The authorities of the Balearic Islands are setting a precedent in the global tourism industry: they intend to buy low-category hotels and close them.
Local authorities want to reduce the number of hotels for the most budgetary holiday, which is mainly settled by young people from the UK. The reputation of resorts suffers from the drunken and anti-social antics of young Britons.
In 2022, there were 625,000 hotel beds per 1.2 million inhabitants of the archipelago, one of the largest numbers in the world. This summer, the Balearic Mountains even coined the term “tourism of mass destruction.”
The authorities of the Balearic Islands have passed a new tourism law that limits the opening of new entertainment venues, and also provides for the elimination of almost 40,000 1 * and 2 * hotels and boarding houses, night bars, and cheap eateries. The authorities will buy them from the owners, and then decide whether to close them or, with the help of investors, convert them into more expensive establishments.
It is expected that in this way there will be a qualitative renewal of the tourism sector, primarily in Ibiza and Mallorca.