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Hundreds of protestors dressed as ants gathered in Menorca last weekend as part of an ongoing battle against overtourism on the island.
On 13 June, Via Menorca’s “We Are Fed Up” campaign launched with a rally in the square in front of the Menorca Island Council building.
According to organisers GOB Menorca, around 1,200 people gathered in the square to “express their dissatisfaction with the direction the island is taking”.
Two large iron ants led a procession to the government office with attendees dressed in black forming a large circle for a “protest ritual”.
GOB Menorca said the protest intended to address the housing crisis, water management, the labour model and the overcrowding caused by tourism.
The new initiative aims to find a “different path for Menorca” that does not follow in the footsteps of “the massification and gentrification known in other places”, it added.
Menorca locals held signs that read: “Fed up with tourism crushing us”, written over a sketch of a beach parasol during the rally.
According to the group, pressure from mass tourism is putting the island’s water access at risk, with the cost of living “slowly expelling” residents.
In the last 15 years, the number of tourists visiting Menorca has increased by nearly 80 per cent, with almost 2000 tourists for every 100 residents, said the not-for-profit environmental association.
The GOB Menorca manifesto said: “We have been told that the more tourists come, the richer we will become, the more opportunities we will have for the future. The more, the better. But the only thing that has really grown has been the discomfort of the resident population.”
“For those who don't understand or want to misunderstand, we are not asking that Menorca stop having tourist activity, we are asking that ceilings be placed on unlimited growth,” it added.
Proposals to the Island Council include limiting the entry of tourist cars, eliminating tourist rentals within the towns, encouraging all town councils to adopt progressive tariffs according to the use of water resources and reversing job insecurity.
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