Predictions are that 2017 will be another record year in terms of tourist numbers in Majorca. The CEO of Tui Germany, Sebastian Ebel, presented the tour operator's 2017 programme in Gran Canaria at the weekend, and the group expects Majorca's season to last from mid-February to the end of November.
With hotels in Majorca and the Balearics said to already be full for July to August, Tui is increasing sales for the spring and autumn and is anticipating more than 10% growth. The company is seeing signs of recovery in Egypt and Turkey for next year but believes that investments which have been made by hoteliers in the Balearics will continue the islands' current success.
Next year is also expected to be more profitable, the result of more clients paying higher prices. Ebel puts price rises at between 1.5 and 3% in the Balearics. (There has been anecdotal evidence of there being significantly higher percentage price increases.) He observes that demand for all-inclusive continues to increase but suggests that growth in availability next year will only be slight; he is not anticipating that there will be any more all-inclusive in subsequent years.
Tui is also experiencing growth in the sale of packages which include holiday rentals, stressing that these are legal and regulated ones, such as rural houses. This sector of the market is growing by up to 7%.
While Tui refers to price rises in the Balearics of up to 3%, it will be offering holidays at lower prices in the rival destinations that suffered so badly this summer. In Turkey, the decrease is put at 5%, though there have been reports of much greater reductions. And even with the price increases for the Balearics, Tui, although anticipating another excellent season, is bemoaning the fact that hotels have increased their prices, suggesting that these are being passed on as well as any additional margin of its own. The average price of hotels in the Balearics is the highest in the Mediterranean.
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For TUI read Germany. Thomson's part of the company have also increased their prices for next year. Before we left our usual hotel in Cala San Vicente this year I jokingly said to the staff that they better make sure their German was good for 2017 as most of their British guests would be priced out of the market. Looks like Russian and Scandinavian languages too.