A popular mode of transport for families who want to get around the idyllic islands on their own, — rental cars — will be out of reach for many tourists.
The situation is due to increased demand from European and Spanish tourists who plan to visit the islands during the Easter holidays.
In some regions, such as Mallorca, the demand for car rental has already reached 100 percent — this is pre-booking data, and this situation may persist throughout the year.
In addition, there are now 50,000 fewer cars in the Balearic Islands than before the coronavirus pandemic.
It is expected that prices for all remaining rental cars will rise sharply: the previous average prices of 15 to 60 euros per day have skyrocketed by 300 percent and are now around 130 euros per day.
A similar problem in the Canary Islands, tourists arriving this week have already been warned. This is despite a doubling of the fleet to around 50,000.
Rent-a-cars say they need another 65,000 cars to meet demand. Increasingly, you can see the signs “no cars available”; for the entire Easter weekend, prices are skyrocketing, and tourists are strongly advised to book in advance.
This Easter, car rental prices are at least 20 percent higher than in 2019: before the crisis, the price per week was 125– 135 euros, and now it has skyrocketed to 220 euros.
Ramon Reus, president of the Balearic Car Rental Association, says: “We feared that the events in Ukraine would lead to a decrease in demand for holidays in the run-up to Easter. But the reality is that next week everything is booked to capacity.
He predicted that demand will only increase in the coming days due to last-minute bookings.
Forecasts the problems will continue throughout the summer season and are likely to become more intense between July and September when demand exceeds the number of car rentals available in Mallorca.
President of the Balearic Car Rental Association without driver Anthony Masferrer noted: “There is an increase in the influx of foreign tourists, in particular Germans, British, Italians and Scandinavians, and, of course, the Spaniards themselves have not disappeared. In some areas we really can’t cope because there are simply no cars, and this is the situation that we have been suffering from since the beginning of the pandemic.”