The Consell de Mallorca reverses course and will not reduce tourist accommodations: "We do not consider it urgent"

PalmThe Consell de Mallorca will not reduce the number of tourist accommodation places on Mallorca during this legislative term, as the island institution's governing team had repeatedly promised. "We do not consider a formal reduction of the capacity ceiling through the Tourist Area Intervention Plan (PIAT) to be urgent because the Government's containment decree prevents growth in accommodation places and orients the model towards quality and order," stated the Island Councillor for Tourism, Guillem Ginard. Thus, the promise made by the president of the island institution, Llorenç Galmés, in July 2024 – who assured that would reduce the number of tourist accommodations from 430,000 to 412,000 – would be unfulfilled.

The same governing team that in 2024 asserted that it was "time to set limits" and reduce tourist accommodation by 18,000 beds, admitted this Thursday that it will not do so during this legislative term. Ginard argued that the Balearic Government had already approved a moratorium preventing the creation of new tourist accommodation, so the island council would be in no hurry to modify the PIAT (Island Tourism Plan) to implement the reduction. He also repeatedly stated that during this legislative term, the Consell de Mallorca (Island Council of Mallorca) "has not created any new tourist accommodation."

Thus, the Consell de Mallorca would be following the model of the Balearic Government, which, as ARA Baleares reported, also It will no longer push for any major measures against saturation. until the end of the legislature, although the Balearic Islands set a target in 2024. new tourist record, with 18,735,673 visitors, 4.9% more than the 17.8% who visited the Islands in 2023, according to figures from the Balearic Institute of Statistics (Ibestat).

In response to the announcement by the Popular Party, MÁS per Mallorca has stated that the island council's governing team "has definitively abandoned the fight against overtourism." In this regard, the eco-sovereignist spokesperson, Catalina Inès Perelló, accused the council's government of "betraying the citizens" and of having turned the cap on tourist accommodation into "a political slogan without any real intention of implementing it."

Along the same lines, she considered that the Popular Party has committed a "political fraud" because "it speaks of sustainability and restraint while Mallorca is preparing, yet again, to break records for visitors and increased pressure on public services and housing."

Does Mallorca need new tourist markets?

"Opening new tourist markets is what Mallorca needs," PSIB councilor Andreu Serra told the island's tourism councilor, Guillem Ginard, referring to the tourism promotion carried out by the island institution through the Responsible Tourism Foundation of Mallorca in specific Middle Eastern countries (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and others). Ginard responded that "Mallorca cannot do without tourism, nor can it do without tourists." Thus, Ginard argued that "opening new tourist markets is a tool for moving towards responsible tourism."