Majorca has become one of Europe's most popular destinations for hiking. Between October and the end of April next year, more than 350,000 hikers are expected to come to Majorca, mainly from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Scandinavia.
Hiking has been heavily promoted in recent years, and within the framework of the "Better in Winter" campaign it has featured at fairs such as Düsseldorf's TourNatur, which was held in September as well as the major fairs like the ITB Berlin.
Various town halls have made efforts to embrace hiking tourism. This has been most evident with town halls in mountain areas - Pollensa and Soller in the Tramuntana; Arta and Capdepera in the Arta Mountains and Llevant Nature Park.
The dry-stone route of the Tramuntana is the best known of the hiking trails, but the aim is to ultimately unify the whole island by having routes that complete a circle around Majorca and so bring benefits from hiking tourism to municipalities less associated with the activity.
The German market is especially important, and it also benefits from having the best low-season air connections with Palma. Deutscher Wanderband, the German hiking association, has conducted a study which suggests that some 40 million Germans engage in hiking of some form. If so, then they represent around half the population of Germany.
If the figure of 350,000 hikers for this low season (an increase of 20%) is accurate, then it eclipses the number of cyclists, for which the estimated number is some 200,000.
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Agree with Mike (below) - the walking/hiking fraternity are a massive financial earner but have been given very little consideration. Accurate route maps are not easy to get, signage is often poor or non-existent, and there are often route blockages or altercations by people who are (or consider themselves to be) landowners.
Nice to hear this, quality tourism and effort from the town halls. Nevertheless I think that a part of the GR221 route which is very well indicated, there are a lot of other nice walks which are not always easy to find because there are no or very limited signs ( although it is already a huge improvement comparing during the 90 ties ) Therefor I hope that the town halls will also improve this.to diverse the classic walks See you in a few months Mallorca
It's great news that Mallorca is a destination for hikers from all over Northern Europe. It's a pity that yet again the airlines ( Ryan air ,Easyjet and Jet 2) are happy to take the high airfares from Scotland over the Summer but don't give Scotland any flights over the winter, we go even year over the Christmas/ New year brake and February , Hiking around Soller and we have to do flights via other European airport, sometimes taken 10 hours from Edinburgh to Palma. This is Maddening, but we love Mallorca but sometimes feel it's a one way love.