‘We miss the English – they spend money’: How Mallorca’s war on British tourists backfired
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/spain/majorca/war-on-britons-backfired/
by Effective-Coat-9276
‘We miss the English – they spend money’: How Mallorca’s war on British tourists backfired
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/spain/majorca/war-on-britons-backfired/
by Effective-Coat-9276
42 comments
No way this is real🤣
I wonder is there is a Spanish newspaper that has a perspective for comparison. Maybe a Megaluf native could put something through Google Translate for the “Anglos.”
Okey to put this to bed :
The people who miss the brits and the people who protest tourism are not the same people.
The people who miss the brits are the store owners, AirBnB landlords and hotels
The people who protest tourism are everyone who get the bad consequences of tourism without seeing a dime.
>Telegraph
This conflict always felt so two-faced to me.
There were the locals with genuine concern about the citizens being able to afford apartments, which is a real issue, and then there were the masses riled on by social media (and no doubt Russian bots) trying to sow disarray in the west.
The presence of two groups could not have been clearer. One was going “um, guys, maybe we shouldn’t let a few people own all apartments,” while the other was going “assault tourists!”
Sounds like the Telegraph talking Balearics again.
The torygraph again 😉 who knew
My ex-, her father and my daughter live in Spain – all English-born, but going through the full citizenship etc. processes and have lived in Spain since Brexit.
They used to live in Mallorca. They moved to the mainland instead.
Mallorca basically died during/after COVID and they couldn’t make any money running their businesses out there, so they moved to the mainland which is slightly better but still they work half-remotely back to the UK for the money. The father spends his entire UK pension out there. My daughter is about to join the Spanish workforce.
The anti-tourist stuff is just completely short-sighted but triggered by hyperbole and a government that was allowing rich tourists to do what the like and ruin areas. Instead of choosing a mild option and enforcement and some legislature changes for property ownership, etc., tourists are now being put off entirely and even attacked. Of course they’re going to stay away. People don’t want to be on the receiving end of a potentially violent protest when they go away for 2 weeks to somewhere in the sun.
And even my family there have experienced all kinds of discrimination and incidents, purely because they’re English (despite having whatever the Spanish equivalent is of permits to stay, visa to work, etc. and renting a house and working a job, etc. as well as speaking pretty good Spanish and trying to integrate rather than live in an English enclave).
This is exactly what the US is doing to itself too at the moment, and what the UK are setting themselves up to do too. Anti-“not born here” sentiment rather than solving the actual problem (e.g. illegal immigration, tourist taxes, etc.).
I am by far not one of “those” English tourists, but if you have a tourism industry and then you allow tourists to be painted as the villains… maybe expect some backlash from those same tourists.
…. says the telegraph
Yeah no shit businesses want more money regardless of the social and material costs for everyone else, who knew?
To be honest, as a German, I really understand the locals who no longer want mass tourism in Mallorca. It is, of course, a logical consequence that bars such as the one mentioned in the article are not benefiting from the current development – you cannot reduce mass tourism and at the same time continue to run the very businesses that attracted mass tourism. Perhaps different business models and a different focus on new target groups are needed here in general – you just have to decide which tourists you want to attract and which you don’t.
From local Balearic News: (translated by google) I’m going to say that the Telegraph is spouting shit again.
>The data published today by the National Institute of Statistics (INE) and the Balearic Islands Statistics Institute (IBESTAT) confirm several things: general growth in foreign tourism, a decline in Spanish tourism, and a flight from German tourists during the summer months. Prices are a decisive factor in explaining these trends. In fact, tourism spending continues to grow faster than arrivals. In July, the sector generated €4.228 billion, which, combined with previous months, amounts to €12.971 billion, €566 million more than last year. Tourism spending is growing almost twice as fast as arrivals, with a 4.7% increase. Rising rates more than offset the reduction in length of stay (also in line with recent years), which has led to a 1.15% decrease in overnight stays.
>
>The Balearic Islands reached three million tourists in July. Cumulative tourist numbers in the first seven months of the year totaled 10.9 million, remaining above last year’s figures. Specifically, from January to July, 10,985,101 visitors arrived, representing a 2.5% increase compared to the same period last year. This increase is driven by the growth of international visitors, despite the sharp decline in German visitors already felt in May and June. In July, tourist numbers in the Balearic Islands’ largest market fell by as much as 8.5%.
>
>Thus, the number of foreign visitors rises to 8.99 million, 3.2% more than in 2024. Visitors from other autonomous communities rose to 1.99 million, representing a very slight year-on-year decline (-0.27%), but breaking the uninterrupted growth trend of recent years, pandemic aside.
And a photo of Eastenders Bar in Shagaluf no less.
The Torygraph would say that
I mean that’s the same for almost every Tourist places, people of lives there on a daily basis working everything except Tourism aren’t happy about too many Tourists and then when slow down tourists, people who’s jobs are about Tourism aren’t happy, so one side will always be unsatisfied
Ban AirBNB and their ilk across Europe. It would solve a lot of problems.
Lmao no we don’t. Airbnb owners do. We don’t. But then again, it’s The Telegraph…
Is ‘backfire’ really the right expression? This is what the protestors wanted. The business owner’s didn’t want it but they weren’t protesting. I am quite curious to see what happens when a tourist economy voluntarily gives up that trade.
Seems like stupid bait.
Just go elsewhere. I spent my summer holiday here as the weather was great, and the winter holiday I went to Estonia.
Next month Romania.
Limiting yourself to a resort in Spain or Greece sounds so dull. Bulgaria is better anyway.
Torygraph lol
No one is missing cheap Brits who cause troubles
Plus they have tourists from other countries like Germany.
Oh no, a bunch of hotels and airbnbs need to go bankrupt and thus lower the cost of living in a beautiful island 🥺 would anyone think of the landlords
“British groups used to come in at 10am and drink right through to the evening.”….most revealing line, in more ways then one, encompasses drinking culture, british loutishness, business needs, capitalism, spanish need for customers……..very deep …that line
Germany be like: Am I not good enough?
I feel like no one read the article
“This is usually a British destination, but this year there are zero,” said Olly from Lineker’s Bar, something of an institution in Magaluf.
“Instead we have the Germans, the French, Portuguese, Italians. But the problem is they book an all-inclusive hotel, then eat, drink and do everything in the hotel. They don’t go out for a party.”
Another member of the team, Carla, who is originally from Bradford but has lived in Mallorca for 20 years, told me that British groups used to come in at 10am and drink right through to the evening. On my mid-afternoon visit, the bar was empty
Its just bar owner complain about different type of tourist that doesn’t spend money in bar.
And as usual, one manager of hotel complain lack of business
Bullshit
Wait a second! So they interviewed non-Spanish owners of bars that offer “English breakfast” & “Sunday Roast” and complain that “tourists stay at Airbnb and cook” and “German tourists prefer all-inclusive hotels”, which led them to the conclusion that Spain’s “war on tourism” is backfiring?
Of course British food places miss British tourists! No one else would agree to eat THAT! (especially since it’s tourist trap quality anyway)
I live in Costa del Sol and all the British locals rely heavily on their own people. What do they expect from “Italians drinking coffee for hours”? Out of all British bars I’ve ever been to only one was capable of offering decent (drinkable) wine and none had any beer other than the cheapest on the market. That is by default a loss against any Spanish-owned, not to mention Belgian places.
Tastes differ, of course, but that’s why those places are struggling to survive low season. Even if I really like the owners, the best I can do is a donation, but I’m not getting a heartburn by putting any of that into my stomach.
At the same time, people in UK have gotten much poorer in the last years and many indeed prefer to “self-cater” these days. Perhaps, Telegraph should actually try to explain to them that they have to support their own more and eat those breakfasts every day. After all, they could turn down their heating to save up for a few fish&chips in Spain.
Those businesses can choose to adapt and cater more internationally or they can find a different way to cater to the British while in Spain.
What’s the score in Mallorca now? Just looking at a week away but there’s no way I’m going there if they don’t want Brits
The inability of this sub to conceptualise second order effects is actually impressive, wow
The irony of putting the Eastenders bar in the picture, representing the absolute worst of our culture who go there.
The people who want the British back are the people who run ‘pubs’ and ‘cafes’ or have over priced air BnB’s which is fueling a housing crisis.
I’ve been to Mallorca and it is beautiful and classy if you go to the right places and no one is hostile towards the tourists.
The biggest issue is Airbnb, housing should not be commoditised.
Maybe if the landlords and others ruining the local housing maket weren’t selfish, greedy jerks, this wouldn’t have happened….
Like wtf did the rich expect? Everyone to just deal with it?
Obviously the people who protest against tourism and the ones working in tourism aren’t the same
“The Italians, they don’t eat and drink. They come and share an espresso between four people,””
lol, rubbish article
This headline is BS.
Took my family to spain for some downtime this summer. Visited the islands and Barcelona.
Absolutely zero anti tourism stuff, none of the 5 of us had any trouble with crime in Barcelona.
Im not surprised because ive been several times, and as far as i can tell not much has changed. Lovely cities with friendly people, good food, great weather.
All this stuff is nonsense.
Hotel limits within cities and the outlawing of renting out multiple Airbnbs per person are fixes that could help these things so much. You promote the use of hotels at a reasonable price giving the state more taxes and more jobs, and you make steps to keep the city affordable for locals.
It’s not a fix all solution but I think it would help a lot.
“The Italians, they don’t eat and drink. They come and share an espresso between four people,”
This is bollocks if I ever heard it. Italians drink coffee, they eat food and they drink alcohol.
They dont do it however in trashy British owned bars and restaurants.
Normal People dont miss english at all
This is what always inevitably happens when the anti-tourist people win. The money dries up and the local economy goes to shit and then they have to find something else to complain about like why the local government can’t afford anything because they can’t connect the dots on what is happening.
In the words of Emmanuel Macron: “Who could have guessed?”
I live near Magaluf and Palma Nova.
It’s definitely far more expensive since before Covid, locals ARE commuting from small cheaper towns, and lots are leaving to the mainland.
They don’t have a chance to buy anything.
Locals simply don’t go out to the resorts.
Hotels are the bosses in Mallorca.
They sit on council meetings and have a big input.
The change to family-friendly resort is definitely making a change. Time will tell.
Lots of Northern European rich people are buying up property here now too, an apt selling for €180.000 five years ago has easily doubled in price.
I can see why the locals are angry, but there’s no real “anti tourist” vendetta, that’s sensationalised by media.
No one ever missed the English
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