Jobs crash on Spain’s popular holiday islands Mallorca and Ibiza

SOME 150,000 workers could lose their jobs in the Balearics as the coronavirus crisis deals a punishing blow to the tourism sector in one of Spain’s most popular holiday destinations, the regional government predicts.

The administration said GDP may well plummet by more than 31 per cent, forecasting the total impact of the health emergency on the archipelago’s economy could add up to in excess of €9,000 million.

Balearic Economic Model, Tourism and Employment regional minister Iago Negueruela set out the dire economic picture in a virtual press briefing on Monday focusing on the islands’ economic situation a month into the State of Alarm lockdown.

“We are in an unprecedented situation, which happened unexpectedly, and which has never been experienced by these islands”, Negueruela commented.

Accompanied by Economic Model and Employment director general Llorenç Pou, the regional minister presented a study in which the Balearic government has set out several different possible future scenarios. They take into account both the impact of the period of confinement and the phase which follows, based on when the movement of people both nationally and internationally resumes, and on the recovery of the islands’ key economic sectors, like tourism.

Factors like a reduction in consumption and investment, and a drop in tourism demand are considered in the predictions for what happens once the state of alarm comes to an end.

The Balearic government is working on the assumption somewhere in the middle that there will be a moderate reactivation of the islands’ tourism sector in August based essentially on national demand.

Negueruela called on the European Union to “rise to the occasion of the circumstances and be a true union.”

He also repeated his call for a specific central government assistance plan for the Balearics and mechanism for the “protection of people and liquidity of companies which allows for limiting losses and the fall of GDP.”