European tour operators are currently engaged in a battle to ensure that they have as many hotel places for the 2016 summer season as possible. To this end, they are offering hotels exclusive contracts and payment guarantees while also accepting hotelier demands for higher prices.
Exclusivity is sought in order to eliminate competition from rival tour operators, but the counterpoints to this are the hotelier demands regarding prices and guarantees. The battle to win exclusivity and so gain competitive advantage is being fought in all the main tourism centres in Majorca.
It is a battle that has intensified on account of market factors elsewhere, i.e. the instability in northern Africa and, to a lesser extent, Turkey, as well as Greece's ongoing economic and political problems.
Such exclusivity with guarantees will consolidate a trend over the past couple of years that has seen tour operators looking to improve overall profitability through ensured numbers of tourists. While competition from other destinations has increased, Majorca continues to have safety as a destination as its principal asset. It also has its summer flights: air connections from May to September are exceptional, the best in the Mediterranean.