Spanish holiday bookings for Majorca this summer are showing a sharp increase over last year. One online agency, Bedsonline, points to reservations having gone up 43%. In general, there is a roughly 30% rise, and it is one marked by much earlier booking than is typically the case with the Spanish market. Last minute tends to be the norm for Spanish holidaymakers, very much more so than with the foreign markets such as the UK, Germany and Scandinavia.
Other leading agencies like Booking.com and Expedia are experiencing the same early rush to book. Carlos Feliu, sales director for Bedsonline, believes that this is a reflection of economic recovery and also of the high hotel occupancy last year. In other words, Spanish holidaymakers realise that they can't afford to wait until the last minute.
Two of Spain's main tour operators - Soltour (the Piñero group) and Travelplan (Globalia) - had indicated at the Fitur tourism fair in Madrid last month that prospects for Majorca this summer were excellent. They also believe that economic conditions are a key factor. Encarna Piñero, the CEO of the Piñero group, says that they have had to increase the number of seats contracted with airlines
Spanish airlines like Vueling and foreign operators such as Ryanair and Norwegian are currently finalising their schedules, which will come into operation towards the end of March. The ferry companies, Baleària and Trasmediterránea, are doing likewise.
Maria Frontera, president of the Majorca Hoteliers Federation, says that the recovery of the Spanish market is allowing it to compete more with foreign markets. She adds that Spanish tourists are staying longer and that demand is less geared to the high season than was the case.
Final official figures for the Spanish market in 2017 are yet to be made available, but in 2016 Majorca attracted 1,208,776 Spanish tourists. The overseas figure for 2016 was 9,711,461. Spain's tourism therefore equated to 11.1% of all tourism, the third most important market after the German and the British.
In Ibiza and Formentera in 2016, the Spanish share of the market was much higher; it was 21.5%.