The Balearic Islands declare war on “Tourism for selfie”. How will the influence are affected

Authorities in the Balearic Islands, a territory belonging to Spain, have announced that they will stop using influences on social networks to promote popular destinations, saying that “selfie tourism” harms the most beautiful places in the archipelago, according to The Guardian.

In an attempt to reduce the effects of supraturism, the balearic authorities hoped that influencers, many of them having hundreds of thousands of followers, could diminish pressure on well -known locations, directing visitors to other areas.

However, the strategy had the opposite effect, as often the ecologically insulated and sensitive areas were overwhelmed by tourists who come to make selfies, post them on social networks and then leave.

“It had exactly the opposite effect on what was intended and contravene for government control policy,” said a spokesman for the Balearic Department this weekend.

Golf with 100 inhabitants, visited daily by thousands of people

Caló des Moro, a small bay in Mallorca with a capacity of about 100 people, is an eloquent example. After an influencer has guided the many pursuers to enjoy his clear waters and the golden sand, the location was invaded daily by thousands of visitors.

In June last year, María Pons, the local mayor, held a press conference stating that 4,000 people and 1,200 vehicles arrived there every day. She insistently asked journalists and tour operators not to mention this bay.

Now, the local authority has eliminated all the images with the bay on its official website.

At ES Vedrà, in Ibiza, the local authorities closed access to the popular belvedere point after the inhabitants complained about the agglomeration and the accumulation of waste.

The reactions against the influences extend from Bali, where the authorities complained of tourists who posed naked in sacred places and imposed great fines to those filming in certain areas, to Vermont, in the northeast of the United States, where the small town of Pomfret, famous for the autumn foliage, had to restrict the access to that period.

Over 100 million tourists in Spain

As Spain expects a record number of tourists this summer, after almost 100 million visited the country last year, the protests against the impact of mass tourism, especially on the cost of housing, have already started, with a symbolic attack with water pistols on tourists from Barcelona last month.

At the weekend, tens of thousands of protesters marched in the Canary Islands under the slogans “Mass tourism leaves us without houses” and “Canaries are not for sale.” Last year, the archipelago, with a population of 2.2 million, received a record number of 17 million visitors.

In all Spain, the lack of accessible homes is the main social problem, and the tourist apartments are seen as the main culprit. Last year, the problem removed tens of thousands of people in the street in Tenerife, Palma de Mallorca, Sevilla, Madrid, Barcelona and other cities, and similar protests are expected this year.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Consumer Affairs in Spain, with the support of the Supreme Court, ordered the Airbnb tourist platform to eliminate the announcements of 65,000 illegal rentals throughout Spain. In March last year, the ministry presented a list of 15,200 illegal tourist apartments in Madrid.

Airbnb was threatened with fines of 100,000 euros or up to six times the value of the profits obtained from the illegal apartments, if not comply.

The company appealed against previous requests of the government to eliminate ads, but a court in Madrid asked California to withdraw 5,800 ads immediately, the ministry said in a statement.

A company spokesman said Airbnb will continue to challenge the decision and criticized the “undiscriminated methodology” of the ministry, which he said is not competent to apply the regulations regarding the tourist accommodations.

The ministry “deliberately ignored” the decisions of the Spanish Supreme Court, which establish that not all the Airbnb ads must have a registration number, the spokesman added.