Pollensa, with 67.9% of its tourist accommodation dedicated to tourist housing on booking platforms, is the municipality in the Balearics with the highest percentage. It is followed by Soller (50.3%), Felanitx (47.2%) and Alaior (38%). These figures come from the “Atlas of municipal contribution to tourism in Spain 2024” produced by Exceltur, which highlights the main destinations in the islands last year.
Calvia ranks first in the ranking, with nearly 70,000 tourist accommodation places, followed by Palma, Alcudia, Sant Josep de Sa Talaia and Ciutadella. According to the data, Calvia is the sixth destination in the national ranking and also in the ranking of coastal destinations, while Palma is the fifth destination in the ranking of capital cities.
Exceltur has presented a ten-point plan to address the challenges facing established Spanish destinations, highlighting the need for public administrations to prioritise investment in management and promotion systems for tourism that makes a greater socio-economic contribution, is committed to the quality of life of the local community and has a lower environmental footprint, as opposed to ‘the improvised, punitive and discriminatory measures being proposed by some regional and local governments’.
It has expressed its concern about the shock treatment being meted out by some administrations which, in its opinion, are ‘misguided’ and, in some cases, ‘discriminatory, aimed at responding to a section of public opinion and ineffective in resolving the problems’. They referred to the tourism decree approved by the Balearic government and recently ratified by the Parliament. ‘Under the pretext of limiting tourism, it gives carte blanche to the mass regularisation of tourist rental properties, which consolidates tourist pressure on the islands and calls into question the efforts made to attract the most interesting tourists,’ they said.
On the other hand, with regard to the law to limit the number of vehicles that tourists can bring to Ibiza, the Atlas points out that this law is presented as ‘the best solution’ to congestion when these vehicles ‘represent barely 1.5% of the local fleet, and to limit the number of rental vehicles whose fleet does not exceed 10% of the total number of vehicles on the island’.
It has also been annouced that tourist apartments in the Balearics recorded a total of 238,215 overnight stays in April, 123% more than in the same month last year, according to data published on Friday by the National Statistics Institute (INE). In terms of the number of travellers, 50,763 opted for this type of accommodation in the Balearics, 274% more than last year. Of the total number of travellers who opted for tourist apartments in the region, 45,473 were foreigners and 5,290 were residents in Spain, with an average stay of 4.69 days.
Statistics estimate that 6,807 apartments remained open in April, with a capacity of 20,572 beds. The weekend occupancy rate rose to 58.24%. The number of people employed rose to 2,874. Meanwhile, rural tourism accommodation in the Balearics hosted 48,247 travellers in the fourth month of the year, 41,896 of whom were foreigners, and recorded 146,014 overnight stays, with an average stay of 3.03 days.
The survey estimates an offer of 9,523 beds in 435 establishments, with an average occupancy rate of 50% and 2,700 people employed. Throughout Spain, overnight stays in non-hotel tourist accommodation increased by 19.4% in April compared to the same month in 2024. Overnight stays in apartments grew by 17.8%, campsites by 23.6%, rural tourism by 30.1% and hostels by 0.2%.
EXCELTUR, Alianza para la Excelencia Turística (Alliance for Excellency in Tourism), is a non-profit group formed by the Chairmen of the 31 leading Spanish tourist groups from the following sectors: airlines, cruises, hotels, travel agencies, tour operators, credit cards, rent-a-car, tourist hospitals, and GDSs.
EXCELTUR was founded at the end of 2001, with the following main goals:
To raise awareness and promote better knowledge and understanding of the socioeconomic importance of tourism, the job creation capacity, and its multiplier effects on the Spanish economy.
To promote and encourage the highest degree of competitiveness for the Spanish tourism industry to be able to consolidate its leadership and continuous growth in the most sustainable manner.