Lourdes Royo Naranjo is a professor in the University of Seville's faculty of architectural history, theory and composition. On Friday, she spoke at a conference in Palma on tourism and historic cities and identified how the profile of tourists has changed over the decades. Starting with the romantic traveller of the 19th century, who got to know a destination in depth, there is now the fleeting visitor. Cities have become settings for compulsive snapshots on Instagram. The turbo-trips that flood destinations with tourists endanger their heritage.
She best understands the situations in Malaga and Seville, where the effects of mass tourism are similar to those in Palma.
"I've been working for twenty years on the relationship between historic centres and tourism. In Malaga there was love at first sight, but right now it is in crisis. We are going through a bad period, the benefits are out of control, there are imbalances. Destinations have become objects of desire but are showing signs of fragility and exhaustion, and coexistence is suffering.
"There are common consequences at a sociological, architectural, urban and anthropological level. There is great unrest and the concerns are the same."
Historic centres, she argued, have become products. "Tourism is an industry that consumes the city. There is a mass that goes to the destination and there is a theatricalisation of the historic centre. In addition to tourist pressure, there are problems of gentrification, coexistence and the replacement of traditional housing and shops. Given all this, it is natural that there is a rejection by residents because there is conflict. The right to housing and rest are compromised.
"The model has failed and we have to stop and think about how to change the management. The identity of cities is being distorted. They are all the same, due to the same multinationals and the modification of facades. Tourism consumes, exhausts and is capricious. When they (tourists) tire of our cities, we will have a serious problem."