Meet your average Balearic holydaymaker

Last year visitors to the Balearics spent a total 8.42 million euros, 1.4 per cent more than in the year 2000, according to the most exhaustive study yet of tourist spending in the Balearics. The results were presented yesterday by the director of the Centre for Tourist Technology and Investigation, Carmel Bonnin who explained that a new method of collating and analysing the data was used. According to the report, tourists spent a daily average of 88.26 euros while visitors on business trips spent an average of 139.54 euros and those with a holiday home in the Balearics, on average, spent 61.73 euros per day. Of that daily expenditure, ten per cent went to local businesses, 33 per cent on accommodation and the remainder spent in restaurants, cafes and bars (17%), food stuffs (8.7%) and non-food stuffs (8.6%). In the year 2001, 10'023'777 tourists visited the Balearics, 96.4 per cent by air and the rest by sea. 33.7 of air passengers were from the United Kingdom, 32.7 per cent from Germany, 13 per cent from Spain and the rest from other satellite tourism markets. Nearly three quarters of all Spanish visitors to the Balearics come by sea. With regards to what visitors did for a living, 19.9 per cent of visitors are employed, 12.3 per cent are self employed, 10.5 per cent are company directors and 10.4 per cent are retired. A large slice of visitors to the Balearics, 40 per cent, are aged between 30 and 45 and 26.9 per cent are under 30. 30 per cent come as a couple, 27.4 per cent with the family and 19.1 per cent on holiday with friends. Bonnin said that, based on the information, the typical stereotype of a tourists to the Balearics is young, working for a company and either on holiday with their partner or friends. With regards to how people book their Balearic holidays, 53 per cent come on package trip. 33 per cent book their holidays between one week and one month in advance while 15.2 per cent, make their reservation even closer to departure date. Just 7.1 per cent book their holiday more than six months in advance. On the whole, tourists are satisfied with the Balearics. On a scale of 1 to ten, the majority of tourists questioned gave their holiday 7.9 points. Cultural attractions received an average of 6.7 points, the environment and tourist information 6.8 points. On average, tourists spent 9.3 days on holiday in the Balearics, slightly less than the average length of stay in the year 200.