First we are going to place Mallorca on our map, this island is located in the Mediterranean Sea, close to other islands such as Menorca or Ibiza, but what differentiates Mallorca from these other islands, such as Ibiza for example, which is an island whose attraction is more focused on partying and that attracts a lot of younger tourism unlike Menorca that tries to implement a more family tourism, Mallorca is considered as the mixture of both concepts, encompassing a greater demand from the different tourists who can come to the island, having on the same island areas dedicated to a much younger tourism, a tourism that seeks to party as a form of entertainment that can be found in areas such as Magaluf, A space full of different nightclubs that are filled at night with young people of different nationalities from all over the world with the intention of having a good time and enjoying the party that this area offers, but if the reason for your trip is more cultural plans or a trip to enjoy with the family, Mallorca also offers spaces to enjoy a quieter trip from its old town that offers us a landscape full of beauty and history or Pollensa a quieter area in which to enjoy its beautiful beaches, beautiful landscapes and great architecture. (Palma de Mallorca Tourism Foundation 365).

((No date) Magaluf tests the limits of rebranding as it sobers up.)

 

What does Mallorca offer its visitors?

Mallorca is not only beautiful beaches, it has some of the most beautiful cathedrals in the world, you can also visit Alcudia, its old town, and you can even visit the Drach caves one of the most beautiful caves in the world that receives thousands of visits every year. Mallorca offers many tourist activities for its different types of visitors, such as visits to the different monuments of the city such as the cathedral, for example. One of the most popular activities in Mallorca are its small cruises of between 3 and 5 hours in which customers are offered snacks and sometimes even an open bar of drinks to be able to enjoy their stay more (The Best Palma de Mallorca tours,ND).

Caves of Drach

It is an island that offers many types of activities and therein lies its great virtue, an island in which all kinds of people can find places or activities that they consider attractive, unlike its more direct competitor such as Ibiza, an island that is known mainly for receiving tourism for exclusive reasons of partying. thus making it difficult for families or people with whom they travel for more cultural purposes to arrive.

Mallorca has a wide variety of hotels and different types of accommodation such as Airbnbs that have become increasingly famous in recent years with the arrival of more and more tourists, one of the most popular accommodations in Mallorca are resorts, huge hotels where you don't even need to leave the premises to carry out any type of activity.

On my last stay in Mallorca I stayed in one of these hotels, to be more specific in the Bh de Magaluz hotel, a hotel with an incredible theme park inside, thus offering you thousands of activities within this enclosure such as slides, various DJ pools throughout the afternoon, food and drink buffet, something that was really impressive because of the amount of activities they had inside.

Mallorca is one of the most visited destinations in all of Spain, visited by more than 12 million tourists every year, Mallorca receives both national and international visits.

Due to its diversity of attractions, climate and gastronomy Mallorca receives tourism throughout the year, but we could say that the high season of the island begins in June and ends in September, these are the dates when the temperature is best to go to the beach, during this period the island is filled with tourists from all over the world, it means it's also the period of the year when hotels and Airbnb raise their prices. During these dates, due to the large volume of work, many people from different countries such as English, Italians and especially from the Spanish mainland decide to go to the island of Mallorca due to the large job offers that occur, this drastically increases the labour supply, creating more than 200,000 direct or indirect jobs (The impact of tourism on the economy of Mallorca, 2023), with all this data we can understand the importance of tourism in Mallorca and the great impact it has on the economy.

We can also observe that tourism generates more employment in Mallorca than in Menorca, one of its neighbouring islands, generating 14800 jobs, in the latter, (González, J. 2023). The Balearic island that generates the most employment is Ibiza, which produces 58,700 jobs.

So, is Ibiza much better than Mallorca?, the answer to this question is completely subjective, but if I had to choose I would opt for Mallorca, for the reason I mentioned before, its great diversity and ability to be able to give plans to both families and young people who come on holiday, this seems to me one of the biggest advantages of Mallorca, The price is also much more affordable than in Ibiza.

A large part of people when they think of Mallorca they think of tourists of German origin since these abound every summer in Mallorca, every year Mallorca receives more than 4 million Germans who come to visit the island, there have been many cases of German tourists who come to know the island and fall in love with it due to its fabulous climate and affordable prices among many other reasons who decide to move to the island. Majorca.

The popularity that Mallorca has acquired has led to more and more tourists arriving on the island and many of them end up settling down, which generates an increase in jobs related to the hospitality industry, allowing thousands of positions with very decent salaries, higher than most cities on the peninsula, on the peninsula the average salary in hospitality is €19,593 per year while in the Balearic Islands in €20,288 per year (Economía de Mallorca, 2019).

But it is not all good news in Mallorca due to the increase in tourism, many people have decided to do business and compete with hotels, which on many occasions do not have enough capacity to supply the high demand for rooms, which has increased the number of Airbnbs and in turn has greatly increased the value of apartments by 10.5% compared to the previous year, being the largest real estate increase in all of Spain, which has an average of 8.9, (elDiario.es 2024 ) the high demand in Mallorca has caused this rapid increase in prices, sometimes making it very difficult for people living on the island to acquire them, because of this we see more and more Germans or English buying homes because it is easy for them due to the high salaries in their countries of origin.

Impact of tourism on the economy

As we have mentioned before, Mallorca is one of the most visited islands in the world, due to everything it offers such as its leisure, culture and nature offer, the fact of receiving so many visits year after year generates many effects that affect the island in a negative and positive way.

On a positive note, we can once again mention the amount of work that tourism generates, producing wealth in the country.

Mallorca receives many tourists a year from different countries, but there are some nationalities that stand out above the rest, and one of these nationalities is German, but why does Mallorca receive so much German tourism and why?

In 1986, after the incorporation of Spain into the European Union, the increase in the presence of Germans on the island began to be noticed, which began to be surpassed by the English, who until then were the tourists who visited the most.

The foreign population registered on the island was 18.78%, according to data from the Institute of Statistics of the Balearic Islands.

There are 18,222 Germans registered on the island of which 15385 live in Mallorca, thus being the European foreign nationality with the highest number of registered in Mallorca, which has a total population of 912,544 inhabitants on the island, after the Germans are the Italians with a total of 13,302 registered residents in third place we find one of the nationalities that visit the island the most having even areas dedicated to them, I'm talking about the English who are 12,259, the English have special areas for them such as Magaluf.

London venues such as the Tiger Tiger club or even several restaurants that sell English breakfasts or the typical fish and chips.

We could say that Germans and English are 2 of the most important nationalities in Mallorca because, although Italians are after Germany the most registered foreign nationality, the number of German and English tourists who visit the island every year exceeds them, because of this these 2 nationalities are the only ones that have their own area on the island such as Magaluf or (Ordaz, A.G., Ana 2022).

 

 

It could be considered that Mallorca is the second Germany since after the country of beers and sausages Mallorca is the place where more Germans reside in all of Europe, thus surpassing one of its competitors such as Ibiza, this is partly also due to the size of both islands, but mainly to what both islands offer to their tourists, Let's take a look at the differences between these 2 large islands that are in high demand by German tourism.

Nightlife

These 2 islands enjoy a wide variety of clubs that offer different types of music, Ibiza in particular is known as the party island, which is visited throughout the year by millions of people from all over the world, in Ibiza live many of the best DJs in the world who organize numerous events in the different clubs that are on the island, sometimes organising parties that can last up to 24 hours, among the most famous clubs in Ibiza we can find Amnesia, Edén or Pacha. Ibiza's nightclubs charge between €20 and €90 per ticket, a more expensive price than their competitors.

In Mallorca we also find a wide variety of nightclubs, but to a lesser extent than in Ibiza, we can also find the famous Pacha nightclub that also performs in Mallorca. Mallorca offers very crazy parties also in Magaluf, but parties in Mallorca are much cheaper than in Ibiza.

Shopping

In Ibiza you can find many hippy markets, where tourists can walk around and choose the different options offered by the island's vendors, we can also find many boutiques with luxury clothes or materials, but the problem is again in the prices of many of these items, let's not forget that Ibiza is an island which is visited by many millionaires or footballers which has significantly raised prices of many items from the island. Mallorca offers several opportunities to enjoy some shopping without having to spend a lot of money, although it also offers luxury items, the tourist does not feel that the prices are as inflated as on their neighbouring island

Accommodation

In this matter Mallorca has a great advantage over Ibiza, the prices of hotels and Airbnb are the most expensive of all the Balearic Islands, being 58% higher than the average of the other islands, which sometimes makes it difficult for tourists to get accommodation due to the high prices, Mallorca being an island 6 times larger offers more variety of accommodation and also at more affordable prices for the Balearic Islands. islands. different types of tourism. (Diario de Ibiza, 31 July 2023)

Celebrity

This section is dedicated to the number of celebrities who visit or reside on the island, although Mallorca is visited by many celebrities and many others have the island as a first or second home, such as Rafa Nadal who spends much of his free time on the island or Claudia Schiffer who has a villa on the island. even with all this, Mallorca can't compete with the number of celebrities who visit Ibiza every year or the sheer number of celebrities who live on the island.

Landscape & Beach

In this last section in which we compare the 2 most important islands of the Balearic Islands, we can see that, although Ibiza has more than 60 beaches, they cannot compete with the more than 300 beaches that Mallorca has, which offers a greater variety of landscapes, due in large part to its larger size. Due to this large size, in Mallorca we can enjoy various landscapes that we could not imagine are on the same island, such as the great contrast between Calo del Moro and Coll del Reis, being Calo del Moro, a small beach that can only be accessed by a long walk, but that is really worth it since it is a small beach where you can enjoy It has crystal clear water and spectacular views, which is almost opposite to Coll del Reis which are beautiful views too but of the mountains, this contrast between mountain and beach is more difficult to find in Ibiza and this is one of the reasons why Mallorca stands out even more above Ibiza.

Conclusion

With all the data I have given in this blog, you can see that Mallorca is one of the most attractive tourist destinations in the world, but if it is not clear, I will highlight the reason for my statement. Mallorca is known for its incredible paradisiacal beaches with crystal clear water that will make you doubt on many occasions if you are in the Caribbean, you can find many hidden beaches to enjoy more tranquility or huge beaches where you will feel more accompanied. Mallorca is not only beautiful beaches, it is also home to a lot of history and culture that you can see in its impressive architecture, in its different festivals or in its beautiful villages. If you are one of those who like to enjoy quality gastronomy, don't worry, the island has a delicious gastronomy that combines Spanish and Mediterranean cuisine, creating great dishes such as sobrasada or tumbet, in addition to this that already sounds like paradise Mallorca also has an incredible natural landscape in which we can appreciate mountains or huge natural parks where you can enjoy different activities such as tourism or hiking, among many others. Due to all these factors, Mallorca is considered one of the most attractive islands in the world, so if you are doubting where to go on holiday, don't think twice and plan your holiday for this dream island.