Mallorca hopes trailblazing tourists kickstart economy

PALMA DE MALLORCA, Spain (AP) — Thermometer guns, face masks and plastic gloves in airports, hotels and restaurants. Shops shuttered in sleepy streets. Night life verboten.

Holidays in pandemic times are offering many fewer frills for the international traveler.

But Spain’s Balearic Islands are betting that their Mediterranean blue waters, warm sun and sandy beaches are enough to lure back the tourists that their residents' livelihoods depend on.

“We enjoy the fact that we’re allowed to be pretty much alone here. The beach is empty,” German tourist Martin Hofmann said Wednesday while walking along the beach of Palma, Mallorca's main city.

“OK, unfortunately, a lot of places are also closed,” Hoffman said. “There’s only two or three places open here at Playa de Palma now. But, whatever. That’s new and fun.”

Hoffman and his wife Serra are among the first of 10,900 German tourists scheduled to arrive in the Balearic Islands over the next two weeks for whom the Spanish government has waived the current 14-day quarantine requirement. As happy as the islands are to have tourists back, that number represents only 0.91% of the visitors that Mallorca and the three other Balearic Islands welcomed in the second half of June last year.

It may be a trickle of tourists, but they are like manna from above for the archipelago’s struggling economy.

Tourism generates 12% of Spain’s GDP and supports 2.6 million jobs. In Spain’s Balearic and Canary Islands, however, the dependence on tourism jumps to over 30% of their economies. Competing with other European countries that are similarly desperate to fill their hotels, museums and tourist sites, Spain's government announced a 4.2 billion euro ($4.7 billion) aid package for its tourism industry on Thursday.

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