Away from the centre of Palma, there are hardly any hotels, yet the number of tourists has been increasing in areas such as Arxiduc, Plaça de Toros and Pere Garau.
Jaume Garau of the Palma XXI association believes he knows the reason why. "The centre is saturated and so there is now tourist accommodation away from the centre. And when we see so many tourists staying in these areas, it is because there is a lot of illegal supply. All the legal places are full, so they go elsewhere: to illegal accommodation."
InsideAirbnb, the website that analyses Airbnb, reports the presence of a good number of tourist rentals in Bons Aires, Plaça Fleming, Arxiduc and Plaça de Toros. Included among these are apartments. In Palma the renting of apartments for tourist purposes is prohibited.
Last month, the Menys Turisme, Més Vida platform organised a protest outside a building on C. Arquitecte Bennassar. All the apartments were being let illegally to tourists. Joan Nadal of the platform's Palma Nord assembly says that it is a building in which ten families can no longer live because it is dedicated to tourists.
"We know that there are illegal tourist properties in our neighbourhood. They do not pay taxes and create nuisance for neighbours because of anti-social behaviour. Except for a few houses (which can be rented out legally) the rest of the buildings are apartments. We don't have exact numbers but there is a great deal of discontent among residents."
Helena Herrera, president of the residents association in the Plaça de Toros area, says: "We have located properties that are illegally offered as tourist rentals. We see young people entering the buildings with suitcases."
In September, Menys Turisme, Més Vida (now shortened to -Turisme +Vida) will resume meetings to decide action to fight for the city. The illegal letting is a contributory factor to what Joan Nadal says is "more and more housing precariousness due to high property prices".