With radically different climates, culture and traditions, the island of Majorca and the Highlands of Scotland do not, on the face of it, appear to have much in common.
Yet the impact of tourism in both places over the last decade has been felt in similar ways by local communities, according to research undertaken by an academic at The University of Glasgow.
Dr Guillem Colom-Montero, a Lecturer in Hispanic Studies at the university's School of Modern Languages and Cultures, has been looking at both Spain and Scotland to gauge the impact of tourism - at a time where the industry has become a focus of much public and political debate.
Local community associations on Majorca - which is home to around 945,000 inhabitants and welcomes over 12 million tourists a year - have been critical of the impact tourism is having on public services, jobs and the environment, as well as linguistic and cultural sustainability.
From his research, Dr Colom-Montero contends that tourism has triggered such “overarching transformations” at all social, cultural and economic levels in Majorca that some locals “don’t feel they belong” to the island.
READ MORE: Scotland’s reputation as 'must-visit' destination growing, new research finds
He said: “Majorcan culture has seen a mushrooming of creative, literary, and cultural responses to overtourism, including fiction, poetry, travelogues, documentary film, drama, political cartooning, and a body of cultural production by grassroots activism. These creations represent tourism through narratives and vocabularies of colonialism, invasion, destruction, illness, malaise, and collective trauma.
“This acutely critical perspective suggests a culturally traumatic experience associated to the environmental and sociocultural effects of mass tourism on Majorca.”
In an interview with Dr Colom-Montero, Margalida Ramis, president of GOB, the largest environmentalist association in the Balearic Islands, said: “The main problem is Majorca’s total economic dependence on tourism, which I would define as a ‘monocrop;’ which is why it seems impossible to keep its detrimental impacts in check.”
Dr Colom-Montero’s research comes days after thousands took part in protests across the Canary Islands to call for a temporarily limit on tourist arrivals to the Spanish archipelago to reduce pressure on the islands' environment, infrastructure and housing stock, and put curbs on property purchases by foreigners.
The academic said: ‘The situation [in Majorca] is remarkably similar in the Canary Islands, where more than 60,000 people took to the streets recently to demand a change of the tourism model. This was the largest demonstration ever to take place in the Canaries. Like in the Balearics, demonstrators also called to limit property sales to non-residents.”
Having spent the last decade or so researching the impact of mass tourism on Spanish islands such as Mallorca, Dr Colom-Montero’s has recently extended his research to the Highlands and Islands, an area which he believes faces “a comparable situation” to that of Majorca.
“It is fascinating to see parallels with Scotland, where communities are also facing similar problems and are now beginning to find their voices against mass-tourism and its impact on their local areas”, Dr Colom-Montero said.
In May last year, the academic visited Barra to organise screenings of documentary film Overbooking (2019), which revolves around the impacts of mass tourism on Majorca.
Dr Colom-Montero added: “Both Barra and Majorca are remote, fragile island-environments in which rural imaginaries are still very much present in the everyday life experience of the local population.
“The sudden and comprehensive transformations experienced in recent years are felt in dramatic ways in both regions, which share the historical link between landscape, community identity and language.”
READ MORE: Cruise ship becomes largest vessel to ever berth at Scots port
After watching Overbooking, Gail Anthea Brown, a writer from Caithness, told Dr Colom-Montero: “There are many parallels in this documentary with feelings around tourism in the Highlands & Islands.
“Majorcan residents' concerns around the impacts of tourism are mirrored across our communities, who have been negatively affected by initiatives such as the North Coast 500, and the increasing portrayal of rural areas as travel destinations rather than places where people live.
“It was particularly interesting to note the documentary's caution around the development of 'alternative' tourism streams, such as slow, immersive, and off-season travel, which, without restriction in other areas, adding up to more unsustainable tourism.
“The Majorcan experience should be a cautionary tale for the Highlands and Islands, where overtourism has all too often left communities feeling powerless and overwhelmed.”
Dr Colom-Montero discusses his research in the latest episode of the University of Glasgow’s College of Arts & Humanities’ podcast series, Stories from Glasgow. The series sees world leading researchers at The College explore the impact of art, literature, culture and history.
You can listen into the podcast via Stories from Glasgow webpages via https://www.gla.ac.uk/colleges/arts/aboutus/socialmedia/podcast/
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel