The Balearic Minister for Tourism Iago Negueruela, today moved to clarify that the government is not planning on introducing a cap on tourism to control the number of visitors to the region.
Negueruela insisted that he “never” said that “the figures of 16.4 million tourists received in 2022 was going to be “ceiling for the Government” and that his words were that “last year’s figures should not be exceeded and that we should analyse how to reduce the arrival of visitors to the Balearics”.
“The presence of tourists in the Balearics has to be analysed month by month, because during many of them the islands have been under massive stress and we need to work on ways to ease the impact and preventing further increases in numbers during the peak months as much as possible.
“We are clear that we have to reduce the number of beds because the Balearics is full for almost six months of the year and, in this situation, does not need more tourists or accommodation,” he said.
He also wanted to highlight the fact that “the number of tourists in 2022 was lower than in 2018 - a record year for the number of visitors - and 2019”.
He also stressed that despite having fewer tourist, spending rose.
“This is a positive trend - fewer tourists, but more income,” he said.