German tourists arriving in Palma as part of Pilot Plan.

German tourists arriving in Palma as part of Pilot Plan. | EFE

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterBalearic Islands24/07/2020 11:39
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Hotels in the Balearic Islands hosted 313,145 guests in the first half of this year, a whopping 92% less than the 3,968,781 tourists who registered during the same period last year, according to the latest data from the National Statistics Institute, or INE.

The Tourism Sector was one of the worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic and the closure of borders in mid-March put the brakes on what promised to be a bumper year.

Despite being low season months, the number of guests staying at hotels in the Balearics in January and February increased significantly compared to 2019.

Overnight hotel stays between January and June fell by just over 94% from 21,226,054 to 1,199,800 this year.

The first tourists returned to Majorca on June 15 as part of the Pilot Plan and numbers have increased since the borders opened on June 21.

There were 99 hotels open in the Balearics in June with 9,824 places available, compared to 1,341 hotels and 360,084 places last year.

In June 2019 occupancy exceeded 82%, but this year it didn’t even reach 24%, although it did exceed the state average of 18.75% and the Balearic Islands were among the Communities with the highest degree of hotel occupancy.

The INE statistics also revealed that 805 staff were employed by hotels in June this year, compared to 60,350 in 2019.

These statistics are based on a survey, not on official Social Security figures, but the economic impact of the coronavirus is clearly devastating.