Opening hours and season cut in Majorca as clubbers stay away

Clubs are cutting opening hours in a Spanish holiday hotspot beloved by Brits because revellers are staying away.

A hospitality boss in Majorca has warned that revenues in bars, restaurants and clubs across the sunny island will be lower than in 2025 as tourists and local customers spend less.

While the streets of the Balearic Islands are thronged with holidaymakers, they aren’t heading into the clubs, according to the president of the ABONE nightlife association, Miguel Pérez-Marsá.

“We were already coming off a slow year, and now the forecast is for even lower attendance and, consequently, lower revenue,” he told the Majorca Daily Bulletin.

Miguel said that clubs are trying to keep prices down to keep customers coming in, fearful of pricing people out in a summer in which flight and accommodation prices are expected to be much higher than last year.

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However, opening hours are being cut in order to keep operating costs down, the hospitality chief claimed. Businesses are focusing on weekends in areas, reducing the time they’re open during the week to minimise staffing costs.

The peak season is being limited to the period from June 20 to August 20.

Concerns about the nightlife scene in Majorca have been bubbling away since the coronavirus lockdowns. On May 27, 2024, photographs taken of deserted sunbeds on the towns’ beaches, along with rows of unoccupied tables, went viral.

That came just days after demonstrators marched through Majorca’s capital, Palma, demanding the government take ‘immediate measures’ to address the island’s housing crisis and tourist overcrowding. Bar owners are now worried that the “wishes of anti-tourism protesters [have been] granted”.

Tourism accounts for 45% of the islands’ revenue.

Overall, visitor numbers to the Balearic Islands are booming. As of July last year, almost 11 million people had spent their holidays in the archipelago, which is made up of Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera. That’s a slight increase relative to the same period last year, despite the ongoing concerns about tourist spending.

Of particular concern to hospitality workers is the decline in German visitors to the island chain. Last summer their numbers fell dramatically compared to the summer before, with a drop of more than 8% in July alone.

Traditionally, Germans make up by far the largest group of holidaymakers in Majorca. Pedro Oliver, chairperson of the Balearic Tourist Guides Association, told DW that the anti-tourism protests are to blame for the dip.

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“I’ve no doubt they’ve had an effect: the message has been received. Tourists are constantly asking whether it’s true that Mallorca no longer wants vacationers,” he said.

Alvaro Blanco, who works at Spain’s Tourism Office in Berlin, suggested the weather rather than the protests was to blame. He argued that Mediterranean destinations were judged to be too hot during the peak summer months due to global heating.