Your seven days news round-up in Mallorca

While Valencia has continued to suffer from the appalling consequences of flooding, Mallorca's recent experience of bad autumnal weather (not serious at all) included a perhaps surprising police operation. It seems that when there are weather alerts for heavy rain - and a fair degree of certainty that the forecasts are accurate - drugs clans in Palma's Son Banya shanty town make sure they have plenty of stock. This is because the customers at what is known as Mallorca's 'drugs supermarket' want to get their orders in before the bad weather arrives. So the clans anticipate a rush of business and have supplies to meet demand.

The police know this to be the case, and it does appear as if the combined Guardia Civil-National Police raid last week was organised at fairly short notice; the forces are pretty used to these operations, so they probably don't require anything that is out of the ordinary. The operation had the desired effect in that there were twenty-one arrests and significant quantities of cocaine and heroin were seized.

Complaining about the weather

One might not expect bad weather to feature among the main complaints of Mallorca's holidaymakers, but according to the Holidu holiday rentals website, it features in the top-five complaints. The website says: "Although the island is famous for its warm and sunny climate, sudden changes in weather conditions, such as unexpected rain, can alter the plans of tourists." Holidu therefore advises property owners to have recommendations of what to do in order to limit holidaymakers' disappointment. These include, for example, "cultural visits and gastronomic experiences".

Tax for holiday lets

Owners of holiday rental homes - and we are talking legal ones here - typically don't charge IVA (VAT). It seems that the tax is charged only very rarely and when there are 'tourist services' akin to those of a hotel. The ten per cent rate applies, as it does to hotels. But the Spanish Government has been looking at applying the top rate of 21% to holiday lets, the reason being "to reduce their profitability and transform them into housing for permanent rental, alleviating the lack of regular housing in stressed areas".

Much to the relief of the Habtur holiday rentals association in the Balearics, the government failed to get the necessary support for this at the meeting of Congress's finance committee on Monday. But the committee did nevertheless agree to press for an amendment to the European VAT directive so that the tax can be charged on holiday lets.

Dental checks for age

Some days of gentle conditions in the Mediterranean led to another wave of migrants arriving in small boats - around one hundred in five boats on Monday. This wasn't by any means the most intense wave of arrivals this year. A fortnight before, for example, there were 238 migrants in fifteen small boats. The total number of migrants to have so far arrived in the Balearics in 2024 greatly outstrips the total for the whole of 2023. There were 2,278 last year. In 2024 there have been more than 4,200.

A big issue is of course what the authorities do with all these migrants. If Algerian, there isn't much that can be done. A breakdown in diplomatic relations has meant that deportation (repatriation to Algeria) has become impossible to process. Another issue concerns unaccompanied migrant minors. They are placed under care and supervision by social services, but there have been doubts as to whether they are genuinely minors. It has been agreed to carry out dental testing. This is reckoned to give an accurate guide to age.

A flourishing low season (especially German)

For the low season to flourish in Mallorca, benign weather is needed. Often referred to in somewhat misleading terms, the low season can be said to be November to March. These five months match what the airlines call their 'winter' season; the 'summer' starts in April. October therefore isn't the low season. And proof of this comes from airport figures. At Palma this October there were 1.3 million international arrivals, a year-on-year increase of 8.6%. With the three Balearic airports combined having registered a 6.6% increase in international arrivals for the first ten months of the year, it is inevitable that 2024 will see a new record for the annual number of tourists - well in excess of the 17.8 million in 2023. With yet another record, there will be even more debate about overtourism and its impacts.

A striking feature of the October airport information was that 43% of all travellers from Germany to Spain arrived in the Balearics. While the UK tourism market in the Balearics has been falling, the German market has been rising. Domestic economic difficulties haven't deterred German holidaymakers, whose spending in the Balearics has risen 17% this year compared with 2023.

Beyond October, and German low-season tourism is set for a new record; forecasts suggest growth in tourist numbers of around 8.5%. UK low-season tourism is only around a quarter of the German (approx. 148,000 versus 598,000). The regional government and hoteliers are putting a positive spin on the drop in UK summer tourism by saying that there is a seasonal redistribution of tourists (which is something to be desired). There was decent UK low-season growth for 2023/2024. It remains to be seen if it is repeated or beaten.

Don't spend on promotion

Because of all the debate about overtourism, anything of a tourism promotion nature comes under scrutiny. There are those who argue that promotion is not only unnecessary, it can be harmful. So when the opposition at Palma Town Hall suggested that there was to be a 16% increase in the budget for tourism promotion in 2025, the tourism councillor responded angrily. He is Javier Bonet, the husband of the president of the Balearics, Marga Prohens. The opposition accused him of having ignored the protests against overtourism, but he replied by arguing that funding for all tourism policies in 2025 would be down by 2,500 euros. He accepted that the budget for the Palma 365 Tourism Foundation was going up by almost 300,000 euros but insisted that this was primarily for office maintenance and salaries.

More restaurant laments

Mallorca's restaurants, one has the impression, could do with all the low-season help they can get (or even high season, come to that). This year has been characterised by a fall in turnover attributed to the post-Covid spending boom having come to an end. And Covid, so says the ex-president of the CAEB Restaurants Association, Alfonso Robledo, marked a before and after in terms of attitudes. "People now prioritise living more than working."

This is one of the reasons why the island's restaurants have been struggling to attract staff. Shortages are said to have led in some cases to a reduction in the number of tables and to closing two days a week rather than just the one. And it's not an issue to do with pay. "We have the best hospitality agreement in Spain," Robledo insists. If there is an upside, though, it is that restaurants are turning to older workers aged 50 or more. Unlike young people, they aren't bothered by the fact that people they are serving are partying or otherwise having a good time, while they are working.

Mallorca's most expensive property

The restaurants may have been suffering from decreased spending, but there are shops that don't appear to experience difficulties in bringing in high-spending customers: very high-spending, the type of customer for a store on Palma's Passeig Born. Can Alomar is named after Pere Alomar, who bought the property that came to bear his family name in the late nineteenth century. The family sold it in 1972. Now with an annex building, Can Alomar has an estimated value of 140 million euros, making it the most expensive property of any type in Mallorca. It accommodates a five-star hotel, offices and luxury brands - Louis Vuitton, Relojería Alemana (including Rolex) and Massimo Dutti.

It is up for sale, the agency handling this (Fernández) not having specified the price. Who owns it? Rolf Karlsson, a Swedish billionaire whose business empire is based on taxi companies throughout Scandinavia and includes Cabonline, something of a Swedish competitor to Uber.