parents due to the cost of property.
Marc, 25, a financial consultant, told MailOnline: ‘I have a good job and I’m well paid but I can’t afford to buy my own place. So I still live with my parents.
“I have nothing against foreigners but there must be a balance between the needs of the local population and those of the visitors who come here.”
Retired banker Pedro Torres said tourists were not the only ones to blame for the island’s overflow.
He said: “In the last ten years, around 200,000 people have moved to Mallorca. They’re not all tourists, they’re people from the continent and South America. But together they create a lot of pressure on our infrastructure.
Nurse Catalina Estelrick added: “We need to limit the number of tourists coming to Mallorca. We are overwhelmed. There are just too many people.
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