Why tourist degrowth is, for now, a chimera
It is possible that some participant in the demonstration of July 26 in Palma truly believes that it is possible to change the economic model and achieve what the organizers claimed, degrowth. Let them lose all hope. At least for now there is not the slightest crack to make it possible. In the future, who knows, in twenty years, thirty...
The big hoteliers are the ones in charge and without them it is a pipe dream to think about degrowth. This is not to mention the fact, by no means anecdotal, that the left-wing parties that claim to defend it are the same ones that promised that if they governed in 2015 they would initiate the change in the economic model. They governed. But they did not fulfill. And except for Terraferida, no one reprimanded them forcefully. Demonstrations – serious ones – not even the intention of convening them.
And this is despite the fact that the left-wing alliance legalized 115,000 tourist places, put into practice the successful 'recovery' of the avalanche of visitors from before the pandemic and achieved spectacular growth in the number of tourists: from 14 million in the first year, 2015, to 17.8 million in the last, 2023, an increase of 27%.
By the way: the big hoteliers still laugh about what the local neo-communist leader Alberto Jarabo said just after coming to power: "It's over for hoteliers to dictate tourism policy." Before they dictated it, with the left they went on to dictate it, to the point that they largely drafted the new – the current – law of their privileges, which they call tourism.
If, despite these antecedents, there is still any of the demonstrators from the 26th who believes that the PSOE and MÉS will change the economic-tourism model when they return to govern, in 2031 or 2035, they are very mistaken.
Prohens' excuses
And no, the PP does not intend to contain anything either, because if it really wanted to, it would have already given an approximate reference of the number of visitors it wants to contain. I asked Marga Prohens – in an interview published in May 2025 – and the answer was the usual for politicians in vogue: that it is complex, that it is not so much about setting a number as about achieving more value... and other excuses of that kind. Just like the hoteliers say now. Emptiness covered by nothing. A copy of the left-wing ones – Francina Armengol, Lluís Apesteguia... – who when I asked them – in pre-election interviews three years ago – what they had done to change the model, they explained two-quarters of the same: that you cannot set an ideal number of tourists, that it is about improving the model... and that they had taken the first step in tourist change by preventing new potential places. That is to say: the practical thing they did was to eliminate places that did not exist, at the same time as existing ones generated a 27% increase in tourists. Magnificent.
If degrowth arrives one day, it will be when the hoteliers allow it. Not a minute before. Does this mean that pro-degrowth politicians are pulling our leg? There are different opinions on this matter, but it must be borne in mind that dedicating oneself to professional politics means entering a world of multiple realities that often lead to incoherence – “riding contradictions,” as someone used to say – and, in particular, to being very clear – and acting accordingly – that the substantial thing is the propaganda about what they announce, and not about what they do, which is between secondary and marginal. And if the propaganda has to become a complete lie, it doesn't matter. Because the only thing that matters is to convince, at all costs. Pedro Sánchez is not unique. Only the most brazen.
They don't talk about degrowth
The organizers of the demonstration are aware of this. And they also know that any future alternation of Prohens' Government will go through the PSOE, which will determine it. Has anyone ever heard Armengol or Rosario Sánchez not defend but simply talk about degrowth? Well, there you have it.
The socialists don't want it because the interests of the large hotel chains impose it. But neither do the unions formerly known as 'class' unions, UGT and CCOO, accept to hear talk of anything that might possibly involve the loss of a single job. And how can there be tourist degrowth without employment also decreasing? No matter how much fantasy you want to put into it, it's impossible.
If those who hold political, business, and union power don't want to degrow, what can the others do? To gauge the real options of the parties that say – when they are not in government – they want degrowth, the two MÉS and Podemos, the most effective thing is to look at the real strength they have in Parliament: they occupy 7 out of 59 seats. That says it all.
All that remains to be added is that until the moment the big hoteliers accept degrowth, the movement against tourism-philia is a good mobilizing tactic for the only party that can benefit from it in the elections, which is the one that appears in the name of the platform Menys Turisme, Més Vida.