Tourism spending in general in the Balearics may have fallen this year but it appears that at the top end of the market, luxury shopping is on the rise.
Palma.—According to the Association for Textile and Accessories Businesses, data from the Tourism Expenditure Survey and the Retail Trade Index, enhancements to the retail sector, especially in Palma, have over the past few years turned the Balearics into a destination for luxury shopping tourism. Based on credit-card payments, the Balearics are among the top four regions of Spain, having accounted for 12% of all transactions across the whole of Spain in 2013, a percentage which is expected to have risen this year.
In order to enhance this tourist market segment further, the national secretaries of state for tourism and trade have put in place a plan based on the shopping tourism niche that it is hoped will increase overall the tourism sector profitability as well as internal domestic trade.