The first half of August is normally when Mallorca reaches the peak number of tourists. | Miquel À. Cañellas

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The Mallorca Hoteliers Federation estimates that there will be 60 to 65% hotel occupancy over the first fortnight of August.

The federation's president, Maria Frontera, explains that 50% of hotels remained closed until June but that 88.8% are now open. Since the last report (on July 21), there has been an increase of more than three per cent (from 85.3%). This is due to 29 more hotels having opened.

August, Frontera stresses, will play "a decisive role in the overall result for the season". Based on information supplied by the 23 associations that comprise the federation, occupancy forecasts for the coming seven to fourteen days range between 60 and 65%. This, however, assumes that there are not changes because of "political decisions".

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The flow of bookings, Frontera adds, "is not regular". "It suffers from alterations because of constant changes in the position of supplier markets and because of rumours that create insecurity. This leads to much fluctuation of the reservation and cancellation curves and makes it difficult to know how many bookings are genuine until people actually arrive at hotels."

The fall in profitability as a result of lower occupancy highlights the need to maintain the "oxygen balloon" of ERTE (furlough), something which - in Frontera's opinion - "will need to be prolonged".

* According to figures from the Balearic tourism ministry, hotel occupancy in Mallorca in August 2019 was 90.8%; 96.9% of hotels were open. In August 2020, the occupancy was 39% based on 42.4% hotels having been open.

** The Mallorca Hoteliers Federation represents 824 hotels; this isn't the total number in Mallorca.