Unemployment figures in the Balearic Islands’ tourism sector are soaring, causing panic in the industry. In the second quarter of the year, the industry employed 181,769 people across the islands, a decrease of 10.7% from the same period last year.
The national tourism board, Turespaña, revealed that 154,902 were contracted employees in the second quarter, 16.2% less than in the same quarter of 2024, and 26,867 were self-employed, representing a year-on-year increase of 44.6%. This is the largest decline in tourism employment across Spain’s autonomous communities, with 10.7% in the Balearics, ahead of Murcia (8.5%), Castilla-La Mancha (6.6%), Extremadura (6%), Aragon (5.2%) and Galicia (4.6%). This comes as Spain’s holiday hotspots are abandoned by tourists, with restaurants and beaches empty. Parts of the country have been seeing a decline in visitor numbers since the pandemic, as well as years of anti-tourist protests by locals.
In Costa Blanca, holiday rental usage dropped 2.2% during the first half of the year – according to local paper Sur, this number has now dropped to 57%.
Benidorm has recorded its first decline in visitors since the pandemic, with typically bustling destinations seemingly becoming far less crowded.
This tourism drop-off is thought to have been caused by rising prices, overtourism protests, and changing travel behaviour. Majorcan locals say some resorts are “completely dead”, with officials claiming that overtourism demonstrations are “scaring away visitors”.
The head of the nightlife association, Miguel Pérez-Marsá, told Majorca Daily Bulletin: “The tourists we’re interested in are being driven away; they don’t feel welcome and are going to other destinations.”
The situation is reportedly so bad that staff who normally work through the summer season are being given a holiday.
Tour guides are also feeling the pinch. Pedro Oliver, president of the College of Tour Guides, revealed excursion sales have dropped by 20% this summer.
“If you generate negative news, which has repercussions in other countries, tourists opt for other destinations when choosing their holidays,” he said. “We are sending the message that we don’t want tourists and that everything is too crowded.”
But not all are upset over the drop in tourism. One person said: “Very good news, let’s see if we stop depending on tourism and the business fabric returns to Spain.
“Tourism should be regulated somehow, and see if the real estate bubble explodes because of that, and people here can buy a house again like it used to be.”
Another wrote: “The news is painted as bad, but the reality is that it’s good. Tourism is fine, but the mass of tourists coming to Malaga was more than the city could handle. I’d rather take care of 10 tourists well than 100 badly.”
