Climent Picornell is professor emeritus of geography at the University of the Balearic Islands. The author of numerous books, he is a highly respected observer of and commentator on social change in Mallorca over the decades.
His latest book - Postals de Ciutat; Caminant per Palma (Postcards of the City; Walking in Palma) - will be published shortly. History, tourism, gentrification, the pandemic; these are among subjects he covers. And he writes from a position of knowledge, having lived in Palma's La Lonja district for 52 years, first renting and then buying a home.
Climent Picornell. Photo: Jaume Morey.
"I couldn't do that now because of the exorbitant prices. The neighbourhood has completely changed. Now they are all Germans and Swedes. Community meetings are held in English."
There has been much talk in recent years about tourism limits. Criticism of tourism is sometimes considered to be tourismphobia. Picornell admits to being a tourismphobe, "but only if people believe that tourism cannot have limits".
"You have to be able to criticise if it evolves in a certain way because, in addition to the large economic numbers, there are environmental and sociocultural impacts.The sociocultural transformation began with the first tourism and with a double standard - very strict for residents, but tourists could do whatever they wanted. This said, those first contacts were positive because they allowed us to see and verify that there were other ways of living.
"Setting limits doesn't mean being against tourism; it is about containing and reducing overcrowding and saturation. I myself am surrounded by illegal tourist apartments. Before, tourist activity was very limited to certain areas and establishments. Now it's everywhere. Nobody disputes that tourism was the vector that transformed our agrarian society into a more developed one, but limits must be set. And, above all, we don't have to thank the hoteliers that we wear shoes and that we no longer drive carts. Enough of these types of arguments. A little dignity."
His book is essentially about the transformation of the city. "In Palma there used to be places, in the sense of references, places with history or that you made your own because of their characteristics. Now there are non-places: C&A, Zara, the airport, Mercadona, El Corte Inglés, Louis Vuitton ... . We can go to those places, but you don't make them yours. There were traditional businesses that were places. They have disappeared. My closest store to buy tomatoes is El Corte Inglés. The centre of Palma had bars, shops and cinemas where people from the outskirts went. Young people went downtown to have a drink, go to the movies or have dinner. Now everything is franchises. The prices are prohibitive and there is a disproportionate number of ice cream parlours aimed at cruise passengers. All this has displaced traditional businesses."
Picornell concludes: "The problem is that the market is all of Europe and we have the least purchasing power, which displaces us and puts us at a disadvantage."
Everything the professor talks about is Basically True and is not only the case in Palma it's the same world wide everywhere my job required me to travel a lot all over I remember saying to myself as I watched these places change over the years and everywhere became the same Palma is actually very fortunate not to have Huricane´s, volcano´s , Sunami´s economic disasters basically the economy continuie´s to grow year after year the professor should look around a bit more thing´s will become more expensive a lot more and Mallorca will not be outside the box when it come´s to this .
"The problem is that the market is all of Europe and we have the least purchasing power, which displaces us and puts us at a disadvantage."
What a load of nonsense. The retired professor needs to travel more.
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Everything the professor talks about is Basically True and is not only the case in Palma it's the same world wide everywhere my job required me to travel a lot all over I remember saying to myself as I watched these places change over the years and everywhere became the same Palma is actually very fortunate not to have Huricane´s, volcano´s , Sunami´s economic disasters basically the economy continuie´s to grow year after year the professor should look around a bit more thing´s will become more expensive a lot more and Mallorca will not be outside the box when it come´s to this .
He talks a lot of sense.
"The problem is that the market is all of Europe and we have the least purchasing power, which displaces us and puts us at a disadvantage." What a load of nonsense. The retired professor needs to travel more.