Going to Mallorca this year will be a third more expensive than it was in 2022, a tourist body on the Balearic island has warned, as prices there soar.
Juan Ferrer, President of the Palma Beach Quality Offensive, broke the news amid reports that some Spanish holiday destinations are looking to reduce their dependence on British tourists in favour of more ‘upmarket’ visitors.
‘Holidays will be around 33 percent more expensive in 2023 than in the previous year,’ Mr Ferrer said, according to German tabloid Bild.
The newspaper said that the expected price rise comes despite spending on the popular island destination has roughly doubled over the past three years.
Everything involved in visiting the island – including flights, dining out and accommodation – has become more expensive for tourists since pandemic restrictions were lifted and people were allowed to travel freely again.
Going to Mallorca this year will be a third more expensive than it was in 2022, a tourist body on the Balearic island has warned, as prices there soar. Pictured: Tourists are seen on a beach in Mallorca in 2018 (file photo). Tourist number in 2023 are set to be higher than pre-pandemic
‘People even notice it when they go shopping. Due to the island location, prices on Mallorca rise even more than on the mainland,’ Mr Ferrer told the publication.
Asked if there was an end to the rising prices, the Mallorca tourism expert was not optimistic. He said prices are expected to continue rising due to a law introduced last year, which prohibits hotels from increasing their bed count.
This was done in order to curb mass tourism to the island, which is a popular party and beach holiday destination for Brits and other groups from around Europe.
‘This year,’ Ferrer said, ‘that hasn’t had any effect yet.’ If the numbers continue in their current trajectory, 2023 could see a record number of tourists on the island.
In January alone, the island’s airport saw 860,000 passengers pass through into the country – more than in 2019, the year before the Covid-19 pandemic began – and despite the island seeing extreme weather in the early months, such as snow.
Ferrer told Bild that he hoped the increased prices of hotels would bring better officers for tourists. More expensive could also mean better quality, he said.
On Monday, it was reported that a move to snub ‘budget’ British tourists in search for ‘upmarket’ holidaymakers is causing misery for residents in Mallorca and neighbouring Ibiza – who are now forced to live in vans because of soaring prices.
Locals from the Balearic islands said they had been left wondering how they would ‘survive’ and afford to rent or buy properties amid increasing prices that have been driven by a shift towards upscale tourists who can afford more expensive properties.
‘People are now looking at how to survive,’ Rona Pineda, 32, who shares a two-bedroom apartment with a couple in Mallorca, told Bloomberg. ‘If you have a normal salary, it’s very difficult to find a place to live nowadays.’
The comments came after the director of tourism for Mallorca, Lucia Escribano, last year declared her industry chiefs ‘are not interested in having budget tourists from the UK’ – as the island attempts to rebrand itself from a destination for cheap drinks and beach parties by limiting the number of UK tourists.
Escribano recently said that she had been misquoted, with tourism bosses in Palma insisting that they were looking forward to welcoming a record number of Brits.
Meanwhile, another popular destination – the Canary island of Lanzarote – has signalled its intention to reduce its dependency on British tourists.
Island president María Dolores Corujo said the authority has no intention of changing its mind on its approach amid claims that it is already damaging Lanzarote’s image, and that other islands are struggling.
![Everything involved in visiting the island - including flights, dining out and accommodation - has become more expensive for tourists since pandemic restrictions were lifted and people were allowed to travel freely again. Pictured: The Soller Port Marina in Mallorca](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/03/02/15/68262367-0-image-a-2_1677769743966.jpg)
Everything involved in visiting the island – including flights, dining out and accommodation – has become more expensive for tourists since pandemic restrictions were lifted and people were allowed to travel freely again. Pictured: The Soller Port Marina in Mallorca
She has also accused opposition councillors from the Popular Party of scaremongering and joining in a ‘disinformation campaign’ against her plans.
‘We are going to continue to promote the debate on the limits to growth even though they try to gag us with the ghost of fear of damage to the image of Lanzarote,’ she insisted.
Ms Corujo’s comments also came as the director of the Spanish Tourist Office in the United Kingdom insisted the country would not ‘discriminate by type of visitor’.
Manuel Butler told MailOnline that while Spain’s ‘travel industries need to work together to address the challenges of mass tourism,’ the country’s main focus was on ‘becoming a more sustainable and competitive tourism destination’.
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