Gabriel Llobera, president of the Association of Hotel Chains in the Balearics, calculates that there has been a ten per cent reduction in the number of all-inclusive places in hotels this summer.
High quality
He attributes this to the competition from rival destinations: in price terms, all-inclusives in the Balearics find it virtually impossible to compete with hotels in Egypt and Turkey.
Since the recovery of these competitors, there has been a shift towards providing a high-quality form of all-inclusive which is more profitable.
In addition, Llobera notes, there has been a revival of other forms of board - bed and breakfast, half or full board.
All-inclusive, as it now is, emerged in Majorca in the early 1990s. There was a gradual increase in supply of all-inclusive holidays and something of a boom because of the financial crisis. It is reckoned that 2010 was the year when there was the maximum number of hotels with all-inclusive offer in Majorca - 165 with just over 80,000 places.
These figures have never been properly verified because of deficiencies in registration requirements and in knowing exactly what mix of board was available. A calculation of around 20% of all hotel accommodation in Majorca has been quoted, but the percentage has long varied enormously dependent on location and types of hotel.
Revival
Only certain ones have ever been exclusively all-inclusive.Tourism ministry inspections of all-inclusive hotels have also had an effect, but there had also been a detectable move away from all-inclusive even before the revival in other parts of the Mediterranean.
To a large extent, it has been tour operators which have driven all-inclusive, and they are able to now offer highly competitive alternatives in other holiday destinations.