Residents of Spain’s Menorca say ‘enough’ to overtourism
Venice, Barcelona, Marseille... For several summers now, these European cities have been sounding the alarm about overtourism. In Spain, the second most-visited country in the world after France, this came to a head when thousands of people protested across the country this summer. ENTR went to Menorca, a small island in the Balearic archipelago, which is struggling to keep up with the overwhelming flow of visitors.
Picturesque white buildings and crystalline waters have earned Binibeca Vell the title of one of the most “Instagrammable” sites in Menorca. Sitting in front of the port of the small private community, José sees the number of tourists triple in the space of 15 minutes. Some, cameras-at-the-ready, do not hesitate to sit on people’s doorsteps to capture the perfect shot. “These people are on holiday, so they think they can do what they like,” he sighs.
“We get about 800,000 tourists every year. And for a town this small, that's a lot of people. The streets are very small. They're very narrow,” says the 35-year-old Spaniard, who sits on the Binibeca Vell community council. “So we decided we're closing the village from 10pm until 10am so that people at least can relax during the evening. And you don't get people visiting at night, waking up everybody around.”
Instagram vs. reality
“People just feel the need to share where they've been, to copy the posts that they saw from that influencer, or just to say, 'Hey, I've been here first',” laments José.
