After years of research, Esteban Bardolet, board member of the Mallorca Tourist Board, estimates that 111 million Britons have visited the Balearic Islands since 1910.
Mr Bardolet, who is an economist and the president of the Balearic Association of Journalists and Tourism Writers, has spent years analysing the islands’ visitor statistics and researching tourist numbers for the Tourist Board. He concludes that between 1910 and 2010, 111 million British visitors have landed on Balearic shores.
The total number works out at the equivalent of every Briton visiting the region twice. Mallorca continues to be the most popular island out of the group for British tourists, attracting 73 million holiday makers from the UK and enjoying the lion’s share – 81 per cent – of the total British market in the islands.
Although statistically more Germans than Britons holiday in Mallorca each year, the British actually dominate the tourist numbers rankings to the Balearics overall.
Last year, Britons dominated tourist arrivals to both Menorca and Ibiza, as well, with 400,000 and 700,000 visitors respectively. Out of every 100 British arrivals in the Balearics, 64 holiday in Mallorca, 23 head to Ibiza, with some of those also visiting Formentera, and 13 spend their holidays in Menorca.
