Both mayor and councillor referred to the positive signs for employment and employers in the city, Hila observing that there has been a lengthening of the peak tourism season. This, he noted, was a good thing in that it provides more jobs.
As has been well reported, the increased tourism activity in the city has supposedly brought with it a downside as well as plusses in the form of jobs.Too many tourists have been making residents feel overwhelmed by their presence - the so-called saturation. Hila, however, did not believe that there was such a saturation. He accepted that in certain parts of the centre of the city residents may feel overwhelmed. But he didn't consider the increased numbers to necessarily be a bad thing, noting that Augusts of the past have produced similar situations.
He pointed to the introduction of different access points to the city for cruise-ship passengers as being a means of alleviating sensations of being overwhelmed, but his message was probably as political as it was social. While he was on holiday in August, Aurora Jhardi of Som Palma (Hila is with PSOE) stood in as acting mayor and announced that it was "clearer than ever" that Palma had reached its limit when it comes to tourism. She insisted that the time had come to "minimise the damage".
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Works both ways.The residents of Barcelona, Venice, Rome, Palma and other popular tourist places ( dare I mention London ? ) want to be able to take cruises to over crowded caribbean and indian ocean islands whenever it takes their fancy," just because they can afford it".
I tell you what isnt saturated? RCD Mallorca's home games. 8,000 or so when the tickets cost between €5 and €15. Perhaps we should just channel the weekend cruise ship holidaymakers straight to the Iberostar and double the attendance. Maybe even get some red coats from the ship to play as well, can't do any worse than the bottom of the table rubbish we have now!
The problem isnt the number of people its the quality. Palma may be full, but go to the lanes behind Borne and the shops are empty. Low cost flights (you can get them now for €30 each way to England/Germany brings low spend people. Look around and you will see 9 in 10 people just window shop and then just buy an ice cream or fat coke and thats their spending for the day. Combine that with them staying in apartments or really cheap inclusive hotels and the result is they add nothing to the Island and actually use up valuable resources. That is the real problem with too many tourists.
Well, why not close the airport for non - residents. No more damn tourist problems, no more Ecotasa arguments. Mallorca back to the '50's and everybody happy again. No more competition for the hotels to worry about, nobody taking their family to the airport and upsetting the poor taxi drivers.
I'm getting a real sense of deja vu, here.Both Barcelona and Rome have had disgruntled residents for years. A dissatisfaction that local politicians ignored, to their peril. Now, there's mass demonstrations on the streets almost weekly. How long before we see Palma citizens out protesting?I noticed over the weekend on TV that Venice is the latest tourist location to witness mass demonstrations by locals against saturation. I also saw a major increase in anti-tourist posters all over Montmatre in Paris recently, too.Whether or not Mallorca needs the tourist revenue, nobody can claim that this does not come at a cost to local residents.
Oh please! Lets put this to bed. There's only one thing worse the too many tourists and that's too little tourists. What do they want? Back to sitting under olive trees tending their goats. I'm a regular visitor to Palma and I have never felt overwhelmed by crowds of people.