Car hire firms on a popular Spanish holiday island are attempting the hide the fact their vehicles are rentals after a spate of “isolated cases” which have seen tyres punctured and wing mirrors damaged.
It’s thought local residents unhappy with tourist numbers and property being taken up by holidaymakers are staging a guerrila warface campaign of vandalism against hire cars in Mallorca.
A local news site, The Majorca Daily Bulletin, claims vehicles have also been scratched and an anti-tourism sticker placed on one car.
However, Julio Nieto of Baleval and Ramon Reus, from two car-hire associations in Mallorca, said the incidents of damager were only from a few “isolated cases”.
But according to the Bulletin in one case a sicker was left on a hire car, it read: “Your rental car is not safe here. Beware of local people, they are angry.”
Responding to the link between recent protests about tourism and hire cares, Mr Reus did admitted something may have to be done but that “vandalism is not the solution”
A meeting is due to take place at the end of the summer between representatives of care hire organisations and local officials and residents.
Tourists travelling to Mallorca have enjoyed a 15 percent drop in prices this season, which firms blamed on major events like the Paris Olympics taking visitors elsewhere this year.
In worrying news for Brits still planning on visiting the Balearic Island there has been talk in some circles that the authorities could ban hire cars altogether.
But Othman Ktiri, founder of the OK Group and CEO of car-hire firm OK Mobility, warned: “You can’t reduce the number of hire cars if you don’t increase public transport.
“Anything that involves limiting the offer once the tourist has arrived in the destination would lead to greater chaos.
“Wrong decisions could be made. The first thing that must be very clear is that what is happening in the Balearics is happening all over the world and in destinations of all kinds. The planet has a new challenge to ensure that everything remains sustainable.”