The Culinary Mediterranean Cities project will be presented in January at Fitur 2024 in Madrid, as a joint initiative between Palma, Barcelona, Valencia and Cartagena. Designed to help promote the four cities as epicentres of gastronomy, agents will be given a suite of marketing tools to help highlight the destinations to their clients. 

Pedro Homar, managing director of Palma Tourist Board, said: “We’re working together to jointly position and promote our destinations at the forefront of Mediterranean culinary, gastronomic traditions. We’ll look to work with agents whose clients demand gastronomic experiences, and for whom gastronomy is taken into account when choosing a destination.” Majorca is home to eight Michelin-starred restaurants – five of which are in Palma. 

Homar was speaking at a special dinner in partnership with TTG Luxury for agents and operators at Melia White House in London on Monday (9 October). The evening was a celebration of Palma’s gastronomy, with all food, drink and even table linen flown in especially from Palma. The menus were curated by Adrian Quetglas, who has a Michelin star for Adrian Quetglas Restaurant in Palma, and Ariadna Salvador, who founded pastry project Ninuma. Matias Iriarte, a cocktail artist and the owner of Palma-based cocktail bar Ginbo, paired cocktails to each dish. 

The UK is Palma’s largest source market, accounting for 30% of guests who stay in the city for at least one night, followed by Germany with 25% of arrivals. Homar said: “We’d like to increase that from 30%, and we want to appeal to top tier, premium clients who are looking for a unique experience, as they already make up a large proportion [of UK arrivals].”

He explained that 95% of the 12,000 hotel beds in Palma are in four- and five-star properties. The city also offers 24 boutique hotels, but Homar said 70% of nights at these properties are currently booked direct. “We want to put them in touch with agents,” he added. 

Homar said the Palma Tourist Board has an “ongoing, open budget” to support agents. Last week it hosted and sponsored the Barrhead Travel conference. “When a tour operator or travel agent has an idea, we can support them and help with sponsorship. Travel agents are very important to us, and as a semi-public entity we can be very agile and flexible,” Homar added.