Mallorca and Co.: The unbearable pressure of mass tourism!

Mallorca and Co.: The unbearable pressure of mass tourism!

Vienna, Österreich - A new analysis of the EU has examined tourism printing in Europe and in particular put popular travel destinations into view. According to the findings, Mallorca is the most frequented travel destination in Europe with around 51 million overnight stays annually. This number corresponds to 54 nights per 1,000 inhabitants of the island, which counts around 950,000 inhabitants. In the high season, especially in July and August, Mallorca even reached an incredible density of 14,064 overnight stays per square kilometer. These figures illustrate the immense popularity of the island, which belongs to the Spanish community of the Balearic Islands, which also includes Menorca, Ibiza, Cabrera and Formentera. Almost 70% of the trips to the Balearic Islands are omitted in Mallorca alone, where over 4.4 million German air travelers arrived in 2022, supplemented by around 1.4 million passengers of cruise ships who visit the port of Palma de Mallorca, one of the largest cruise ports in Europe. The income from tourism was around 12.2 billion euros in 2022, which shows that tourism is a central part of the economy on the island. 

The island is particularly popular, especially in the summer months, with an average bed load of around 90% in July and August. For vacationers there are numerous leisure opportunities in Mallorca, both for party goers and for those seeking peace. The climatic conditions are ideal: the temperature maximum in August is around 26 degrees Celsius, and there are almost no rainy days in the summer months, which means over ten hours of sunshine per day. In addition, the water temperature also reached an average of around 26 degrees Celsius in August.

global trends and challenges

The increasing popularity of travel destinations also leads to growing concerns about ecological and social effects of mass tourism. Eurostat reports show that around 29 million overnight stays were available in the EU in 2022, with tourist printing increased particularly on the beaches of southern Europe in summer. Residents and the environment often do not benefit from the economic advantages in the same way. In the tourism strongholds in particular, the challenges of mass tourism are becoming increasingly clear. The southern Aegean, which records 110 overnight stays per inhabitant, which illustrates the burden for the local infrastructure.

For classification in the European tourism landscape, Mallorca occupies one of the highest positions regarding the number of overnight stays. In 2022 there were other popular travel destinations in the EU, led by the Canary Islands with 89.3 million overnight stays, followed by the Croatian Adriatic coast with 85.6 million and Île-de-France with 80.4 million overnight stays. The Balearic Islands, which include Mallorca, recorded 65.4 million overnight stays, which underlines their attractiveness. Paris, which registered 44 million overnight stays annually, is also one of the most frequented cities that constantly attract tourists from all over the world.

The high number of overnight stays also pay off in relation to employment. In the tourism sector, between 140,000 and 145,000 people work in the high season; In the low season, however, employment is only about 66,000 to 87,000 people. The dependence on seasonal work is widespread in this sector and represents an economic challenge, especially in less than visited months.