BEACH BABES
These are ´Spain´s Best 10 Beaches... find out where they are in our special feature inside
OLIVE PRESS
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MALLORCA
FREE
NO ‘LOOKY, LOOKY’ By Zoe Dahse
BEWARE of buying that fake Rolex off a street seller - it could set you back €750. A new ordinance in Palma targets not just illegal sellers - but also their customers. The crackdown, led by Palma police, means anyone purchasing items such as sunglasses, jewellery, counterfeit clothing or drinks from street sellers could face fines between €100 and €750. Sellers themselves face up to €1,500. And now Local Police have revealed they have fined the first person they have spotted buying from an unlicenced seller since the ordinance came into effect on May 26.
Crackdown
The city council says the move is designed to protect licensed local businesses and reduce street-level crime, particularly in tourist hotspots like Playa de Palma, Arenal, and Sant Miquel. Officers from the Litoral police district are now patrolling beach areas daily to enforce the law. Palma’s mayor Jaime Martínez pledged during his 2023 campaign to tackle street selling ‘with total impunity’ - and this ordinance delivers on that promise. Critics argue the rule disproportionately affects tourists and residents, who are easier to track and fine than sellers, many of whom are undocumented. The city has previously launched programmes like T’acompanyo to help vendors transition to legal employment, but campaigners say more support is needed. The ordinance is part of a wider crackdown that also bans graffiti, nudism, prostitution, reckless scooter use and balconing - dangerous hotel balcony stunts.
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June 20th - July 4th 2025
Getting g worse
JUST like the fiery scenes of summer 2024, thousands of furious Spaniairds once again flooded the streets of Mallorca last weekend, demanding a dramatic cut to mass tourism before it chokes their communities for good. From Barcelona to Benidorm, Palma to Palermo, the message was united: “Tourism is stealing our homes, our wages, and our way of life.” Here in Mallorca, thousands turned out in Palma’s Plaça d’Espanya demanding tighter regulation, more protections for locals, and an end to tourist saturation. Many carried signs reading ‘Mallorca is not for sale’ and ‘Stop killing our island’. Ibiza, too, saw fiery protests, with locals blasting the island’s transformation into a ‘playground for the rich’ while workers can’t afford to live where they work. In Barcelona, where tensions have been boiling over for years, more than 600 protestors armed with super-soakers sprayed tourists, echoing last year’s viral footage of holidaymakers getting drenched mid-dinner. Slogans like ‘Guiris go home’ and ‘Tourism steals our future’ were plastered across the city, with luxury brands like Louis Vuitton targeted by angry demonstrators. The protests were part of a coordinated Southern European uprising organised by the SET Alliance (Southern Europe Against Touristification), which also included rallies in Lisbon, Venice, Naples, and Genoa. Organisers in Mallorca said they’ve had enough of politicians turning a blind eye while foreign investors snap up homes for Airbnb rentals. One prot e s t e r shouted: “We can’t even rent a flat in our
THE EUROPEAN DENTAL PRACTICE
Water pistols, angry chants and a message loud and clear: enough is enough By Dilip Kuner
own town – and the only thing growing is the queue at the food bank.” Spain’s government admitted just last month that over 60,000 illegal Airbnb listings are fuelling the rent crisis. In Palma, rents have tripled in some areas over the last 10 years – all while PROTEST: Thousands took to the streets to demand action low-paid tourism workers are forced into overcrowded flats or hour-long scattering leaflets and chanting ‘This Since then, protests have grown larger commutes. and more organised. Tourism isn’t just pricing locals out is not tourism, it’s invasion!” - it’s straining water supplies, jam- In 2019, protestors marched down In 2023, campaign group Terraferida ming roads, and turning once tran- Passeig del Born, demanding a freeze exposed illegal construction and enquil neighbourhoods into noisy, lit- on tourist licences and tougher re- vironmental damage in the Serra de ter-strewn party zones, claim protes- strictions on holiday rentals. That Tramuntana, prompting a massive same year, local housing activists set online backlash and another round of tors. There’s talk of expanding airports, in- up mock ‘eviction zones’ to symbol- public protests. cluding Barcelona’s El-Prat, to bring ise how tourism was displacing Mal- Now, with international support and the SET Alliance backing them, Malin more tourists - something protes- lorquins from their homes. tors say is environmental and social The COVID-19 pandemic briefly lorcans are sending a united message paused the tourism machine, and for to Madrid, Brussels, and beyond: eimadness. Spain welcomed 94 million foreign a while, locals enjoyed quieter streets, ther fix the tourism model, or expect visitors in 2024, a 13% spike, and cleaner beaches, and affordable rents. more backlash. 2025 is set to see new records for But when borders reopened, it came back with a vengeance - bigger, brashtourist numbers. Opinion Page 6 This isn’t Mallorca’s first rodeo when er, and even more commercialised. it comes to anti-tourism protests. In 2017, graffiti reading ‘Tourism MAJESTIC manta rays are moving more due to its ‘very weakened state’. Samples kills Mallorfrequently along the Mediterranean were collected from the specimen. ca’ appeared coast, with one surprising swimmers in The endangered species has started to across PalS’Arenal this week. appear more frequently in Mallorca in ma, with Spotted near the Yacht Club at S’Arenal recent months. Most recently, a manta flares let off de Llucmajor, bathers at first mistakenly ray appeared on Illetes Beach on Calvia at the port thought it was a shark. on June 6. to disrupt Measuring just under 3 metres, several The Aquarium has heard reports of eight cruise ship lifeguards and Palma Aquarium staff sightings of the Mobula Mobular around operations. pulled the Mobula Mobular ray from the the Balearic Islands’ coastlines, with 43 Later that water and carried it to a van to take to sightings of other manta rays - including summer, the aquarium. violet rays and stingrays - reaching 43. activists Sources from the Aquarium told Diario The filter-feeding ray lives mainly in the stormed a de Mallorca that the ray had since died open sea. restaurant in Palma’s La Lonja district,
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RESCUE: Scientists came to the aid of this manta ray