Hotels in Palma

Hotels in Palma: Eight out of ten will remain open during the winter

Occupancy will be higher than 2019 and ASPHAMA employers say there will be incremental growth in luxury tourism

Germans, Nordics, French and Swiss are the great seekers of boutique and city hotels in Palma for their quality, infrastructure and services.

The strong European demand has meant that 80% of the hotel accommodation offer in Palma will be operational throughout the winter and will exceed the productivity ratios of 2019. The president of the Hotel Association of Palma and Cala Mayor (ASPHAMA), Javier Vich says that all forecasts are exceeded and that this will have a direct impact on the entire productive fabric of Ciutat and Mallorca.

“The commitment of the companies is to have hotels open all year round, but in the case of Palma, 80% of a total of 72 establishments will be operational. The remaining 20% will close in time to carry out updating work and adapt the hotels to the new tourist regulations, in case of installation of pavilion beds or change of boilers,” says Vich.

Profession

ASPHAMA’s occupancy forecast for November is for hotels to exceed 55% occupancy, up from 49% in 2019. For the rest of the winter, the average will be 40%, “with the characteristic that companies must face a great change in marketing”. The reason for this is that the reservations are so last minute that they are confirmed four days before coming to the hotel,” explains Vich. The Casc Antic boutique hotels in Palma, 26 in all, are marketed differently from the urban hotels, which is why their occupancy averages fluctuate upwards.

German, French, Nordic, Swiss, Spanish and British are the main markets that will increase occupancy rates in urban and boutique hotels this winter. Similarly, the basic cruises in the port of Palma also have a positive impact on the city’s accommodation offer.

Vich emphasizes that the commitment of companies in recent years “has created an accommodation offer in high demand internationally because of the quality of the establishments and services offered and much of this is due to the positive evolution of luxury tourism, mainly in the charming hotels. He adds that the fact that they are operational all year “helps maintain employment and has a positive impact on the deseasonalization strategy. For the hotel management of Palma, the type of customers who come “has a high purchasing power who come to enjoy all the tourist services and know the island during the low and medium season, outside the summer months”.

Turespaña, as well as the Consell and the Conselleria de Turisme, highlight the quality of Palma’s tourism establishments that complement the rest of the productive sectors of the city and the island, in the case of business tourism, meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions, what is known in the jargon as MICE tourism. The president of the hoteliers of Palma and Cala Mayor recognizes that the evolution of the tourist season “has been very good in terms of revenue and productivity, but it is also true that companies are facing much higher than expected operating costs from rising electricity prices and all raw materials, both food and non-food.”

For this reason, the urban hotel industry in Palma will have a positive book balance, but the profitability ratios will be affected by the production costs and this will be reflected in one way or another in the companies. The fact that 80% of the hotel floor is open throughout the winter, according to food and cleaning distributors and freight carriers, “will maintain activity in some months when the tourist flow is minimal in the resort areas of Mallorca.”