Tourism or heritage? Mallorca's Tramuntana seeks a smarter balance

Far from the beach bars and party crowds, Mallorca's Serra de Tramuntana is grappling with the downsides of mass tourism. A unique blend of local agriculture, smart innovation, and community collaboration may hold the key to its preservation. Yet local operators warn: 'The time to act has come. Otherwise, in 10 years we'll be like Disney World—and there won't be anything left to decide'.

'When people come to Mallorca, in general, it is for sun, beach, and party. Here, we have a lot of sun, just a few beaches, and not much party. It is a different world, another dimension.' Lluís Vallcaneras is the director of the Serra de Tramuntana Consortium, a public entity tasked with preserving and promoting a mountainous area in the northwest of the Spanish island, stretching for about ninety kilometres. Efforts made over generations to cope with water scarcity and adapt its harsh karstic terrain to agriculture are among the reasons why in 2011 it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 'There are no rivers, only torrents, and watercourses are temporary, because when it doesn't rain, all the water goes to the subsurface,' he explains. The beaches are mostly inaccessible and rarely sandy, but the landscape attracts many hikers and cycling tourists. 'Tourism accounts for some 90% of the local economy, but we are trapped in a paradox: we need tourists to survive, but if there are too many, the quality-of-life decreases, the local identity and landscapes get perverted and Tramuntana becomes kind of a Disney World.'

Part of the solution may lie in what Vallcaneras describes as a 'taboo concept.' 'Degrowth is seen as poverty, but many studies prove that the more tourists come, the poorer we are. In the year 2000, we were already living from tourism, but we hadn't yet reached this saturation point. Yet, after COVID, there was a shift and everything started heading toward overcrowding,' he reflects. Rather than increasing tourism, he believes improving quality of life and protecting the region's appeal should start with revitalising agriculture. Yet, due to its morphology, mechanising the work is very difficult. 'Almost everything is done manually and is therefore more expensive and less competitive on the market. Still, agriculture is one of the very reasons why the Serra de Tramuntana has this patrimonial value today. And that's why we have to invest and subsidise it, to preserve this heritage and inestimable asset, for both our culture and economy,' he stresses.

Among the paths explored by the Serra de Tramuntana Consortium are the creation of a label to emphasise the role of local products in keeping the region's culture and traditions alive, as well as their integration into the menus of local hospitality businesses. 'If this link with the tourist sector was made, all of our agricultural production could be absorbed by hotels and restaurants. Prices would be higher, but it would be in their own interest. Tourists come here for our landscape. So, this would be an investment in preserving the very heritage that provides them with a livelihood,' he argues. Promoting closer collaboration between agriculture and tourism is also a key strategy for Pierrick Le Guillou and his colleagues in Sóller, a small, isolated town at the base of the Tramuntana Mountains that, likewise, suffers from tourism overcrowding. 'Our main goal is to make the tourism, and agricultural sectors collaborate and share information, to develop common solutions that can help support agriculture, but also diversify and better distribute tourism throughout the whole territory,' he notes.

'One of our first measures will be to integrate the data from tourism establishments—hotels in particular—with those from the agricultural sector. This will allow us first of all to more precisely profile the tourists—understand where they come from, whether they travel alone or with families, and what dietary habits they have — and accordinglyhelp farmers plan their harvest based on demand,' he continues. Sóller is one of the 'pilot regions' where, under the coordination of Le Guillou and together with rural areas in Italy, Slovenia, Finland, Bulgaria, and Bosnia-Herzegovina,local communities are co-designing solutions in the framework of the European initiative SMART ERA. Matteo Gerosa, Head of Project Management Group at Italy's Fondazione Bruno Kessler, is the initiative's coordinator. 'Rural areas account for more than 30% of Europe's population and are affected by several common problems, especially in some of its northern, southern, and eastern areas, as well as in the Alpine Arc,' he explains. 'With younger people moving to the cities in search of job opportunities, and due to issues such as infrastructure decay and declining services of general interest, depopulation and ageing demographics are among the biggest challenges.'

SMART ERA stands for 'Smart community-led transition for Europe's rural areas.' The project's very name highlights the centrality of the technological component, but what sets its approach apart is its commitment to going beyond and developing comprehensive solutions across social services, health, energy, mobility, and more, to meet the diverse needs of rural areas. 'There cannot be any community-led transition without digitalisation, data screening and smartness assessment, but technology alone doesn't suffice,' says Gerosa, offering the example of a region that lacks mobility services: 'Developing an online mobility app alone won't be effective. We might also need to incentivise people to use it, engage the community in its design and management, or develop new governance models for this service to be co-delivered by public administration and private actors.' This is why Gerosa, and his consortium are working on a combination of technological, physical, and policy-based responses, which they call 'SIPs'—Smart Innovation Packages.

To make sure the solutions developed truly meet local needs, communities must be at the heart of the innovation process, Gerosa emphasises: 'We need solutions that take into account socio-cultural, economic, and geographic particularities of rural territories.' When things "don't work," confirms Le Guillou, 'it's often because of a lack of communication and cooperation among stakeholders.' 'As this process requires the involvement of all local players, no solution will ever be possible if they don't sit and discuss together to make their region advance,' he warns. The process is long and demanding, but Vallcaneras warns that the time has come to "take tough decisions" for his region: 'If we don't make them now, in ten years there won't be anything left to decide. We'll be a theme park already, and many people will be worse off than they are now,' he predicts.

Policymakers and local stakeholders could help open the path to change by embracing tailor-made solutions that don't simply replicate urban models, Gerosa urges. Still, there is also 'a narrative hindering the attractiveness of rural areas that needs to fundamentally change,' he concludes: 'They are not backward places where uneducated people live, local services are poor and there are no good schools. Even small steps can go a long way in making these areas feel included.'

Contacts:

Project coordinator:
Matteo Gerosa, Fondazione Bruno Kessler, gerosa@fbk.eu

Communication Manager:
Costanza Danovi, Fondazione ICONS costanza.danovi@icons.it

Project website: https://smartera-project.eu/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/smart-era/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/SMART-ERA/61566678548553/

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