The threat of rock falls, water contamination and jellyfish have been used to deter visitors from Mallorcan beaches
I think it funny that there’s an assumption in this thread that these posters are aimed at U.S. tourists when visitors from the U.K. outnumber the Americans by a factor of six to one.
People in this threat also don’t seem to realize how the island of Mallorca is full of foreigners, even some just living there, but nobody speaking Spanish. In fact it’s probably easier to get around with German or English in the touristic parts of Mallorca.
This is not about some poor US tourist who wasn’t good enough in school back home to learn Spanish. It’s about huge crowds of rowdy UK and German tourists who go to “Malle” every year for partying and getting piss drunk without any consideration of the locals.
To be fair, they spent years encouraging that kind of tourism and are no annoyed that they’ve got to popular. As the article points out it represents 75% of their economic activity so they’d be buggered if everyone just said, fine we’ll go somewhere else then.
Nah, not really. They want to change from party tourism, which is concentrated on one small area to a more distributed culture tourism. Those tourist spend twice as much and not only in the big clubs but on small shops all around the island. So they have a plan and it makes sense.
Sounds like the role of the government to shape the tourist visa availability
Spain is in the EU, so no visa necessary for tourists.
Sounds like the government needs to reconsider that
So Spain should leave the EU?
One time I went to a bar in Mallorca, asked “dos cervezas, por favor” and the guy went: “Was? Zwei bier??”
It was surreal to realise that nobody there actually spoke any Spanish. Outside of the tourist traps Mallorca still has some authenticity here and there but it’s like the locals just hide in the shadows for the most part.
Locals sometimes call it “the German island of Mallorca”
Germans also refer to it as the 17th Bundesland. A Bundesland is to Germany what a State is to the US.
Are you counting by individuals or by volume?
(sorry)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_Spain
No worries. There’s a chart on the Wikipedia page above. The U.K. boasts over 18 million tourists per year while the U.S. is just over 3 million.
I’m surprised there’s that many Americans tbh, I wouldn’t have thought it would be on their radar, I think of Mallorca as a package holiday destination for Western Europeans.
The tourism figures were for the totality of visitors to Spain, not to Mallorca specifically.
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Ahhh ok that makes more sense. They probably tend to go to Madrid, Barcelona, Granada etc.
Lol but the gap is closing, US is 36 % obese and uk 27%.
ITT apparently everyone thinks Mallorca is in Mexico
ITT people who didn’t click on the article and understand that this was produced as a humourous way of promoting the campaign against overtourism, which is a significant issue in the Balearics.
UHH THERES MEXICAN ON THE SIGN DUDE, DUH
/S
I don’t see any Spanish on the sign, only English and Catalan words.
Sarcasm missed.
Lack of critical reading strikes again. I’ll edit with the /s
Well, you also assume people know what “/s” is… I never used Reddit, but I suppose this is something common on Reddit users? idk
Well I was fucked from the starting line cause I assumed the full caps, blatantly idiotic statement would come across as sarcasm but hey here I am
You’d be surprised. I thought someone was being sarcastic when they were talking about the “shamdemic,” only to find out no, they were completely serious. There are people on here who would say that in all seriousness.
I’m gonna edit to make it even more idiotic
Under an image of a swimmer surrounded by jellyfish, it reads: “Open beach. Not to jellyfish or foreigners.”
Another, this one apparently related to a rockfall, points out that there is no landslide but that the danger is due to overcrowding.
It’s Catalan signs, not Spanish.
The title says Spanish beaches, not Spanish language.
The signs are found on Spanish islands.
Yes that’s why I want people to stop saying it is in Spanish, many comments here are talking like if the signs are in Spanish “the second or third language most talked” but it isn’t, there is no Spanish here… haha
sewage contamination in the water
Just like home!
Seems a bit racist and xenophobic to me, not to mention the undermining of the societal trust that is required for warning signs to work at all.
On the flip side tourists are making entire regions unlivable for the natives through exploitation of economical inequality.
The local government sought this out via policy, now they need to undo it.
If you tell people “this is a great place to party” they’re gonna, and they’re not gonna go home when you’re ready for bed.
100% But that could certainly be ameliorated through proper Spanish governmental policy no?
Yea especially when tourists often don’t know about the local risks. Warning signs are mostly for people who aren’t from a particular area
Don’t want a ‘boy who cried wolf’ situation
The latter really jumped out at me. I’ve definitely heard more than once “These careless tourists just ignored the signs!”
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The “learn a language before traveling” always seemed like gatekeeping to me. I’ve traveled a decent bit, and I would not have had the time to learn a dozen or so languages. Especially when you have to learn entire new writing systems. I’ll learn a little bit while I’m visiting because I’m immersing myself.
if someone wants to study another language, all power to them. But it shouldn’t be a barrier from experiencing other cultures.
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I’m not saying you shouldn’t try to learn language while you’re there, I’m saying the requirement of learning before you travel is counterintuitive for wanting people to experience other cultures. I think it’s detrimental to try to force or shame people into learning the language before travel, you’ll end up discouraging people from traveling. They’ll just stay in their own bubble and not experience other cultures.
Yeah, how dare they expect one of Europes most popular holiday destinations to make things easy for people speaking the de facto Lingua Franca worldwide.
Amazing amount of strawmans saying they need to learn the entire language and not a small amount of it, as you clearly stated.
How much is “a bit” ? I’ve got the hiragana, the katakana, a few Kanji and all the korewa, sonowa etc grammar rules. Will it be enough to visit Tokyo? No. But the way it works is sometimes a stupid attempt at speaking will trigger the “poor
stupidhelpless tourist” reaction that gets you help, which you won’t get if you don’t make yourself “vulnerable” as people say today, but do the opposite: implicitly demand that others make themselves vulnerable to you.So you’d be cool with people doing this in Spanish on Texas and Florida beaches right? And I mean people should definitely never travel to a foreign place without a decent grasp of the local language. Not like world exploration is something that can be a life altering experience. Or could help people empathize with different types of culture. Nope. Everyone should stay in their own little bubble. And honestly that applies to states, districts, etc. Hell even towns. Because Alabama and California are super different and have different customs. But even Houston and Austin Texas are way too different to go into each other’s areas without having a firm grasp on local customs. Barcelona and Aragon are so very different that many of them don’t even speak the same language. One of my neighbors and I don’t get along real well. Perhaps we should really only stay in our houses.
No, because in the US we have a different legal and cultural stance on language.
On the topic, what do you recommend to learn another language for a trip. I have one next year and wanna try to be decent
Immersion. News in target language. Childrens TV in target language. Besides that, any resource. After a month or even two of immersion only and intent listening, begin studying for real. Nit 5 minutes a day but rather 30 minutes. You can reach basic fluency in 6 - 9 months, and then before your trip ensure you learn more specific grammar and vocab in topics you feel you need.
