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ARCHIVED - Mallorca to cap tourist numbers as locals complain about overcrowding
The Spanish island plans to limit the amount of accommodation available to tourists
Mallorca is one of Spain’s main tourist destinations and is especially popular with British travellers, but now the local government is threatening to cap the number of visitors allowed each summer as the island was overrun with rowdy holidaymakers this past season.
The Balearic Island authorities have made no secret of their desire to stamp out so-called drunken tourism and several tough regulations have been introduced in recent months to cut down on disorderly behaviour. Even so, locals have complained that the streets were taken over this summer by boozy travellers and the Mallorca Council has responded to their protests by confirming that, from now on, a limit will be set on the number of beds marketed to tourists.
The island authorities have also vowed to employ more inspectors in a bid to crack down on accommodation being illegally rented to visitors.
Island president Catalina Cladera said: “We want tourism of greater value and less volume and the new tourism law marks the roadmap with the moratorium and the blocking of new places.
“I will not deny it, this summer there has been overcrowding in some points.”
However, not everyone is happy about the controversial decision, and budget accommodations in particular are worried that the move will run smaller family establishments out of business. To mitigate this, the authorities have allocated 10 million euros to buy up “lesser standard holiday accommodation” – one and two-star hotels, essentially – with the view to renovating and marketing them towards a different kind of clientele.
Far from appeased, the Spanish Association of Hotel Managers and Directors (AEDH) claims that 321 businesses will be ruined and 2,500 jobs lost in the process.
“It will ruin small hotels and hostels with two or fewer stars, most of them run by island families who are going to lose their main source of income by seeing their hotels expropriated for ridiculous prices,” AEDH claims.
Image: Archive
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