Overtourism has become a pressing issue for popular destinations like Palma de Mallorca, Spain, which welcomed 17 million visitors in 2023 alone. As the influx of travelers overwhelms local resources, residents feel the strain, with soaring housing prices and stagnant wages exacerbating the problem. Protests in various Spanish cities last summer highlighted the locals' frustrations with the tourists and the lack of affordable rentals during the peak season.

The episode explores the stark income disparity between wealthy visitors and lower-paid locals, and the impact of vacation rentals on the community. Solutions such as raising wages, increasing housing availability, and imposing stricter regulations on short-term rentals are discussed as potential ways to address the challenges posed by over-tourism. Plus an interview with a local tourism guide named Marise from Palma. who faces challenges from locals frequently.

Mallorca, a stunning Mediterranean island, has become a focal point for conversations around overtourism, particularly following a significant influx of visitors in recent years. With 17 million tourists arriving in Palma alone in 2023, the local population feels the strain. One solution is cutting cruise ships down to three landings per day.

The conversation sheds light on the urgent need for sustainable tourism practices that protect the cultural integrity of destinations and ensure the well-being of local communities.

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• Airbnb
• VRBO

Today on GoNomad, we visit the island of Mallorca, located in the Mediterranean Sea and discuss the topic of over tourism.

How much is too much?

You might have noticed the swarms of fellow travelers who all seem to take the same trip as you.

And in some of the world's most popular places, the locals are pushing back.

I've never seen more people flying during my year of travel and and the stats back it up.

Everyone is going everywhere.

What that has meant to locals is that housing prices are sky high since renting out rooms and apartments to tourists, a Airbnb and VRBO are much more profitable.

As we found out during our trip to Mallorca, much of the issue is the vast income disparity between the American visitors and Spanish locals.

Many of the people who marched in Palma in July were protesting not the presence of tourists, but the fact that there are so few rentals available for rent during the tourist season between March and November every year.

And wages are still low in Mallorca, as in much of Spain, with the average worker earning about $28,000 a year, very low compared to the average US median wage of $77,000 per year.

Haim Salas, a hotel manager who has been here for decades on Mallorca, explained how it is on the island.

Solas said that the number of vacation rentals in Mallorca went from 20,000 several years ago to around 80,000 today.

And this has made local people like the waiters, the busboys and the the bus drivers unable to take holidays or stay in places where vacation rentals are too high for them.

He said that most of the hotels have spent thousands of dollars in recent years upgrading their properties and it's hard to compete with all the villas.

Last year a law was passed in New York City forcing Airbnb renters to stay in the apartment with the renters unless it's for 30 days or longer.

This has drastically reduced the number of available short term rentals but no one's really sure if it's had the intended effect of reducing rents overall in Barcelona.

We also heard a story from our tourist guide in Palma and some of her experiences with locals about over tourism.

We have during the winter a lot of people that is living in Mallorca during the winter.

Scandinavian, Germans, British.

They have a second residence in Mayor.

So you have the city crowded from March to November.

Not like Joanna, but crowded too much for the city, because for them, for these people.

Dan is complaining.

So that Turin we got always.

But before, until 10 years ago, the tourists were sustaining the tourist areas.

Maganos, Playa del Palma, where the resorts they are.

The people was just going from the hotel to the sun deck in the beach and from the sun deck to the hotel.

And that was all.

They were not having all the interest.

One day, probably during the 15 days they were spending on holidays, they were going to visit the cathedral.

But that was wrong, right?

But now the people is more curious.

So they see photos from Instagram and they walk along to the same places and they are moving more.

Last Friday I was having a group of 18 people in a walking tour.

I was inquired three times by local people and so in very aggressively.

And they were locals and they were old people, old people, old people.

The three of them, 60 year old, more than 60.

I'm 63.

So my my opinion, because that's not the first time that happens to me is then these people is getting attention thanks to my taxes, I earn thanks to the tourists.

Here is 73% of the economy is holded by tourists.

Puma yoka.

So how they think they will be paid their pensions without the turitas.

And so and another of the points it is then these same people, after they take part in some social tours, travels, they are financed by the government of Spain.

They are called programa inserto.

And they are going to do exactly the same they don't want in their cities because they go out to Barcelona or to Paris or to Venice and they are acting exactly as the tourists they criticize.

So I think that's a reflection that these people then is so against tourists.

Because honestly, in this community all the people is guidedly or indirectly working on.

Living from overtourism is a problem in so many other hotspots as well.

And the people in these cities are reacting.

The solution in my view, is for Europe to drastically increase their workers pay.

Raise the low minimum wage in like Spain, which are lower than the rest of Europe but higher than poor Portugal.

Building more housing, raising pay and continuing to restrict vacation rentals will help solve the world's over tourism problem.

If you're interested in what you've been hearing today, like and subscribe to the Gonomad Travel podcast.