30% LESS HOTELS WILL BE OPEN IN MAJORCA THIS EASTER

A third less hotels will be open for Easter in Majorca this year.
Majorca Hotel Federation sources said yesterday that, compared to Easter last year, there will be 30 per cent less hotels open.
Antoni Fuster added that of the 300.000 hotel bed spaces in Majorca, 210.000 are operated by members of the Federation and that normally, 70 per cent are operational during the Easter holidays. Apart from poor hotel bookings and gloomy package holiday sales outlook, Fuster said that it not financially viable for hoteliers to open for Easter and then close immediately after, during the lull before the summer season kicks off, hence only between 40 and 50 per cent of hotels are bothering to open. Hoteliers who had decided to open are hoping for a large Spanish presence this Easter with bookings in the United Kingdom and Germany, the two principal markets, moving very slowly because of the “general sense of uncertainty caused by the war in Iraq,” said Antoni Fuster. Last week the Balearic government said that Easter bookings will be down four per cent. Fuster said that he does not argue with that, although he said that the final figure “will be much greater.”