Tourist board predicts busy September

Iriondo was meeting with Balearic President Francesc Antich to give an assessment of how the summer tourist season has gone. Iriondo was accompanied at the meeting by Bartomeu Servera, the President of small to medium-sized business association (Afedeco) and Margalida Ramis of Grupotel. Iriondo emphasized the visitor numbers but questioned whether the amount of money tourists have spent has actually increased. Given than the hotels have had to slash their prices to such an extent to secure reservations, Iriondo is supported in his view by the Tourist Spend Research Board “Egatur”. “Neither the hoteliers, traders or Majorcan businessmen have seen any such increase (in the daily tourist spend),” Iriondo affirmed.
Iriondo also pointed out that it has in part been a question of “luck” for the Balearics that other holiday destinations have filled, in some cases to over-booking” resulting in reservations being made in the Islands that otherwise might not have been.

The hope is, said the President of the Majorcan Tourist Board, that this winter is going to be better for tourism in the Balearics than last, but he issued a cautionary note saying that bookings are still following a trend of being made “at the very last moment.” Iriondo explained to Antich some of the promotional activities which are being carried out to attract business such as the Tourist Board's new press and information centre, but he also highlighted his concerns to the Balearic President over safety on the Playa de Palma and in Magalluf, and over the still unfinished Congress Centre at the eastern end of the Paseo Maritimo in Palma.

Iriondo said to Antich that the business tourist industry had been waiting for the completion of the centre “for many years.” Antich gave assurances that the regional government wants the project to go forward and for such is searching for financing from a “number of different sources” after its original sponsors backed out. “We don't want to think about the possibility of the Congress Centre never becoming operational,“ said Iriondo.

Iriondo expressed concern over the social unease being created by the Playa de Palma reform project. Iriondo described the multi-million euro overhaul as “quite complicated” but said that despite the investment, there was no reassurance over safety issues such as those that remain in Magalluf.