Human Pressure Index shows huge rise in tourist numbers

An extra 500,000 people per day join the 1.2 million in the Balearic Islands every May, increasing the population by almost 50%, according to the Human Pressure Index published by the Institut Balear d'Estadística, or Ibestat.

It’s a specific indicator of the number of people in the Balearic Islands on the same day, which is not done in any other Autonomous Community.

Ibestat statisticians count the number of people entering and leaving all Airports and Ports as well as the population of each island, each day.

During the State of Emergency, when there was no possibility of travelling and no tourists on the streets, ther was an average of 1,248,995 people on the Islands, compared to 1,714,663 in May 2019, a difference of 465,668.

The last Human Pressure Index similar to May this year was more than 20 years ago, in 1999 when there were 1,257.98 tourists and just over 800,000 people lived in the Balearic Islands.

Environmental Organisations have said the huge influx of tourists is unacceptable and the GOB is calling for the tourism model to be reviewed with a view to stopping visitors arriving en-masse.

"There cannot be an infinite growth model," says Amadeu Corbera, who says Covid-19 is not an opportunity to rethink the model because this reflection is an "urgent need" given the circumstances and the climatic context. "If they want to keep the model, other crises will come along to show that it must be changed," he said.

The Government says it has been trying to extend the season so that more tourists arrive in the low season and less during the months of July and August.

The coronavirus epidemic this year has disrupted all strategies and efforts are now focused on getting as many tourists as possible to the Balearic Islands in a season that is expected to be catastrophic.

The highest number of people in the Balearics on the same day was 2,078,276 on August 9, 2017, but that record definitely won’t be broken this year.