Ibiza Residents Protest Overtourism by Occupying Beach With Watermelon

About 100 residents took over a beach in Ibiza recently to protest overtourism as frustration mounts across Spain regarding mass tourism, and they say more action is coming. The crowd gathered at Cala Saladeta, a well-known tourist spot, last week, according to Balearic public broadcaster IB3. Local youth group the Ibiza Youth Association organized the event.

Ibiza sits among Spain's Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. It draws huge numbers of visitors, and its population balloons during summer months. Known locally as Eivissa, the island welcomed nearly 1.2 million tourists in the second quarter of 2025, per data from the Balearic Islands Statistics Institute.

Organizers rallied "against tourist overcrowding," IB3 reported. Activists handed out watermelon to make a point: residents need access to public spaces. The group's manifesto stated that "our land and our culture are being directly pushed out of public spaces, and increasingly out of private spaces, as well, displayed solely as tourist attractions," according to local outlet CadeNA SER.

They also attacked a tourism model built for "wealthy foreigners and famous partygoers." Living costs, housing, food, everything else, have become unaffordable for locals. "[Young people are] fed up with not being able to enjoy [the island] as tourists do, because we believe we can no longer continue giving up spaces to the visitors brought by this extractive tourism model, which makes our lives in Ibiza more precarious," the manifesto added, per Cadena SER.

The coves that pull crowds during peak summer were a specific target. The coves "should become our coves again, clean and peaceful," the manifesto said. "We want to reclaim places of tranquility." "We have decided that we want to reclaim places of tranquility, including during the summer," the statement added.

Vicent Marí, President of Ibiza Island Council, responded by noting the island has been a "pioneer" in fighting tourist overcrowding, according to Cadena SER. But this demonstration is part of wider tensions over mass tourism across Spain. Barcelona residents have recently taken to the streets against mass tourism, with some demonstrators spraying visitors using water guns. On Mallorca, another Balearic Island, viral videos showed pickpockets targeting tourists near Palma, the island's capital.