Tourist saturation: can the discomfort of the citizenry be graded?

Palma“The perception of the citizens of the Balearic Islands towards tourism is improving. Nine tenths in one year and it achieves a score of five out of ten”. This is the news that IB3, the public television of the Balearic Islands, broadcast on August 13, two weeks after 70,000 people demonstrated in Palma against tourist saturation, and only days after the protest in Sóller on August 8. The source that allowed this conclusion to be reached is a barometer from a consultancy called LLYC, specialized in “communication, reputation management, public affairs and digital marketing”, according to the company on its website.

The consultancy prepares this barometer every quarter by analyzing social media interactions. In such a way that all people who do not interact on social media or who do not specifically talk about tourism are excluded.

On the other hand, the IB3 news is limited to comparing the result of the second quarter of 2025 with the second of 2026, because it is precisely here where one can speak of an improvement in perception. The public media omits important data in its information, such as that 60% of islanders have a negative perception of tourism, that the rating has dropped from 7.18 to 5 since the last quarter of 2025, and that citizens highlight the housing emergency, saturation, excesses, and growth limits as negative aspects.

In any case, there are experts who consider it "not very rigorous" to give an average rating to tourism. "Methodologically, it is a disaster," points out the political scientist Julián Claramunt, in addition to pointing out the contradiction implied by the rating being a five and that 60% of islanders have a negative perception. Claramunt also warns that the average rating can be distorted by very high ratings from a minority and recalls that on social networks there are population groups that do not interact, such as the elderly, and that it does not focus on current or political issues, like many young people. "Observation on social networks is not good for knowing the general opinion of the population, even if it serves to know the narratives behind people's positions," he adds.

The political scientist regrets that the Balearic public media is making "deceptive use of data" and that "it does not explain the report well."

For his part, the UIB Sociology professor David Abril considers that "citizens' opinion on tourism will be worse by the end of the season."

The Government, with data from 2024

The Government currently has no recent data on citizens' opinions on tourism. The Executive spent a year developing a survey that was conducted in October 2024: the information was not known until September 2025.

However, the survey conducted by the Ministry of Tourism was so conclusive that the minister Jaume Bauzà even dismissed it in Parliament. According to the study, 75% of the islanders already demanded clear limits two years ago and qualified the tourist pressure as excessive. 77% of citizens attributed the housing emergency to the massive arrival of tourists and 69% were in favor of limiting the number of visitors.

“Citizens are represented in Parliament, not in a survey of 2,000 people conducted in 2024,” Bauzà said on September 30, 2025, regarding the need to take into account the work done by the Tourism Strategy Agency (AETIB) with the survey. “Does anyone believe that a 2024 survey assesses the management of one year of Government?”, he asked. The Ministry of Tourism does not plan to conduct any further studies on the opinion of residents, according to government sources. Unlike the minister, they consider the survey to be “very recent”.