Thousands of people gathered in Spain’s Balearic Islands on Saturday to protest against mass tourism ahead of the upcoming summer season. Tourist numbers in the Spanish archipelago this summer are forecasted to exceed last year’s 14.4 million, as reported by the Spanish National Statistics Institute.

Protesters carried posters and signs that read “SOS Residents, Enough Mass Tourism,” and “Mallorca no es ven“ (Mallorca is not for sale). Carme Reynés, the spokesperson for Banc del Temps de Sencelles, organized the demonstration in Palma de Mallorca. Reynés explained that the demonstration was intended to call attention to the island’s housing crisis, which is directly linked to tourism and the upsurge in the purchase of holiday/second homes. Reynés stated:

When you can buy a house without residing on the island, contributing to another country, with a salary from another country, it is very difficult to compete with another level of income when, at the state level, the salary average is 1,500 euros.

Over 10,000 protesters are estimated to have taken part in the demonstration in Palma, according to a spokesperson for the Spanish National Police. A smaller-scale protest also took place in the neighboring Minorca.

The Balearic Islands are among the most popular regions in Europe to attract tourists, and tourism generates almost half of the region’s GDP. Still, locals have increasingly accused tourism of pricing locals out of living on the islands. According to Prou Ibiza (“Enough Ibiza,” translated from Catalan), nurses and police officers are resorting to living in cars and caravans because they are unable to afford housing on the island. Karla Andrade, a teacher at a school in Ibiza, relocated to Mallorca due to the high rent on the island. She now flies back and forth to Ibiza to get to work. 

The growing discontent amongst locals is not isolated to the Balearic Islands. In April, thousands of Tenerife locals rallied against mass tourism, even going so far as to begin a hunger strike to protest the growth of tourism in the Canary Islands. 

“We are feeling we’re being pushed away, our priorities are not considered,” one protester said. “The model of massive tourism … it’s just destroying the island and the life of the residents here.”