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Hotel prices in the Balearics have risen this year more than in any other region in Spain and in June alone, according to the Hotel Price Index, hotel prices in the Balearics increased by ten percent in comparison to May, despite local hoteliers spending the whole of June complaining that they had no clients. The Balearic Statistics Office has also released figures which state that, during the first six months of this year, hotel prices increased by 7.6 percent. However according to the analysis carried out by the local statistics office, the increase is “normal” as it appears that it is standard practice for hoteliers to put their prices up as the summer season starts in order to recoup the losses incurred during the first five “low season” months of the year. But despite all the complaints from the hotel sector at the start of the summer and talks of a tourism crisis as bookings dropped sharply in many of the key resorts, particularly those popular in the German market, profits in the hotel sector have risen by ten percent this year. Hotels in the Balearics are now more or less full, with bookings only slightly down on last year and the hotel sector is prepared to start reducing its prices again next month and in October in an attempt to maintain the momentum of the market for at least the next few months after the slack start to the season. However hoteliers slashed prices in July with some three-star-hotels in top resorts like Palmanova, cutting their prices by as much as 30 percent with a night's half-board accommodation being sold for 6'000 pesetas. This summer has been the first in the past decade that flight-only tourists have had no problem in finding accommodation on arrival at Palma airport and during July were being presented with a wide choice of discount hotel prices. But while the hoteliers were touting for business, the region's self-catering sector was booming and still is, with the Balearics accounting for just under half of the Spanish apartment and villa market this summer. While yesterday's reports related to the first six months of the year, it is the figures for July and August which will be the deciding ones.