Spanish travel agencies have welcomed China’s visa-free policy, which is seen as an incentive to revive the tourism sectors in China and Europe. China applied a visa-free policy for ordinary passport holders from five European countries in December, including Spain.
Then in January China added eight more European countries in total to its visa-free policy list on a trial basis.
According to Spain’s tourism agency Turespana, over 60 percent of direct flights linking China and Spain before the pandemic have been restored. From March 31, Air China will have daily flights between Barcelona and Beijing while Cathay Pacific plans to restore direct flights to Hong Kong from Barcelona in June.
According to data from the Spanish Statistical Office, over 380,000 people visited Spain from China last year. However, the figure is well below the level before the pandemic, when more than 700,000 Chinese tourists visited Spain in 2019.
And last year the Balearic government contacted two Chinese airlines in order to study the possibilities of direct flights to Mallorca.
The aim would be to promote Chinese tourism to the island.
This isn’t the first time that there has been talk of direct flights from China.
Five years ago, when the Routes World fair was held in Guangzhou, Aetib, the government’s tourism, attended in order to discuss possibilities. In 2019, Mallorca featured in a TV series for the Chinese market entitled Spain Passion.
But whatever possibilities may have existed were put on hold by the pandemic.
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Ulla JacksonI'm not aware of "the Mallorquin government" (this one or the previous one) ever claiming that tourism must be stopped or eliminated. There are indeed certain groups and entities within the junior coalition partners that are "anti-tourism", but I haven't seen "the government" actually enact any anti-tourism policy. "The government" (both previous and current) has indeed expressed ...and attempted.. to "better manage" tourism, which has always been their mantra. But that's a challenging bit of policy to navigate without the risk of negative consequences, such as giving the "anti-tourist" impression that even you have adopted, which is at least in part due to a handful of noisy radical elements that aren't actually in charge. And the government doesn't control whether airlines decide to leverage demand from other markets and implement direct flights from those markets. They probably could attempt to regulate that, but that's also a very slippery slope. And they need a good reason ("too many tourists" is subjective). The fact remains that demand is there ...and increasing. Demand is very high, but supply has its limits. That means prices will inevitably increase. And the effect of that is to shift tourism toward those who are willing to pay (who generally tend to be quality-oriented and orderly in their character, otherwise they wouldn't likely be successful enough to afford it). And that's not a bad thing, considering that one of the main issues in tourism has been problematic type of tourist that has historically been attracted here. So, don't throw the baby out with the bathwater... attract a better quality of tourist. And that's precisely what's happening in this market. It isn't just about money... There has been, and is a lot of investment going on.. the quality of accommodation and overall tourist experience has been improving for years, often radically. That targets a different type of tourist. And the evidence seems to indicate that it's working. The market is still pretty much in control of that. Not the government. If the government overreach, it could have some profoundly negative consequences.
I never understand the Mallorcan government. On the one hand they say it's too many tourists here, and on the other hand they have direct flights from the US and now China! You wait and see how many if them will also buy property - and if so they better don't complain.
About time Mallorca has another "invasion", just recently, it has been the "Americans", and now the Chinese, who already own about half of Mallorca if noone is aware. What's next? the Brazilians? Poor Mallorca, it is quickly losing it's identity, multiculturism and tourism completely out of control!