Tourists Arriving at Palma Airport. | M. À. Cañellas

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German tourists are cancelling their reservations in the Balearic Islands because of the recent increase in Covid infections.

"There is fear amongst German families whose children are not vaccinated and they don’t want to risk coming to Mallorca and the other Islands. Their reaction is logical, but the Government must tighten the restrictions even further to make sure the Balearic Islands are truly a safe tourist destination,” said Balearic hoteliers.

There is deep concern that if the situation doesn’t change soon the rest of July and August will be a tourism and economic disaster for the Islands.

British tourism

The lifting of the majority of Covid restrictions in England has led to a surge in holiday bookings for the Balearic Islands and on Tuesday Palma Airport was the busiest in the entire AENA network for the second day in a row.

On Tuesday, 70 flights brought 12,000 tourists to Palma from British Airports, which is much more than in Madrid-Barajas, El Prat-Barcelona, Alicante, Malaga or Fuerteventura. Another 27 flights brought 4,300 Brits to Ibiza and 13 flights brought more than 2,000 from England to Mahón.

At the moment British tourists don’t need to quarantine when they return to England but if the Balearics move to the ‘Amber Plus’ list on Thursday that will change.

The Netherlands was due to lift its travel restrictions for Spain and the Balearic Islands on August 2, but because of the increase in Covid infections the restrictions have been extended until August 13.