The Spanish islands have issued a desperate plea as tens of thousands of UK tourists depart. The Balearic Islands’ tourism agency is ramping up its efforts to lure British holidaymakers following a 10 per cent drop in UK tourism in July, as revealed by recent statistics.

Monday’s publication of July’s tourism figures by the Majorca Daily Bulletin showed a year-on-year decrease of ten per cent in UK tourism in the Balearics. In contrast, Germany’s July tourist numbers painted a different picture.

German tourist numbers saw an increase of 12 per cent. Among smaller markets than the UK and Germany, France saw a rise of 22 per cent while Italy experienced a decline of 11 per cent.

The Spanish market was down by 13 per cent, but overall foreign tourism increased by 4.3 per cent.

Regarding the UK market, monthly figures since April indicate a slight increase of 0.3 per cent in April, a fall of 5.9 per cent in May, and a rise of 2.4 per cent in June before the July drop of 10 per cent to 559,040 tourists. This comes as the Balearic government’s AETIB tourism strategy agency liaises with its UK marketing communications agency, Lotus, about a media campaign aimed at offsetting potential negative impacts of the protests, reports Birmingham Live.

The tourism sector in the Balearics has generally welcomed a new media campaign, although not everyone is convinced of its impact. A holiday rentals insider cast doubt, remarking: “No matter how much they tell them that everything is fine, if potential visitors see an image on television with a slogan saying kill a tourist, they will think twice.”

This news follows recent protests where demonstrators took to the streets with placards demanding tourists to ‘go home’ and even obstructed beach access for holidaymakers. The main agenda of these protests was to call for tighter regulations on tourist rentals, aiming to enhance living conditions for local residents.