The Ibiza and Formentera Chamber of Commerce has begun a campaign to promote last minute bookings in train stations in seven German cities, at a cost of €60,000. These five second “spots” will use a popular song “if not now, when will it be?” and will emit one hundred announcements daily on 175 screens from 20th August until 9th September. The Germans are prone to book last-minute holidays and the Balearics are one of their favourite destinations, and it is hoped that this campaign will encourage more people to visit in the months of September and October, although it is reliant on the airlines continuing to offer flights during these months. To a certain extent last-minute bookings are detrimental, as they are almost always sold at substantially reduced prices.
However, it is not only the German market which will be affected as the Balearic Ministry for Tourism, Joana Barceló, announced her Ministry was to invest a total of €1.5 million in a campaign which they hope will recover the 130,000 British visitors the Balearics has lost so far this year.
Although the number of passengers flying to and from the airport is up on previous years, the visitors tend to spend less time on the islands, normally concentrated on the weekends, meaning that from Monday to Wednesday there are far fewer people spending money in the shops, bars and restaurants.