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GUIDE ON PAGES 24 - 28 ISSUE NO. 1786
26 Sept - 2 Oct 2019
MALLORCA
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WWW.EUROWEEKLYNEWS.COM
LEFT IN LIMBO SOME 36,000 tourists - more than a quarter British - are reportedly stranded in Mallorca following the collapse of Thomas Cook. And many hotels on the island are considering closing their doors a month early and ending the season in October fearing they cannot stay open without the bookings they had from the tour operator giant. The bankruptcy announcement on Monday, September 23, has created a domino effect in tourist hotspots and the Balearic Islands have not got away unscathed. Several hotels in Cala Millor and Cala d’Or, areas that rely heavily on British tourists, have said that they are willing to negotiate and stay open, but it may not be feasible for them. They have also said that they understand
the precarious situation which the tourism sector is now in. The decision to close early not only affects the business as a whole, but also the hundreds of employees that are on seasonal contracts that will now have to finish a month earlier than they had hoped. Many seasonal workers on the island sign up to the unemployment benefit (paro) when they finish the season and will now have to ask the government for help a month early.
It has been reported that 36,000 tourists have been left in limbo in Mallorca, 8,000 of these are British tourists that no longer have a flight home. Some 22,000 of these tourists booked with the German arm of the company and will be sent home with Condor that remains operational. The British tourists are being sent home as part of a repatriation plan that has been established and are all expected to have left the island by October 6.
STRANDED: An estimated 8,000 British tourists remain in Mallorca after the collapse of Thomas Cook.