People in Mallorca have taken to social media to vent their fury over how tourism negatively impacts their lives, including a police officer who feels I can’t do his job properly
People who live and work in Mallorca have been sharing how tourism on the island has negatively impacted their day-to-day lives.
There have been several anti-tourism protests in Spain in recent months, both on the mainland and the Balearic Islands. Locals are furious about how developers buying up properties for the tourism sector has led to an increase in rent prices.
But there are other ways in which tourism has impacted their lives too. Taking to the r/Mallorca forum on Reddit these past few weeks, a number of residents have aired their grievances.
One commenter revealed they were thinking about selling their apartment as “it has become a hellhole to live here”. They said “investors” have slowly bought up most of the apartments in their building, meaning most are now rented to tourists. They went on: “Being on the ground floor, I’ve been able to make some adjustments so I can come and go through my garden. I’m sick of running into half naked, drunken strangers in the hallway. My home has been turned into a hotel. The pool is unusable.”
However, they added: “I don’t blame the tourists, it’s the investors who’ve shown no respect for residents. We are also being priced out of restaurants who are marketing themselves for tourists.”
A second Redditor told an identical story, writing: “My nine apartment building has been turned into a hotel. I have no neighbours anymore. There’s no respect for my home.”
Another comment was left by a police officer in Mallorca, who explained how the problems caused by tourists impact their ability to do their job properly. They wrote: “As a law enforcement officer, sometimes I feel my work is purely to solve tourists’ problems, overloading us with work without being able to aid the locals as effectively as we would like.”
Another local compared the situation in Mallorca to Hawaii, where authorities previously asked for the number of incoming flights to be reduced due to similar problems. “As in Mallorca, dependence on tourism has led to an increase in housing costs, job insecurity, and an overexploitation of natural resources, with the local population feeling marginalised for the benefit of visitors and external interests,” they said. They also bemoaned how tourism has led to a “loss of cultural identity”.