The Balearic government calculates that the tourism pilot plan for the Balearics has been worth the equivalent of 35 million euros in terms of publicity in the islands' two principal tourism markets - Germany and the UK.
The ministry for the presidency said on Saturday that the plan has provided a showcase for tourism promotion "without precedent". This is because of the high level of media interest in the Balearics being the first destination in Spain to receive foreign tourists.
Account has been taken of the amount of space devoted to the Balearics and the pilot plan on front and inside pages of newspapers and specialist tourism/travel publications. There have also been the images of German tourists arriving in Majorca which have been shown on main television channels across Europe.
On the day when the pilot plan was presented in Palma, fifty media outlets from seven countries were accredited. These were from Germany, the UK, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Finland and Spain. The following day, video clips began to be disseminated widely.
The government calculates that there has been a print media reach of 58 million people in Germany and the UK. Only three million of these were in the UK, with the 55 million a reflection of a much greater intensity of media coverage in Germany, which was the focus for the plan. This reach is significantly greater when television and other media are considered, and not just in Germany and the UK.
As far as the national tourism market is concerned, the government says that coverage of the pilot plan has provided an "incalculable" promotion.
President Armengol, tourism minister Iago Negueruela, and the tourism director-general, Rosana Morillo, have all been available for interviews, with the BBC, channels in Germany, CNN and others having carried interviews.