In light of the UK travel decision, the Balearic government is to step up promotions directed at national tourists in order to try and compensate for the absence of UK tourists.
Tourism minister Iago Negueruela, saying that the UK government's latest review of travel advice has been determined by internal concerns regarding variants, stresses that Balearic and Spanish government efforts have been aimed at opening up the Balearics (and the Canaries) to UK tourists. While there is an amber listing for now, he adds that Jet2 and TUI hope to be able to start UK operations towards the end of June. Meanwhile, "and thanks to our epidemiological situation, we are open to Germany, the Netherlands and Italy, which isn't the case in other regions or in competitor destinations".
Hoping that UK citizens will soon be able to travel with "guarantees" to the Balearics, Negueruela trusts that the vaccination programme in the UK will control the Indian variant. Respecting the UK government's decision, he says that there will continue to be promotion to Germany, Scandinavia and Spain.
"Tourist reactivation is no longer going backwards," the minister emphasises, pointing to the need to reincorporate 200,000 workers in the tourism sector.
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The only effort Armenfol and her government are making is promoting tourism and dropping all Covid safety measures . She and her gov will pay a big price for their behaviour . Pre warning see what’s happening in Portugal and U.K. once you loosen the restrictions too quickly ! Miracously the Covid numbers are very low Here suddenly , and same like last year suddenly they will be reported as very high towards End Aug , and then it’s back to heavy restrictions and lock downs for Mallorca , all date manipulated for the sake of tourism . This cycle of events is a repeat of 2020 .
Really the concerted effort from the Balearic Government should go into persuading the national government, in particular Sanchez, to push more vaccines in the Balearic direction. The figures relating to vaccination numbers here are frankly appalling. There was no hope of Mallorca making the green list with less than 20 per cent of the local population vaccinated. Any speculation was deluded. And with a largely unvaccinated population and tourists arriving from Europe, or mainland Spain infection rates for Covid are only going to go in one direction and that’s up. The only viable option is to increase vaccination and quick. Greece is currently prioritising their tourist islands. It’s a plan and one that may actually help.