The situation at Ballermann on Mallorca is getting out of hand. While the partying drunk tourists are becoming more and more reckless, the locals have had enough. The mayor of the island is now threatening massive restrictions.
The season is only a few weeks old, but it is already clear: the situation at Ballermann is worse than ever.
At the end of May, the police fired warning shots at rioting football fans. One fan urinated from a balcony into the streets and drunk Germans rushed half-naked out of hotels and had fatal accidents.
At the same time, serious resistance is forming on the holiday island: alcohol on the street has been banned, local activists are occupying crowded beaches and the mayor of Palma, Jaime Martínez (53), is threatening stricter rules.
Locals, for example, sent a clear message against mass tourism when they occupied the “Instagram Bay” of Mallorca.
As the high season approaches, residents of Mallorca are fighting for their island. Most of the 4.6 million Germans who travel to the Balearic Islands every year enjoy their holidays in other ways: in family hotels in Alcudia, sunbathing in Cala Ratjada or hiking in the Serra de Tramuntana. But the drunken tourists who made Mallorca famous in Germany and made local restaurateurs rich are causing increasing discontent.
“It is a very small group compared to the number of holidaymakers,” explains restaurateur Juan Ferrer (52) to “Bild”, “but one that makes a lot of noise in every respect.” On a walk through Schinkenstraße down to the Playa de Palma, it becomes clear what Ferrer means.
Early in the morning, garbage piles up on the beach. Emergency vehicles from the municipal utility company have to remove tons of it, sweep the promenade and filter broken glass from the sand. Many residents of Palma share the impression that visitors to Ballermann have become more inconsiderate.
“There is a new generation of Playa visitors,” says Gerlinde Weininger (65), head of the “Münchner Kindl” and a Ballermann resident for 30 years. “Corona has promoted the supermarket drinking culture. Bars were closed for a long time, and instead people drank uncontrollably on the side of the road. The holidaymakers on the Playa have become much younger in the past two years and some of them seem to be inexperienced in controlled drinking.”
“In Germany, guests show more respect because they come back regularly,” says one bouncer. “Many guests only come to Mallorca once a year, and they go completely crazy. As a bouncer at Ballermann, you really have to be prepared for anything. You’re under pressure all night. After some shifts, you have all colors of spit, urine and vomit on your clothes.”
“We don’t want this kind of celebration here anymore, regardless of nationality. It cannot, must not and will not continue like this,” stresses restaurateur Juan Ferrer, who heads the “Palma Beach Initiative for more quality tourism.”
Mayor Jaime Martínez would like to limit everything: the number of tourists, rental cars, holiday homes and cruise ships. He sees not only the drunk tourists as a problem, but also the sheer number of people who flood the island every summer.
At the end of May, 10,000 people demonstrated against the overload in the energy and health sectors, the shortage of water and garbage problems. They are fed up with not being able to find parking spaces, space on the beach or affordable housing.
Malle singer Ikke Hüftgold explains to “Bild” that he believes that nothing will happen anyway: “I can’t hear the annoying topic of mass tourism and drinking bans anymore,” he says. “The government has been trying to change something here for ten years. They make new rules, but don’t implement them. Because on the one hand they want the money, but without tourists there is no money.”
This text from the Kölner Express was created with the support of artificial intelligence (AI) and edited and checked by the editorial team (Martin Gätke). More about the Express’s rules for dealing with AI can be found here .
By Klara Indernach (KI)
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The original of this article “Reckless drunk tourists cause anger in Mallorca: “There is a new generation”” comes from Express.de.
