Tourism

Winter tourism: another step in the right direction

Upbeat reports from German travel fair.

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterBerlin11/03/2016 00:00

It may not be all year, but little by little the impact of Majorca's seasonality is being lessened. Four main tour operators, giving presentations of their forecasts for bookings this year at the Berlin ITB travel fair, said that Majorca has everything for a season of at least eight months. This, by extension, would benefit other sectors of the island's economy and overall GDP.

Progressive lengthening of the season, with time added on at its start and end, has occurred in the past couple of years, and so tour operators are reconsidering their schedules and making flights available from late February to early November.

In addition to this longer season, the tour operators - TUI, Thomas Cook, Alltours and Der Touristik - recognise that this summer season is going to be another record-breaker in terms of the number of visitors and spending. Majorca, they said, is the most profitable destination right now, meaning that they are committed to acquiring more hotels and contracting places in order to ensure capacity and the development of summer programmes.

One of these tour operators - Alltours - has registered a 30% increase in the number of its clients, but Alltours took things into their hands by buying hotels in order that they could make sure that there were hotels open in the low season. The message from these tour operators may be positive at the ITB fair this year, but last year the same companies were criticising Majorca's hoteliers for not doing enough to stay open.