Restaurants and cafes in Spain holiday destination Mallorca seek permission for larger outdoor terraces to reactivate hospitality sector

MALLORCA’S restaurants and cafes are seeking permission to have larger outdoor terraces to help reactive the island’s hospitality sector once the coronavirus lockdown is lifted.

The CAEB Balearic Confederation of Business Associations has called on local councils in Mallorca to allow the island’s wining and dining establishments to use larger public spaces for their chairs and tables “as a health measure to prevent Covid-19 infection and guarantee customer safety.”

The confederation said the request was particularly pressing in the case of island capital Palma because, it maintains, the city council has “reduced still further the space available for terraces.”

CAEB points out that once the lockdown is lifted there will still be social distancing measures in place and open-air spaces “are going to become areas of greater safety for people.”

It argues that “greater flexibility in the concessions for the occupation of public space” will facilitate business activity in restaurants and cafes”, and will “make these businesses safer.”

CAEB wants to see an increase in the number and size of spaces for terraces given that “safety measures will make it obligatory to respect distances which in the interiors will be very difficult to comply with in many cases.”

If establishments cannot have as many customers inside as they did before the Covid-19 health crisis they need more table space outside to compensate for the financial losses, CAEB points out.

According to the confederation, the Balearic Island’s warm Mediterranean climate will be a major lure for tourists from northern Europe once this phase of the health emergency is over and air connections return to normal. Bar and restaurant terraces could, it says, be the solution for a sector “tremendously affected” by the crisis and in a “precarious” position.

“More terraces and larger, which respect the safe distance will reactivate the sector and employment”, and will “become the comfort for the islands citizens and the attraction for and envy of all Europe as they can function year-round.”