Achi news desk-
Dr Guillem Colom-Montero, Lecturer in Hispanic Studies at the university’s School of Modern Languages and Cultures, has been looking at Spain and Scotland to measure the impact of tourism – at a time when the industry has become the focus of much publicity and culture. political debate.
Local community associations on Majorca – which is home to around 945,000 residents and welcomes over 12 million tourists a year – have been critical of the impact tourism has on public services, jobs and the environment , as well as linguistic and cultural sustainability.
From his research, Dr Colom-Montero argues that tourism has triggered such “universal transformations” at all social, cultural and economic levels in Majorca that some locals “don’t feel they belong” to the island
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He said: “Grand culture has seen a wealth of creative, literary and cultural responses to over-tourism, including fiction, poetry, travel books, 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, malice, and collective trauma.
“This highly critical perspective suggests a culturally traumatic experience linked to the environmental and socio-cultural impacts 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 ‘monocrop;’ and that is why it seems impossible to control its adverse effects.”
Dr Colom-Montero’s research comes days after thousands took part in protests across the Canary Islands to call for a temporary restriction on visitors arriving in the Spanish archipelago in order to reduce pressure on the islands’ environment, infrastructure and housing stock, and placing curbs on the purchase of property. by foreigners.
The academic said: ‘The situation [in Majorca] very similar in the Canary Islands, where more than 60,000 people took to the streets recently to demand a change in the tourism model. This was the biggest demonstration that ever took place in the Canaries. As in the Balearics, demonstrators also called for restrictions on property sales to non-residents.”
Having spent the last decade 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 he believes is facing “ similar 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”, said Dr Colom-Montero.
In May last year, the academic visited Barra to organize screenings of the documentary film Overbooking (2019), which is about the effects of mass tourism on Majorca.
Dr Colom-Montero added: “Barra and Majorca are remote, fragile isolated environments where rural imaginaries are still present in the everyday life experience of the local population.
“The sudden and comprehensive transformations experienced over the last few years are felt in dramatic ways in both regions, which share the historical connection between landscape, community identity and language.”
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After watching Overbooking, Gail Anthea Brown, a writer from Caithness, told Dr Colom-Montero: “There are many parallels in this documentary with feelings about tourism in the Highlands and Islands.
“The major concerns of residents about the effects of tourism are reflected across our communities, which 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 warning about the development of ‘alternative’ tourism streams, such as slow, immersive and off-season travel, which, without limitation in other areas, add to more unsustainable tourism.
“The Majorcan experience should be a cautionary tale for the Highlands and Islands, where too often over-tourism has left communities feeling disempowered and overwhelmed.”
Dr Colom-Montero discusses his research in the latest episode of the University of Glasgow’s College of Arts and Humanities podcast series, Stories from Glasgow. The series sees leading researchers at the College explore the impact of art, literature, culture and history.
You can listen to the podcast via the Stories from Glasgow web pages via https://www.gla.ac.uk/colleges/arts/aboutus/socialmedia/podcast/
