Mallorca hotels: High-summer discounts up to 25%

Playa de Palma. | Miquel À. Cañellas

Andrew EdePalma16/07/2023 07:56

Certain hotel groups are said to be offering up to 25% discounts for July to September. These are in order to counteract a fall in demand, German especially, the reasons for this lower demand being a loss of spending power caused by inflation and higher prices in Mallorca. The island has become expensive for German families.

While the situation was positive until June, bookings have since slowed down. Hotel average occupancy levels in July are put at around 65%. Reservations for August are reported to be at 60%.

In Playa de Palma, the CEO of the Palma Beach association, Juan Miguel Ferrer, suggests that restaurant activity is down around 15%. However, he adds that business is good where it "satisfies the needs of a type of tourism that we do not want, which is tourism of excess".

Rafael Roig, the president of the Balearic Transport Federation, says that everything was going well until June but that there has since been a 15% drop in production over 2022 as tourist demand falls. This is affecting both coach operators and car hire.

A brighter picture is offered in the holiday rentals sector. Although there have been price increases of around ten per cent this summer, Maria Gibert of the Habtur association says that July occupancy levels are between 85% and 90%.

Comment: While it may be the case that individual hotel chains and resorts are experiencing falls in demand, the general picture for the summer cannot be obtained until there are hard data to support it. Surveys, such as tourist numbers, tourist spending, origin of tourists, hotel occupancy (and where) plus hotel financial performance take their time to filter through. For example, the Frontur report of tourist numbers for June won't appear until the start of August; for July, it will be the start of September.

In one regard, car hire, the observation here differs to what was being reported only yesterday. The president of the Aevab association in the Balearics, Ramon Reus, confirmed that car-hire firms were having a very strong season.