Spain holiday warning: Popular holiday destination Majorca to track UK tourists' phones to limit number of holidaymakers on beaches

A popular holiday destination in Spain has launched a bizarre and shocking new scheme to crackdown on the number of UK holidaymakers flooding to its beaches. To limit the number of holidaymakers, Majorca will now be using creepy technology to track tourists’ phones.

The Balearic government announced that sensors in people's mobile phones will be able to keep track of the number of people on the beach at any given time. They are aiming to manage the numbers flocking to various beaches on the island in the future so they can impose rules, limitations and fix the heavy congestion.

The phone tracking trial will start on just one beach to begin with so the data can be analysed before it may be rolled out across the Balearic islands. The Majorca Daily Bulletin reports that the government has claimed it wants factual evidence to prove beaches are becoming rapidly overcrowded and need actual numbers and data to achieve this.

The beach where the phone tracking trial will begin is yet to be confirmed but potential spots that it could be, that are popular with holidaymakers, are Es Trenc in Campos, Cala Varques in Manacor or Caló des Moro in Santanyi. It comes after UK tourists have been told to "go home" from Spain through anti-tourist graffiti which has been sprayed across the streets.

The words ‘Go Home Tourist’ were written in English over a wall underneath a real estate promotion billboard in Nou Llevant where most homes were bought by Germans. Island newspaper Diario de Mallorca described it as the first example of tourism-phobia in Nou Llevant, and said it was targeted at the neighbourhood’s “new foreign residents.” 

Residents in the Balearic Islands including in Majorca and Ibiza have shown their support for the Canary Islands protesters who took to the streets in their thousands on Saturday (20 April) under the slogan: “The Canary Islands have a limit.” Canarias Se Agota, the lead platform behind the Canary Islands protests, has voiced demands which include a halt to two controversial hotel projects, an eco-tax and more sustainable tourism.