"The measure that will be adopted shortly, if not within hours, represents a very hard business and labour cost, since there are Hotels that reopened their doors 20 days ago and will have to close them again before August 15 . The current situation is a direct result of the coronavirus crisis and the two main source markets are no longer functioning as they were a week ago,” said Hoteliers in Alcúdia-Can Picafort, Cala Millor, Platja de Muro, Cala d'Or, Playa de Palma and Palmanova-Magalluf.
Gabriel Llobera, President of the Hotel Chain Association, ACH, said the situation is very complicated.
“Cancellations of reservations from the UK are widespread and the same thing is happening with Germany, which will cause companies to make drastic decisions. Everything was perfect, but the wrong actions, the coronavirus regrowth and the UK quarantine have turned the situation around.
Some Hoteliers say they’ve received an increasing number of cancellations from German tourists since Monday.
“On average there are around 140 cancellations a day, plus those coming from the UK. Hotel occupancy levels are minimal, so action must be taken accordingly and the most logical thing to do is close hotels, concentrate tourists in the ones that remain open and hold out until the end of this atypical season,” they said.
Llobera added that the situation is changing from one day to the next saying, “it doesn’t look good, because the damage has already been done in the UK and in Germany.”
United Kingdom
The Minister of Industry, Trade & Tourism, Reyes Maroto, said on Thursday that the British Government will review the quarantine imposed on travellers from Spain in 10 days and that the Government has already introduced safe tourist corridors with a view to “lifting it sooner”.
Minister Maroto also pointed out that the Spanish Government wants the UK to bring forward that decision because epidemiological data in holiday destinations which are popular with British tourists, such as the Canary Islands, the Balearic Islands, the Valencian Community and Andalusia are low risk and better than the UK. Boris Johnson's Government is under intense pressure to withdraw its quarantine measures for travellers arriving in the UK from Spain.
Transport Sector
Rafael Roig, who’s President of the Balearic Business Federation of Transport, or FEBT, and the Association of Discretionary Transport says he is very concerned.
”The situation is very complicated and Transport Companies have seen Tourism programming plummet in recent days,” he said. “We are already at a low level of activity and the situation seems to be getting worse with the UK quarantine and collapse of German tourism. The season looked like it was going to go back, but reality has prevailed."
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Oh my people, can the Xenophobia ever stop? We are all in this together and need to at least try and be smart about doing our part to avoid another shutdown. In my opinion, Mallorca lifted restrictions for EVERYONE way too soon, and/but should have installed 14-day quarantines for those arriving (as should have all of Spain) for at least through the month of July. This would have limited the tourists from other countries to those who are serious about their travel to Spain and would be the most careful - eliminating frivolous tourists who just use this country as a quick "Paradise Island" playground (Yuck!) who are obviously going to be the ones not being cautious... there are already enough reckless people living here. Hello - This IS a PANDEMIC after all! So it is clear - while allowed too soon - the decision to allow German citizens first on Mallorca, was backed up by the data: their country had done best with rate of infection - way way over that of the UK, and the British restrictions were lifted when their numbers were still too high (interesting fact that now Spain has replaced the UK on the data charts). I think a good way to prevent another shutdown (please no!) will be the quarantine restrictions for all arrivals, and of course continued mandatory mask wearing indoors and outdoors. Which is worse, implementing some restrictions - or going back into mandatory shutdown!?
It's been clear all along that tourism for this year is dead. Covid19 is a long-term problem and as soon as there's an easing of restrictions there's a spike in infections and deaths. It's impossible to put any optimistic shine on the situation unless a reliable vaccine becomes available - and that's unlikely for a year. Somehow we must try to survive this new "normal" but with no magic source of income for millions of people the future is grim. It truly is a major disaster.
Just shows how desperate Spain will be post brexit to keep the brits coming.
Inviting the Germans first, probably because they didn't choose to leave the EU?
Firstly Mallorca shunned the Brits. Inviting the Germans first. This is a world wide health & economic problem. Mallorca failed to stop disgraceful behaviour that was completely reckless in Arenal and Magaluf. You newspaper showed a video of a beach club with guests keeping no social distancing. You also showed a video of chaos at airport for arriving gusts. The Spanish authorities have let paradise island down.