The Balearic Islands have been warned to expect as many as ten million visitors over the winter season by an airline association.

The Airline Association, which controls 85 percent of Spanish air traffic, has given the warning of record visitor influx, with nearly 9 percent more visitors expected to arrive between November and March compared to the same period last year.

Palma airport is set to see 7.8 million of the visitors with Ibiza receiving 1.7 million, representing roughly an 8 percent increase for each airport.

Mahón airport will receive the biggest increase in percentage terms, with 10 percent more visitors this winter compared to last.

Authorities on the islands hope that welcoming more visitors outside of the summer season will lessen the burden on locals during the island’s tourist peak, which has pushed islanders to the brink in recent years.

This summer, popular tourist destinations across the Balearic Islands and the Spanish mainland saw protests against the tourism industry.

Campaigners blame the influx of too many tourists for increases in rent prices, anti-social behaviour and strain on public services.

One Majorcan protester said: “From the disappearance of local culture, the increasing cost of living, the impossibility to live here, and the worsening of public services, many tourists understand this because they are aware of what it means in their home places.”

In Malaga, a popular tourist destination on the Spanish mainland, Kike España, an anti-tourism protester, told the BBC: “The situation is so saturated that Málaga has really reached a turning point at which people feel that the city is collapsing.

“It’s the same feeling you have when you enter a theme park; there is a stream of people consuming the city and not really inhabiting it.”

Tourism represents 13 percent of Spanish GDP but this figure is much higher in common tourist destinations.

In areas such as the Balearic Islands, around 80 percent of people are employed in roles related to tourism.

Whilst other countries have struggled to bounce back following the Covid-19 pandemic, Spain is breaking previous tourism records and could see inbound visitor figures surpass 90 million, having welcomed nearly 75 million people in the first nine months of 2024.

It is hoped that the influx of visitors this winter is a sign that tourists are spreading holidays throughout the year and will lessen the impact on local people.