Miguel Carrió, president of the restaurants association for Palma's Paseo Mallorca, compares the current situation facing the sector with the financial crisis from 2007. "That was a real estate crisis. This will be a hospitality crisis."
Since June 2024, statements from Mallorca's restaurants sector have consistently highlighted a downturn. In July, the president of the CAEB Restaurants Association, Juanmi Ferrer, said: "We haven't had such a bad summer since the pandemic." He later added that there was an upturn in business over the second half of July but that revenue was nevertheless down on 2024.
The airport continues to register record passenger numbers and, in the case of Palma, cruise ships bring in thousands of people. Carrió accepts that "Palma is full". "You see tourists staying in four-star hotels for €300 a night. But they don't go to bars or restaurants. They go to a supermarket, to the prepared food section, and take a loaf of bread and a slice of pizza to eat in their rooms.
"Families don't have €3,000 to come on vacation. Plane tickets cost €1,000; there's another €200 for a night in a hotel. How much does a week's vacation in Mallorca cost? €5,000? If the bill for a table of four is 200 euros, many people prefer to pack their Tupperware to go to the beach. Costs have risen - eggs, oil, and other raw materials. On top of these, the salary increase for hospitality workers means 180 euros more per month.
"Those of us who have the necessary resources can endure." But he warns that those with small businesses will lose out. "A small coffee shop run by a married couple with one employee, or someone who buys a food truck and pays 5,000 euros as a self-employed person takes on a lot of risks." He is anticipating a tough winter.
It's not as if there aren't the tourists - Carrió admits as much. June figures pointed to an increase. For the peak months of July and August, official figures for which won't be published until the start of September and October respectively, it may prove to be there were only marginal increases, if that. In July last year the total number of tourists barely increased. But even with small decreases (airport figures suggest otherwise), numbers are significantly higher than before the pandemic.
So no, it's not the numbers of people, it's the spending, and specifically the non-accommodation spending. Various 'complementary' sectors, such as the restaurants, have all said the same thing - spending is down. It will always be pointed out that total spending has risen, which it has, but the official statistics do not give a satisfactory picture of how money is spent in destination and on what. Nor do they identify where. In this regard, Ferrer has said that not all businesses and not all areas are affected equally.