Tourism season begins

The first of May is generally accepted as the official start of the season. | MDB

Andrew EdePalma22/04/2022 15:43
TW
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In times gone by, Easter would come and Easter would go. There would be a hiatus, as everyone knew there would be. The later the Easter, however, and the more the hotels would open; they could live with a couple of quiet weeks ahead of the starting-gun being fired on the first of May for the official start of the season (as is generally accepted). An early Easter, and there was greater reluctance to open; four weeks are longer than two.
Over a period of years until the doors were slammed shut in 2020, there had been a greater blurring of the season’s start. The first of May seemed to apply less and less, though it depended on resort or even area of a resort. Nevertheless, Easter had genuinely come to herald the start of the season, a happy state of affairs assisted in no small part by active tourism (cycling, hiking) and for a time by the “borrowing” of holidaymakers from destinations affected by terrorism.

Commenting on Easter, the president of the national hoteliers confederation, Jorge Marichal of CEHAT, has observed that Easter has been “an oasis” within a “difficult general context”. He was referring, for example, to increased operating costs and also to the oasis of Easter having to take account of the fact that many hotels were still not open.

While he obviously has a point about costs and an environment where there are still uncertainties, this is not really any different to how things normally are because of the dip that follows Easter. As to hotels not being open, this again is normal and has to be considered when the hotel occupancy figures are quoted.

There is a remarkable similarity with percentages being mentioned, with Marichal noting 85% at national level and Maria Frontera of the Mallorca Hoteliers Federation giving exactly the same figure for Mallorca. Hmm ...