PALMA
THE British are still flying the flag in the Balearics, a report revealed yesterday whilst the Islands' popularity with German visitors is on the wane.
Research into tourism trends published by the central government ministry for Industry, Tourism and Commerce said that the fall in the volume of foreign visitors to the Balearics is principally due to the Islands' falling off in popularity amongst the Germans. Accumulated figures show that the decrease is offset by the growing number of British tourists to the Islands, an increase of three percent over the first ten months of this year. The report confirms the United Kingdom as the second most important international market for the Balearic tourism industry with 9.9 million visitors this year, some 18.8 percent of the total number of holiday makers in Spain. These figures mean that the Islands had over two million visitors more than the Canary Islands and Andalucia which snapped up 14.8 percent of total tourist trade between January and October this year.
Statistics for September alone show that the Balearics remained the second most visited region of the country, with a total of 870'889 tourists, 17.3 percent of the total number of holiday makers in Spain at that time. However, the figure reflects a drop of 3.6 percent when compared to data registered for the same period in 2006.
Only the region of Catalonia attracted more foreign visitors than the Balearics. With 13.6 million visitors, Catalonia laid claim to 25.8 percent of the volume of tourism throughout the country.