Locals in ‘Spanish Mykonos’ popular with Britons call for action on overtourism

MADRID – Known as the “Spanish Mykonos” for its beautiful, narrow white-walled lanes that attract thousands of tourists a year, residents of Binibeca Vell are calling for authorities to take action to stop it being overwhelmed by visitors.

The Menorcan village, which has over 200 permanent residents but attracts 800,000 holidaymakers every year, is inundated with visitors who follow noisy tour guides, leave rubbish and take selfies as the sun goes down over the Mediterranean.

Last year, tired of being invaded, residents of the coastal village managed to impose limits on visiting times so tourists are only allowed in between 10am and 10pm and secured a grant of €15,000 from the island’s government to help pay to manage the area.

However, as Spain braces itself for a record year for tourism, with airlines scheduling extra flights, the Menorcan government withdrew this grant and said residents must pay for cleaning or charge visitors to enter.

The battle playing out in Menorca is being repeated from the Canary Islands to Barcelona as residents hit back at what some claim is uncontrolled tourism that puts pressure on housing and squeezes Spaniards out.

Oscar Monge, president of the Community of Property Owners in Binibeca Vell, said tourists were not the problem.

“I love Britain and I want to make it clear that British tourists are not the problem. It is the lack of action from the Menorcan government,” he told i.

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“They want us to pay for the cleaning of the streets because this is a private village or charge tourists for coming to the village, which we do not want to do. Sometimes tourists come in with tour guides and leave rubbish, but why should we have to pay to clear it up? Menorca charges a tourist tax of €2.30 per day, so what is that being used for?”

In a private village, property owners own the streets and land the village was built on, unlike in the typical case where common land is publicly owned.

Begoña Mercadal, director of tourism for the Menorcan government, said the residents’ organisation did not want to renew the €15,000 grant agreement.

“The agreement established that it was automatically renewed if the two parties requested it before 19 December, 2023 and they did not do so, therefore we understood that they were not interested,” she told eldiario.es, an online news site.

Spain received 9.8 million visitors in the first two months of 2024. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday: “Our commitment to a quality, innovative and sustainable model turns Spain into a cutting-edge tourist destination.”

Meanwhile, protests are planned across the Canary Islands against overtourism on Saturday as members of the group Canarias Se Agota carried on with a hunger strike.

One member of the group had to receive hospital attention on Tuesday after starting the strike five days earlier.

Protests will be staged in support of the Canary Islands action in Berlin, Madrid and Malaga by environmental group Greenpeace.