Dealing with the crowds

THE arrival of the summer holiday season is causing concern among the authorities that this year could see a repeat of the problems caused in 2022 by the mass influx of visitors at some of Mallorca’s most popular tourist spots.

Issues that the Govern, tourism chiefs and environmentalists wish to avoid include traffic jams, access points to beaches blocked by cars parked incorrectly, and vantage points such as the Mirador de Es Colomer in Pollença saturated with huge numbers of people at certain times of day.

These ‘hot spots’ have been identified and measures to prevent saturation will be introduced from now until the summer season, such as the ban on private vehicles on the road to Formentor lighthouse from June to September ­ as reported last week by the Euro Weekly News.

Beaches and bays are another major concern, including Calo d’es Moro in Santanyi ­ where there were queues of up to four hours last year to get to the sea ­ Cala Varques, Es Trenc/Ses Covetes and Es Caragol.

In Es Trenc, a park ­ and ­ ride bus service was launched last year to prevent crowding on the accesses through Ses Covetes, a problem that also affected