Homeowners in one Menorca tourism hot spot have joined wider Balearic Island calling on their government to impose restrictions on more than half a million visitors who arrive in their town each summer. With a maximum of 500 permanent residents during the summer months, Binibeca Vell, Menorca, nicknamed the “Spanish Mykonos” has joined the wider campaign against over-toursim across the Balearic Islands. Seeing 800,000 tourists during the summer months, 195 homeowners in Binibeca Vell have begun to put up chains to keep visitors out of their streets between 11 am and 8 pm, The Daily Telegraph reports.
The move follows a wave of mass tourism protests that have taken place across Spain in recent months as residents say they can no longer afford to live in their own cities because of the surge of Airbnb -type short-term lets. Óscar Monge, president of the residents association, said Menorca’s authorities were to blame, and have left locals to fend for themselves. Mr Monge said: “It’s outrageous that the politicians who run local tourism are telling us that the only alternatives we have to keep the place clean are to close it, privatise it or start charging.
“Binibeca is promoted by the administration and tourism companies, but what benefit do we get out of it?” Locals have complained of tourists trying to enter their private staircase and scaling the walls of their homes to take pictures. Mr Monge said the €25,000 a year he receives from the local authorities is.