This coming Saturday (April 27), 8,000 cyclists will take part in the Mallorca 312. The winter/spring cycling season will therefore reach its peak and won't truly start to tail off until after the Ironman 70.3 on May 11.
Participants spend some days in Mallorca ahead of both events. There are family members as well. For elite athletes there are support teams. There are those involved with logistics. All these contribute to certain centres on the island being all but full with visitors. In Playa de Muro, the base for the 312, 90% of hotels are open.
Tradition has it that May 1 marks the start of the summer season, but this is no longer the case for much of Mallorca. While there continue to be fewer tourists in April than in May, the gap in numbers has been narrowing. For the Balearics as a whole, in 2023 there were 1.3 million visitors, in May 1.9 million, Mallorca having accounted for the overwhelming majority of the April tourists.
Cycling isn't the only reason, but it is a key reason. For all that there are other sports activities, it has been cycling that has prompted more and more hotels to open earlier, capturing a market that starts modestly (in terms of numbers) with the events towards the end of January and grows from that point on.
And it has been transformational, none more so than in Playa de Muro, where one-time empty units are now dedicated to a type of tourism which Mallorca initially aspired to following the formation of the first tourism ministry 41 years ago and which can now genuinely be viewed as a success.