In parliament on Tuesday, the main opposition party PSOE will propose setting a maximum annual limit on the number of tourists in the Balearics.
Chief spokesperson and former tourism minister Iago Negueruela will call for a limit of 17.8 million, which was the total number of tourists in 2023. In that year there was a change of government. The incoming president, Marga Prohens of the Partido Popular, was to say that a total of 17.8 million was "unacceptable". That was in spring 2024 at a time when the government was launching its sustainability pact, a purpose of which was to consider the future model of tourism in the Balearics.
In 2022, the total was almost the same as it had been in 2019 before the pandemic - 16.5 million. This would have been higher had it not been for lingering Covid restrictive measures at the start of 2022. Negueruela, then the tourism minister, was to intimate that 16.5 million should be the limit. In 2025, the total topped 19 million for the first time.
PSOE want a cap on tourist numbers per island. This would be determined in discussions with the islands' councils. The party also wants a timetable to be re-established for approving carrying capacity studies, something that was stipulated in PSOE's 2022 tourism law. As well as tighter controls of illegal accommodation, the main mechanism that PSOE appear to be advocating is a reduction in the number of legal accommodation places. It remains to be seen if this reduction is intended for both hotels and holiday rentals.
Politically, PSOE are using tourist overcrowding as a weapon to attack the PP government. In this regard, their motion has to be seen as a political manoeuvre. A likely response from the government will be that it was PSOE who presided over a large increase in the number of accommodation places when the 2017 regulations were passed to allow registration of holiday let apartments. The PP have consistently blamed the PSOE-led coalition for having caused overcrowding.