It is Sunday morning and the promenade of ses Figueretes beach is quiet. Swimmers in the sea, people doing sport and tourists on the terraces enjoying breakfast and the July sun. Meanwhile, the stores and businesses in the area are open and working non-stop to serve tourists starting the 2022 season. “Compared to 2019, there is a tremendous rebound in bookings in this 2022 season. We are full, we have an occupancy of 96-97% until mid-September,” explains Marián Cabello, from behind the reception of the Hotel Figueretes. “So far this season we have already surpassed the levels of 2019”, she adds.
“Last year we had a week-ahead occupancy, that is, people booked a week and a half in advance at the most. Now, since May, we already have been practically full in July and August for the 2022 season“, declares Cabello with joy.
Marián Cabello, receptionist at Hotel Figueretes. C. Torres
“It seems like August already”, says one of the waitresses at Es Xiringuito Figueretas, Maria Lara Álvarez. “The covid boom is being noticed, it seems that people want to recover these two lost years”, she assures. According to Álvarez, she believes that this 2022 season, the business can reach the tourist occupancy levels of 2019 and even surpass them: “People are eager to enjoy the island again.”
Most tourists in the ses Figueretes area are foreigners: in order, Dutch, Germans and Italians. “15% of the clientele would be local people, English and Americans the least”, calculates the waitress “We have a good team and we are putting out a really cool menu. There is no lack of staff, the problem is accommodation on Ibiza”, says Álvarez.
Maria Lara Álvarez, waitress at Es Xiringuito. C. Torres
“2022 season could be the hardest”
The manager of the restaurant Blavós, Juan Carlos Sismonde agrees: “The truth is that this 2022 season is possibly the hardest of all. The lack of personnel and professionals is making us very tense. We work a lot and there is no way to find the personnel we need“.
The main problem with this lack of workers is the rising cost of accommodation on the island, since, according to Sismonde, “we offer very good salaries and are quite competent. I don’t think anyone on the mainland could compare with the salaries we have, but the lack of accommodation and the fact that the little there is is so expensive makes it 90-95% difficult for people to come to work.”
A tourist shopping in a souvenir store. Toni Escobar
This worker thinks that the months of July and August are going to be “chaotic” for this reason. “There is a desire to work, but it will be very hard. The island is full, we will return to the levels of 2018 or 2019, we will even surpass them, but, at what price? There be less of us working and will work twice as hard“, he comments exhausted. “It is not going to be easy”, he concludes.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.