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TOURISM

‘Germans are coming back’: Spaniards sceptical over return of tourists

Germans will be allowed to travel to the popular Spanish island of Mallorca at Easter, which many hope will revive the flailing tourism industry. Yet many in Spain are asking if allowing an influx of tourists is worth it.

'Germans are coming back': Spaniards sceptical over return of tourists
German tourists in Mallorca in June 2020. Photo: DPA

After the travel warning for Mallorca was lifted, many people in Germany are already packing their bags for the popular destination, in real life or at least in their thoughts. 

Bookings are increasing rapidly on the coronavirus-plagued Spanish vacation island, and rekindling a positive outlook for tourism after months of doom-and-gloom. 

“This is fantastic news,” the German-language “Mallorca Zeitung” quoted tourist guide Adán André Alomar. Without a return of tourists, “the island would die of hunger,” Alomar continued. 

“The best news ever,” also cheered Ballermann restaurateur Juan Miguel Ferrer, pointing out that he saw “the light at the end of the tunnel”. 

As of Sunday, Mallorca and the entire Balearic archipelago were no longer considered to be risk areas for travel due to a vastly improved epidemiological situation there.

READ ALSO: Germany set to lift travel warning for parts of Spain and Portugal

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) confirmed on its website on Friday that the regions no longer had enough infections to be considered risk areas.

After the Berlin decision, Ferrer, who heads the interest group “Palma Beach”, and his fellow campaigners – hoteliers, restaurant owners and other entrepreneurs – immediately announced the reopening of at least 15 hotels for a total of 4,000 visitors for the Easter weekend starting April 2nd. 

The respected analyst Miguel Otero tweeted, “The Germans are coming back!”

A win-win situation? Not so fast

Sun, beach and sangria for some, economic stimulus and ringing cash registers for others – a typical win-win situation? That’s not necessarily the case. 

Countless people in Spain are fuming. Until April 9th, according to a recent decision by the central government, locals are only allowed to leave their region in rare exceptional cases.

Visiting relatives or vacationing outside their own “autonomous community,” for example, are strictly forbidden. Germans and citizens of other countries, meanwhile, are allowed into the country with virtually no obstacles. From high risk countries, a PCR test is sufficient.

That’s why people are ranting everywhere these days. In cafés, in the media, on television, on the internet. And also in politics. Especially in the capital of Madrid, where residents are known to be particularly proud, argumentative and self-confident and are reluctant to be told what to do, the Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has become the bogeyman. 

The conservative regional government is ranting particularly loudly: “It is incomprehensible that someone from Madrid is not allowed to move freely in Spain, and a Frenchman, a German or a Belgian can enter,” criticized Health Minister Enrique Ruiz Escudero.

“Spain will be a bunker for Spaniards and an oasis for tourists from abroad at Easter,” headlined the newspaper “ABC” over the weekend.

READ ALSO: Will it be possible to go on holiday in Germany over Easter?

The paper “Última Hora” spoke of “arbitrariness”, and even the Mallorca Zeitung stated: “Easter vacations in Mallorca: for Germans yes, for Spaniards no”.

On the Internet, the indignation is no less great, with hundreds of daily complaints. “Let’s see if I got this right: I live in the south of Madrid. So at Easter, my daughter, who lives in Germany, is allowed to visit me, but my son, who lives in Illescas just five kilometres away from me, he’s not allowed to? Very logical,” Yeni protested on Twitter. 

Twitter user Jiménez Caballero also expressed surprise: “At Easter, I’m not allowed to go to my vacation home on the beach, but my neighbour who lives in Germany is allowed to?”

Could tourists cause a spike in numbers?

This is not just a matter of frustration, envy and lack of understanding. After the number of coronavirus cases in Spain has been rapidly reduced recently in the wake of sometimes very strict restrictions, many are afraid tourists from countries with significantly higher levels – and that includes Germany – could cause a new coronavirus wave.

Too well remembered are the images of the summer of 2020, when after months of lockdown with “house arrest” and border closures, tourism was allowed again and drunken vacationers from Germany and the UK partied wildly at Ballermann without following social distancing protocols, flirting with strangers at close range and hugging street vendors.

READ ALSO: ‘We’re very glad to be there’: German tourists fly to Mallorca in post-Covid pilot project

On the Balearic Islands themselves, scepticism has also mixed with joy. Yet the people on the Mediterranean islands know better than any other Spaniards that they cannot survive without tourists. 

The travel industry accounts for 35 percent of regional income here, compared with “only” 12 percent for Spain as a whole. In the wake of the pandemic and the restrictions on freedom of travel, unemployment and poverty grew dramatically on the Balearic Islands – more than anywhere else in Spain. 

The queues in front of the food banks are still getting a little longer every day.

Still, many here are against allowing tourism. “This is the best way to become a risk area again,” said well-known island cartoonist Pau to the Mallorca Zeitung. 

“For a season that is mediocre at best,” he said, travellers are putting “even more lives at risk.”

Musician Isis “Apache” Montero said: “As long as we residents are subject to restrictions during Easter week – only gatherings of no more than two households, closing of bars and restaurants at 5 p.m., curfew etc. – they should not let anyone in who does not have his primary residence in Mallorca.”

Speaking to the Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Joan Trian Riu, managing director of the major Majorcan hotel chain Riu Hotels & Resorts, appealed for common sense: “Tourists need to behave responsibly.” 

Member comments

    1. Yep, completely crazy. The ones that will go wil not care, come back with Covid, & then it’s even lomger til I can get back to work
      If they wan to go they should be Isolated BEFORe the flight Home AND after – and not Isolation at Home, straight into a Covid Hotel from Baggage pick up.

  1. So ICU doctors in Germany are asking for further lockdowns, and the government is happy for dumb, selfish people to travel and prolong the misery for so many – and destroy families – in Germany?

    You could not make this sh.it up.

  2. I am not sure that travel itself is the biggest issue here, but rather that the types of people that would travel to this location during Easter are self selected from the selfish and drunk YOLO subcategory of humans. The only potential saving grace is that these vacationers will likely be spending time outside where transmission rates are lower.

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TRAVEL NEWS

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail operator and the GDL train drivers' union have reached a deal in a wage dispute that has caused months of crippling strikes in the country, the union said.

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of 420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of 2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some 200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of 2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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