For Mallorca's restaurants, the Christmas season typically promises good business, company dinners being one significant ingredient. Over the past two years, restaurants have suffered because of different Covid measures - interiors closed, capacities reduced, limits to the number of people per table, the Covid passport.
With these measures now in the past, the CAEB restaurants association is anticipating a bumper period for company dinners, its president, Alfonso Robledo, predicting higher reservations than in 2019. "There is much desire to celebrate the traditional company dinners. After three years, people feel like having fun."
December is the main month for company dinners, but Robledo expects that there will also be high demand in November and that this is likely to come with a rush when the weather changes. The good weather at the moment "is delaying some reservations, because it seems as if we are still in summer, and so people are thinking more about the beach than Christmas".
Restaurants enjoyed a strong summer season in terms of business volume, even if their profits were affected by rising costs. As to diners, inflation isn't being viewed as a drawback over this Christmas season, as there is a "very different scenario" to that of the past couple of years and which is causing "a greater dynamism".