Your weekly catch-up

Online retailer showerstoyou.co.uk has compiled a list of the world’s most instagrammable islands based on their hashtag tally – and Mallorca is in the top five. Out front was the Indonesian paradise of Bali, with a whopping 76,086,685 instagram hashtags. Second was the largest island in the Mediterranean, Sicily, with 16,667,130, followed by Jamaica and Sri Lanka. Our very own Mallorca rounded out the top five with 13,764,177 hashtags. Quite why a shower and bathroom expert is conducting this research, is a different matter.

Luxuy Overload
As of 1 August, 40,295 luxury homes priced above one million euros were listed on the Spanish property market with idealista. The Balearic Islands were responsible for more than one fifth of those listings - some 22.1% of the total – just a touch behind the province of Málaga, which accounted for 23.3%. When it came to ultra-luxury three-million-euro-plus listings, of which there were 7,775 on 1 August, the percentage attributable to the Balearics rose to 32.1% (2,497 listings) - again a smidge behind Málaga, which claimed 37.2% of the total (2,895 listings).

Dive In

The Island now has a grand total of 48,968 pools, and that’s before you take into consideration the removable above-ground pools which have proliferated over recent years. This large-scale pool construction puts the Balearic water supply at risk, due to their high consumption and evaporation which - at an estimated five million litres per year - represents nearly 5% of all urban water consumption. Terraferida would like to see the implementation of certain measures, including a ban on the construction of more pools except for public pools in inland towns and a requirement to cover pools when not in use to minimise evaporation.

Under the Hammer
On Tuesday, Russian-owned 72.5-metre Axioma was auctioned off in Gibraltar – the first sale of its kind since the invasion of Ukraine back in February. The 75-million-dollar superyacht was seized by Gibraltar authorities in March when her steel billionaire owner Dmitry Pumpyansky reneged on the terms of a 20-million-dollar loan from JP Morgan. 63 closed bids arrived before the midday deadline, and the selection process is expected to take between ten and 14 days. It’s believed that the court will decide what happens to any surplus proceeds once JP Morgan has claimed the money its owed – if indeed it can.

Protect the Golden Goose
After a couple of relatively tourist-free years, Mallorca is really feeling the effects of ‘mass tourism’. Several well-known faces have recently expressed their concerns, including the Mayor of Deya, Lluís Enric Apesteguia, who told this paper it, “can’t be allowed to become a victim of its own success”. He has called for a limit on traffic passing through the beautiful mountain village and for authorities to produce serious solutions to protect Deya in the long-term. “I want people to come and enjoy Deya… but not when they’re going to spend 40 minutes or more stuck in traffic, then find there is no parking, no room to move about safely and nowhere to shop or eat.” Scottish singer-songwriter Annie Lennox took to social media on Tuesday to share her thoughts on the tourism dilemma. She too has watched the Island change in the 30 years she’s been visiting but doesn’t know exactly where the solution lies. “And this goes for ALL the historical landmarks and heritage sites of the world… Venice, Barcelona, Paris, Rome, Machu Picchu etc… where the tourist industry brings major economy but destroys the beauty, character, integrity and fundamental nature of the places that are bringing in the money. Like a snake eating its own tail. There are also ‘people’ who live in these places, that have had their soul sucked out of them for all of the above reasons. Complicado!!!!” Read her full statement on Instagram @officialannielennox.

Brutal Battering
Magaluf is once more in the media spotlight - for all the wrong reasons. A video of British tourists brutally attacking a local taxi driver in the early hours of Tuesday morning - simply for taking umbrage with them jumping on the bonnet of his vehicle - has gone viral.
Two Brits, age 21 and 22, one a Royal Marine Commando and the other a naval engineer, have been arrested and charged with causing serious injury to the 57-year-old victim. They have been released on bail. Following the assault, other drivers spoke out saying that aggressions are a nightly occurrence – “if you don’t stop, mirrors or windows get hit” – and they are considering protest action. “It’s still early, but we are thinking about what we should do. We cannot continue like this.” Licensing issues have created a severe shortage of taxi drivers across the Island and tempers are fraying. Additional police in trouble spots such as Magaluf would help drivers feel more secure.