The Balearics, along with the rest of Spain, is forecast to experience an increase in Chinese tourists this year.
Spanish travel agencies have welcomed China’s visa-free policy, which is seen as an incentive to revive the tourism sectors in China and Europe. China applied a visa-free policy for ordinary passport holders from five European countries in December, including Spain.
Then in January China added eight more European countries in total to its visa-free policy list on a trial basis.
According to Spain’s tourism agency Turespana, over 60 percent of direct flights linking China and Spain before the pandemic have been restored. From March 31, Air China will have daily flights between Barcelona and Beijing while Cathay Pacific plans to restore direct flights to Hong Kong from Barcelona in June.
According to data from the Spanish Statistical Office, over 380,000 people visited Spain from China last year. However, the figure is well below the level before the pandemic, when more than 700,000 Chinese tourists visited Spain in 2019.
And last year the Balearic government contacted two Chinese airlines in order to study the possibilities of direct flights to Mallorca.
The aim would be to promote Chinese tourism to the island.
This isn’t the first time that there has been talk of direct flights from China.
Five years ago, when the Routes World fair was held in Guangzhou, Aetib, the government’s tourism, attended in order to discuss possibilities. In 2019, Mallorca featured in a TV series for the Chinese market entitled Spain Passion.
But whatever possibilities may have existed were put on hold by the pandemic.