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“There are tourists who now ask for an orange juice and take it among five people.” The phrase He is from a hotelier of the center of Soller, in Mallorca, one of the great tourist enclaves of the island, and reflects well the situation with which the bars and restaurants of the region are being found: tourists arrive, but they do it with less bulky and less arranged portfolios and less willing to leave four euros for a coffee. Other restorers in the area regret that they are increasingly with more visitors who pull super and prepare their own food.
The sector It does not hide Your concern.
What happened? That Spanish tourism, a sector that has been (at least from the pandemic) getting used to news about growth, record data And upward invoices, he is giving worrying signs in one of his bastions: Mallorca. In May the employer of the hospitality industry He already warned that the first quarter of the year had been closed with a widespread revenue drop that moved between 10 and 20%. And since then the situation It does not seem to have improved.
Why’s that? A quick search arrives on Google to meet news in which the hoteliers of one of the most emblematic destinations in the region, Port of Sóllerthey lament the panorama with which they are being found in the middle of summer, just when their businesses should go stern. “We have gone from not having workers to be over,” confesses to Diario de Mallorca The owner of two restaurants that has had to do without five employees.
“The queues of other years are not seen anymore. The last ones I remember were in Holy Week. It does not look good and those who will be harmed will be the workers, especially since next season,” The hotelier insists. “This is a rebound effect after the madness after Covid. We will return to the situation we had before the pandemic, but with much narrower margins.”
Is it the only one who thinks like that? No. eldiario.es has published A similar chroniclewith similar complaints from other businesses of the Serra de Tramuntana. One of them, for example, ensures that more than a matter of quantity, of the number of tourists who come to Sóller to enjoy their vacations, it is a problem of habits. People arrive with the most tight portfolio. And less willing to exceed expenses. “More than in the number of tourists, (there is) a change in the type of customer you consume and in the amount you consume,” says the person in charge of a bar.
“The volume of people who come to Sóller continues to be the same, with more or less fluctuations every 15 days. But what has dropped is the consumption in bars. People are spending less and that shows,” Explain to the newspaper another hospitality hostess. “Now they ask you for an orange juice (6.5 euros) and take it between five.” The trend collides with a tourist profile that until not so ago was willing to pay four euros for a coffee or more than 25 for the menu of the day.
But … What do the data say? Those of CAEB They draw a little flattering panorama. According to Your calculationsthe sector suffers a ‘puncture’ in its turnover between 6 and 8%, a fork that in some restaurants would rise from 15-20% or even reaches 30% in specific cases. Its president, Juan Miguel Ferrer, is blunt and esteem that in eight out of ten stores sales will fall this year.
Interestingly and although the sensation can be that the city is crowded, one of the most affected areas is the center of Palma, where the fall reaches 8%.
What is the problem? The hoteliers summarize it with a single word: profitability. “The situation is very difficult. We are concerned about business profitability. Many cannot survive. We had not had such a bad summer since before the pandemic,” Ferrer insists In Tourinews. The president of CAEB ensures that last year closed 370 establishments and It is cautious on what the impact can be in the coming months. “We will have to see this year.”
Ferrer remember That May was marked by the bad weather, June Mo was plethoric and now the businesses are with a decrease in the influx of customers, especially in Port Soller, Sant Elme and Port D´Alcúdia. “We have gone from being full to have occupations that do not exceed 60%.” The situation is not ideal on the Paseo de Palma. Again the issue is not that there are no visitors, but that they seem less given to consume in the restaurants.
“They are known as sandwich tourists”, duck.
What tells us the INE? Give other brushstrokes that help compose the painting. His latest data is May, but show that during the first five months of 2025 the annual variation rate among foreign tourists It has been positive In Balearic Islands. As for the flow of travelers and overnight, in June the INE record Increases with respect to 2024. For example, 1.86 million visitors in June 2024 went to about 1.89 million this year.
Another interesting fact is the prices. In June the INE registered a year -on -year variation rate of 9.9 in the hotel price index of the Balearic Islands. If we consult the IPC table the annual variation between the set of restaurants and hotels of the archipelago is 5%percentage that rises 30% If compared to 2019. In general, the summer of 2025 usually occurs as the one in The most expensive hotel priceswith 50% increases from the beginning of the pandemic.
What is that fall? The apparent ‘prick’ in the billing of the Mallorcan hoteliers is not understood without handling some keys. Both internal and external. Among the last ones is The economic situation from Germany, a crucial market that does not go through its best moment, and the growing competition of other cheaper destinations. One of those who is taking advantage of the reef to position itself in traditional markets in Spain is Moroccowhich offers more economical accommodation and It has been improving Your air connections.
With that backdrop he has not helped either The increase of the flights.
Of course there are also factors related to the hotel sector, such as the price increase that has been chained for years and has made it stay in a hotel in Spain to leave today much more expensive that in 2019. So much, that the country has encountered a curious phenomenon: domestic demand has been stagnating as traveling to Mallorca became almost so expensive How to do Bali.
Are there more factors? Yes. In the sector, for example, the increase in tourist rentals, which is sometimes associated with a different traveler profile than is housed in more expensive hotels. In an apartment families have kitchen, fridge, microwave … and that, explained a restorer To eldiario.es, leads them to “buy food in the supermarket” instead of paying for it in a restaurant. There is also one who blame the fall to negative protests and messages that for months have been launched in Catalonia, Balearic Islands or Canary Islands towards mass tourism.
Ferrer Point out That, with the increase in flights and hotels, tourists arrive with “less money in their pocket to spend” and warns that this trend coincides with another that affects hotels: they themselves face a price increase due to an “inflationary issue.” In May CAEB I spoke now In income between 10 and 20% in areas such as the port of Pollença and Playa de Palma, a panorama, insisted, worrying for the region. “If in our sector the expense decreases, it will inevitably affect the local economic chain.”
Images | Thank you (25 million) views (Flickr) and Kboldi (Flickr)
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