Restaurant and bar owners in Majorca have said their season has suffered due to a plunge in visitors after the holiday hot-spot was ravaged by yet another summer of hostile anti-tourism protests.
CAEB, which represents business owners in Spain’s Balearic islands, said it hopes that September ‘will save the season’ after experiencing a drop in performance since May.
It comes after it was revealed last month that beach bars, parasol hire companies, and water activity operators took a hit of around 20 per cent in July compared to last summer.
The Association of Temporary Services Concessions and Operations in the Maritime-Terrestrial Public Domain of Mallorca (Adopuma) said that increasingly aggressive rhetoric from anti-tourism campaigners is pushing the island’s economy to the brink.
Meanwhile, Apoduma’s president Onofre Fornes blamed ‘irresponsible negative messages against tourism’ for the downturn.
According to the association, restaurants are underperforming, beach bar takings are down, and occupancy rates stayed low even in August.
Adopuma has urged the government to act fast, capping prices, stamping out anti-tourism sentiment, and ensuring that Majorca remains affordable for the mid-budget visitors who keep the island ticking.
The organisation’s warning came after Spanish officials admitted that a relentless campaign of anti-tourist protests is ‘scaring away visitors’.
With British holidaymakers seemingly among foreigners turning their backs on the island, its tourism industry is in panic mode as officials overseeing the tourism sector warned that guests no longer feel ‘welcomed’.
The restaurant association president, Juanmi Ferrer, gave a stark warning that the messaging of the protests is ‘scaring visitors away’.
Additionally, Miguel Pérez-Marsá, head of the nightlife association, told Majorca Daily Bulletin: ‘The tourists we’re interested in are being driven away; they don’t feel welcome and are going to other destinations.’
Protests against over-tourism erupted across the Balearics, the Canaries and mainland Spain earlier this year.
Tens of thousands marched through Palma in July, holding banners that read ‘Your luxury, our misery’ and demanding curbs on tourist numbers, cruise ships and short-term lets.
Local businesses were targeted with stickers, while demonstrators blocked roads and disrupted holidaymakers’ plans.
In Barcelona, protesters used water pistols to spray unsuspecting tourists in the city centre.
Others slapped ‘Tourist go home’ stickers on restaurants and hotel doors.
In one of the city’s most symbolic demonstrations yet, activists blocked access to hotels and confronted diners in popular neighbourhoods.
In Palma, tensions boiled over when a British tourists were surrounded at a restaurant by angry protesters shouting ‘go home’ and ‘go to hell’.
One protester was seen brandishing an axe and police had to intervene as the group surged towards diners.
The violent scenes were widely condemned by politicians, but activists say they are the result of years of frustration over overcrowded streets, surging rents, and wages that haven’t kept pace with the cost of living.
Some neighbourhoods have put up graffiti telling foreigners to ‘go home’, while local campaigners accuse foreign residents of pricing Majorcans out of housing and services.
Anti-tourism campaigners have long been contesting the current tourism model, claiming that many locals have been priced out by holidaymakers, expats and foreign buyers.
Last year, Spain saw a record-breaking number of tourists, with over 15 million visitors flocking to the island of Majorca alone.
In response, protestors took to the streets across Spain, leaving countless visitors fuming after paying hundreds of pounds to enjoy their holidays abroad.
Actions included marches on the street with protesters chanting ‘tourists go home’, as well as demonstrations on beaches which saw locals boo and jeer at sun-soaked tourists.
In one particular instance, up to 50,000 locals descended onto the streets of the Majorca capital Palma.
Meanwhile in Barcelona, some 2,800 people marched along a waterfront district of Barcelona to demand a new economic model that would reduce the millions of tourists that visit every year.
Protesters carried signs reading ‘Barcelona is not for sale,’ and, ‘Tourists go home,’ before some used water guns on tourists eating outdoors at restaurants in popular tourist hotspots.
Chants of ‘Tourists out of our neighbourhood’ rang out as some stopped in front of the entrances to hotels.
