The centre right Partido Popular party of Manacor today, Tuesday, denounced the proliferation of vandalism graffiti against tourism in different locations of the municipality. The party has urged Manacor Town Hall to “condemn the graffiti” and to “collaborate in cleaning it all up immediately, despite the fact that they are located in privately owned spaces”, the PP said in a press release.
The PP spokeswoman, Maria Antònia Sansó, stressed that “this graffiti do not represent, in any case, the majority feeling of the residents of Manacor”. The councillor insisted that tourists are and will be welcome in the Mallorcan town. According to Sansó, the PP understands the growing social unrest in relation to tourist overcrowding, but denounces this behaviour as “totally unjustified”.
The spokeswoman criticised the “absolute lack of tourism management on the part of the left” and said that her party will face the challenge of managing tourism, debating, agreeing and adopting measures through the social and political pact for sustainability on the islands.
With just four weeks of peak season left, the anti-tourism movement is not helping and certain sectors of the tourist industry are finally admitting that the season has not panned out quite as forecast back in the spring.
And in Menorca, the environmental group GOB’s protest against tourist overcrowding organised on Saturday in Cala en Turqueta has unleashed the wrath of Vox’s coordinator in Menorca, Santiago Barber, who on his social networks has branded the promoters of this action as “unpresentable” and “delinquents” for having “prevented free access to a public place”.
From early Saturday morning, a group of 250 people coordinated to fill the public parking spaces of the beach and the bus that covers the route from Ciutadella to the beach for six hours, which in practice prevented tourists getting to the beach. On the sand, a mosaic of towels and the activists’ bodies with the message “SOS Menorca”. “You are the worst of Menorca”, said Santiago Barber in one of the reaction messages on his XMinorca account.
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Frisky SaladGreat comment thank you!
Charles Dalrymple-ChumleyI am from Mallorca (born and raised) and while I agree that tourism plays a huge part of our economy, we could do perfectly fine with half of it. The vast majority of the money that gets here is not getting back into the flow and instead is being invested into purchasing/building more houses and agrotourisms (I think that's the translation?) which have massive overinflated prices (for example some 60~70-something square meters houses being built and sold in Arenal for the cheap price of... 1.000.000€. Those houses are not built for us. They are built for people who come from other countries with better economy and purchasing power. Our beaches are being overmassified and we (and neither you!) can't enjoy them. Restaurant and bar prices have gone through the roof because they're being adapted for people nobody cares if they come back since they will just come and go. People like you saying that without tourism we will go to hell don't know how much it is really affecting us and are causing a LOT of harm to us residents.
Marvin Le MartianIn reality, the overwhelming normality here is, well, pretty normal (with a few exceptions). But it wouldn't be newsworthy if there was nothing to report. Besides, "fury and outrage" always gets attention.
Zoltan TeglasAgreed. Publishing every piece of snot just gives more oxygen to the story and whips up further hysteria. Are you paying attention MDB?
TawnyYes.
Zoltan TeglasImagine walking down the street *as a tourist* with your family. It is definitely not something to easily get over with, no matter who wrote it. What if that person actually had malicious intent? Not fun...
Zoltan TeglasThat particular graffiti may be but the movement itself is run by adults who should know better. The whole thing is insane. What worldwide exporting industries or services does Mallorca have besides tourism? None. A bit of fruit and oil but not nearly enough to sustain the island. There will be economic repercussions to this campaign and they will affect the families of protestors. How crazy is that. Then again, lots of Brits with second homes in Europe and businesses exporting into the EU voted for Brexit so you just can't tell people how stupid they are behaving.
Marvin Le MartianI assume you are talking about the city and not the various lovely beaches....?
There is also "Trump 2024" scrawled on the wall at the Ciutat Jardin exit roundabout off the MA-19 Santanyi motorway! It makes me laugh out loud every time i see it!
It's probably one idiot teenager trying to impress his mates. Why publish it, you've just encouraged it. Ignore it, clean it off straight away and the problem is gone