The main tourism season in Mallorca is drawing to a close. Airlines will switch to their winter schedules at the end of October, the total number of seats scheduled for Palma having been cut by nine per cent and the number of flights by 13% up to end-March.
The Mallorca Hoteliers Federation predicts that around 20% of hotels will remain open all year, pointing to Palma and Soller as the places that will close the latest and open the earliest. In general, the federation highlights a lengthening of the season, but only until mid-November. Some hotels do stay open until then and have been since before the pandemic. Away from the resorts, many inland establishments are all year, but the numbers of tourists are very low; these hotels are only small.
The complementary sector of restaurants, shops and nightlife are looking ahead with some concern to a low season following a main season characterised by low tourist spending.
Jordi Mora, president of the Pimem federation of small to medium-sized enterprises, says many small businesses are having problems balancing the books. "Taxes are extremely high and social security contributions have risen significantly in recent years, as has the minimum wage - up more than 50% in six years."
The president of the Pimem restaurants association, Cesar Amable, explains that the normal thing is to close early after a slow season. "Maybe some will force themselves to stay open longer, but that's risky because you can't be paying opening costs and have waiters idle if there's no income." Juanmi Ferrer of the CAEB Restaurants Association reckons that staying open "wouldn't be the most prudent thing to do".
But as ever it can depend on location and on expectations for non-tourist trade. Away from the resorts, restaurants do remain open, and even in the resorts there are some all-year operations, save perhaps for a month off for holidays. The festive season can usually always be expected to generate decent business.
For nightlife, many clubs have been closing during the week and opening only at weekends since September. The president of the ABONE nightlife association, Miguel Pérez-Marsà, says: "We are increasingly dependent on tourists and less on residents because they don't spend. The business strategy is to minimise the periods of activity during the low season. We don't expect spending to be significant, except for some specific festivities."
For the retailers, especially the small ones, it is a familiar picture. Joana Manresa of the Afedeco association describes the winter season as a "real challenge" because of the huge decrease in tourist numbers from November. Black Friday, Christmas, the January sales; these are all crucial.