Over the past few months I have been to some of the most emblematic beaches in Mallorca from Illetas to Sa Rapita and beyond and I have yet to have come across problems of mass tourism and overcrowding; in fact quite the opposite. Last Saturday afternoon in Illetas it was the quietest I’ve seen it all summer to date and we are at the peak of high season.
Ironically, figures out on Wednesday claimed that in June hotels in the Balearics logged the highest occupancy rates of all Spanish regions, with 82.1% of beds booked, 90% of them by foreign customers. Hotels in the Balearics were the destination for 33.7% of foreign visitors staying in Spain in June, according to data from the “Hotel Tourism Situation” report published by the National Statistics Institute (INE).
So, this begs the questions - where are they all and what are they doing? Because I am neither seeing them on the beaches nor wining and dining in the evenings, certainly not in Palma and other hot spots, as the restaurant sector has pointed out.
Plus, the hoteliers last week said that they are not hitting booking expectations. Perhaps that is why the next protest has been called for the middle of September. It’s going to be a bit late by then because the so-called ‘massification’ is not happening.