Holiday bookings to the Balearics increased by 19.4% over the last week of August compared to the same days last year and rose by 13.4% compared to the previous week, according to data for the last seven days published by the Travelgate platform. The Balearics remain the third most popular destination in Spain, with 14.1% of bookings, after Catalonia (18.7%) and Andalusia (17.1%).
According to data published on Monday by the platform, 19% of bookings for Spain in the last seven days were made between 15 and 30 days in advance and 17.3% between one and two months before the trip. Last-minute bookings, made the day before or on the day of travel, accounted for 13% of bookings in the last week of August.
Of the bookings made in the last week, 55.7% were made by couples, and more than half of travellers (51.7%) booked between two and five nights. In terms of markets of origin, domestic tourism predominates among those who have made reservations in the last seven days through Travelgate: Spaniards accounted for 51.3%, followed by British (20.3%), Germans (4.2%) and French (2.4%).
It is going to be interesting to see how September performs with many tour operators forecasting a good end to the season.
It’s a time when people can snap up cheaper travel deals now that the peak season is over, and escape the baking temperatures of the summer. Autumn getaways are popular among those without children or couples with kids outside of school age. But those jetting off in the coming weeks could face disruption to flights as workers in Italy, France, Spain and Portugal are planning walk-outs.
Airports across Spain will be impacted by strikes over labour rights by Azul Handling baggage staff, which is part of the Ryanair Group. The firm handles the bags for the majority of the operators' flights. Its unionised members have planned actions from 5am to 9am, on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays for the rest of 2025.
The affected airports are Alicante, Barcelona, Girona, Ibiza, Lanzarote, Madrid, Malaga, Palma de Mallorca, Santiago de Compostela, Seville, Tenerife South and Valencia. A Ryanair spokesperson said: "Due to Spain's minimum service legislation during peak summer months, we do not expect any disruption to our operation as a result of these strikes (by the UGT union, which represents less than 20% of Azul staff) in our third-party handler in Spain.