Majorca left in 'panic' after 10 million UK tourists 'refuse to listen'

Majorca has been left in PANIC - amid reports more than 10 MILLION tourists are set to descend on the island this winter. Amid growing unrest and protests over so-called overtourism and overcrowding, the Balearic Island fears UK tourists aren't listening.

The European Union holiday hotspot has been warned by the Airline Association, which controls 85 per cent of Spanish air traffic, over a record visitor influx, with nearly 9 per cent more visitors expected to arrive between November and March compared to the same period last year.

Palma airport is set to see 7.8 million of the visitors with Ibiza receiving 1.7 million, representing roughly an 8 per cent increase for each airport. Mahón airport will receive the biggest increase in percentage terms, with 10 per cent more visitors this winter compared to last.

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It comes after protests swept the Balearic Islands and Canaries this weekend. In Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the capital of the largest island, Tenerife, demonstrators held placards that read "Tourist - respect my land!" and "Canaries have a limit".

"The major problem is that it's the model of massive tourism that is intransigent in the island... [for] decades, and it's just destroying the island... and the life of the residents here," protester Lydia Morales told the BBC.

"We are feeling we're being pushed away, our priorities are not taken in consideration," she said, adding that politicians were "more focused" on building tourism complexes and hotels. In 2023, 34% of Canary Islanders were at risk of poverty or social exclusion, the second-highest figure in Spain after Andalusia, according to the National Statistics Institute (INE).

In the spring, activists begun a hunger strike on Tenerife, in protest at what they see as the destructive growth of tourism on the Canary Islands. Protesters are demanding a halt to the construction of a hotel and a beach resort in the south of the island.