Quality restaurants have seen their operating costs rise by 30 percent.

Quality restaurants have seen their operating costs rise by 30 percent. | VON ANDREAS JOHN

Humphrey CarterMallorca19/08/2022 10:57
TW
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I think Mallorca is reaching breaking point and it is going to have to decide what kind of tourism it wants. Is it going to continue turning a blind eye to mass tourism or seriously make a move for quality as opposed to quantity?

A few things caught my eye this week. First one being that quality restaurants have seen their operating costs rise by 30 percent over the past year - some have been forced to pass that on to the customers, other have held fire, therefore watching their margins decline. As one restaurateur told me “it makes no difference to me whether one million or 20 million come through the airport, they are not all going to come to my restaurant and they’re not all going to spend big money”.

The other was last Friday when I drove from Palma to Port Adriano for the Texas concert. What would normally take 20 minutes took one hour 40 minutes because a top Spanish artist was also performing live in Magalluf. It was total gridlock from Palma all the way to the Western Park exit.

I had never seen anything like it in all of my 30 years on the island - and the vast majority of the people heading to Magalluf were local residents. The pressure on the island is immense, on the roads, natural resources and the supply chain.

Everyone is talking about sustainability, but what is really being done about it? Who runs the Balearics, the elected government or big tourism business?