It is necessary to take advantage of the conflict towards tourism to find a new model

PalmThe hoteliers' campaign targeting foreign tourists is the response of the islands' main employers' association to the criticism and anti-tourism actions that have intensified in the Balearic Islands for just over a year. Business owners admit that tourism is not harmless, but they call for a thorough analysis of the reasons that have led society to increasingly express discontent with the current economic model.

It's not enough to simply count whether a demonstration is attended by 15,000 or 20,000 people and question how representative this is. One need only look at social media and attend conversations between residents to see how islanders appear—at best—to be deeply concerned about the current state of tourism.

The environmental impacts and the poor redistribution of wealth from tourism are nothing new. But after the pandemic, a series of factors have come into play that cannot be ignored and that any modern society must take into account. The constant increase in visitor arrivals, which is approaching unsustainable levels, has caused, along with the increase in population, a notable complication in issues such as mobility and the enjoyment of public spaces, which are now completely commodified and denaturalized. But all these elements are merely an intensification of the model and would not have provoked the growing, cross-cutting citizen protest that is increasingly present in public debate. The islanders are not against tourism, because they have been living there for many years. They are against losing public spaces, territory, and natural resources. But what has united their voices is a conflict that goes far beyond tourism and has a name: access to decent housing.

What began as a collaborative economy, the rental of apartments to tourists, has become widespread and is largely done illegally. The Pact welcomed this seemingly harmless option of making profits through apartments and enshrined it in law. The facts today show that apartments should be used solely to meet the demand for housing. But it's too late to think that without public intervention, things will return to normal. Apartments must be built in public housing, not on rural land. And, above all, the supply of irregular tourist rentals must end. Not a single home in multi-family housing should be used for vacation rentals. And the public administration has much more capacity to control this than it has done so far.

Failure to do so will continue to fuel a rentier society model, where a few make a fortune and the vast majority cannot buy or rent an apartment despite having a job. A true failure that must end.