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How to apply for a tourist licence in the Balearic Islands
First check the zoning, then buy tourist places (plazas) from your island council's finite paid pool, then file the DRIAT declaration with that council. The dwelling must sit in an eligible zone, each island runs its own register, and moratoriums are frequent - so confirm eligibility before spending anything on plazas.
This is the hardest region in Spain to enter
Everywhere else in Spain, applying is mostly paperwork. In the Balearics it is also a purchase. You cannot simply declare the activity - you must buy tourist places (plazas), one per guest the dwelling will sleep, from a finite pool that each island council sells at a price it sets. When an island's pool is empty or suspended, no money and no paperwork will open a new tourist let there.
Step one - confirm the zoning, before you spend
The dwelling must sit in a zone declared eligible for tourist letting. Town halls and island councils draw those zones, and they redraw them. Moratoriums are frequent - an island can suspend new places for years at a stretch. So the first step is not a form. It is confirming, with the island council, that your address is in an eligible zone and that places are actually on sale. Do this before buying plazas, and certainly before buying the property.
Step two - buy the places, file the DRIAT
With zoning confirmed, you acquire the plazas from the island council's pool and file the DRIAT - the responsible declaration for the start of tourist activity - with that same council. Not with the regional government: Mallorca, Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera each run their own register and their own rules. Your ETV number must then appear in every advert, on every channel, and the platforms verify it - Balearic law fines them directly for publishing without one.
After the number - keeping it
Once the ETV number exists, the job becomes keeping it valid. Zones get declassified, registers get revised, and an island-level deregistration nobody mentioned surfaces in the official file long before it reaches your inbox. We mirror the island registers nightly and alert you the day your entry changes - which, in the strictest regime in Spain, is worth knowing before the inspector does.
Check a licence number
Free, no sign-up, nothing stored. Try ETV/012345.
Sources
- Law 8/2012 of 19 July on tourism in the Balearic Islands — marketing of tourist stays and the sanctions regime
- Law 6/2017 of 31 July (zoning and the places pool)
- Island registers - Consell de Mallorca / Consell Insular de Menorca — mirror source
Verified against the sources above on 2026-09-02. LicenceDesk is operational guidance, not legal advice.
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