Galmés' umpteenth announcement about the cap on tourist places: now he says again that he will reduce them

PalmThe president of the Consell de Mallorca, Llorenç Galmés, has taken advantage of the island institution's general policy debate to make the umpteenth announcement about the island's tourist capacity ceiling. This time, Galmés has once again announced that he will reduce the number of places, just two months after the insular Minister of Tourism, Guillem Ginard, indicated that they would not be cut because it was not an urgent measure. However, after three years of contradictory announcements, the Consell has not made any decision on the capacity ceiling beyond saying that it will do one thing or another. Currently, the ceiling in Mallorca is 430,000 tourist places.

Galmés has not strayed from the script of the institutional representatives of the PP and has accused the left of having caused the tourist saturation. "Mallorca has reached its limit," he stated, in addition to reproaching the Pact for setting such a high ceiling without taking into account that the Government established a moratorium on places last legislature. According to the president of the Consell, after "eight years of interventionism, limitations, prohibitions, and tourismophobic messages," the current insular government team has taken a step towards an "era of tourism" under the paradigm of "residents at the center," has not yet specified concrete measures that have prioritized residents on the Islands over tourists, and while the Consell continues to promote itself at the main sector fairs.

The president also reiterated the importance of the "tourism-culture binomial" to attract visitors "respectful of the territory" and stressed that this connection is bearing fruit without providing concrete data to support this claim.

"In 2025, 13.5 million tourists have arrived in Mallorca, a figure practically identical to that of 2024," said Galmés – the previous year it was 13.4 –, in addition to highlighting that greater deseasonalization of the sector is observed.

“We do not consider a formal reduction of the capacity ceiling urgent through the Plan for the Intervention of Tourist Areas (PIAT) because the Government's containment decree prevents growth in capacity and guides the model towards quality and order”: these were the statements made by the island councilor for Tourism, Guillem Ginard, in February, less than two months ago. These words were framed within a context of promotion by the Consell to open new markets in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, markets that have now been affected by the war in Iran. “Mallorca cannot do without tourism or tourists. Opening new tourist markets is a tool to move towards responsible tourism,” Ginard assured.

Ginard's announcement contradicted what Galmés did in July 2024, when he assured that the Consell would reduce the capacity ceiling for the first time in history: it would go from 430,000 to 412,000. The president clarified that it would be "complicated and difficult" to apply this measure that same year. Almost two years later, the announcement is repeated.