The rally against tourism intensification on Tuesday. | Jaume Morey

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Tuesday was World Tourism Day, and Palma was one of a number of cities in southern Europe where there was a demonstration "to denounce the impacts and consequences of tourism intensification after the pandemic and in the context of climate crisis".

Some thirty groups in Mallorca created a human chain around the Consolat de Mar, the Balearic government's headquarters. Before forming the chain, the writer Sebastià Alzamora read a manifesto, which stressed the need to stop a volume of tourism "that is leading us to catastrophe". "After Covid, we find ourselves facing aggressive, massive and overflowing tourism."

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Alzamora said that "the supposed benefits of tourism this year do not prevent the anguish of autumn and winter and the uncertainty of workers ahead of the next season". "The only possible sustainability is degrowth, with limited places and arrivals, without infrastructure expansion, and economic diversification to meet real needs rather than a predatory model that excessively consumes goods, services and common areas."

Maribel Alcázar of the Palma federation of residents associations insisted that "this is not tourismphobia but the desire for tourism to be integrated into real sustainability and be compatible with the well-being of society".