The Government's smart sensors to control saturation on the beaches: lifeguards who count people

Palma"We invested 150,000 euros to transform mobile coverage antennas and satellite data into occupancy sensors at 150 beaches in the Balearic Islands. This data, together with that provided in real time by lifeguards and the history from previous years, has allowed for the generation of a predictive model within the beach application to have an approximation of the influx that there may be over the next six days." This is how the Vice President of the Government and Minister of Economy, Finance and Innovation, Antoni Costa, responded to the question from Més per Menorca deputy Joana Gomila regarding the 4 million euro investment in smart sensors that the Executive announced at Fitur in January 2026. That is to say, one of the methods that the Government has used to measure the influx at the beaches has been the count made by the lifeguards and the data from mobile coverage antennas.

In fact, Gomila herself ironized about the situation of one of the saturation control measures that the Executive put on the table: "This great bet that Mrs. Prohens' Government made, the creation of this network of smart sensors, turns out to have been reduced to lifeguards looking today at how many people are on the beach. This has been the great technological bet that this government has made," she said in her turn of reply.

Announcement at Fitur

Marga Prohens announced in January that the Government would launch a system to monitor the beaches of the Balearic Islands. But it was not the first time that the Government had said it would do so: in April 2024, it was already assured that a pilot plan would begin. Be that as it may, the cost was 4 million euros over two years. Prohens set a date for the start of the monitoring system: the second quarter of 2026. In any case, this system, beyond providing information, did not imply any real limitation of the capacity on the beaches, other than the fact that the people who consulted it might decide whether to go or not.

As Costa explained in the plenary session of September 29, the Government carried out three pilot projects "to check which technology was better". "It was verified that there are technologies that are not mature enough to be installed in the natural environment due to issues of coverage, salinity, and even vandalism. These technologies did not improve the data from mobile coverage antennas nor that of the lifeguards," he explained, in addition to remarking that the Executive is not giving up on "the investment of four million euros in sensors".

Gomila criticized the fact that the Government does not have data because "it does not implement the necessary tools". "The feeling that the PP speaks of is no longer a feeling," she continued. "Ms. Prohens is a specialist in making grand announcements that then do not arrive. The Government has been incapable of gathering information and adopting effective measures to manage tourist saturation," the Menorcan deputy sentenced.