8,000 people demand: Anyone who loves Mallorca does not destroy them!

8,000 people demand: Anyone who loves Mallorca does not destroy them!

Palma, Spanien - The mood in Mallorca is getting hot. Again, thousands of people have taken to the streets to protest against continuing mass tourism. On June 15, 2025, around 8,000 demonstrators moved from the Plaça d’Espanya square in Palma to the promenade Passigel Born. An impressive rally where she does not destroy her with slogans like "Who loves Mallorca!" drew attention to their concerns. The background to the protests is the continuing concern for the negative consequences of tourism on the island, which was organized by the roof initiative “Menys Turisme, Més Vida”, an association that combines numerous groups and organizations.

The spokesman for the initiative, Jaume Pujol, did not leave good hair on the regional government. He criticized their ignorance since the great protest in July 2024 and urgently called for a limitation of the number of visitors, a moratorium for cruise ships and an end to tourist rental. According to Pujol, this is necessary to preserve the island and its quality of life for the locals. But more and more tourists live up to their name and the climb is unmistakable: in 2024 over 20 million travelers already visited Mallorca, that is one million more than in the previous year.

economic aspects in the shadow of protests

Despite the protests, mass tourism seems to be firmly sitting in the saddle. According to [Isla-travel.de] (https://isla-travel.de/mallorca-magazin/mallorca-2024-mass tourism-trotz-protest-Touristen-milliarden-aus/), a total of impressive 22.4 billion euros in tourists were spent on the Balearic in 2024, an increase of about 12 percent compared to 2023. In Mallorca alone there are around 13.5 million visitors, with the Germans playing a major role with over five million.

But this economic success is not without social and ecological costs. Local residents complain about rising rents that make locals more and more difficult to find an affordable home. There are also increasingly problems with environmental damage, such as lack of water and overcrowded beaches. The demands for strict regulations and a reduction in the number of guests are increasing, especially in view of the increasing burdens from tourism.

government and social challenges

In May 2024, the regional government under President Margalida Prohens announced a political and social pact for sustainable tourism. The pact is intended to minimize the negative effects of mass tourism and contains various working groups that treat topics such as social sustainability, ecological awareness and the quality of tourist services. However, there are already tensions between the various parties involved, since organizations such as the "Forum for Citizen's Intervention" and the Environmental Organization Grup D’Ornitologia Balear (GOB) suspend their participation in the pact.

The regional government emphasizes that the participation of all interest groups is crucial for the success of the pact. From July to October 2024, citizens were able to submit suggestions, and 576 contributions came together, especially on the topics of the environment, transport and sustainable tourism. These results are currently analyzed by the working groups that aim to develop concrete strategic guidelines and action plans in order to address the challenges of mass tourism, whereby the work of the expert committee under Antoni Riera is considered fundamental.

Developments in Mallorca clearly show that the balancing act between economic success and sustainable development is a major challenge. The wave of the protests, always looking for more quality of life for the locals, will probably not go away in the future, as long as the government is not ready to seriously tackle the complex problems of mass tourism and find solutions.