The Daily Observer London Desk: Reporter- Sarah Marshal
Anti-tourism protesters have blocked access to a picture-postcard beach in Menorca, just one week after 20,000 people took to the streets in demonstrations on a neighbouring Balearic island.
Hundreds of activists boasted of filling a car park by Cala Turqueta, a beautiful cove on the island’s southern coast, with ‘residents’ cars’ on Saturday, at the height of the summer season.
They then used towels and their own bodies to shape the message ‘SOS Menorca’ on the sand by the waterline.
The unannounced protest, by environmental non-profit organisation GOB Menorca, resulted in the car park being ‘blocked’ to holidaymakers for around six hours from early morning yesterday according to local reports.
The protestors are also said to have filled the first bus heading for Cala Turqueta to ‘impede the arrival of tourists.’
Hundreds of protestors have impeded tourist access to a picture-postcard Menorcan beach called Cala Turqueta
Activists boasted of filling a car park by Cala Turqueta, a beautiful cove on the island’s southern coast, with ‘residents’ cars
Pictured: Cala Turqueta, which is usually filled with tourists lying on the beach and swimming
GOB Menorca insisted overnight: ‘This was not a protest against tourism, but against massification and the degradation that brings.’
But admitting activists had carried out a well-orchestrated plan which will have ended up impacting on holidaymakers, it added: ‘250 people gathered in Cala Turqueta to demand a change of direction for Menorca.
‘They filled the car park with residents’ cars and created messages on the sand with their towels and other things.
‘The images captured convey the concern of the Menorcan population about the massification of the island.’
A spokesman said that with their actions, they were revindicating the right to decent housing, the protection of the island’s natural resources, a diversified economy and the return of young people from abroad.
Yesterday’s protest was the first in the Balearic Islands since last Sunday’s anti-mass tourism demo in the Majorcan capital Palma.
More than 20,000 people took part according to the police, although organisers put the number at 50,000.
Some demonstrators used Spain’s Euros final win to poke fun at English tourists and others branded British holidaymakers ‘drunks.’
Yesterday’s protest (pictured) was the first in the Balearic Islands since last Sunday’s anti-mass tourism demo in the Majorcan capital Palma
Yesterday’s protest in Menorca (pictured) was the first since June 8 on the island when around 1,000 people packed into a central square in the capital Mahonpi
Thousands of Mallorcans took part in the protest against ‘overtourism’ on the island last Sunday
The banners they were carrying as they took to the streets of the island capital included one which said in a gloating play on words over a picture of Kyle Walker: ‘The only thing coming home is you’ followed by the 2-1 scoreline printed between England and Spain flags.
A similar placard carried by another demonstrator took aim at Germans who also lost by the same scoreline in the Euros quarter-finals following a last-gasp Spanish winner.
The message on it said in German: ‘Out at the finale. Get out of here.’
Another of the banners the protestors carried said in English, despite pleas from regional government spokesman Antoni Costa to locals to show foreign visitors ‘respect’ ahead of the march: ‘Take back your drunks, give back our homes.’
Other English language messages carried by some on cardboard posters said: ‘We used to have a life. SOS Residents.’ and ‘Enjoy balconing’ in reference to the dangerous practice of jumping from hotel balconies into pools or climbing between terraces which partying Brits in places like Magaluf have been linked to over the years.
One protester at the demonstration in Palma last week brought a homemade model of an airplane to signify the large numbers of tourists arriving on the island
Demonstrators are calling for changes to the tourism on Majorca, claiming the amount of foreign visitors is leaving the island struggling to cope
Two women sit on a balcony as people taking part in the protest stream past in the street
Majorcan hotel chiefs later claimed some holidaymakers had been insulted and doused in water, in a repeat of incidents earlier in the month in Barcelona during a protest there against tourist massification when visitors were sprayed with water pistols.
Yesterday’s protest in Menorca was the first since June 8 on the island when around 1,000 people packed into a central square in the capital Mahon.
Some of the locals taking part in the demo in the square outside the island council HQ turned up with deckchairs, towels and sunshades as they mocked up a beach for the day on the concrete.
The lead organiser of that protest was also GOB Menorca, the insular arm of Palma-based GOB which had a prominent role in last Sunday’s demo in Majorca.
It took place after warnings tourists in Ibiza needed to be prepared for a summer of ‘surprise actions’ by protestors.
A protester holds a sign reading ‘Take back your drunks, give back our homes’ during last night’s demonstration in Palma last Sunday
One demonstrator holds up a sign reading ‘stop speculation in housing, SOS residents’ in Palma
During the protest, several luxury real estate agencies in the centre of Palma were vandalised with spray-painted messages asking for ‘no more real estate’
One is expected to be a ‘welcome party’ for cruise ship arrivals on July 24.
In a separate development residents of a Menorcan village known as the ‘Spanish Mykonos’ chained off the 22 entrances to stop holidaymakers visiting at night earlier this year.
Visitors can only access the streets of Binibeca Vell on Menorca’s southern coast, between 11am and 8pm.
Around 800,000 a year flock to the village, which is actually a private community, to take snaps of the iconic holiday destination and post it on their social media.
Residents say they have taken the measure to protest their rest times. Next month they are due to decide whether to retain the same access timetable for the busiest parts of the season or tighten restrictions even further.
