When a tourist destination, such as the beautiful island Palma de Mallorca, decides to no longer permit home sharing in blocks of flats, rentals of detached homes on protected land or within a region around the airport and in buildings not designated for residential use, the reasoning behind the decision becomes a predominant question, with a simple answer as it turns out.
“We all like to experience different kinds of cultures, but what most tourists don’t notice”, said senior Keshav Wagle, “when we go experience them, we tend to ruin them for the locals and for other tourists.”
Palma’s residents agree and simply have had enough of the mass tourism and its consequences, one of them being an overall rent rise by 40 percent since 2013, the regular pollution and misbehavior arising of tourists, with the lag of knowledge for a different culture.
“Palma is a determined and courageous city,” said Mayor Antoni Noguera, “We agreed on this based on the general interest and we believe it will set the trend for other cities when they see that finding a balance is key.”
If other cities will follow the ban, expected to be introduced in July, is unclear. Especially because of Mallorcas unique problems with tourists, that previous rules, such as the alcohol “ban” on certain beaches, demonstrated, for which German and English vacationers hold most of the responsibility, disrupting the peace of the locals to a certain extend and provoking serious restrictions.
“I think the tourist ban is fine”, said junior Aman Manazir, “especially considering the tourists disrespectful behavior toward the local population and the continuous disruption of their peace.”
The only negatives, which could outweigh the positives if the locals personal opinion is focused on money only, are the loss of the ability to continue business by renting out homes or certain houses, as specifically targeted by the new bill. This however, should theoretically not impact to many, since as few as 645 of 11,000 holiday rentals being offered to tourists on Mallorca have a license required to do so, according to the Spanish newspaper El País.
This implies that the new bill not only targets tourists, but is intended to diminish the existence of the nonviolent crime of renting out apartments without a license, costing the government revenue, that has the potential to benefit the public in so many ways.
All in all, none of the aspects mentioned have a real say, but are to consider to understand the local populations decision. Because who would like his or her hometown tyrannized in one way or the other, by people with a mindset of “I can do whatever I want, I’m just here on vacation.”
