Tourism in the Balearics up in January, but the UK fell over 20%

There were 276,644 tourists in January, of whom 147,620 were foreign, an increase of just over 8,000 compared with last year. While the German market with an increase of 5.7% to 72,260 continued to be by far the largest foreign market and also continued a solid upward trend evident for the whole of 2024, certain markets plummeted. The UK was one of these - down 22.5% to 10,895.

In January 2024, UK tourism rose almost 30% and was followed by increases of 26% in February and 45% in March. It hit a wall in April and subsequently registered decreases during the summer with the exception of June.

As the numbers of tourists in the winter season are low, percentage fluctuations can tend to be magnified. Nevertheless, the Balearic tourism ministry has said of UK tourism that it is displaying something of a shift in terms of season - away from the high summer to the lower months. In December there was a 3.5% increase but in November there was a fall of 17%. The total numbers of UK tourists in those months were, respectively, 17,287 and 20,684, almost insignificant for an annual total of 3.6 million.

Otherwise in January, Belgian, French and Dutch tourism all registered sizable decreases (based on numbers half or less than the UK's), while the Nordic countries increased by almost 100% to 10,380. Other countries in the world, including for instance the US, were up 76.5% to 10,506. US tourism in the Balearics for the whole of 2024 went up 1.2% to 279,205 but went down 7.4% in Mallorca.