Mallorca protests.

tangey said:
Would I be right in thinking those that are doing the water pistol thing don't work in the tourism industry ?

Those islands economies are pretty much all tourism, I have no doubt that some of their grievances are genuine, but how short-sighted do you have to be to take action that might well kill the entire economy on which your habitat exists. I expect that is also the case in Dubrovnik.

Not exactly the same with Barcelona, but no doubt a sizeable portion of the money spent in the city is from tourists.
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People get to the point where they don't care. If you can't afford to live then whats the difference. They are doing this for their future because its only likely to go in one direction unless something changes. Sometimes you cut off your nose to spite your face.

Also, the people in charge will do something if their bottom line is being killed. They will find a solution.
 
fez said:
People get to the point where they don't care. If you can't afford to live then whats the difference. They are doing this for their future because its only likely to go in one direction unless something changes. Sometimes you cut off your nose to spite your face.

Also, the people in charge will do something if their bottom line is being killed. They will find a solution.
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I'll agree that certain people get to the point where they don't care, but I assume none of the employees of the restaurants were involved in the water pistols, people were only targeted tourists if they don't work in tourism or certainly not at the places they work.

Problem is not enough forward thinking. All these great high end marinas and top hotels and seafront apartments and promenades brings in mega bucks in land sales and construction employement for years, and the island finanacially flourishes. And those that are involved at that moment make wonderful money and are not one bit interested in looking past the end of their nose. By the time the city/island figures out it is becoming an issue, it is already an issue. But if the tourist numbers diminish, the locals can now get access to housing, but the jobs that many of them are directly in, are no longer there, so they can't afford to buy, and also they can't afford to pay for other services unrelated to tourism and so day-to-day services are also hit.

I guess a per night levy on lodgings might be the way forward....hasn't somewhere like manchester just started that ?
 
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~Divine~Wind~ said:
The locals doing the best to "protect their country" really comes across as a nose/face scenario in my eyes.
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Yeah, this basically sums up my thoughts. I understand lobbying for legislation to limit or exclude foreign ownership of properties (especially on a smallish island), but why bite the hand that feeds you? The tourism ministry has promoted Spain and the islands for many years, and when it works the population revolt. When we go on holiday I've always made an effort to learn at least conversational language (Catalan for Mallorca, Portugese for Porto Santo etc), we dress according to the locals (long linens, my wife veiling for visiting church while there etc) and generally try to blend in. We visit the non-tourist bits and spend the day there, eating and exploring, we don't drink or party, and generally keep to ourselves.

Despite this, a few years ago when walking through the market at Cala Millor a local old lady spoke to my wife (who does look Spanish with a tan) in Catalan. She (who doesn't speak any of the lingo) said 'I'm sorry, Ingles?' and the woman scowled and said 'UGH, English?!' and spat on the floor by my wife's feet. Wholly unwarranted, but we didn't go back. Greece next I think.
 
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tangey said:
Problem is not enough forward thinking. All these great high end marinas and top hotels and seafront apartments and promenades brings in mega bucks in land sales and construction employement for years, and the island finanacially flourishes. And those that are involved at that moment make wonderful money and are not one bit interested in looking past the end of their nose. By the time the city/island figures out it is becoming an issue, it is already an issue. But if the tourist numbers diminish, the locals can now get access to housing, but the jobs that many of them are directly in, are no longer there, so they can't afford to buy, and also they can't afford to pay for other services unrelated to tourism and so day-to-day services are also hit.

I guess a per night levy on lodgings might be the way forward....hasn't somewhere like manchester just started that ?
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This is the thing though, the people don't see it. They don't see all the money that tourism makes. I doubt all the locals are thinking "man, my life is so much better than it was 30 years ago because Sergio the billionaire has tripled his fortune and owns 4 high end hotels in Mallorca". Trickle down economics don't work. A tiny bit trickles down and the rest just goes to the wealthy and allows them to hoard even more wealth.
 
tangey said:
I guess a per night levy on lodgings might be the way forward....hasn't somewhere like manchester just started that ?
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The problem with this is that like @fez says above. That doesn't benefit the people at ground level who have no-where to live and can't afford the food. It's more difficult on an Island because in places like NY or London, the locals at least have the opportunity to move further out and maintain ties with their families etc and commute in for their jobs from more affordable areas. It's still not ideal and it's a shame anywhere nice ends up only being a habitat of the rich.

Without some kind of action it doesn't matter how many tourists go to the island because there'll be no locals there to work in shops/bars to serve them. You then end up with 2 outcomes

1 - The tourism industry dies. Then the government do what they can to attract people back again when it's too late
2 - You stop things like Air bnb's etc, limit holiday rentals to hotels/apartments and make normal residences available for residents only.
 
Ayahuasca said:
Were they targeting anyone in particular?

If I was sat at a restaurant abroad and someone blasted my kid with a water pistol, they’d be getting a slap.
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Whilst I understand the sentiment, they are walking in large groups protesting. If you slapped one of them, you would probably find you will have the snot kicked out of you by the mob, mob mentality and all that
 
Bear said:
Whilst I understand the sentiment, they are walking in large groups protesting. If you slapped one of them, you would probably find you will have the snot kicked out of you by the mob, mob mentality and all that
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Ah, I thought it was just the odd wrongun with a water pistol as I hadn't seen any pictures or footage. Of course, if it's a large group, it's more problematic.
 
Martynt74 said:
The problem with this is that like @fez says above. That doesn't benefit the people at ground level who have no-where to live and can't afford the food. It's more difficult on an Island because in places like NY or London, the locals at least have the opportunity to move further out and maintain ties with their families etc and commute in for their jobs from more affordable areas. It's still not ideal and it's a shame anywhere nice ends up only being a habitat of the rich.
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Yeah, I'd not thought of the significance of it being an island with extremly limited options to venture away from the tourist areas.
 
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fez said:
This is the thing though, the people don't see it. They don't see all the money that tourism makes. I doubt all the locals are thinking "man, my life is so much better than it was 30 years ago because Sergio the billionaire has tripled his fortune and owns 4 high end hotels in Mallorca". Trickle down economics don't work. A tiny bit trickles down and the rest just goes to the wealthy and allows them to hoard even more wealth.
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You do not understand economics even slightly with that statement.

You might as well talk about perpetual motion machines.

You cannot hoard wealth, it doesn't work like that.

Most of those islands are 99.99% tourism, remove tourists and your back to a fishing village.
 
platinum87 said:
You do not understand economics even slightly with that statement.

You might as well talk about perpetual motion machines.

You cannot hoard wealth, it doesn't work like that.

Most of those islands are 99.99% tourism, remove tourists and your back to a fishing village.
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You maybe can't hoard wealth, but i imagine the point he's making is that the wealth generated certainly doesn't go back to the locals or even into the island due to the redistribution of profit to global multinationals. It certainly isn't going to Raul and his family that've lived on the island for countless years. Maybe Raul and his family want it to go back to a sleepy fishing village where he can avoid his life.

I assume you know that but just want to pick on wording rather than actual underlying intent.
 
Martynt74 said:
You maybe can't hoard wealth, but i imagine the point he's making is that the wealth generated certainly doesn't go back to the locals or even into the island due to the redistribution of profit to global multinationals. It certainly isn't going to Raul and his family that've lived on the island for countless years. Maybe Raul and his family want it to go back to a sleepy fishing village where he can avoid his life.

I assume you know that but just want to pick on wording rather than actual underlying intent.
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The money certainly doesn't come from cruise ships all at since it just stays on the ship and their 'registered' businesses at ports they control entirely.

Martynt74 said:
The problem with this is that like @fez says above. That doesn't benefit the people at ground level who have no-where to live and can't afford the food. It's more difficult on an Island because in places like NY or London, the locals at least have the opportunity to move further out and maintain ties with their families etc and commute in for their jobs from more affordable areas. It's still not ideal and it's a shame anywhere nice ends up only being a habitat of the rich.
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Just one look at what gentrification (and in it's retreat) has turned San Francisco into is all the proof anyone needs that an abundance of wealth does not make a city 'rich'.
 
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sprite1275 said:
Must admit 3 people at work have gone somewhere else for their hols saying they can do one! So the protests are working.
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Problem is the locals needs to keep this up if they're serious about it as otherwise it'll work in the short term, travel companies will then drop the prices they're charging and offer loads of bargain holidays and everyone will just jump on them again and be back to square one.
 
platinum87 said:
You cannot hoard wealth, it doesn't work like that.
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Of course it does. The Super wealthy aren't doing community work with their money. They aren't spending all that money in local businesses. They are taking a large chunk of that money offshore or they are reinvesting it in other businesses to make themselves even more money. If the locals were benefitting massively from them then do you really think they would be protesting. "Go away tourists, you're making us too wealthy". No. The few are becoming wealthy and the many are poor and have a **** lifestyle and few options to do anything but feed into their own demise by working in the very industry killing their local area.
 
Martynt74 said:
Problem is the locals needs to keep this up if they're serious about it as otherwise it'll work in the short term, travel companies will then drop the prices they're charging and offer loads of bargain holidays and everyone will just jump on them again and be back to square one.
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Or travel companies wont bother dealing in areas again due to lack of interest and alternative destinations.
 
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