Your weekly news catch up in Mallorca

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. It was like we'd been transported back three years. Were people really dragging out the same old guff about face masks? They were. Hence, there was a revival of government control conspiracies (usually socialist or communist government, which overlook the fact that governments which are neither have been known to implement such a measure), brainwashing by whatever agency is supposed to be doing this brainwashing, etc. etc.

And for what? Well, it wasn't Covid, that was for sure, despite some reporting intimating that it was. Last weekend, it was made clear that flu cases - in Mallorca and the Balearics at any rate - were outstripping those for Covid by three to one. The Balearic health minister, Manuela García, highlighted the fact that Covid wasn't the issue. Speaking on Tuesday, she said: "This, thank God, is not Covid."

Spanish government mandates mask-wearing

No, it wasn't some spurious 'plandemic', as the deniers were claiming in rehashing their narratives, it was the flu. It was at epidemic levels, which - it has to be said - is common. Spain's health ministry was therefore all for putting the masks back on. And where? In health centres and hospitals, that's where. Not on the streets, not on buses, not in shops, not in bars, cinemas or football grounds. In health centres, where people tend to be ill and where health personnel can get ill because of all the ill people with flu and various other viral ailments. Covid was compounding a situation with very high incidence of all respiratory conditions, but Covid wasn't the reason.

García reckoned that the national ministry was being alarmist and suggested that the number of cases (of flu) in the Balearics was no different to what it had been twelve months previously. She said that hospitals weren't under strain, which wasn't entirely accurate as Inca and Manacor had needed to refer cases to Son Llátzer in Palma. Having been one of the regional health ministers to have rejected the wearing of masks at a Monday meeting of the Interterritorial Council for the National Health System, she had to then accept the Wednesday command for all regions to adopt the measure. Spain's health ministry was worried about the stresses on the health service.

Free travel or not?

The Spanish government was meanwhile getting into a flap over the subsidising of free public transport in the Balearics. Having approved a decree for the payment of 43 million euros for 2024 at a cabinet meeting just after Christmas, the decree had to go to Congress. It wasn't a contentious issue, and neither the pro-independence Junts per Catalunya nor Podemos had any particular objection to it. However, they both made it and a couple of other decrees bargaining chips for wholly unrelated matters - the amnesty law and housing, respectively.

Housing seasonal workers

In the Balearics, the government's emergency housing decree, which was issued in October, was making its way through the parliamentary processing. Some fine-tuning is to be made, a government amendment being a new provision specifically directed at workers in the hotel and general hospitality industries. While this could apply to permanent employees, it mainly has seasonal workers in mind. They have increasingly found that coming to Mallorca and the Balearics in summer is less and less attractive because of the problems with finding affordable accommodation.

For hotels and other hospitality sectors, there have been issues with attracting staff. The decree amendment, therefore, will reclassify land for tourism use (primarily hotels) as residential but only if buildings are used as co-living spaces for employees. Plots of land the government is referring to would typically be next to hotels.

Another tourism record year?

These employees, by the looks of it, are going to be needed more than ever. 2023 having been a record-breaking year for tourism, and by a significant margin, early indications suggest that 2024 could surpass it.

The Exceltur alliance for tourism excellence, the grouping of leading businesses like Meliá Hotels International, said that it believes the first half of 2024 will outstrip the same period in 2023. Booking patterns, hotel opening dates, increased airline capacities were all pointing in an upward direction.

The Mallorca Hoteliers Federation pointed out that in February, for example, 41% hotels will be open, an increase of 13% compared with 2022. With Easter falling early (March 31 is Easter Sunday), the federation was anticipating higher than usual openings in both March and April - 74% and 88%. Among airlines, Jet2 had already announced a general increase to capacity of 12% for 2024. The tour operator wing, Jet2holidays, followed this up earlier this week by reporting record levels of demand to destinations such as Mallorca - bookings were up 150% compared with before Christmas.

British and German loyalty to the Balearics

The two main foreign tourism markets in the Balearics are Germany and the UK. The vast majority of the 4.5 million German tourists up to November 2023 came to Mallorca, where the German market typically exceeds the UK by getting on for two million on an annual basis. The 3.7 million UK tourists therefore reflected the popularity of Ibiza and Minorca, which isn't the case with the German market.

In combination, these two markets were up slightly over pre-pandemic 2019. They therefore bucked a trend observable for Spain as a whole. By November, the combined number of tourists was 26.7 million out of a total of 79.9 million. In 2019, there were 28 million out of 79.4 million. This loss, it was reported, is of some concern to the tourism industry in Spain, while the fact that Germany and UK have recovered from the pandemic and returned to 2019 levels is an indication of an enduring loyalty.

Striking over Kings

As the Christmas holiday period came to an end, travellers had to put up with flight disruption. The affected flights were internal, and for travellers in the Balearics these were inter-island as well as to Madrid. This was all due to the strike by handling staff at Iberia Airport Service, unions having called the four-day action from January 5 to 8 because of concerns as to what will happen to employees as a result of Iberia having lost handling concessions at airports, including Palma and Ibiza.

A union proposal for self-handling by the Iberia airline (and others in the IAG group) was rejected by the company, which has always contracted out the handling - Iberia Airport Service is separate to the airline business. This is apparently due to the low margins and the high labour intensity, which would be prejudicial to overall group financial performance.

Seaplanes and emergency landing

They wouldn't have made much difference had they been available, but seaplanes operated by Isla Air may be covering an inter-island route - Palma-Ibiza - before the end of the year. The company has spent five years seeking to establish seaplane routes in the islands. Its representatives are due to meet Palma's mayor, Jaime Martínez, and the president of the Council of Mallorca, Llorenç Galmés, later this month. This will primarily be to get support for the service, as decisions lie with other bodies - the Balearic Ports Authority and the Spanish Aviation Safety and Security Agency.

The planes have room for nineteen passengers. Not a lot maybe, but Isla Air's intention is to offer a minimum of five frequencies per day, 365 days of the year. And the seaplanes wouldn't affect the airports, unlike a Lufthansa Boeing 747 which was forced to make an emergency landing in Palma on Wednesday because of a sick passenger on board. The security forces were naturally twitchy, given what happened in November 2021 when an Air Arabia Maroc plane made an emergency landing because of a faked medical emergency which resulted in over 20 passengers entering Mallorca illegally.

Sorting put the Plaça Major shops

While he's waiting for the Isla Air meeting, Jaime Martínez will be attending to what he has described as a priority for the first quarter of this year - what to do about the shops beneath Plaça Major.

It is now four years since tenants of the shops handed in the keys. The great majority of the privately owned businesses have closed, the shopping area having suffered degradation. The town hall is starting negotiations to purchase these units, and most owners (there are nineteen in all) are said to be willing to sell, but they are also looking at compensation for loss of earnings. The town hall may expropriate shops, if this proves necessary, but any plans to start rehabilitating the area won't start until the end of this year at the earliest.