British dominate holiday market

British tourists still outnumbered the Germans in the Balearics in June, but both markets showed a drop in holidaymakers in comparison to last year. The report for June, published yesterday by the Balearic Ministry for Tourism reveals that in June, 90'000 less tourists flew into the Balearics. 73.000 of the missing tourists were German and 13.000 were British, although over half a million Britons, 527.346 jetted to the Balearics in June, far more than the 362.967 Germans. The number of Brits coming to Majorca was up by one per cent, but down in Minorca by 12 per cent and in Ibiza the dip was 2.2 per cent to result in a 2.4 drop in British tourists for the month of June. However, since the start of the year, 1.238.778 British tourists have come to the Balearics, just two per cent less than during the first six months of last year, to dominate the Balearic tourist industry this year. There have however, been some interesting new growth markets. The number of Italian tourists in June rose by 42 per cent, 22.000 more holidaymakers than in June last year. The Polish market produced the second largest increase of 27 per cent, while the Hungarian market was slightly up by 2.7 per cent, the Irish by 12.2 per cent, the Czechs by 10.9 per cent and a 3.9 per cent increase in the number of Finns. But, with the Germans, the Scandinavians and the Spanish markets on the down turn, there is a large gap in the market still to plug. There was however a 13 per cent increase in the number of cruise passengers, compared to June last year, and a 33 per cent increase in the number of people coming by ferry from the mainland.