Pedro Homar, manager of the Palma Tourism Board, said of the Foreign Office’s move to remove Spain from its travel exemption list: “It is very disappointing to see the impact of the blanket travel ban to Spain imposed by the UK government, not just on our local travel industry here in Majorca but also on the British travel industry with the recent news from Hays Travel, as well as the Tui high street shop closures.
"Our tourism sector has worked tirelessly over the last few months to adapt to the situation and to ensure that tourism can reopen safely."
He said British tourism was "vital" to Palma and to Majorca - the second largest source market after Germany.
"Our industry has been hit hard by this pandemic and many of our residents rely on tourism for their livelihoods," Homar continued.
"In the last few weeks, we had high hopes to be able to make up for some of the huge losses our sector has experienced and we had invested heavily in safety and hygiene measures.
"By the end of August, we had hoped that our hotel capacity would be running at 70%.
"Due to this decision, many hoteliers will not be able to open at all.
"We do not feel this decision is representative of the situation. Numbers of coronavirus cases in the islands remain extremely low.
"We hope this advice is reviewed quickly so that we can welcome back British visitors to Palma."
