Food prices on the Balearic Islands have soared alongside the number of tourists visiting the archipelago over the last five years – with the cost of essentials including oil and bottled water spiking by over 50%. While local demonstrations have tended to focus on the island group’s struggling housing market, thought to be caused by a rise in short-term lets and second-homeowners, a growing cost-of-living crisis is also being felt in the popular holiday spot.
Concerns about affording everyday food items beat overtourism and the housing market as the most pressing concern among residents, according to a survey by the Balearic Institute of Social Studies, with 84% of respondees describing it as a serious issue.
Alfonso Rodriguez, president of the Consubal consumers association, said the cost of oil had risen by 67% since 2020, with sugar, lamb, bottled water and juice all also up by around 50%, the Majorca Daily Bulletin reports. Alongside growing dissent and a fresh spate of planned protests, the rising costs could put international visitors off heading to Majorca and Ibiza for their summer break – with research showing a drop in both domestic and foreign spending.
Data published by restaurant association Restauración CAEB showed a revenue drop in Majorca’s hospitality sector by up to 20% during the first quarter of 2025, with both Spanish travellers and those from abroad appearing to spend less than the year before.
“If spending in our sector decreases, it will inevitably affect the entire local economy,” the association’s president Juan Miguel Ferrer warned.
While hiked food prices could have an impact on tourist spending, they may also have been driven by an influx of wealthy expats, with foreign residents making up almost half of the archipelago’s total population.
The Balearic Islands’ geographical location brings with it a reliance on imported produce, which, coupled with rising inflation and increasing raw material costs, makes it vulnerable to high food costs.
This in turn might leave business owners with little choice but to pass on the financial burden to customers – something affluent Brits might be able to afford, but which could put locals already struggling to pay their rent in an even more untenable position.
“Majorca has become uber-expensive for the average consumer, and is perhaps in danger of outpricing itself in favour of caressing the plump wallets of the super-rich,” reporter Peter Clover wrote in the Majorca Daily Bulletin last summer.
“I’m almost certain that somewhere along the line, some retail entrepreneurs are taking the proverbial and raking in the profits, while happily shafting the customer,” he added. “But that still means that as an island, we take a harder hit than most!”
Access to housing was the second most pressing issue among Balearic residents, according to the social studies institute, with 72% describing it as a matter of “great concern”, while two-thirds of the 1,300 people surveyed said they were very worried about the ongoing consequences of overtourism.