“A bumper Summer season”, say hoteliers

Jordi Cabrer, president of the Playa de Palma Hotel Association, was confident yesterday that there will be weeks in August when tourist establishments will be “more than 100 percent” full.

In this respect, Cabrer commented that some hotels on the Playa de Palma have frozen their sales for September because they claim to be “up to the hilt” with bookings.

The high expectations for the peak summer season are somewhat in contrast to the levels of occupation being experienced in the first 15 days of May, which have registered only 56 percent. “Things don't look good at all at the moment” said the president. He hoped however, that the trend would rise to 70 percent before month's end.
There are 31'000 hotel placings “up and running” in the Playa de Palma, 1'942 more than in 2003. In January, occupancy level reached 60 percent (4.05% more), February 60 percent (1.98% more), and in March 81.66 percent (3.55% above 2003).

In April, the estimates made by the Hotel Association were matched with occupancy levels of 70 percent, but Cabrer declared that the 72 percent occupation registered in April is “not a healthy figure” in comparison with the 78 percent of occupancy registered in 2003.

In terms of reservations sold for the Easter holidays, Cabrer said that this year, hoteliers have registered occupancy levels of 79.82 percent, which he described as a ”very encouraging” result in comparison with the same period in 2003 when levels reached only 73.05 percent.

He pointed out that during the first four months of the year, the hotels which took clients from Inserso (a Peninsular Pensioners Excursion agency), benefitted from 85.29 percent occupancy levels whilst other hotels which had been open without Inserso package tours, only registered 56.18 percent.

Cabrer also declared that along the Playa de Palma, of the total of 40'000 hotel placings available, 4'000 of these will offer the “all-inclusive” holiday package this summer, 1'000 more than last year. The so-called “all-inclusive” holiday refers to all food and drink expenses being included in the price of the client's holiday.

Analysing the source of the client base for April this year, 43 percent of tourists visiting the Playa de Palma came from Germany, 35 percent were Spaniards, 8 percent were from France, 3 percent from England and 2 percent from Italy.

Cabrer made reference to the Renovation Plan which is being undertaken along the Playa de Palma which will bring to life currently obsolete infrastructure in the tourist area. The “smart new look”, claimed Cabrer, “will give a good impression” to the key client markets.