The excess of tourism ends up turning against the society that promoted and benefited from it. In the Balearic Islands, this has long been a social, economic, and environmental reality. Also in Catalonia, and especially in Barcelona. Through excess, we are killing the goose that lays the golden eggs. The tourist carrying capacity of cities and various territories has a limit beyond which the harmful collateral effects can become greater than the gains. We cannot renounce the wealth of tourism, but we must undoubtedly put a limit on it.
Problems are accumulating with housing prices, with the occupation of historic centers, with the disappearance of traditional commerce, with the hospitality industry (hotels, bars, restaurants) colonizing the economy, with security and tranquility problems... Also with the Catalan language being increasingly relegated to a marginal place. When life revolves solely around tourism, there is a danger that too many things will be lost: social and cultural life, urban authenticity, business creativity, educational drive (it is too easy for young people to find entry-level jobs without much training). Even the possibility of enjoying one's own natural landscape is lost, as happens in the Islands with many beaches with almost no space for locals.
This Sunday's demonstration in Mallorca, in the middle of the summer season, is another symptom of citizen weariness. In the Islands, directly or indirectly, many people live off tourism, but this does not prevent the collective idea from having taken root that we have gone too far and that a clear brake must be put on the arrival of more visitors. Life for locals is becoming very difficult, even distressing.
If in the decades from the 60s to the 80s of the last century the transition from a rural economy to a tourist economy meant the development of island society, now the tourism monoculture is calling into question the future of the Islands. An obscene point of saturation and massification has been reached.
Climate change was all that was missing to fully awaken consciences. Tourism has grown with its back turned to environmental protection. Well-intentioned attempts to harmonize the two realities have rarely succeeded. Tourism is voracious. And the current Government of the Islands does not, precisely, have a remarkable sensitivity in this regard. On the contrary. The liberalization and effective lack of protection of many natural environments is jeopardizing the environmental viability of Mallorca, Menorca, and the Pitiüses, with drinking water as the main critical point. Recently, the fight against the large hotel planned next to the unspoiled beach of Es Trenc has mobilized neighbors and environmentalists.
It is therefore urgent to seek solutions to this deadlock. It is true that the Balearic economy – and to a lesser extent the Catalan economy – pivots to a remarkable extent around tourism, but mechanisms must be sought to stop its uncritical growth, to raise the quality of the offer and the wages in this sector, and to promote other economic vectors, especially in the field of technologically advanced industry. At the same time, tourist activities must be regulated and taxed, with part of the income serving to help resolve issues such as housing. The desperate cry of the island's citizens must be heeded.
