MORE anti-tourist protests have been planned across Spain – but an Irish pub owner has warned that “nothing will change” unless the government takes action.
Last weekend, thousands took to the streets of Spanish cities and tourism hotspots over the rising costs of accommodation – for both tourists and locals.
Huge demonstrations mounted across 40 major cities, including Malaga on the Costa del Sol and Alicante on the Costa Blanca, to demand cheaper rents.
The protesters also highlighted problems caused by excess tourism, which they blame for pushing up prices for locals looking for longer-term rentals because of the number of Airbnb-style short holiday lets.
And Irish pub owner, Nick O’Donnell, revealed that the crippling rental situation has forced many local bars and restaurants to shut their doors.
Nick runs O’Donnell’s Irish Pub in Cales de Mallorca and says many businesses are struggling to get staff due to the rising accommodation costs.
He told The Irish Sun: “Because of the price of all inclusive hotels, landlords are abusing the prices of accommodation.
“Hence, people cannot come to work in hotels, bars and restaurants because there is no accommodation or too expensive.
“Unless they stop the amount of all inclusive and give people the chance of affordable hotels for families nothing will change in the foreseeable future.”
The rising costs across Spain and popular tourist islands has seen less spending in general, but particularly among tourists.
Nick says that while there is “less spending for sure all over Mallorca“, there was a noticeable decrease in Irish tourists returning last summer.
And, when it comes to the upcoming summer season, Nick says he expects to see less again.
When asked if he thought another dip in holidaymakers coming to Mallorca was likely, Nick simply said: “Big time.”
BUSINESS IMPACT
Following the summer season last year, and a number of demonstrations similar to those seen this weekend, businesses were severely impacted.
Nick added: “More and more restaurants and bars closed permanently after last summer.”
Several leading groups of protesters earlier this month came together and issued a letter to the people visiting Majorca and other popular tourist spots in Spain.
The letter said tourists are the source of their “serious” problems like “quality of life” and environmental degradation.
PLANNED PROESTS IN 8 LOCATIONS
SPANISH activists last week issued their latest warning to Irish tourists to stay away, as huge demonstrations mounted across 40 major cities.
And now 15 separate groups have pledged to take to the streets across the Canary Islands under an umbrella protest platform fuming: The Canary Islands Have a Limit.
Organisers have not yet said whether they will demonstrate in the capital Santa Cruz like last April or take their fight to the south coast resorts packed with holidaymakers.
A spokesman claimed the eight islands that make up the Atlantic Ocean archipelago were “collapsing” under tourist pressure and the future for locals being priced out of somewhere to live by “foreign speculators” encouraged by regional government inaction looked bleaker than ever.
The platform said: “Today our dependence on tourism is greater than ever, housing is more inaccessible than ever, the levels of poverty and social exclusion keep rising, we’re losing our unique natural heritage in the world at an alarming rate and macro-projects serving foreign speculation continue unabated.
“We’ve still lacking a true change of model that guarantees a decent future for the people who live in these islands.
“That’s why we’re announcing that in the month of May we will take to the streets of Tenerife again and we call on the other seven islands to join us again in this shared mission.”
The Canary Islands include several destinations popular with Irish tourists, from Tenerife, to Gran Canaria, Lanzarote, Fuerteventura, La Palma, La Graciosa and La Gomera to El Hierro.
The letter read: “ENOUGH! STAY HOME! We do not need more tourists; in fact, you are the source of our problem. DO NOT COME.”
Tenerife was at the forefront of protests last year linked to the type of mass tourism it attracts and accusations regional governors were doing nothing to alleviate the problems critics say it causes.
Organisers said 80,000 people had joined in Tenerife protests alone on April 20 last year.
And six men and women went on hunger strike for 20 days outside a church in La Laguna near the capital Santa Cruz to demand a halt to two macro hotel projects.
Two anti-mass tourism street protests were subsequently staged in the Majorcan capital Palma.
