Several more towns in Mallorca, such as Valldemossa, Alcudia, Binissalem, Manacor, Banyalbufar, where Sir Richard Branson owns a luxury hotel, and Son Servera, have joined the campaign on social media platforms such as Instagram, using images created with artificial intelligence (AI) to denounce tourist saturation. These profiles have been popping up since the end of April, when the account ‘Welcome to SollerLand’ was created, followed shortly afterwards by ‘Welcome to SantanyiLand’.
There are now at least eight municipalities in Mallorca that have joined this protest which uses AI-generated images to recreate their most iconic spots filled with tourists. On Monday, these profiles had a combined total of nearly 9,000 followers. These images are often accompanied by a picture of a resident holding a placard lamenting that tourist saturation has prevented them from going about their daily lives in peace.
‘I used to be able to shop at the market,’ reads one of the signs held by a man in one of the images recreated by the “Welcome to Alcúdia-Land” account. “When culture becomes a spectacle, it loses its tradition,” reads another image, in which a Mallorcan couple dances “ball de bot” while tourists photograph them, published by “Welcome to BiniLand”.
In ‘Welcome to BanyalbufarLand’, you can see different photographs created with AI that exaggerate some of the problems experienced in the village due to mass tourism. For example, in one of them, you can see a crowd of motorcyclists crossing the Ma-10, the road that crosses the municipality, or a queue of people waiting to access the Ses Ànimes viewpoint.
Similar recreations have been made by the ‘Welcome to Son Servera-Land’ account, which shows the Costa dels Pins viewpoint, the Talaiot de Ses Oliveres and the Mestre Ramon archaeological site full of tourists. In ‘Welcome to ValldemossaLand’, in addition to some images created with AI, videos have been posted that exemplify ‘the daily reality of saturation’ in the town’s car parks. From ‘Welcome to ManacorLand’, they ironically ask whether they live ‘in Manacor or in Munich’.
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BrisketThey're foreigners. Naturally, they're all unemployed. Would you hire somebody that doesn't speak English? And they think it's perfectly ok to drive on the wrong side of the road. Yeah, of course they're poor.
"Focus on the sub €500k houses as there is no point in restricting foreigners from buying houses more than €500k as locals will never have the finance for such prestige properties, so restrictions on foreigners buying such properties are irrelevant to the welfare of locals." Yeah, that will work! In all of Valldemossa there is one single house for sale under €500k!!! Do you imagine everyone in Mallorca is poor? It's the Mallorcans who have sold their properties to foreigners for huge profit in the first place! It's always been extremely easy to stop foreigners buying property from locals. Simply by not selling to them! All those young people having difficulties getting on the property ladder should blame their parents and grandparents for cashing in for maximum profit. And then there are the Spanish banks who buy up huge swathes of properties to rent out at high prices. The issues driving these protests are often misunderstood by the protesters themselves.
Nobody who lives here wants to do away with tourism. We are simply saying that it has become too much. It needs reducing - not eliminating.
So many negative comments on here. We as long term residents should have a better understanding of the issues driving these protests and be more sympathetic to them - they are after all our friends and neighbours who are struggling and demanding change. We should be more respectful of their concerns. For the record, nobody is denying that tourism is an important part of our economy. Nobody is saying tourism should be banned. ...and most locals are not against foreign residents. What they are saying though is that tourism has grown and grown and is now at a level that is not comfortable for local people and the maintenance of the local culture. That a limit has been passed and that careful but urgent steps need to be taken to get tourism numbers back to a more comfortable level. That within these limits we also need to determine what types of tourist we really want - if we do have too many and need to reduce then the low value, high impact tourists such as those from cruise ships, or those on cheap all inclusive packages should be the first to come under the knife. Finally, local people rightly want their children to be able to work locally and be able to afford to rent or buy houses locally - so more affordable housing supply is urgently needed and some restrictions on foreigners snapping up the "cheap" (to them) village houses to be used for 2 weeks per year merely as a vacation home by non residents. Focus on the sub €500k houses as there is no point in restricting foreigners from buying houses more than €500k as locals will never have the finance for such prestige properties, so restrictions on foreigners buying such properties are irrelevant to the welfare of locals.
BrisketIt's not only places like Valldemossa, but the whole interior of the island... Like Felanitx, Santanyi, Llucmayor, Petra, Porreres, Llubi, etc. These used to be poor, sleepy, backward little villages. Today they're thriving. Because of tourism. Yet, ther
All these towns and villages have avoided becoming like other ghost villages in Spain because of tourism. Imagine Valledemossa without tourists. The bars, the restaurants, the shops, the hotels, the museums, the performances. They would almost all have to close within months. Whilst it would then be more peaceful and beautiful, it would become a retirement village for the wealthy, devoid of business owners or workers, devoid of income other than from every increasing council charges. The youth would have little there and the real world culture would likely die. So much in Mallorca is built on tourism. Why can these people see that to remove it would cause great self harm. Limit it somehow, sure. But to remove it would be suicide.
From seeing this, you'd think that tourism was something new that had suddenly arrived in Mallorca. As opposed to having existed for over 50 years, and being the main driving force of the local economy.