Brits face summer holiday chaos as Majorcans crank up their anti

Release time：2024-05-19 18:22:34 Source：Global Grid news portal

British holidaymakers could face holiday chaos this summer as Majorcans crank up their anti-tourism campaign by threatening to block the island's airport and protest outside hotels.

The radical tactics were put forward at a 'citizen's assembly' yesterday at a school in the inland town of Sineu.

Association Menys Turisme, Mes Vida, which translates into English as 'Less Tourism, More Life, organised the meeting to prepare the way for a large protest against so-called tourist massification and the effect it has on the lives of local people. More than 300 people took part in the brain-storming session.

The idea of a protest at Palma Airport, one of the busiest in Europe during the peak summer months, involving cars massing outside and causing traffic gridlock was greeted with rapturous applause.

No date was finalised for the demonstration and was nothing confirmed but activists showed they were serious about the airport proposal by discussing its legal implications and the wisdom of setting up a fund to pay fines levied by the authorities.

British holidaymakers could face holiday chaos this summer as Majorcans crank up their anti-tourism campaign by threatening to block the island's airport and protest outside hotels (pictured: holidaymakers partying in Majorca)

Thousands of people demonstrate against tourism policies on the island of Tenerife on April 20

Protesters carry placards during a rally in Madrid with the motto 'The Canary Islands have a limit'

Activists promised an 'intense summer' at the packed meeting held at Sineu Secondary School.

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EXCLUSIVE Cruising for a boozing! British (and German) tourists ignore Majorca's crackdown on walking around half-naked and drinking in the street - and proudly strut in their Speedos or with beers in hand

This comes after boozy British and German tourists appeared to resoundly be ignoring Majorca's crackdown on alcohol and walking around half-naked as they were been spotted taking to the streets in Speedos or with beer bottles in hand.

The Balearic Islands ramped up efforts to curb rowdy behaviour by threatening street-drinkers with fines of up to £1,300, banning party boats from getting close to tourist hotspots and shutting down shops that sell alcohol at 9.30pm.

Tourists are also at risk of being fined up to £500 for walking around the island topless or in a bikini.

Outraged Majorcan locals told MailOnline earlier this week that they are sick and tired of men strolling around half-naked - some wearing ill-fitting budgie smugglers and others drinking in bars wearing just their underwear without a care in the world.

Local media reported around 30 people had been forced to watch from the entrance doors because they couldn't fit into the assembly hall. The idea of protests outside island hotels was also put forward.

The meeting ended with organisers suggesting more proposals should be registered in writing in the coming days before a final decision on a 'massive demonstration' in the next few weeks is taken.

A separate protest against 'tourist overcrowding' next Saturday in Palma has already been announced.

An organisation called Banc del Temps has organised the event under the slogan 'Mallorca no se vende' - Spanish for 'Majorca is not up for sale.'

A revellers spotted rolling around on the floor on a night out in Majorca

A tourist in Majorca looks a bit worse for wear as he is hunched over on a wall by the beach

Holidaymakers in Palma and Magaluf have been spotted walking around topless despite the risk of being fined up to £500 for the act

A group called Prou has organised a protest which will take place on the neighbouring island of Ibiza on Friday night against the 'stress' mass tourism brings.

Activists are calling on everyone who supports a 'sustainable Ibiza' to join them and have flagged up the problems of lack of affordable housing and packed public spaces as issues they want to combat.

Thousands of people in the Canary Islands took to the streets of the Atlantic archipelago last month to protest against the problems caused by mass tourism and demand their politicians take action.

Government officials in Tenerife, where protesters held up banners which said: 'You enjoy we suffer' and 'Tourism moratorium now', said around 30,000 people had taken part but organisers put the figure at 80,000.

Anti-tourist graffiti has appeared in both Majorca and Tenerife in recent weeks.

Last month the words 'Go Home Tourist' were scrawled in English over a wall underneath a real estate promotion billboard in the Majorcan neighbourhood of Nou Llevant, which has undergone massive transformation with most new properties being snapped up by Germans.

It was billed as a smaller version of San Francisco's Silicon Valley when the transformation of the neighbourhood five minutes from Playa de Palma got underway.

Locals have been echoing some of the same complaints protestors in the Canary Islands have been making, claiming code-operated key lock boxes have appeared on many of the entrances of new apartment blocks.

One Spanish woman interviewed under a fictitious name in an island paper last year complained it was difficult to communicate with neighbours because most only spoke German and the majority of apartments where she lived were being purchased as holiday homes or rental investment properties.

Campaigners in Tenerife were quick to distance themselves from anti-tourist graffiti which appeared on walls and benches in and around Palm Mar in the south of the island at the start of April.

Tourists in Majorca out on a boozy night earlier this week despite restrictions

Wearing a bikini in public could see you slapped with a £500 fine

Messages in English left on walls and benches in and around the resort included 'My misery your paradise' and 'Average salary in Canary Islands is 1,200 euros.'

In an apparent UK backlash, a response left in English on a wall next to a 'Tourists go home' message said: 'F##k off, we pay your wages.'

A picture was subsequently published in local press showing the words 'Go Home' on a hire car in Tenerife.

Canarias Se Agota, the lead platform behind the Canary Islands protests grouping together a number of ecological associations, has voiced demands which include a halt to two controversial hotel projects, an eco-tax and more sustainable tourism.

Some British holidaymakers have shown their support for the issues raised by the islanders but others have accused them of biting the hand that feeds them.

Six men and women affiliated to Canarias Se Agota, which in English would translate as 'Canary Islands on the Brink,' went on an 'indefinite' hunger strike on April 11 outside a church in the town of La Laguna in northern Tenerife.

It was called off after 20 days, with one of the activists who stopped eating saying as the decision to end the radical action was announced: 'We've been amazed at the social response and that's the best thing we'll take away from this. I'm very hopeful for the future.'

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