At the same time, the tourism minister, Jaume Bauzá, was fleshing out the revised tourism of excesses decree, which is now to be known as the decree for responsible tourism and improvement of quality in tourist areas.
So, a frantic day of announcements signalled that the government was, to quote one headline, "declaring war" on tourist overcrowding while it was also introducing measures - further measures - to tackle tourist excesses.
The two main headline elements of all this relate to tourist accommodation places (overcrowding) and to apparent restrictions on the sale of alcohol (excesses).
"It is the first time in history that a Council is adopting a decision as important and brave as reducing the maximum number of tourist places on an island," said Galmés. The number of accommodation places will be cut from 430,000 to 412,000 - 308,000 hotel beds and 104,000 holiday rental beds.
However, and as the opposition PSOE were quick to point out, this 4.2% reduction corresponds with the places that were formally suspended when PSOE were in power at the Council and under the terms of the former government's moratorium on new places of February 2022.
As to the booze, Bauzá confirmed the ban on the sale of alcohol (from shops) between 9.30pm and 8am in those parts of the Balearics currently covered by the tourism of excesses decree. These were the hours established under PSOE's decree of January 2020. All that has happened is that the government, taken aback by an outcry from various business associations, has rectified and will now make these shops close completely between these hours. If it needs pointing out - this is not a ban on bars selling alcohol.
There are only four places in the Balearics to which the decree applies - Playa de Palma, Arenal (Llucmajor), Magalluf and Sant Antoni (Ibiza). The revised decree, it is understood, will see the zone for the decree extended in Llucmajor and reduced in Magalluf.
Other developments include the spending of 16 million euros of tourist tax revenue on security and inspections in these resort areas plus awareness-raising among tourists. There is to be greater control of party boats and the Council of Ibiza will limit the number of vehicles entering the island at those times of the years when there is most tourism (high summer, therefore).
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Basically it's ok to get totally drunk on alcohol bought in a bar or hotel but not if it's bought in a shop.
I suspect this is just the beginning of "a lot of nothing". There is certainly "tourist overcrowding" in certain areas. Traffic in Soller for example, is often pretty bad especially in summer. But overall, I don't think it's quite as bad as some would like to believe, nor are tourists as unwelcome as some would like to imply. The daily parade of bad tourist behaviour is probably quietly fueling much of it. But because it's the theme of the day, the government needs to appear to be "doing something about it". They MUST. Yes, it needs to be managed, which is very very tricky. No matter what they do, a lot of people, businesses, and other interests - from all sides - aren't going to like it. Yes, even the anti-tourists will find something unsavoury about whatever they do. And then there's the political hazards - who gets in and who doesn't? And why? It has all the makings of a big political conflict. No matter what government has the ball. It'll be interesting to watch though. But I doubt whatever they do will actually make much difference in the next 5 years. Unless they somehow manage to scare off a majority of tourism, but that's highly unlikely, and would become a political nightmare. Just watch - if they screw this up, there's going to be screaming from everywhere, and heads will roll. But they know that. They may bark loudly, but they won't likely bite off much. We'll see.
Christopher GrubbSoller is no better than it thinks it is.
These are just a few very reactive actions that will change very little. There needs to be much stronger action on alcohol in a much wider geographic area, really meaningful reductions in tourist accommodation, robust actions to limit the number of hire cars, limiting access of hire cars to towns like Soller, renewal of restrictions on the numbers of cruise ships......etc, etc. No more meaningless actions that are merely playing politics. Take some hard, brave actions please!
Nothing will ever change while the hotels run the islands.