For the umpteenth time a Balearic Government representative has trotted out the line about there only being overcrowding in certain places at certain times of the year. The latest is Pere Joan Planas, head of the AETIB tourism strategy agency. He has a solution (he may have more than one) to these temporary causes of citizen inconvenience. A more balanced distribution of tourists throughout the year. Yes, we’ve heard this on umpteen occasions as well.
He was speaking in the context of the government wishing to calm protest anxieties by countering negative media reporting. But his references merely served to reinforce an impression that the government is consistently failing to read a room of public sentiment, confident in bamboozling everyone with objective data to make its point and thus dismiss the subjectivity of perceptions. When these objective data are finally revealed, that is.
Overcrowding is what people sense. You can’t get away from this, just as you can’t get away from beliefs regarding a tourism impact on housing. The citizens, President Prohens promised a year or so ago, would be listened to. Things had to change.
So where is the evidence? It is, for example, delusional to believe that overcrowding concerns can be fobbed off by this certain places-certain times mantra, while the government (the PP) is so beholden to Vox to finally pass its budget that it has been willing to backtrack on certain measures. Perhaps the government hopes to ride things out, praying for protest fatigue. That’s a risky game.