On the tourism-dependent Spanish island of Mallorca, a total shutdown of hotels due to the coronavirus outbreak has destroyed livelihoods across the sector, from reception staff to farmers who provide food for restaurants.
FILE PHOTO: A combination photo shows tourists in a terrace at the beach of Magaluf, July 22, 2011, and the beach empty during the coronavirus disease outbreak in Magaluf, Mallorca, Spain April 9, 2020. REUTERS/Enrique Calvo
Desperate to reopen, even if in a reduced capacity, hotels are lobbying government to allow limited travel between Germany and Mallorca - both of which have relatively low coronavirus incidence rates, says Xisco Porcel, vice-president of the island’s Peguera and Cala Fornells Hotel Association. He fills his days reading, including French novelist Albert Camus’s “The Plague”. “What is not clear at the moment is when we are going to get any normality back,” he added by telephone.
“Not even the worst financial crises or September 11 left us with visibility as low as it is now,” he said during a webcast roundtable organised by Spanish consultancy Thinking Heads.The coronavirus outbreak has hit Spain after bumper years of investment in its hotel sector, especially in Balearic Island hot spots like Mallorca and Ibiza.
FILE PHOTO: A combination photo shows tourists in the beach of Son Matias August 19, 2017, and the beach empty during the coronavirus disease outbreak in Magaluf, Mallorca, Spain April 9, 2020. REUTERS/Enrique Calvo
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