Ibiza and Formentera are recovering, albeit slowly, from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic in the tourism sector, which is always on the lookout for the evolution of the virus and its possible variants. This second year of the health crisis is not hitting so hard and the figures are providing some hope. In any case, June has left tourism in the Pitiusas Islands at half speed.
According to statistics made public by the Balearic Statistics Institute (Ibestat), using tourist flow data from Frontur, the second month of the season saw a total of 213,219 tourists visit the two islands, representing a drop of 56.8% compared to June 2019, the last year of ‘normality’. Then 493,747 people passed through Ibiza and Formentera.
Last year, with almost all of June affected by the social confinement decreed by the central government to control the pandemic, the figure was reduced to 20,977. This statistic provides data from 2015, but the 2020 figure is likely unparalleled since the first summers of the islands’ awakening to tourism, back in the mid-1950s.
The hotel industry welcomed 57.6% of the visitors who chose Eivissa and Formentera to enjoy their leisure time last month. There were 122,821 of the total of 213,219, and the percentage is much lower than that recorded in the same month of 2019, when the virus had not yet made its presence felt. Then, the regulated offer was chosen by 67.1% of the 493,747 tourists. Meanwhile, the rental option is gaining ground. This year 18.6% of the travellers who visited the Pitiüses chose to rent, whereas in June of two years ago the percentage was 14.7%.
Returning to reality, of the 213,219 visitors who chose the Pitiusas to spend the summer last June, the majority, 134,908, came from abroad, while 78,219 were nationals (the main market of the islands by nationality).
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.