Majorca restaurants take dramatic' action to stop UK tourists avoiding them
Majorca restaurants face having to cut their prices dramatically to combat a drop in tourism. European Union holiday hotspot visitors have been told restaurants, bars and eateries could dramatically cut prices in a bid to encourage visitors.
The last year has been tough for Majorca's restaurants, Balearic Island visitors have ben told. Juanmi Ferrer, the new president of the CAEB Restaurants Association in Majorca, says the buzz and boost of a post Covid travel restriction world is now wearing off.
It means price increases which were implemented amid the Cost of Living crisis face having to be reversed. He said: “Rents are generally higher, products cost more and salaries are higher.” Mr Ferrer said: “If a family has 2,000 euros for their holidays, a few years ago they spent 1,000 on the hotel and transport and had another 1,000 to spend on restaurants, excursions, shopping.
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“Now they have to pay 1,600 for the accommodation and transport and have 400 euros left for everything else.” The CAEB’s former president and current vice president Alfonso Robledo said: “We have to continue betting on quality, but by offering more competitive prices.
“That means replacing some products with others.” 2024 has been characterised by lower spending, while hotels and flights have gone up in price, he said. Mr Ferrer recently said that turnover had fallen 30 per cent this summer.
He and Robledo both now point to a 20 per cent drop. The association president says that restaurants are the first to notice when an economic slowdown is approaching because tourists from the UK and further afield begin to tighten their belts.
The restaurants are still turning in profits, but these are now between eight and twelve per cent as opposed to 20 per cent they have enjoyed over the past couple of years, the experts say.