Your seven days news round-up in Mallorca

At the same time as the Forum for Civil Society was letting it be known that it has resumed talks with Mallorca's hoteliers and with TUI in seeking beneficial changes to the island's tourism model, one of the forum's members was attaching its name to a letter on social media urging tourists not to come to Mallorca. The letter, which was posted on Friday last week, has come to be referred to as the 'GOB letter', the environmentalists having been one of the seven signatories and arguably the most significant of the seven, largely on account of their 50-year-plus existence. It was really the Menys Turisme Més Vida (Less Tourism More Life) letter, GOB being associated with this movement as well and having been present at the gathering in Manacor last month to discuss new protest actions.

Since its posting last Friday, the reactions to it from others critical of tourism, such as the Forum for Civil Society, have been conspicuous by their absence. There hasn't been follow-up by the signatories either. Perhaps they all feel that the letter has done its talking for them. Just as silent have been business organisations and political parties, both right and left. The only obvious statement referring to the letter has come from the tourism minister, Jaume Bauzá. Maybe they haven't wanted to draw attention to the letter, though one might have anticipated certain political parties having something of a field day.

Another way of interpreting the general silence was that not a great deal of importance was attached to the letter. In PR terms for Mallorca it wasn't a great look, but the issues covered in the letter weren't new. Describing tourists as the problem and asking them not to come was similarly not new except in terms of a more overt manner. As the letter appeared on Friday, a weekend intervened, after which the letter would have been far less demanding of a response and indeed of media attention.

It did also perhaps highlight different approaches pursued by tourism critics. The Forum for Civil Society said a few days later that it would continue to "support social mobilisations that question the current tourism model and the problems it fuels, such as the housing crisis and the carrying capacity of our islands". But the forum is concerned with the political influence it can exert. This may mean a return to the government's stability pact, while discussions to find solutions with major players like TUI are ongoing. To this end, the forum and the tour operator are looking to establish an observatory of tourist arrivals and the impact of these arrivals on matters such as the environment.

The slowness of overcrowding measures

A drawback with this is the time it may take, the forum itself having cited the slowness of procedures as a reason for walking away from the sustainability pact. The lack of concrete, immediate measures is fuelling frustration, and the letter has to be considered in this context. Traffic congestion was and is a matter for the sustainability pact, but regulatory mechanisms to address this are unlikely to be implemented until summer 2026. The opposition PSOE at the Council of Mallorca slammed the Partido Popular's announcement of a proposed Sustainable Mobility Law as being a further example of "placebo announcements" designed to calm the citizens but "without the slightest intention of implementing real measures".

Tourist numbers going up regardless

Meanwhile, and regardless of letters or other forms of protest, there is no sign of Mallorca's tourism going into reverse. Airlines' increase in seat availability for this summer (defined in airline terms as April to October) can't be taken as an accurate forecast of increased tourist numbers because these seats do have to be filled. Nevertheless, it is a possible indication. To this end, there will be a record number of seats. For Palma flights, the increase is set to be 6.4%, the actual number of flights due to decrease because airlines will be operating larger planes. Four airlines - Ryanair, Eurowings, Vueling and easyJet - will account for some 50% of all Mallorca flights.

Of the seven groups who signed the letter, four of them (including GOB) had been among a dozen who last month called for a suspension of the Mallorca 312 OK Mobility cycling challenge that is scheduled to take place on April 26. Various objections to 312 were that it merely serves to increase the sense of tourist overcrowding. The organisers this week announced that there will be a record number of participants this year, the maximum having gone up from 8,000 to 8,500.

Or will flights have to be cut?

Although seat availability has been programmed to increase, business sources in the tourism and travel sectors have expressed concern that there could in fact be a reduction. This is all to do with the Spanish Government having failed to pay a debt owed to airlines in respect of the residents discount, which applies to the Canaries, Ceuta and Melilla as well as to the Balearics. This debt is put at 810 million euros, Spain's Airlines Association saying it could rise this year to 1.5 billion euros.

At the heart of this is the government's inability to approve budgets. The ministry of transport nevertheless insists that the debt will be paid and that the discount will be unaffected. The airlines say that the failure to pay is leading to "an unsustainable and financially crippling situation". Weighing in on the airlines' side has been the Mesa del Turismo, a body erroneously referred to in English as tourism board, which implies some sort of official status, when there isn't any. The Mesa is essentially a think tank comprising around 100 businesses, individuals and other professionals in Spain's tourism private sector. It fears a loss of domestic air connectivity because of the non-payment, potentially meaning a reduction in national tourism.

At Palma Airport last Sunday there was a bizarre occurrence. Flights were halted for around 15 minutes in the afternoon because of the presence of a paraglider in the airport's vicinity. Four flights had to be diverted and there were delays to others. The Guardia Civil are in charge of attempting to locate the paraglider, who could face a fine of up to 250,000 euros for having posed a risk to aviation safety and compromised airport operations.

The paradise island

The seat availability information was notable for highlighting the fact that German routes dominate Palma flights, which isn't the case for either Ibiza or Menorca, where flights to and from Gatwick, Stansted and Manchester are among the leaders. This went to show, if any further evidence were needed, that of the over five million German tourists who come to the Balearics, over 90% come to Mallorca. Not all seats are of course occupied by tourists. They could, for instance, include Germans living in Mallorca who commute to Germany. This is one profile said to be evidence of a boom in German emigration to Mallorca. While there has been news of Germans leaving the island because they now find it too expensive, there are Germans arriving and who are representative of a new breed, as "the classic emigrants no longer exist".

The wealthy and the teleworker are among those fuelling the boom, they being inspired - it is reckoned - by influencers who promote an island idyll. While this may be so, it is the case that Mallorca is often referred to in Germany as the paradise island and has been for several decades. The profile may be altering but the dream of paradise is not, even if the signatories to that letter maintain that the image of a paradise is an illusion.

Simplifying planning procedures for housing

The housing situation is a reason for shattering that paradise image. A new solution to come from the Balearic Government is a mechanism for rapidly speeding up the building of new homes in Palma and which could be rolled out to the rest of Mallorca and the Balearics. This is the creation of so-called Strategic Residential Projects, which is basically a planning regulation that will facilitate the processing of different procedures simultaneously, thus cutting what can be up to ten years to between 18 months and two years. The ambition is for 20,000 new homes in Palma, half of which will be of an affordable variety.

A question that does perhaps arise is why it has taken this long for there to be a realisation that procedures can be simultaneous.

Another solution lies with the government acquiring properties from major property owners listed on the empty homes register. A legislative means introduced by the last government, the housing ministry has to be notified of the intention to sell empty properties. In Sa Pobla there is a building with 21 apartments plus offices that could be converted into accommodation that has been sold by a major property owner to an Alcudia real-estate company. Opposition party Més have highlighted this case and the "ridiculous" prices of the apartments; ridiculous in their cheapness, as little as 70,000 euros. The housing ministry is now analysing whether it can assert a right of first refusal, as permitted under law, and buy these properties at the same price and use them for social purposes.