Despite an estimated annual average of 150,000 big spending cyclists coming to Mallorca in the low season ‘shoulder months’ enabling a large number of hotels, which have made substantial investments to cater for cycle tourism, to open early and extend the season, they’ve been accused of clogging up the roads.
And talking of “clogging up roads” there have been complaints of traffic congestion in the likes of Soller and Valldemossa. A few Saturday afternoons ago I drove up to Puerto Soller with no traffic problems at all and apart from that, at this time of year, the fault does not lie with tourists in hire cars.
Then, over the past few days, alarm bells have been rung about the amount of sand people take with them on their feet when they leave the beaches. And there are concerns about stress in the Tramuntana Mountains. You can’t win, but Mallorca could lose.
However this season pans out, it is certainly not a usual one due to geopolitics and wars. But in the meantime, Mallorca needs to watch its narrative and rhetoric. On the one hand the airport is being allowed to expand to cater for even more flights and passengers while on the other new accommodation is being restricted and banned. Mallorca can’t afford to be too complacent.