"Death blow" from Germany: Mallorca fears the corona crash

Due to the increasing corona numbers, the federal government has also declared Mallorca a risk area and warns against traveling there. This is a heavy blow for the vacation island.

After Germany's travel warning for almost all of Spain, including Mallorca, fear of an economic crash in the Balearic Islands is growing. The newspaper "Diario de Mallorca" described the decision of the federal government to also declare the Germans' favorite holiday island a corona risk area and to warn against traveling there as a "fatal blow." This would have fulfilled the worst fears that tourism had for tourism had dealt the fatal blow this season, the newspaper wrote.

Nowhere in Spain except in the Canary Islands, which have been exempted from the travel warning due to lower corona numbers, people are so dependent on tourism as in the Balearic Islands. The industry contributes around 35 percent to economic output in both regions. The regional government was confident that the corona numbers would soon fall again. However, there were initially no signs of this.

Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn defended the federal government's travel warning. "This is not a travel ban, but the clear message: Anyone who comes from a holiday in Spain must be in quarantine as long as they do not have a negative test result," said the CDU politician of "Bild am Sonntag". "And if you go to Spain despite the warning, you should protect yourself and others on vacation. Party vacation is irresponsible in this pandemic." He knows what this government decision means for many vacationers, for travel agencies or for Spain, said Spahn. "But unfortunately the number of infections is increasing there, too much."

According to the German Travel Association (DRV), there are currently around 30,000 German package tourists in the Balearic Islands. With an estimated more than 90 percent, most of them are likely to vacation in Mallorca, said DRV spokesman Torsten Schäfer. However, there is still no overview of how many vacationers wanted to leave early in the next few days.