Neighborhood initiative to recover public spaces for residents
The Brunzit collective organizes community dinners in squares in Palma to resist mass tourism and recover spaces for residents, questioning the current tourism model for its impact on sustainability and daily life.
AI-generated summary
Palma de Mallorca faces a growing debate about the impact of mass tourism on its infrastructure and quality of life.
The Plaza de la Catedral de Palma, an excellent viewpoint of the sea from the city walls, is the heart of mass tourism and the point where each and every one of the 13.6 million tourists who visited Mallorca last year surely passed through. Everyone who comes to the island takes a photo there during their stay. The consequence is that one of the most beautiful places in the city is off-limits to residents, as are other nerve centers in a Palma that is increasingly hostile to its inhabitants. Brunzit, a social and neighborhood group from Palma wants to turn this reality around and has launched an initiative to occupy those spaces given over to tourism and recover them for the citizen. About 500 people take over one of Palma's central squares every Wednesday with a popular fresh soup, in an attempt by residents to resist in a city that is transforming and that is increasingly alien. The dinners began last year and have been a success, exceeding the organizers' expectations. They seek to be a meeting point between neighbors and, at the same time, a way to raise the debate about the effects of the current tourism model in the city and on the Islands as a whole. Pau Riera, one of the platform's spokespersons, explains that the initiative aims to be a wake-up call to the evidence that certain spaces in the center of Palma have experienced a transformation in their uses as a consequence of the growth of tourist activity. The increase in terraces, visitor-oriented establishments and the high presence of tourists during the summer months have modified the daily use of squares and streets and have expelled residents from this nerve center of the city. Riera explains that his contribution to this attempted transition involves “denouncing mass and elite tourism” as one of the main agents related to the depletion of the natural resources of the Balearic Islands. Brunzit also considers that the current tourism model poses risks to the economic sustainability of the Islands and maintains that it can lead to a situation of "economic collapse." The initiative, made from a critical approach to the Balearic tourism model, has not been understood by the restaurateurs affected by these unexpected occupations of the squares where they have installed the terraces of their bars and restaurants. There have already been complaints and pressure on Palma City Council not to authorize these festive and protest proposals. The question of the use of public spaces has been incorporated in recent years into the debate on the transformation of Palma. The city center concentrates a high level of commercial, hospitality and tourist activity, especially during the high season, directed mostly and almost exclusively in some areas to tourists. At the same time, the increase in pressure on housing and the transformation of certain neighborhoods have generated criticism among neighborhood organizations and social groups. The initiative also comes in the midst of a discussion about the Balearic Islands' capacity to continue growing in the number of visitors and about the effects that this growth has on housing, resources, infrastructure and coexistence, with increasingly large demonstrations against this tourist overflow, such as the one seen this summer.
AI outlook — possibilities, not facts
Increase in community initiatives against mass tourism
Likely · Within weeks

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