Fitur tourism fair in Madrid.

Fitur in Madrid is one of the three most important fairs for the Balearics. | Efe - Daniel González

Andrew EdeMadrid22/01/2025 08:09
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The 45th Fitur tourism fair starts in Madrid on Wednesday. Where the Balearics are concerned, it is one of the three most important fairs along with Berlin and London; the Spanish tourism market is the third largest in the Balearics. For Spain as a whole, as with the Balearics specifically, the latest Fitur is being held against a background of record tourist numbers and record tourist spending. When the final figures are presented for 2024 in early February, it is anticipated that Spain will have attracted 94 million tourists, an increase of ten per cent. The expectation for the Balearics is more modest, a rise of five per cent to around 18.7 million.

While tourism is buoyant, it also poses great challenges. The Balearics are not alone in experiencing overtourism and having to tackle issues such as illegal holiday letting. Among new regulations are those that require a government-issued registration number for holiday properties to be advertised on platforms such as Airbnb. 2026 is the deadline for a registration system across the EU.

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Sustainability in its broadest sense - economic, environmental, social - is a key theme. In addition, the Council of Mallorca has its responsible tourism message. Actual promotion will be confined to niche tourism products. This is the case with Mallorca and gastronomy. The promotional efforts are more geared to highlighting sustainability.

Mallorca and the Balearics often refer to a sustainability leadership. But ahead of Fitur a ranking by the Fundació Impulsa placed the Balearics 308th out of 325 European regions in terms of the sustainability of tourism demand. Impulsa is the competitiveness think tank headed by Professor Antoni Riera, who is in charge of the Balearic Government's sustainability pact working parties.

Absent from Fitur will be representatives of the main opposition party in the Balearics - PSOE. On Tuesday, the party's parliamentary spokesperson, former tourism minister Iago Negueruela, said that PSOE will stay away, while continuing to support the tourism industry in the Balearics, "as they have stated on many occasions". PSOE, Negueruela explained, "are focused on how the islands need to advance and not on going to Fitur simply to have photos taken and to not announce anything, which is what they (the Partido Popular) are going to do".