Bars and restaurants in Spain holiday island Mallorca could be forced to shut doors again in face of serious financial losses

BARS, cafes and restaurants in Mallorca which have only just started serving customers once more following two months of enforced closure may have no choice but to shut again in the face of serious financial losses, sector business associations warn.
Some, although not all, of the island’s establishments have opened up their terraces to a maximum of 50 per cent of normal customer demands under the regulations of the lockdown de-escalation Phase one, which came into force in Mallorca on May 11. The island, along with Ibiza and Menorca, is now expecting to join Formentera in Phase two of the lockdown easing of restrictions next Monday, which allows bars, cafes and restaurants to open up inside areas at up to 40 per cent of capacity.
But according to the catering trade arms of the CAEB Balearic Business Association Confederation and the PIMEM Small and Medium-Sized Business Federation, establishments are in trouble and need “real help” from the Spanish government.
“Mallorca’s bar and restaurant business demands, in its own name, but also extending its concern to the whole of the Balearic hospitality sector, that our autonomous community administration demands, with the same vehemence as Canary Island politicians show in the Congress of Deputies, real help for our community,” they stated in a communication.
The associations pointed out the State of Alarm lockdown has “literally frozen our sector.”
They claimed around 35 per cent of workers with ERTE temporary suspensions of contracts have still not received any payments since the State of Alarm came into force and nearly one in four have not had everything they’re due.
They also maintained that cash injections into sector establishments is “clearly insufficient and extremely late,” and said that businesses which have opened under Phase one are thinking of closing again due to signs of “unsustainable” losses.
Both the CEAB and the PIMEM are of the view that “the successive extensions to the State of Alarm continue without offering Mallorca or the Balearics a plan of action for being back in normal social routines, and even less, settle on health protocols for detecting infections at entry points to the islands or among residents, or on the isolation of infection focal points, or a transparent communication on our health reality.”
They have both urged the Balearic Island government to take the lead in regard to the archipelago’s tourism sector to “counteract the apathy of Madrid with determined and responsible action.”