Your weekly news catch-up in Mallorca

It was somewhat alarming to learn that Britons were "fleeing" Magalluf. What or who were they fleeing from? Wildfires, hostile locals, vast squadrons of police? None of these. Our less-than-brave British tourists (a certain element among them) have apparently been taking flight because they have been scared off by the tourism of excesses law. Yes, denied happy hours, other alcoholic promotions, bar crawls and party boats, they have been fleeing Magalluf and heading in the general direction of, for instance, Santa Ponsa, where the law doesn't apply (but doubtless soon will do).

It was doubly alarming to learn that Magalluf was empty as a consequence of all these fleeing Brits (other nationalities may also be affected), though anecdotal comments greeted the report of this distressing departure of Britons in insisting that Magalluf was heaving. A Mallorcan YouTuber who had posted a video alluding to a lawless Magalluf (Punta Ballena specifically) indicated that not all Brits had fled and that of those who remained, some were lying on the ground. These could admittedly have been other nationalities.

There were naturally, and as ever, the sages who questioned the veracity of this flight to other resorts; the very ones who presumably hadn't seen the photos of the coaches lined up to ferry the tourists away. But above all, the export of excess from Magalluf played into a narrative that the resort is supposedly having a dismal season while the rest of Mallorca is awash with visitors and their cash. To this end, we have had the distinctly tenuous conclusion that a Magalluf beach quieter than usual is all due to young tourists sleeping it off during the day. It's not as if the young party tourists are anything new, while their number - in overall terms - isn't that great. Ah well, Magalluf never ceases to fascinate and generate news, even if it is wrong.

Meanwhile, Miguel Sánchez has found some unexpected Magalluf fame. Affectionately now known as the sheriff of Magalluf, he was the hotel security guard who was captured on a video that went viral. It was his Spanglish that attracted particular attention as he asked a group of British lads, who may have fled earlier but had subsequently returned, to keep the noise down. He made it onto Spanish national TV.

Workers leaving or not arriving

Fleeing from Mallorca as a whole are workers increasingly put off by what the PIMEM Restaurants Association described as "prohibitive prices". The cost of living in Mallorca is driving workers away, be they in the private or the public sector. The Simebal doctors union pointed out that migration of doctors from to other European countries is particularly accentuated in the Balearics because of the high cost of living. Doctors are leaving, not because salaries are necessarily higher elsewhere but simply because day-to-day living is cheaper.

Then there are the workers who no longer want to come to Mallorca because of the high costs and issues with finding affordable accommodation. There are various sectors which are struggling to find employees with the right qualifications and yet curiously there is technical full employment in the Balearics. In the hospitality sector, unions are denouncing what they say is widespread workplace abuse, especially in respect of excessive overtime and non-compliance with statutory time off and rest periods.

The unions believe that the situation is chronic and highlight the re-emergence of an abuse that was common during the financial crisis - dismissing staff at the end of their trial periods. The difference now is that this is a way of bending rules designed to prevent temporary contracts.

The threat of no clean sheets

Threatening to disrupt tourism is, as we know with airline and airport personnel, a well-known union tactic for extracting improved conditions. With the first of August looming, it was the turn of workers at laundries in Mallorca and the Balearics to apply pressure. They were on the point of walking out when a last-minute agreement meant that hotels wouldn't find themselves without clean bed linen and towels. It was hardly a king's ransom that they were seeking - 1,200 euros per month rising to 1,300 in April 2024.

All at sea

Strike action and staffing issues aren't affecting the island's nautical sector. There aren't problems as such, just that there has been a fall in demand for recreational boat use. The association of nautical businesses says that there is a reverse of the situation that existed last summer. Rather than issues with supply which meant that demand couldn't be satisfied, the supply is fine this summer but the demand has dropped.

The association and the Escuela de Mar (School of the Sea) point out there was a boom in recreational boat demand during the pandemic - being out at sea was a way of ensuring social distance. They feel that there is now a return to "normality"; how things were before the pandemic. "It's a natural cycle."

The wonderful gardens in Bunyola

As usual when the Royal Family is on holiday in Mallorca, King Felipe has been taking part in the Copa del Rey MAPFRE regatta in Palma. On board the Spanish Navy sailing yacht, Aifos, the King said after his first day at sea that things had gone well but that he hoped to improve. He was speaking to the media at the Jardines de Alfabia in Bunyola, which the family visited on Monday evening. This provided the press with their annual photo opportunities, as the King, Queen Letizia, Princess Leonor and Infanta Sofia strolled around the grounds of what is an historical estate with its origins in the Muslim era of occupation. "Wonderful," observed the King. "We should have come earlier."

The Queen, we were informed by the by, is on the Perricone diet and has abandoned drinking coffee in favour of herbal green tea. There was yet more royal revelation - the Queen uses a 3.50 euro eyeliner from Mercadona. It should be pointed out that this isn't part of the diet.

The warming of the Med

Back out at sea, and if the King or anyone else fancies a dip, they will discover that the water is very warm. On Monday in fact, the sea around Mallorca was the warmest in the whole of the Mediterranean. Observation services, including the one in the Balearics, recorded an average sea temperature of 27.86C, whereas the Med average was 27.22C. In the western Med alone, the average was 26.52C, so the Mallorca value was more than one degree higher.

The Monday temperature was in fact slightly lower than on the same day in 2022. Nevertheless, it was consistent with the increased sea temperatures in recent years, which are the cause of great concern for marine life and for sea levels and acidification.

Diving and road accidents

Within the space of less than 24 hours last weekend, there were two serious injuries resulting from dives into the sea. A 27-year-old Danish tourist miscalculated his dive and hit a rock and a sunbather when diving from rocks five metres high in Cala Llamp (Andratx). He was in a serious condition; the sunbather suffered only slight injuries.

In Playa de Muro, a 38-year-old German tourist dived head first into two metres of water at the end of one of the wooden jetties, the same jetty from which a 47-year-old Spanish man had dived on July 9 and hit his head on the seabed. The German was rushed to Son Espases, and access to the jetty was restricted.

On the roads, there were further fatalities. A motorcyclist was killed in Palma last Saturday. This took the number of deaths on Mallorca's roads in July to nine. For the whole of 2022, there were 25 fatalities in the Balearics. The black July was immediately followed by a fatal collision on Wednesday between a motorcycle and a car on the very same road in Alcudia where a motorcyclist had been killed on July 17. On both occasions, the motorcyclists were killed instantly.