Panic in Majorca as restaurant owners face closure after tourists snub resort | World | News

Panic is engulfing restaurant owners in  Majorca after tourists turn their backs on the once  bustling holiday island.

This year has been “very tough” on Majorca’s hospitality sector with restaurant closures forecast to increase from 186 in 2023 to around 600 in 2024.

Juanmi Ferrer, president of the CAEB Restaurants Association, said: “2024 has been very tough for the sector. We calculate that they will treble and we don’t rule out this forecast being exceeded.”

Ever since June restaurants have been expressing disappointment over a less-than-stellar season after a fall in turnover attributed to lower spending.

Profits have gone from being close to 20% to 6%-8%, and these are the “best of cases”, says Mr Ferrer.

He believes that the balearics is “being suffocated” thanks to rising prices, “abusive” high taxations”, stifling rent prices and the cost of labour.

As a result the increasingly high rent is putting off people coming to Majorca who are instead favouring cheaper places to work and live.

“Raw materials are 12% more expensive than in Spain as a whole. We pay up to four times more for rent, we have the most expensive collective bargaining agreement, we have difficulties in finding staff as fewer and fewer people want to come to Majorca because of the high price of accommodation.”

“We can’t serve a beer and a tapa for 1.50 euros as they do in some places on the mainland; here it is totally unviable. The price of food is increasingly higher. Rents have also risen a lot, so have the cost of electricity and the rubbish tax.”

Magaluf’s economy has found itself in a particularly dire spot after the Majorcan hotspot reported having empty tables outside its usually busy nightspots.

A bar owner claimed that the anti-tourist protesters’ “wishes had been granted” following a series of anti-tourism protests this summer.

According to statistics from Exceltur, a staggering 45 per cent of the Balearic Islands’ revenue is derived from its vibrant tourism industry.

This year, the Balearic Islands recorded the lowest percentage increase in tourism numbers amongst Spain‘s main holiday hotspots.