A drop in demand for holidays to Balearic Islands including Minorca, Mallorca and Ibiza at the end of August and throughout the rest of the holiday season meant that some businesses were forced to launch special offers and lower prices to encourage tourists to book last minute travel.
There is a general feeling across the archipelago this year that the purchasing power of visitors has fallen due to rising prices, which has hit domestic tourism in particular. Mallorca, once a favourite value-for-money destination for British tourists, dropped to 24th place in the Post Office Worldwide Holiday Cost Barometer.
In an attempt to counter the decline, in MinorcaCar rental and sea transport rates to and from the mainland have been cut by 20 percent, with discounts of up to 40 percent applied by holiday home rental companies in September, according to the Mallorca Daily Bulletin.
On the neighboring island of IbizaLuxury hotels have launched promotions and offers of up to 30 percent off to try to fill their large number of spaces. The Hotel Managers Association said August was a “positive” month but that “complicated” realities existed at the same time.
Throughout the summer, the vast majority of the Balearic Islands have faced tourist protests, including one on August 21 that saw over 500 people attend in Menorcacarrying placards arguing that the properties were being used by visiting foreigners rather than locals.
Meanwhile, in May, up to a thousand people marched in Ibiza against mass tourism amid a backlash against British tourists seeking a cheap getaway. They held banners saying: “We don’t want a concrete island” and “Tourism, yes, but not like this”.
In early August, Ibiza Council warned that five-star tourism and agritourism (including farm stays and excursions) hotels in particular, were struggling, probably due to their high prices compared to two- and four-star hotels, which seemed to perform better in the summer holiday season.
“In August we were close to the 2023 figures and during the first three weeks there were last-minute bookings, with long stays of between five and six nights,” said the president of the Spanish Association of Hotel Directors (AEDH), Alicia Reina.
She said: “From the fourth week onwards, bookings decreased, returning to the usual dynamics of previous months, with occupancy peaks and price increases on weekends and drops during the week.”
Reina added that 2023 was a “record” year that would be “difficult to beat,” so he concluded that the 2024 season could still be considered “a total success.”