the archipelago´s islands appear in first, second and fifth places

Mallorca and Menorca head hotel occupancy tables in July

Ciutadella district had the best month on the island with 91.38% of the hotel beds occupied, a figure which puts it in sixth place in the nationwide tables

Christine M. Watterson.Maó

The figure of 88.23% occupancy rate for beds in Menorcan hotels during July puts the island in second place in a nationwide table, only bettered by Mallorca where 89.79% of the beds were occupied last month. Ibiza/Formentera were in fifth place in the table with 83.14%. These statistics were contained in a report published last week by the INE (National Institute of Statistics).

In July a total of 129,918 tourists spent 737,736 nights in Menorca, giving an average stay of 5.71 days. Foreign tourists accounted for 508,611 of the nights booked in hotels whilst holiday-makers from the mainland made up the remaining 229,152 nights. According to Europa Press these figures represent an increase of 3.5% and 3% respectively on last year.

The information released by INE shows that the Balearic Islands are maintaining their popularity as a tourist destination, as the average hotel occupancy rate nationwide was only 68%, with an average stay per holiday-maker of 3.8 days, compared to 88.5% in the islands, and the percentage for the Canaries was just 76%.

The report also shows that the Balearic Islands are the preferred choice of destination for foreigners whose holidays represented 40.6% of the total nights stayed; in Menorca this figure increased to 54%.

By district, Ciutadella had the most successful month on the island with 91.38% of its hotel beds occupied; around 50,000 tourists who spent a total of 302,791 nights in hotels in the town and surrounding resorts (an average stay per holiday-maker of 6.05 days). These figures put Ciutadella in sixth place in the table of districts with the highest occupancy rate, which is headed by Alcúdia with 98.77%.

On a national level, English and German vistors made up the majority of tourists from abroad, accounting for 56.7% of nights stayed in hotels by foreigners who were not resident in Spain.

Considering the increase nationwide in hotel occupancy levels for July, compared to predictions made earlier, hoteliers in Menorca believe that September and October could see their establishments full to 81.24% of capacity.

According to information collected by the INE, hotel prices last month rose by 2% (1.4% less than in July 2005). The index of hotel income shows an increase of 2.6% on the amount received for each occupied bedroom.