Special Report: Overtourism is by no means over

Protests directed at tourism and its impacts in major destinations such as Majorca have continued this year and Abta chief Mark Tanzer said: “We can’t turn a blind eye to it.”

Abta’s Travel Convention in October will  be hosted by Calvià in Majorca and the overtourism protests will necessarily be reflected in the conference programme.

Tanzer noted: “I was in Palma when a couple of cruise ships came in and you couldn’t move in the centre of the city in the middle of the day.”

He acknowledged: “The people [off the cruise ships] weren’t really adding a lot of value to the local economy. They were maybe buying an ice cream and that was it.”

But he added: “Having said that, there was an event at the Spanish embassy [in London] at the start of June at which mayors from eight of the most-popular destinations in Spain talked about overtourism and I get a sense they’re taking the issue seriously. The mayors are elected and need to listen to the residents who are their voters.”

Tanzer said: “I don’t know if enough is being done and whether it’s happening fast enough, but people are aware that just continuing to fly in large numbers of visitors isn’t going to work.”

The Balearics government led the way in imposing a tourism tax in 2016, levied via hotels and other accommodation, with the proceeds invested in sustainability initiatives. It announced a significant rise in rates for June to August this summer while axing the tax in January and February.

Tanzer said: “You don’t want a tax to be so high that it suppresses demand. That is not a good way to control overtourism. But if residents feel some benefits of tourism are going back into their lives and into the economy, we understand that and can live with it.”

He noted: “The tax isn’t a great amount relative to the amount people spend on a holiday. It’s more a question of what is done with it.”
Tanzer said Abta had chosen Calvià to host the convention because it has “knocked down some old hotels and put investment into the beaches and we want to showcase what it’s doing”.

The Travel Convention 2025 will take place on October 6-8.

For full details about The Travel Convention, and to register, visit the Abta website