Tourist bookings to the Balearics surge in just one year leaving protesters red-faced | Travel News | Travel

The Balearic Islands have recorded a huge increase in tourist bookings in the last year, despite high-profile anti-tourism protests across Spain.

The popular islands, which include Brit-favourite destination Majorca, saw a staggering 43.7% increase in the number of bookings compared to the same days last year.

The figures, released by booking platform TravelgateX, focused on the week of December 16 to 22. They also show that bookings increased by 48.4% over the last week compared to the previous one.

This makes the region the sixth most popular destination in Spain for that particular week, Majorca Daily Bulletin reports.

It sits behind Catalonia, the Canary Islands, Andalusia, Madrid and the Valencian Community.

Bookings made 90 days in advance were the most popular option, with 34.7% of the total, while 13.6% were “last minute” bookings – made either on the same day or the day before departure. 

Of the bookings registered in the last seven days in Spain, 58.3% were made by couples and 48.6% of travellers booked for between two and five nights, TravelgateX revealed. 

The platform showed staycations in Spain are a popular option, as 40.6% of people who have booked during the last seven days were Spanish. British tourists take second place with 29.4%, followed by German nationals (3.9%), Americans (3.5%) and Chinese (3.3%). 

The dramatic increase in the number of bookings to the Balearic Islands, and other areas in Spain like Barcelona, the Canary Islands and Andalusia, comes after a series of anti-overtourism protests that have taken place across the country this year. 

In April, mass protests began in the Canaries, with residents calling for a temporary limit on tourism until legislation aimed at combating the negative effects of overtourism could be introduced. Between 20,000 and 50,000 people across the islands took part in coordinated protests. 

In May, about 10,000 people protested in Palma de Mallorca, the capital of the biggest Balearic Island, while other protests occurred around the same time on the smaller islands of Menorca and Ibiza. 

The president of the Balearic Islands, Marga Prohens, criticised relevant tourism authorities for trying to expand tourism volume instead of aiming for sustainable quality tourism. Protestors in Majorca called on the government to prevent new residents from buying property and new tourist spots being opened. Meanwhile in Ibiza, there were specific concerns about the island becoming a party hot-spot. 

In July, there was a protest in Barcelona of about 3,000 people. Some of the protestors used tape to seal hotel exits, and cordon-off restaurants and other tourist services in public squares, and some sprayed tourists with water guns, which the Spanish tourism minister criticised. Among their criticisms was that the wealth generated by tourism was not distributed and thus a cause of increased social inequality.

While some tourists have been put off holidays in Spain after being made to feel unwelcome, these new figures from TravelgateX suggest that there will be little let up in the crowds that descend on destinations like the Balearics in 2025.