Fundament is a Valldemossa-based non-profit association whose mission is "to help alleviate tensions arising from coexistence". The social sustainability of tourism in Mallorca is an area of study. In this regard, the association has just published a report headlined: 'Tourism crisis in Mallorca: What two years of international analysis reveal'.
Some 150 media sources have been studied in seeking to provide "objective evidence that tourists themselves and the international media are warning about the effects of overcrowding". Fundament addresses the tourism model and its impact on tourists.
Der Spiegel is the largest weekly magazine in Europe, and Fundament highlights what it has recently said about Mallorca: "13.5 million tourists, five million of them German, on an island with fewer than one million inhabitants. Rents, food, nature ... everything suffers; there's simply too much and it's too crowded." One tourist is reported as saying: "Knowing that I am one of the people who clogs up the island saddens me. I find it uncomfortable."
Fundament's sources are German, British, French and Scandinavian. The analysis points to a change in perception among tourists that is "global and growing". Awareness is fed by a European media that is questioning the Mallorca tourism model due to "ecological and social degradation".
Of other German sources, there is Bild - some tourists have stopped choosing Mallorca due to saturation and lower environmental quality. There is the German TV news show, Tagesschau, which has asked whether "you can love an island to the point of degrading it".
In the UK, there are, for instance, the BBC and The Guardian which have examined how Mallorca has gone from being a Mediterranean paradise to an example of the contradictions of mass tourism: rising living costs, a decrease in the quality of the environment, pressure on services and increasingly tense coexistence.
Le Monde in France: "The image of Mallorca as a natural and cultural refuge is at risk. Many French people have perceived the environmental and social deterioration". The SVT national broadcaster in Sweden has documented concern among tourists about a loss of biodiversity and about rising prices as well as a change in residents' attitudes.
Frank Hoeft was a cofounder of Fundament in 2019. He has worked in the tourism sector for years and says: "This can no longer be sustained. Visitors to the island are not stupid. All of this is a symptom. The problem is structural and stems from the inability of companies in the sector and successive governments to agree on a truly sustainable model. Instead of seeing this as an opportunity, they drag their feet or become defensive. We must move towards a maximum visitor limit.
The problem is tourism management, not tourists. We all are tourists at times. This is a business ecosystem that is reaching its limits. Decreasing tourism sounds bad, but we have to move in that direction."