Beach in Mallorca

Tourism recovery has produced figures like those in 2019. | Archive

Andrew EdePalma08/09/2022 06:47
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On Wednesday, the Balearic Institute of Statistics (Ibestat) published the Human Pressure Index data for June. On June 25, there were 1,849,641 people in the Balearics, 600,000 more than the resident population. This was only slightly below the 2019 record for June - 1,851,932 on the 24th. But the minimum for 2019 was exceeded - 1,724,873 people on June 1. In June, there were more people than ever on the islands.

The maximum reached during June corresponded to the minimum in August 2019, which was on August 31. The absolute record for people in a single day in the Balearics is 2,071,124 on August 9, 2017, the two million threshold having been exceeded in 2015 for the first time.

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Tourism can't solely be blamed for greater human pressure.

Average human pressure has risen almost 500,000 in 20 years

The Ibestat data indicate that this June there were 500,000 more people on the islands than 20 years, bearing in mind that the resident population is getting on for 400,000 higher than it was twenty years ago.

These figures are of course central to the debates regarding tourist saturation and overpopulation. In this regard, an opposition party, El Pi, registered a motion on Wednesday for the Balearic parliament to "debate and establish a clear strategy to deal with saturation and overexploitation". Spokesperson Josep Melià said that it is up to the government to initiate a process to deal with growth that is "unsustainable". "We can't fit everyone into the islands."