57pc of tourists visit Balearics on package deals

SOME 57 percent of tourists who visited the Balearics in 2005 did so via a package deal, of which 75.7 percent stayed in hotels during their stay on the islands. According to figures published by the Institute of Tourist Studies (IET), the majority of tourists slept in a hotel during their stay, while 9.9 percent stayed with friends or family, 7.4 percent in their own holiday home, 5.2 percent in tourist apartments or rented houses and 1.8 percent chose another type of accommodation. The majority of tourists in the Balearics (some 36.4 percent) are between 25 and 44 years old, followed by those between 45 and 64 years (28.9 percent), under 25 (22.8 percent) and more than 64 (11.9 percent). The main reason for their visits are holidays and leisure in 91.2 percent of cases, although 3.9 percent come for work or business purposes, 3.7 percent because they like the islands, 0.2 percent to study and 1 percent for other reasons. Spanish tourists are the ones most likely to organise their own itinerary (63.2 percent), while 61.6 percent of Germans prefer package holidays as do 58 percent of British tourists.