The cost for the Balearics of the shorter holidays

PalmaThe citizens of the Balearic Islands have experienced the effects of overtourism in recent years, to the point that a significant social consensus has emerged around the idea that the arrival of passengers cannot increase any further. What has perhaps gone more unnoticed is that a significant part of this increase in passengers is caused by a very specific fact: the shortening of tourists' stays. From those families who used to come for one or two weeks to the Islands and did not need to travel every day because they had enough time, we have moved to a model that is heading towards madness. Vacations of three or four days in duration generate new needs: automatically, the regulated offer requires more visitors to fill the beds and maintain the same level of activity.

This change, promoted according to experts in an absolutely planned manner and with a clear intention to increase consumption, has very negative consequences for the Balearic Islands. If a hotel room was previously occupied once a week on average, now two or three reservations are needed. This means more changes of linen, much higher water consumption, and, most worryingly, a very significant increase in the number of passengers at airports and flights with the corresponding emissions. While major international agreements talk about reducing them, the Islands have seen theirs grow in an uninterrupted and galloping way.

This week, at the World Travel Market, hoteliers have raised their concern about the progressive reduction in stays, aware that right now on the Islands, tourist rotation cannot increase any more, but rather it is necessary to go in the opposite direction.

The airports of the Balearics have 77% more passengers today than 25 years ago. Within this increase are also the residents, who are not strangers to the trend of constant travel. When low-cost airlines emerged, which are a pillar of this new neoliberal strategy to skyrocket citizen consumption, a large part of the population joyfully experienced the possibility of visiting cities in the State or throughout Europe for almost the same as a pizza costs.

Today we know that this hyperconnectivity we benefit from brings with it an unacceptable increase in travelers, and, of course, ensures that many Europeans can acquire properties on the Islands because they can come and go as many times as they want. All of this demonstrates that extreme mobility, always presented as a sign of freedom, in reality brings many negative consequences for a limited territory, which cannot adapt indefinitely to the needs of the market.