It probably won't come as much consolation to critics of overtourism in Mallorca and the Balearics, but the islands have this year registered the lowest percentage increase in tourist numbers among the main tourist regions of Spain.
For the first eight months of 2024, there was a 6.2% increase in foreign tourism to 11.1 million visitors. The overall total, to include Spanish tourism, was 13.7 million, giving a percentage rise for all markets of 4.7%. In terms of foreign tourism, the increase was below an 11.2% national average and behind Andalusia, the Canaries, Catalonia, Valencia and Madrid. With the exception of Catalonia (9.7%), these regions all registered double-digit growth.
There were 17.8 million tourists in 2023 - around 1.3 million more tourists than in 2022, a staggering year-on-year increase that sharply brought into focus the issues of overtourism and unsustainable growth. The 2022 total was more or less the same as it had been prior to the pandemic.
Earlier this year there were forecasts of between ten and fifteen per cent further growth in 2024 - positive in the view of some but most certainly not everyone. The main sources of the slowdown have been the British and Spanish markets, respectively the second and third largest tourist markets behind Germany.
Prices and protests could explain the falls in both markets. This said, plenty of negative publicity has been given to protests in the Canaries, where the relative growth in tourist numbers has been more than double that of the Balearics.
Where the Spanish are concerned, the president of the Aviba association of travel agencies, Pedro Fiol, believes "we are going to see less and less of the Spanish" in high season. There are, he notes, more short and medium haul options being offered to the Spanish market, and these can often be less expensive than the Balearics.
There is a view that margins for growth in the Balearics are in any event getting smaller. Europe's largest tour operator, TUI, has suggested that there is little capacity left for growth. However, this does perhaps depend on markets. The loss of British and Spanish tourists in summer 2024 has been balanced by growth in the likes of the Italian market and one classified as the 'rest of Europe', which registered a 25% rise in August alone.
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