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British holidaymakers back to pre-recession levels
Sales of holidays in the Balearics are up 10% in the United Kingdom with 3.2 million holiday makers booked to visit the islands this year. The good news was announced in Palma last week by director of the Spanish tourist board in London, Ignacio Vasallo. He was meeting with the President of the Balearics, Francesc Antich and the Minister for Tourism, Joana Barcelo in advance of an ABTA convention in Palma in October.
These figures, akin to those before the recession, reflect a return to favour of both Spain and the Balearics. In fact over the past few weeks an impressive 35% of bookings made in the UK have been for holidays in the Balearics. The increase in bookings cannot simply be attributed to the troubles in Egypt, Tunisia and more recently Morocco, as the upturn began at Christmas time. One factor which may be helping, according to Vasallo, is the fact UK air passenger duty supplements for flying to the islands are substantially lower than for destinations such as Egypt or the Caribbean, making the package holidays more competitive.
Vasallo, who has access to the latest market data from the UK, confirmed that tour operators have increased their capacity in the Balearics by half a million this year to cater for increased demand.
