The resorts of Spain, or rather the Balearic Islands – that is, Majorca and Ibiza, have the risk that European tour operators will boycott them next year. The reason is the announced plans to increase hotel prices by 10-15% in the summer season of 2023. Tour operators warned that if even so high prices soar, demand will automatically shift to competing destinations.
At least this is how the travel agents and tour operators of Germany (DRV) and the Association of British Travel Agents and Tour Operators (ABTA) reacted to the stated intention of the hoteliers of the Balearic Islands. According to their joint warning, Spanish hoteliers were told that if already high prices were to increase further, demand would shift to Turkey, Greece, and Italy.
Separately, tour operators such as TUI UK and TUI Germany, Jet2 Holidays, FTI, Schauinsland-Reisen, and DER Touristik say that this price increase will force customers to choose other destinations instead of the Balearic Islands. Hoteliers, in turn, justify the increase in prices by the fact that they need to “be able to protect themselves against inflation” by next year. However, the aforementioned associations ABTA and DRV describe the required prices as “exorbitant”.
We will remind that even before the coronavirus in Spain, and specifically in the Balearic Islands, a change in tourism policy and, first of all, a reorientation towards the expensive tourist was discussed. Not least because “budgetary” European overtourism seriously tired the population of the islands.