With the end of the astronomical summer just around the corner and at the same time with the prospect that the tourist season in the Balearic Islands will lengthen, the latest data on the arrival of tourists to the islands confirm the progressive recovery of the leadership of the archipelago as a destination tourist of the Mediterranean.

First choice for foreign tourists

According to the statistics of the Hotel Tourism Situation published by the INE, the Balearic Islands were the main Spanish destination among international travelers in July; It brought together 42.5% of the total overnight stays by foreigners, which rose 242.3% compared to the same month of the previous year. Following this trend, the Balearic Islands also led the entry of passengers by air last month (30.4% of the total). The increase in passengers from Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Switzerland especially benefited this region, which received 1.33 million visitors by this means, according to data released by Turespaña.

Leaders in hotel occupancy

The islands were also leaders in the degree of occupancy of hotel rooms (61.7%), followed by Cantabria (61.5%) and Comunidad Valenciana (60.6%). Mallorca, for its part, was the Spanish tourist area that registered the highest number of overnight stays last month (4,195,786), which were mainly concentrated in Palma and Calvià.

In total, hotels in the Balearic Islands received 1.08 million guests in July, double the number in June but 40% less than in July 2019, when 1.8 million tourists stayed at hotels in the region. The Minister of Economy, Tourism and Labor, Iago Negueruela, has declared that “the strategy is working; it is being an atypical season but much better than we anticipated ”. Given the improvement in the health situation in recent weeks, Negueruela recalled that this “allows us to be optimistic without lowering our guard”, since “economic and tourist data are accompanying”.

Outlook for the coming months

The Mallorca Hotel Business Federation (FEHM) has wanted to emphasize the “joint effort that has been made from the private sector. It is not an easy season, there is a lot of effort from companies and little planning capacity. We hope that the conditions will be in place to have the chance of a good September if we add up all the reserves from the multiple markets with which we operate and we are able to continue capturing demand”.

The FEHM hopes that “there will be a diplomatic effort” for Germany to exclude the Balearic Islands from the list of high-risk destinations, which “would be an important boost to relaunch reservations.”