Majorca axes 1,700 sunbeds from its beaches to make room for locals

Majorca plans to remove nearly 1,700 sun loungers from its capital’s beaches to make room for locals as protests against excessive tourism continue on the popular island.

According to reports, the Palma council has said it plans to reduce the number of sun loungers on the city’s beaches by 20% by 2026.The decision is partly due to beach erosion, but also to complaints from residents that the high cost of sun loungers and parasols leaves them with little space to enjoy the local beaches, according to German-language local publication Mallorca Zeitung.

A total of 1,644 sun loungers will be removed from four beaches in Palma. On Playa de Palma beach, the number of sun loungers will be reduced from 6,000 to 4,436, and umbrellas from 2,503 to 2,218, the publication reports. On Cala Major beach, the number of sun loungers will be reduced from 300 to 250, on Ciutat Jardí beach from 300 to 288, and on Cala Stançia beach from 150 to 132.

On Pere Antoni beach, which is managed by the coastal protection agency and not by the municipality of Palma, the number of sun loungers will also be reduced from 200 to 94.

Another change: the municipality also plans to introduce the possibility of booking sun loungers and umbrellas via an online app by 2027, according to Mallorca Zeitung. These changes were adopted after Palma Mayor Jaime Martinez announced the council’s plan to invest €300 million in the redevelopment of Playa de Palma over the next decade, according to the Majorca Daily Bulletin.

The initiative also includes a ban on the construction of new tourist hotels, and existing hotels must either be modernised or converted into residential apartments.

Against the backdrop of another record year for tourism in Spain, residents of the Balearic Islands have announced their readiness to take to the streets again to protest against mass tourism, which they say is making everyday life “unbearable.” The protests are scheduled for June 15 and will be joined this year by other European cities facing similar problems.

According to the latest INE data, 25.6 million foreign tourists visited Spain in the first four months of 2025, 7.1% more than in the same period last year. The Balearic Islands are particularly affected, with an area of only 4,992 km² receiving more than 1.35 million tourists, almost equal to Andalusia, a region several times larger.