A few months before the start of the summer season, the British press today published an article stating that thousands of tourists from this country are cancelling their vacations to Ibiza and Mallorca because “they are not welcome”. The Birmingham Live newspaper, which is published in the British city of the same name, assures that “the data show that, of all the tourism figures in 2024, it was the UK tourism to Mallorca and Menorca that plummeted the most, after a year of demonstrations and protests due to the excess of tourism”.
Despite the fact that this newspaper does not offer any empirical data reflecting that for the 2025 season “thousands” of British tourists “are rushing to leave the Balearic Islands”, the headline of the news assures this. In fact, it will not be until the end of the year when an assessment of the behavior of British tourism in Ibiza can be carried out.
The only data presented by Birmingham Live to back up such a statement are the 2024 season statistics, which do reflect a slight decrease in the number of visitors of this nationality to the archipelago, but not the causes, which may be several, including the stagnation of the UK economy and its slight recession.
Recently, the final tourism statistics for 2024 were published, confirming a record year for the Balearics. A total of 18,735,675 tourists visited the islands, marking an increase of almost 900.000 visitors compared to 2023. However, in spite of this increase, the percentage increase of 4,9% was the lowest among Spain’s main tourist regions, including Andalusia, the Canary Islands, Catalonia, Madrid and Valencia.
Regardless of the overall increase in the number of visitors to the Balearics, some markets recorded declines. United Kingdomhistorically one of the three main sources of tourism, registered a reduction of 3.2% of British tourists. While the drop for the year as a whole was relatively small, some months experienced significant declines. July, for example, saw a drop of 10.1%.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.