At a Tuesday press conference, President Armengol said that the foreign tourist pilot plan that will start this coming Monday will show that the Balearics is the "first safe destination" in the whole of Spain following the coronavirus pandemic.
The president explained that a maximum of 10,900 German tourists are expected. They will not be subject to the foreign traveller quarantine and will spend five nights in hotels, apartments and other types of establishment. Included among this number will be German citizens with second homes in the Balearics.
Germany had been chosen, Armengol added, because it is the largest foreign tourism market and because epidemiological data are very similar to those in the Balearics. Germany has had 6.8 cases per 100,000 inhabitants with a daily increase in new cases of 0.012, while in the Balearics there have been five cases per 100,000. The daily increase rate in the Balearics is 0.09.
Tourism minister Iago Negueruela said that the tourist arrivals will be staggered and that the visitors will be subject to specific health protocols and safety measures. There will be a register of people arriving and a call control system for rapid response if there is any case of possible coronavirus.
The national ministry of health had given the go-ahead for the scheme, Armengol stressed, because the controls in the Balearics will "guarantee the safety of the tourist experience on our islands". The first 1,000 tourists will be arriving on Monday, Negueruela noted.