José Marcial Rodríguez, the Council of Mallorca's tourism councillor, has highlighted an increasing trend for illegal holiday lets to be advertised on social media rather than on websites like Airbnb. The use of Instagram, TikTok and the rest is a way of trying to circumvent the legal obstacles presented by advertising on accommodation platforms.
This is something the Council has been aware of for some while (it was first highlighted last summer), as is the increase in travellers who rent homes through direct contact with owners. The number of visitors who claim they are staying with families and friends has shot up and has aroused suspicions of illegal letting through these direct contacts. Staying with families and friends, where this is genuinely the case, isn't an issue, but it is being abused to disguise illegal letting.
"Since we intensified the fight against illegal supply, we have seen a decline but also a greater ability to evade controls."
Rodríguez has also announced the Council's intention to reduce the current number of tourist accommodation places. In 2020, this was set at 430,000 by the Plan for Intervention in Tourist Areas (PIAT). Under the Balearic Government's tourism containment decree, a reduction can be implemented without having to wait for the PIAT to be amended, a process that is long and complex. "We welcome the decree because it meets and addresses our requests."
A timeframe and definitive figures have yet to be specified, but Rodríguez has indicated that the new limit may go down to 412,000 (308,000 hotel accommodation places and 104,000 in holiday rentals). Reiterating the Council's commitment to a tourism policy of "zero volume growth", the councillor stresses: "We have always maintained that we cannot continue to move forward in a disorderly manner as we have been doing up until now."