An American resident of the town of Alaró in Mallorca has been the target of anti-tourism vandalism. Amber Sawyer denounced the incident on social media as well as reporting it on to the competent authority, after seeing how a hire car that she had had to rent while she had hers in the garage for repairs in order to be able to get around.
“We are neighbours of Alaró, a working family and we only had one car that was being repaired, so we hired a car to be able to work. Imagine our surprise when we found the damage to our rental car, which is now our responsibility”, Amber Sawyer posted on Facebook.
In addition to several damages (mainly scratches) to the car’s bodywork, she also found a sticker on which, next to the sign warning of danger of falling into the water, was a message that can even be interpreted as threatening: “Your rental car is not safe. Beware of the locals, they are angry”, referred to the text, signed by a group that presents itself under the name of Associació de Veinades Enfadades (Angry Neighbours Association).
The incident took place in the parking area of Solleric street, on the outskirts of the of Alaró, at the access from the road which connects it with Orient or Lloseta. “We have filed a police report. By the way, our car was parked in a public car park on Carrer Solleric. I have the feeling that all our beautiful friends in Alaró would be surprised to know that such an association exists”, adds the victim.
The attack on the vehicle has apparently been provoked by the number of hire cars which have appeared over the past few weeks in different localities of rural Mallorca, in many cases as a result of the high number of holiday rental properties. This apparently adds to the problem of a lack of parking in these towns and residents have decided to take action, but they may have gone too far and the matter is now in the hands of the Alaró authorities. “I have to say, though, while I understand the friction of having more and more tourists on the island, it does not seem constructive to target rental cars with this vandalism,” she posted.