Mallorca was there for everyone until Corona came. Currently there is a great void on the Balearic Island, vacationers are staying away due to the corona crisis. The Balearic Islands are now planning a pilot project from which the English would initially benefit. Britons and Germans can enter most regions of Spain after extensive testing, but at home they expect to be quarantined for 14 or up to 10 days after returning home. Not a practical or at least an attractive prospect for many. in 2020 arrived only 223.000 travelers Britain - down 93 percent from the previous year - and 720.459 tourists out Germany - a decrease of 84 percent.
First came the virus, then the hardships. The tourist island of Mallorca is suffering like no other Spanish region from the pandemic. Although the number of infections has decreased, the Mallorca tourist machine has come to a standstill. There are hardly any visitors. Many islanders who work in the tourism sector report aSeasonal workers are usually considered unemployed in the winter and then return to work in the summer. So until now it always worked somehow. But because of the annual winter break, they do not receive unemployment benefits.
According to Der Spiegel no other region in Spain has been hit harder by the economic consequences of the pandemic than the Balearic Islands . Nowhere else has the number of foreign guests decreased so sharply. One in four inhabitants is now impoverished, according to a study by the University of the Balearic Islands. The number of people living in existential poverty would have doubled to about 34.000 within a year. Nearly one in five Baleárico was officially registered as unemployed at the end of last year. In the meantime there are probably even more, most hotels are still closed.
The crisis shows how dependent the island is on tourism and how thin the reserves of many families are. Helpers tell of women who brought nappies even though they didn't have small children at home - they cut them up to make their own pads. They have no money for hygiene products. Or families who cannot cook potatoes because they run out of gas. Local media are currently regularly reporting evictions because the rent could not be paid. People move in with friends or end up in homeless shelters. Social housing is no longer offered to all needy people.
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