Just hours after an estimated 100 people took part in an anti-mass tourism protest on the beach in Playa de Palma on Sunday, local residents in the town of Santanyí complained about the large number of visitors to the weekly market on Sundays and Wednesdays.
They complained to IB3 television that there is no space for pedestrians and that if there were an emergency, the teams would not be able to get through. The local council denies this, but assures us that there is a plan to prevent this from happening. For example, there are streets in the city centre that are not occupied with bus stops.
This summer, Spanish protesters have called for a more balanced approach to tourism, arguing that the sector has been contributing to the country’s housing crisis. In an interview with the The Guardian, Peter DeBrine, UNESCO’s senior project officer for sustainable tourism, said the protests could spread beyond Europe. “What we’re seeing is that we’re breaching a threshold of tolerance in these destinations,” he told said. “It’s really trying to rebalance the situation. It’s totally out of balance now.”