Crowded roads and beaches, sewage treatment plants at the limit, housing rentals or illegal charters are some of the problems reported by the president of the Grup d’Estudis de sa Naturalesa (GEN) of a season that has started to return the island to “tourist normality”.
The pandemic situation has been wasted by the administrations “to move towards another economic model”, away from overcrowding during the summer months, and avoid “having very crowded roads, numerous problems in the sewage treatment plants and spaces overflowing with people”. This is the conclusion drawn by the environmental group GEN-GOB after two seasons with covid that could have been a turning point.
The environmental organization points to accommodation and the illegal activity, “which is what generates the overcrowding on the island”: “As many people as in 2019 arrived here this season and obviously stay somewhere, not just in hotels,” says Joan Carles Palerm, president of GEN, who points out that the authorities should pursue “this huge black market, which is what is collapsing all the infrastructure. “That is why the roads are clogged, the beaches, the sewage treatment plant, increases in the risk of fire or overcrowding in hospitals …. In the end it’s all part of the same problem,” insists the environmental spokesman.
Control the supply
The business employers are not entirely satisfied with the data this season and want to return to the levels of occupation of 2019. Palerm adds: “I could accept, somehow, to reach the hotel occupancy of two years ago, but we must lower the total volume of visitors by controlling the illegal or very unregulated accommodation supply, because there are many tourist homes, legal or illegal, which are causing the overcrowding during these months”. In fact, he claims that “there are many apartments that are rented to tourists,” although it is an illegal practice.
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