Mallorca Spain: 'Kill a tourist' graffiti spotted scrawled over wall in holiday hotspot as anti-tourist protests continue

The centre right Partido Popular party of Manacor denounced the vandalism on Tuesday (30 July) insisting that tourists are welcome. PP spokesperson, Maria Antònia Sansó, stressed that “the graffiti do not represent, in any case, the majority feeling of the residents of Manacor”.

She insisted that the party understands the growing social unrest in relation to the tourist overcrowding, but denounced this behaviour as “totally unjustified”. The words ‘Kill a tourist’ has emerged across several locations in the town of Manacor, in Mallorca, according to the Majorca Daily Bulletin. 

It comes as anti-tourist protests have rocked Spain since spring. Locals blame tourists for pricing them out of their homes by driving up housing costs, gentrification and environmental degradation.

The number of tourists has skyrocketed in Mallorca. In 2023, the total number of tourists increased by a staggering 1.3 million to 17.8 million. This year, it was forecast that it will rise by a further two million, reaching 20 million.

On Saturday morning (27 July) hundreds of anti-tourist protestors blocked holidaymakers from a beach in Spain in their latest demonstration. The protestors shaped the words "SOS Menorca" in the sand along the water's edge using towels and their own bodies. According to local sources, the surprise protest by environmental non-profit organisation GOB Menorca "blocked" the car park to tourists for almost six hours.

GOB Menorca said: “This was not a protest against tourism, but against massification and the degradation that brings. 250 people gathered in Cala Turqueta to demand a change of direction for Menorca.”