PROTESTERS are preparing to take over Majorca’s beaches in a new stand over mass tourism to "squeeze" out foreign tourists.
Saturday’s march in Palma involved around 15,000 people - and the organisers promised: "This is just the start of things."
A group calling itself Mallorca Platja Tour - Majorca Beach Tour in Catalan - has now started an online campaign urging locals to “occupy” the island’s beaches.
A first show of strength is being organised for this Saturday at Sa Rapita Beach on the island's south coast to promote a “big event” on June 16 with the slogan: “We fill the beach with Majorcans.”
The latest campaign appears to have been sparked by the comments of Manuela Canadas, spokesman for far-right wing party Vox in the Balearic Islands’ regional parliament.
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She responded to Saturday’s protest by saying: "I understand the discontent but us Mallorcans, who live directly or indirectly from tourism, cannot expect to go to the beach in July and August like we did years ago."
Claiming protests like Saturday’s demo sent out tourism-phobic messages, she added: "There are other more attractive destinations and we can end up going hungry because here’s there a lack of jobs."
Mallorca Platja Tour already has more than 1,100 followers on X - despite only opening an account on Tuesday with a link to a local newspaper article about the Vox politician’s comments.
One, commenting on the idea of a beach protest, said: "I think it’s a great idea, a local resident getting to his beach or cove earlier than a foreigner after a night of revelry."
Mallorca Platja Tour uses the hashtag #OcupemLesNostresPlatges - Catalan for "Let’s Occupy Our Beaches".
They said: "We invite all the residents near the beaches to go for a swim, recover our beaches and enjoy them as before.
"Prepare the trampoline, healthy pineapple and apricots to spend the day there."
The group added: "We want to make it clear we’re not organising this to protest but to take a dip in the sea in response to Vox’s words. The beaches belong to everyone.
"This Saturday June 1 we will meet up to organise the big event for Sunday June 16."
The campaign got underway as Palma’s mayor Jaime Martínez said he would propose measures to tackle the number of tourists entering the island capital.
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He said he was considering measures limiting or banning party boats and modifying legislation so that when bars and nightclubs closed, they couldn’t be reopened with the same type of licences.
This is just the start of things. If measures aren’t taken we will continue taking to the streets until we see action
Javier Barbero
"Tourist Go Home" graffiti reappeared in Majorca this week following Saturday’s protest in Palma - which led to organisers apologising for the abuse foreign holidaymakers received.
The words "Go Home Tourist" were scrawled last month over a wall underneath a real estate promotion billboard in Nou Llevant near the island capital Palma.
Island newspaper Diario de Mallorca described it at the time as the first example of tourism-phobia in the neighbourhood.
It said it was targeted at "new foreign residents" following the purchase of recently-built properties by Germans.
Yesterday it emerged more graffiti had been scrawled on access signs to the Tramontana mountains.
Local press said the same messages had been left on entrance signs to villages like Valldemossa or Deia - which are swamped by visitors from late spring onwards.
Foreign visitors were booed and jeered by some locals among the thousands who joined in Saturday’s demo as they ate evening meals on terraces in the island capital Palma’s Weyler Square.
Marchers were heard chanting "tourists go home" as they passed through the central square on the 20-minute route from the park where the protest began to iconic street Paseo del Borne.
The Palma protest was organised by Banc del Temps, a group which hails from the inland Majorcan town of Sencelles.
It claimed 25,000 people joined in the demo, although government officials have put the figure at around 10,000.
After some holidaymakers were targeted, spokesman Javier Barbero said: “We didn’t want to have a go at tourists and it shouldn’t have happened.”
But promising a repeat of Saturday’s action, he said: "This is just the start of things.
"If measures aren’t taken we will continue taking to the streets until we see action."
Banc del Temps has demanded that only people who have been living in the Balearic Islands for five years should be allowed to buy property.
They have also asked for a moratorium on holiday rentals.
One of its speakers said: "This island should be a place where our children can grow up with safety and dignity, with controlled tourism that doesn’t condition our lives."
The protest, the largest of its kind since last month’s Canary Islands’ demos against mass tourism, was the second in 24 hours in the Balearic Islands.
This island should be a place where our children can grow up with safety and dignity, with controlled tourism that doesn’t condition our lives
Anti-tourist campaigner
Last Friday night, around 1,000 protesters took part in a demo in Ibiza to vent their anger over the effects of mass tourism.
Campaigners held up banners saying "we don’t want an island of cement" and "tourism, yes but not like this" as they massed outside Ibiza Council’s HQ.
The organisers of the Ibiza demo, a group called Prou Eivissa, met with Ibiza’s president Vicent Mari before taking to the streets.
Their demands include a limit on the number of vehicles that can enter the island in summer and a ban on using taxpayers’ cash to promote Ibiza as a tourist destination.
Another Majorcan-based association, called Menys Turisme, which translates into English as ‘Less Tourism, More Life’ is currently taking proposals for another more radical protest which could involve mass gathering outside hotels or on an iconic island beach.
The idea of an airport protest in the peak tourist season which involves collapsing Palma Airport with cars has also been discussed.
Some foreign holidaymakers have shown their support for the issues raised by campaigners - but others have accused them of biting the hand that feeds them.
