On June 26, the Forum of Civil Society in Mallorca held its first tourism congress. While the forum comprises entities well known for challenging the island's tourism model (the environmentalists GOB, the Palma XXI association, for example), congress participants included the president of the Mallorca Hoteliers Federation, Maria Frontera, Spain's secretary-of-state for tourism, Rosario Sánchez (who is Mallorcan), and President Marga Prohens.
Did the congress represent a coming-together of views regarding a future tourism model? The Balearic government's pact for sustainability, launched after the congress was announced, is intended to set out this future. Its various working parties will contribute to the drafting of the 'roadmap'. Critical voices like GOB have representation on these working parties, but GOB have stated they have little confidence in the government.
On Wednesday, the forum presented the conclusions of the congress. Underlying all of these is something that politicians like Marga Prohens and businesspeople like Maria Frontera will find hard to accept - degrowth.
Spokesperson Jaume Garau said: "The public and business sector is simply talking about limiting tourist arrivals, but that would not be sustainable because it is no longer sustainable. There is only one option and that is degrowth."
This is degrowth, he explained, which should be done "little by little" and "without leaving anyone behind" so that it does not result in a loss of employment.
Garau and the forum's president, Joana Maria Palou, stressed that measures such as those proposed in the congress document will have to be adopted sooner or later in other parts of the world that suffer from the same problems as the Balearics. "The problem we have is also faced by other European destinations; Europe will have to say these same things one day."
Some of the specific measures are familiar ones, such as a call for converting obsolete hotels into housing, no more tourism promotion, and no more attendance at international tourism fairs.
Referring to the pact for sustainability and the working parties, there was criticism of the balance. The forum's component entities are "underrepresented", while there are many representatives from the business world.
Reflecting on the recent protests, Garau said that it remains to be seen if these result in a reduction of tourist demand. "But we don't believe so."