At the start of August, the hoteliers’ association for Palmanova and Magalluf released a provisional assessment for the summer season which showed that there had been positive trends in favour of a return of tourism with a family profile and with greater spending power and at the expense of a younger clientele: in particular, that associated with “hooligan tourism.” Now, Meliá Hotels International, right to the fore in bringing about the transformation of Magalluf, has released its own evaluation of the season up to the end of August, and this confirms that of the hoteliers’ association: the trend is positive, in terms of both quality and quantity.
Since 2011 and the start of the Meliá project in Magalluf, the group’s hotels, now all of four-star category, have realised growth in revenue of over 60% and have given a RevPar rating of 48% (RevPar being the ratio of average revenue per available room). On top of this improved hotel performance, there has also been a 40% increase in recruitment which has raised contributions to the social security system by just under 50%. In August specifically, the RevPar of Meliá hotels was up by 17% compared with August last year, while revenues rose by 14% and average occupancy was at 88%, with two hotels fully occupied. The transformation of Magalluf represents a real change in its tourism model.
The figures show how the youth segment - that part attracted by excess and drunkenness - is declining and being replaced by a traditional, family tourism. In addition, the overseas markets providing the tourism are more diverse. Hence, there has been growth in the Swedish, German and Italian markets, which are reducing a dependency upon the British market.
The non-hotel complementary offer has an important role to play in this changing model. As Mark Hoddinott, Meliá’s director-general of real estate, points out: “the more affluent client who is interested in Magalluf needs to have a complementary offer whose quality is at the level of that of the hotels, because if not, this client base will go somewhere else.”