TUI Fly, Condor, Lufthansa, Eurowings, Ryanair and EasyJet are all announcing a dramatic increase in flights and seating schedules from March 26, after a glut of bookings in the last week, which they say is “filling planes.”
Hotel chains in the Balearic Islands have been forced to review their business strategies and opening schedules to meet demand and Iberostar, Allsun, Hipotels, Grupotel, Protur, Barceló and Riu have already said they’ll open more hotels than originally planned.
“On average, occupation is above 70% at the moment, but some are even higher than that,” said Balearic Hotel Chains President, Gabriel Llobera.
"We planned to open fewer hotels, but demand for reservations is forcing us to open 6 hotels in Play de Palma and Cala Millor in the last week of March, with an average occupancy of 80% or higher,” said Hipotels.
Hotel chains in Mallorca are being inundated with more than 300 bookings a day, but with coronavirus infections on the rise in Germany, those forecasts could well change in the coming days or weeks.
When asked about the possible health risk of high numbers of German tourists coming to Mallorca, the Industry, Tourism & Trade Minister, Reyes Maroto, pointed out that the accumulative incidence rate in the Balearic Islands is "below risk" and the reactivation of German tourism is good news.”
Rafael Roig, President Discretionary Transport Association and the Balearic Transport Business Federation or FEBT, said German tourists coming to the Islands is a positive development.
Airlines
Ryanair Airlines is adding 200 flights to its Easter schedule, connecting Palma with Cologne, Berlin and Frankfurt and increasing capacity by nearly 40,000 seats between March 28 and the middle of April.
Hotels
The Hotel Chains Group and the Hotel Business Federation of Mallorca, or FEHM say they don’t know how many hotels will be open for Easter, because booking numbers are constantly increasing, especially in Playa de Palma, Cala Millor and Calvia.
Transport
The Balearic Islands have a fleet of 900 coaches and 80% of them are in Mallorca, but they’ve been inoperative since March last year due to the pandemic. The June pilot plan briefly revived the Sector, but the UK’s quarantine restrictions and Germany’s flight restrictions disrupted business plans.
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So, we are low risk, in that case give us our freedom and rights before inviting in a load of virus carriers.
The peak of stupidity. When this causes us to lose the relax in restrictions that we have just earned I would not want to be a member of the current balearic government, this truly is a bridge too far.
I can’t be the only person who thinks that bringing 40,000 people from a country that is suffering a Covid spike at Easter is a bad idea. Who exactly is going to benefit from this? A few hoteliers in Playa de Palma and maybe a few bars. What happened to saving the summer season?
MADNESS
This is bitter sweet. The Balearic economy desperately needs this years season to move back towards some level of normality, as another year with a 20+% GDP drop would be tough for everyone. However the current EU vaccine fiasco doesn't fill me with confidence that this won't just lead to a 'spike' that shutters the islands for the rest of spring or worse the summer.