The Spanish island of Mallorca has long had a reputation as a major low-cost party destination for German and British tourists. Pictures from its infamous Ballermann party beach showing guests drinking sangria from tubs say it all.
Away from the nightlife strip, however, beautiful scenery and charming towns abound, including the picturesque old town of Palma - just one of the reasons the island has been increasingly attracting the world's mega-rich.
In October, the super yacht of billionaire Jack Ma, for a long time the richest person in China, was spotted anchored off the south-west coast of Mallorca for days.
The founder of the world's biggest online trading platform Alibaba had dropped out of sight for months after he sharply criticized Chinese regulators in a speech last year.
That his first known international trip following his spat with Beijing has led him to Mallorca goes to show how attractive the island has become for people of his extraordinary means.
The 57-year-old came to "shop, golf and possibly look at properties," the German-language Mallorca Zeitung newspaper reported.
According to the South China Morning Post, owned by the Alibaba Group, Ma is in Spain on business.
Either way, Ma is only one of the world's super rich with an eye on Mallorca, where luxury tourism has seen "spectacular development" according to Jesus Cuartero, head of Vanity Welcome, a high-class service provider based in Palma.
While visitor numbers soared to record levels in 2019, they have been surpassed this year despite the coronavirus pandemic, says Cuartero, who also chairs the Essentially Mallorca luxury company association.
"Mallorca has now positioned itself as one of the most important European destinations in the luxury segment," he tells dpa.
On the last weekend of October, a long weekend in many European countries due to All Saint's Day, all boutique and five-star hotels in Palma were fully booked, according to the hotel association Asphama.
The high demand for luxury travel has been going on for "many weeks," Asphama president Javier Vich told the Ultima Hora daily.
Many other statistics appear to back up this claim: In July, Mallorca saw a total of 2,685 private jets arrivals and departures – a 60-per-cent increase on the same month in 2019, while according to Essentially Mallorca, room occupancy at luxury hotels has consistently hovered around the 90-per-cent mark so far this year. Overall, by the end of the 2021 summer season the island had made some 1 billion euros (1.14 billion dollars) from luxury tourism.
And luxury tourism means just that: According to the association, each high-end tourist spends an average of 5,000 euros per day.
"Our customers are politicians, entrepreneurs, movie stars and athletes, but also lesser-known rich people. They rent villas for 50,000 euros a week, yachts for 60,000 euros per week," Jordi Riba from the limousine service Limo Mallorca told Ultima Hora. "We are experiencing a boom."
There are many who profit from this development – including real estate agents.
"The luxury sector is hotter than ever. European millionaires are currently buying houses here like crazy," Mallorca real estate agent Carlos Segui was quoted as saying by the El Pais daily in September.
According to Cuartero, high-class tourists are currently invading "every part of the island", including the infamous Ballermann party beach.
Joan, who runs a souvenir shop on the strip, also reports seeing more and more Rolex watches. "But of course the owners don't drop in here," he tells dpa and laughs.
Foreign investors are also keeping a very close eye on the development in Mallorca. The luxury hotel chain Ikos Resort recently announced investments of some 110 million euros to convert the Hotel Blau Porto Petro in the south-east of the island into an all-inclusive luxury resort – only the company's second venture outside Greece.
While visitors like Jack Ma, the oil barons and Russian and Swiss millionaires make headlines on the island, most of the luxury tourists are from Germany, claims Cuartero, even though official figures for 2021 are not yet available.
A brief walk through Port Portals, some 10 kilometres south-west of Palma, seems to prove him right, however. A huge number of yachts in Mallorca's most glamorous marina sail under the German flag.
Spain's Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) which has been governing the Autonomous Community of the Balearic Islands since 2015 have long sought to curb low-cost party tourism on the island. "We don't need tourists here who are only looking to get drunk for a week," Palma mayor Jose Hila has repeatedly made clear.
The introduction of coronavirus restrictions has changed things for the better, many believe, helping Mallorca to reorientate itself to luxury tourism. "This is the ideal time to realign our tourism strategy," says entrepreneur Riba.
Yet not everyone is fully convinced. "I still need tourists who buy my souvenirs and cokes," says Joan, warning that many of the small business and restaurant owners who have survived the pandemic so far are still struggling.
Source: DPA
