Please remind me how Mallorca made its fortune
One has to wonder what Mallorca would do without tourism
Mallorca would not survive without tourism | Photo: Majorca Daily Bulletin reporter
Palma13/06/2025 10:44
This week, while the Balearic parliament argued on about curing the ills of tourism, the Balearic Minister for Economy, Finance and Innovation, Antoni Costa, described the idea that tourism can be replaced by another industry or sector as the main economic activity in the Balearic as ‘naive and demagogic’.
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Well.said and what planet is the Balearic Minkster on? I agree it's frustrating when shops (only noted in Menorca) including Mercadona up their prices in summer season but blame the greedy owners not tourism
Burgundy BlueI take your point, but landing fees, although I can’t speak for mooring fees, go to support AENA capital investment and revenue expenditures. And PMI is owned/run by AENA. Whether PMI gets back its share by volume or whatever I couldn’t say.
Of course Mallorca (and Spain) made and make money from tourism. Nobody is calling for an end to all tourism, but this ever increasing tourism, where a "downturn", however small, is regarded as a disaster, is totally unsustainable. Mass tourism worked in the 80s and 90s when the tourists would all go to the resorts, stay on the beach or go on organised excursions. Nowadays too many either hire a car clogging the roads or organise their own excursions with Google Maps and the limited public transport available meaning locals can't get a bus to work.
Some statistics: Tourism is the major pillar of Mallorca’s economy, accounting for approximately 45% of Mallorca’s total economic output (GDP). Independent analyses from CAPA note that tourism indirectly may influence up to 90% (!) of the local economy . For context, the broader Spanish tourism sector accounted for 12.8% of national GDP in 2023 —highlighting Mallorca’s dependency on tourism.
Wait... what "fortune"? Isn't Mallorca supposed to be destitute because the handful of Brits that come here are now going to Turkey and Greece and Egypt because it's cheap?
Burgundy BlueSo Majorca’s problem is Madrid.
LovedSollerAre we allowed to keep the landing fees from all those tourist flights into Sant Joan? No. That money goes straight to Madrid. Are we allowed to keep the mooring fees from every single boat in every one of the hundreds of the little (and large) marinas around our coast? No. That money goes straight to Madrid.
And may I remind YOU, Humphrey, that Mallorca’s wealth is very well established - long before the advent of mass tourism. Surely - just to take one example - you must be aware of the tens of Billions (in today’s money) that poured into Mallorca, when the rest of Europe had succumbed to the Phylloxera grapevine disease. That is very, very old money. Get out of Palma. Come see for yourself the staggering amount of opulent fincas, corjitas and estates this island has possessed - for many centuries. You think tourism gave us all that? Bless.
A pressing question here is “where has the tax on ca. €3m a day of NET income” (high season etc. but you get the idea) actually gone? So the ‘tiny number of people’ includes the island government…
'Mallorca’s millions, if not billions, have come from tourism' Do you think people surviving on minimum wage or having to share a flat with 5 other people are really pleased that a tiny number of people have made fortunes out of tourism.