Communications have therefore been sent to the media as well as to tour operators and travel agencies. These are intended to convey messages of reassurance that tourists are most certainly welcome on the islands and shouldn't fear a hostile reception or displays of 'tourismphobia'.
AETIB gives an example of how the foreign media can have a distorted impression of the situation. A journalist from the Sunday Times recently met the tourism minister Jaume Bauzá, having arrived in Mallorca anticipating hostility. Although encountering a general awareness of the need to tackle issues caused by overtourism, the journalist found that an anti-tourism image was wholly wrong. This was from speaking to people on the streets, to taxi drivers and others.
While the tourism industry in the Balearics has welcomed the media campaign, one source from the holiday rentals sector expresses doubts about its effectiveness: "No matter how much they tell them that everything is fine, if potential visitors see an image on television with a slogan saying kill a tourist, they will think twice."
AETIB has also been in contact with its PR agency in Germany, GCE. Communications with the same messages have been sent to the German media and tour operators. But Germany, as far as the July tourist figures are concerned, showed a different picture to that of the UK - tourist numbers were up 12%. Of smaller markets than the UK and Germany, France was up 22% and Italy down 11%. The Spanish market was down 13%, but foreign tourism overall rose by 4.3%.
On the UK market, since April the monthly figures indicate a 0.3% increase (in April), a 5.9% fall in May, and a 2.4% rise in June prior to the July drop of 10% to 559,040 tourists.
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Beachcomber@Beachcomber: The vast majority of tourism here doesn't use the £. And there's still a lot of Germans (and other Europeans) that still have a good cache of bob. And they keep coming. But they seek quality over whatever is cheapest, and so the cheapest won't attract them. @James Walker: True, Magaluf is different than it used to be. But you can be sure - it isn't going back to its previous downmarket profile. Until it sheds the old perceptions, it's going to struggle a bit. But it's just a dot on the southwest coast, so the overall impact is minimal.
I've lived on Mallorca 21 years now, and watched it change it's tourism model. It is now too expensive, and has priced a good percentage of people/ families out of affording a holiday here even if they wanted. It's hard even to find a good restaurant at good prices these days. Mallorquins themselves need to take some responsibility to all this. When I arrived over 20 years ago, they owned everything. And have been gradually selling off assets at inflated prices to the highest bidder. Airbnb has not helped for residents to find long term accommodation. As for Magaluf people stay away now because it's not like the old Magaluf. It's not cheap anymore and more beach clubs with expensive drinks/food and whether you like it or not the government killed the vibe/atmosphere with there rules and regulations. I think these protests are ridiculous it's the easy option blaming the tourist. The blame goes a far deeper than the average tourist. Take your protests to government officials.
It’s noticeable how expensive Majorca has become despite the rise in the £ to Euro exchange rate and people have been still coming but cutting expenditure. It’s more noticeable how much the second largest group of visitors that is the German’s are cutting back, sunk by Herr Sholtz financial policies. As a property owner here we still visit frequently but eat in much more than previously.
We've been asked many times by British friends about the anti-tourism sentiment in Mallorca. We explain the (valid) basis of the protests and the (minimal) direct impact of the action on individual tourists. Their general view is that Mallorca has become too busy and expensive compared to other destinations. The British no longer have enough spare money for long holidays in Mallorca or second breaks. The number of visits might be similar but the days and expenditure will be down
If there's actually any consequence worth worrying about, then they should be targeting the English tabloids, who have sensationalised this thing so far out of proportion that it would scare off almost anybody (along with the decreasing availability of cheapness). Yet, by feeding the tabloids something new to sensationalise, maybe that might help put a different tone into it. Although I suspect this reverse of the "anti-tourism" narrative would be framed as "Majorca dying, begging Brits to come back" - as if Mallorca is actually "dying" - and/or as if Brits ever left - and/or as if Brits are the only tourists. But it might help Magaluf, which apparently has been struggling. Still, if Magaluf could successfully shed its British-only "boogie till you puke" perception, then perhaps it could start to attract the other 80% of tourism. They've been trying to do that for a while now, but it's had only minimal impact so far. I've always said that changing the name could help a lot. I suspect the other 80% of tourism would never consider booking a "Magaluf" holiday, where they'd expect to be unwelcome and suffer all night shag & puke parties. That may not be how it actually is, or quite that bad (Magaluf has grown up a lot in recent years), but that's still the perception. Shake that off, and things will start to improve.