Morgan WilliamsI recognise your consistent disdain for some of the UK press (which I share) but this is being reported in every newspaper and media outlet and for good reason - it is news and anyone thinking of holidaying in Mallorca has a right to know. The British press are not saying ‘you are not welcome in Mallorca’, the Mallorquins are. Who wants to go somewhere on holiday where you are not welcome? The message from Mallorca is clear.

Marvin Le MartianOh, that's nothing new. When one of these protesters farts it's a huge fury and outrage story in all the British tabloids (and oddly, they seem to just copy-paste each others' hyperbole, maybe adding a bit of their own). I've said for a long time that the biggest promotor of this movement is the tabloids. And ironically, the anti-British stuff. The Germans are finally getting some of this now (previously it's been passed off as fringe and not newsworthy). But it's nowhere near as prominent in German media as it is in British media.

The UK red tops and broadsheets are all picking this up. No doubt the German press will follow, perhaps not so gleefully as the UK. Well done to the MDB for helping give these minority mouthoffs more oxygen than they deserve.

Mallorca and indeed Spain is a democracy - so you haven’t been ‘let down by your politicians’ - it’s just that you disagree with the elected politicians. You are a minority pressure group who are trying to circumvent the democratic process in the same way as ‘Just stop oil’ and ‘Extinction Rebellion’. Perhaps you should go the right way about it and set up a political party and when you are democratically elected you can apply your anti-tourism policies instead of deciding unilaterally write open letters to asking tourists to stay away.

Charles Dalrymple-ChumleyWell said!

A well written letter supported by statistics. @ CDC Once again you miss the point, the aim is reduction , not total cancellation of tourism. If you read it otherwise so be it but believer me not even " the man up there" could stop all tourists coming here. @MW I think you mistake poverty in the villages for leading a happy, balanced life similar to their generations beforehand. That life of burros in the fields, carts on the roads, sheep bells in the fields and if you were lucky listening to a shepherd playing the pan pipes in the evening. It was slower, it was less material but I don't remember seeing any less happiness, hearing constant complaints like nowadays. Maybe the weather but that is an eternal complaint, brought more now by the noticeably changing climate. When I got here aged 24 , outside Palma and specific tourist areas ( Arenal, Magaluf, Palmanova) it was still very much La Isla de la Calma . No one can blame people for buying a tractor and even a car ( Seat 600 and 850 very popular) but the quality of life scarcely changed. That is the biggest change and bringing back that slower more peaceful but still busy and worthwhile life is nigh on impossible.

Lewis BlackWhy do people have to boil everything down to a political party. The "other one". "They're" to blame... That kind of tribalist thinking is the very root of many of our problems today. The reality is that neither side of the political spectrum has a "solution'. That's why nobody's been able to "solve" it. I like simple stuff too. "What button do I press?". But few things in life are that simple. And it doesn't matter what side you're on... Nobody's going to be able to "fix it" by flipping a switch. But with a bit of fact based critical thinking and collaboration with all the stakeholders (including the local population) they might be able to find ways to improve things. Or just keep blaming it all on the other tribe and do nothing.

One has to imagine that the PSOE is working hard and stirring up trouble. These issues existed way before PP returned to the island and yet these campaigns have only now started to get more vocal. It would be nice if real residents (not imported PSOE activists) sat down and tried together to find common sense solutions with the PP. The biggest issue, in my mind, is the lack of affordable housing making living and working on the island more and more difficult. But their are huge advantages to Mallorcans tax wise in owning property even being able to have them transferred tax free to the family which of course also compounds the lack of inventory. The island needs affordable housing to be able just to service this increasing group of wealthier tourists. This type of tourist is what successive governments have pursued but they really had no plan how to accommodate them (increases in traffic/rental car volume for instance, increased service demands). Take the non resident activists out and let's sit down and find credible solutions like better mass transit and increased affordable housing (although I am sure there are many other practical ideas too)

"creating an emergency situation in a fragile environment that is already uninhabitable." "The island has been exploited to unimaginable limits, leading to the collapse we are now suffering." "environmental and ecosystem deterioration, infrastructure issues, overwhelmed public services, transportation problems, loss of quality of life, gentrification, disproportionate increases in the cost of living, and a total lack of access to housing for the local population." Well, I've lived here for decades, and although like everywhere, there has been a natural increase in the cost of living, but unfortunately average wages haven't kept up with that. It's clear that certain areas suffer these things at certain times of the year, but the generalisation is a bit much. It's far worse in other places in the world. Nonetheless, I still can't find much evidence of the first 2 quotes above.. what "collapse"? "Uninhabitable"? Really? It all sounds terribly hyperbolic. And really, those towns and villages that were previously sleeping peacefully, largely in poverty, with very little money or resources to invest in their own standards of living, are benefitting greatly from tourism. Aside from the visible increase in standards of living, one example is that now locals no longer have to drive to Palma, Inca or Manacor to find a supermarket or other shops that offer decent selection and competitive pricing. They have those things right around the corner.. Look, it's not tourism that's causing gentrification, increases in cost of living and lack of affordable housing, although it's an easy explanation.. you could completely ban tourism and those things still won't change - the problem won't be solved, and likely only get be worse. It's far more complicated than that, which might explain why politicians are having such difficulty addressing it. Once you look at the whole picture, I seriously doubt you csn come up with a simple "solution" so easily. But ok... Give it a try with your oversimplified idea. Yet... you should set your expectations appropriately. It's not going to make anything better. For anybody.

To stop so called extra tourist growth, just stop building new hotels to increase bed spaces. The island needs tourism, but sadly the bubble has to burst one day, if it has not already. I feel it is the greedy hotel owner chains that are a main problem, but not the whole problem.