Majorcans ‘reclaim’ island cove in beach overcrowding protest
Hundreds of Majorcan residents crammed into a tourist haven cove in a protest against beach overcrowding on Sunday.
The demonstration began early in the morning, and more than 300 people were in attendance by 10am, when the first foreign daytrippers were scheduled to arrive.
The protesters had promised to “reclaim” the Caló des Moro beach by filling the 98ft wide stretch of sand with their towels. They held banners reading “SOS residents” and “Ocupem Les Nostres Platges” – “let’s occupy our beaches”.
The event organisers, Mallorca Platja Tour, said: “For one day Caló des Moro will belong to the Majorcans.”
Caló des Moro, a cove on the island’s south-east coast, has been made famous around the world by social media influencers.
Maria Pons, the mayor, has criticised the social media personalities, telling a council meeting: “We have seen how some visitors change their swimwear three or four times to take different selfies and claim on their online profiles they’ve been to Caló des Moro many times.”
But the mayor also argued that the beach needed a “rest” and to be “forgotten” for a season, not more people on the beach.
“We understand the demonstration and we won’t do anything to stop it but Caló des Moro needs a rest,” she said. “If we carry on the way we are, there won’t be a cove any more because of the erosion that’s been caused.”
Mallorca Platja Tour – which organised a similar event on June 1 at Sa Rapita beach on the island’s south coast – pledged that the cove would suffer no lasting damage during its demonstration.
Some protestors were unable to make it on to the sand because of the huge volume of attendees, and instead handed out leaflets in English and German in the car park.
“The first tourists who turned up looked very surprised to find it packed with people at such an early hour,” one islander told a local news site.
“But they seemed to understand what was going on when it was explained to them and they turned around and left without any fuss.”
The protest comes amid a wave of demonstrations against overtourism in Spain.
Thousands marched in Majorca and Menorca last weekend over the “massification of tourism”, while similar protests have been seen in Ibiza and Barcelona.
“If the aim of today’s action was to reclaim the beach and denounce tourist massification, it’s certainly been achieved,” concluded one islander. “Today Caló des Moro is definitely Majorcan.”
