Residents in a holiday village in Menorca known as the “Spanish Mykonos” say they want to ban all tourists from visiting - after previously telling them they can only visit between 11am and 8pm so locals can enjoy their breakfasts.
One million tourists are set to descend on the village of Binibeca Vell, which became popular with Brits after images of the gorgeous area went viral on social media.
Residents of the fishing village, famous for its quaint homes and whitewashed walls, have tried to fight back - last year asking tourists to only visit between 11am and 8am.
The village’s website asks tourists to keep from “entering homes” and “climbing balconies” alongside pictures of a tourist sitting on a chair belonging to a local and another lounging in a stairwell.
“Binibeca Vell is not a place of adventure, but it's a private housing development where people reside,” said Óscar Monge, who runs a group representing the 195 property owners in Binibeca Vell.
“If the administration continues to leave us abandoned, in August we'll carry out a vote among owners on whether we should close up the development,” he added.
Residents are furious as the Spanish authorities who they say have failed to tackle the issues with tourists bothering locals. The government gave the residents of Binibeca Vell £12,850 last year to help with rubbish removal but the deal has not been renewed this year.
Residents would be within their rights to close off the village to tourists, head of tourism for Menorca Begoña Mercadal told El Diario. “We fully acknowledge that it is private property and, therefore, if they want to close it, that is their right,” she said.
Binibeca Vell is just one of several areas in Spain that is struggling with high numbers of tourists - anti tourist graffiti spotted in Mallorca last month demanded British holidaymakers “go home”.
In Tenerife, in the Canary Islands, thousands of locals protested in April demanding that the government limit the number of tourists arriving on the island.
Complaints in both areas centre around claims that a boom in short-term holiday rentals is driving up housing costs for locals. Brits on holiday in Tenerife will be hit with a “tourist tax” local authorities recently confirmed in a controversial statement.
A government spokesperson on Tenerife said the tax would apply to the island’s natural beauty spots and was an essential part of maintaining the protected sites in the face of surging visitor numbers.