According to a press release issued by the organisation, the protest action took place last Thursday in the Plaça de la Constitució, “one of the most crowded areas in Alcudia”.
Members of the movement met in the square to show “the little free space left to walk and use as residents of the town”.
In addition, the Moviment Alcudienc read a manifesto in which they spoke of their “concern for the transformation the town has undergone over the years”. “Alcudia is disappearing as a stable nucleus of coexistence and is becoming a showcase at the service of tourists,” they added.
They complained that there is a “disappearance of traditional shops, privatisation of public space, more inland hotels, more tourist rentals, saturation of beaches, consumption of resources, environmental degradation and overload of infrastructures”.
As a consequence of this tourist model, they continued, “the town is losing its identity in leaps and bounds and the residents are being displaced”.
In addition, they also complained that “it is very difficult to access housing due to the exaggerated price of rents and that a totally precarious service sector predominates”.
They also referred to the policies of recent years which, “despite the fact that they have been selling the idea that they were trying to solve the problem, they have not confronted this model and have simply dedicated themselves to making timid reforms, such as the law on circularity in the tourism sector, the moratorium on tourist places and the law on waste”.
The organisation has encouraged the council and the opposition parties to take “more forceful” measures, such as “opposing the lifting of the moratorium on tourist places, limiting and controlling the number of tables that bars can lay out on their terraces, or using public space and buildings for residents with the aim of facilitating their participation in the public life of the municipality”.
3 comments
To be able to write a comment, you have to be registered and logged in
I think that the protest group is slightly missing the point in Alcúdia. Yes, the number of tourist ‘beds’ has increased. BUT the change in allocation of ETV licences, has pretty much stopped any more holiday rentals coming on to the market. So that’s stabilised the situation. Just ‘police’ illegal rentals and the situation is sorted. And control licences for new boutique hotels. Easy. BUT it’s not that simple. Because the tourist ‘bed’ numbers isn’t the problem. The problem for Alcúdia is the mass of day tripping tourist, who swarm the village on market days and in the evenings, buying up all the cheap tat and inflating prices for ordinary residents. The streets are crowded, the stalls (other than the fruit and veg sellers) are packed with cheap illegal ‘knock off labels’ aimed at tourists and restaurant prices have doubled. There seems little if any control. On top of this hideous ‘pirate’ ice cream shops and tacky photo studios have been allowed to pop up, offering themed tat for the less stylist tourist. The protesters have a point. They’ve just misjudged the problem. Food (greasy and over priced) for thought.
I didn’t notice this protest. Maybe there were too many tourists about. Alcúdia is becoming a victim of its own success and is seen as a destination to visit by the vast hordes that stay in the port. The ETVs and boutique hotels in the town are enough in number now but the coach loads visiting daily are making the place seem very full. Consequently the restaurants churn out mostly expensive plap and there are rubbishy tourist shops muscling out any nicer boutiques. There’s Nothing of any culture in the town. Just the static history of the place. Why the town hall haven’t got to grips with the sameness of the commercial offer is astounding, as is the fact that many of the restaurants in the town are owned by the same person. There’s not even competition going on and this monopoly is inflating prices beyond what any sensible person or local would pay. But enough tourists do, it seems. Let’s see if the new administration can improve things. Until then Alcudia is best avoided in August.
Turkeys voting for Christmas...