Short-term rental giant Airbnb has spoken out after large-scale protests across the Balearic Islands saw up to 30,000 people marching through tourist hotspots to demand more action against the disastrous effects of mass tourism.
Many of the demonstrators on Sunday pointed to holiday lets, like Airbnb, being partly responsible for a recent surge in rent costs for residents in popular Spanish holiday destinations, with some parts of the Balearics seeing rent spike by a third in a year. However, with overtourism affecting everything from local health services to traffic jams, some at the Majorca protests just wanted to chant at holidaymakers: “Tourists go home.”
Sunday’s thousands-strong protest in Palma saw tourists trapped in cafes while angry Majorcans waved placards demanding an end to the waves of cruise ships and planes that brought 15 million people to the islands last years. At one point, police officers had to hold back furious protesters as they attempted to disrupt people’s evening meals.
Speaking to the Express, Theo Yedinsky, Airbnb’s Vice President of Public Policy, said the protesters’ fury was misplaced, with local authorities failing to tackle the underlying issues in home construction and supply and ignoring the ‘overwhelming impact’ of hotels on encouraging mass tourism.
Policy VP Yedinsky said: “If cities are serious about easing overtourism, they must address the overwhelming impact of hotels. Hotels have driven 75 per cent of the increase in guest nights in Europe’s top ten most visited cities between 2021 and 2023, accounting for almost 80 per cent of total nights across the bloc in 2023 and 2024.”
The Airbnb executive went on to blame the spiking rental prices faced by residents at holiday hotspots across Spain on a lack of house building and a failed focus on the hotel industry. He said: “Europe needs more homes – not hotels – yet cities are building more hotels as the construction of housing in the region nears a decade low.”
In some areas, the lack of proper housing for locals is forcing them to move in with their parents, while traditional neighbourhoods are being transformed by outsiders. A local resident shared with the Mail: “I’m protesting because I don’t want 80 per cent of my money to go on rent. I don’t want to be forced to speak only English or German in my apartment block.
“I don’t want my friends to have to go to the mainland when they have children just to be able to afford a dignified life, a lot of us are fed up.”
Local officials were quick to slam the protest for disrupting tourists’ evenings on Sunday. “The Balearic government condemns and rejects the minority that insulted tourists,” government spokesperson Toni Costa said.
Officials said a “minority” had engaged in insulting behaviour in an attempt to disrupt holidaymakers’ experience, adding: “This type of behaviour by a minority is not acceptable.”
Protesters demanded actions to reduce the numbers of tourists that arrive on the Balearic Islands, which last year outnumbered the local population 14 to 1. On Sunday, some waved signs reading “mass tourism kills the city” and “their greed brings us ruin”.