Última Hora has published an article in which Juanmi Ferrer, the president of CAEB Restauración, the Mallorca hospitality business association, warns of the possibility of mass closures of hospitality establishments in Palma de Mallorca, particularly on the seafront, due to the decline in tourists’ purchasing power. Last year, 370 establishments were forced to close permanently, and this year, there are up to three per cent fewer restaurants on the island. Ferrer attributes this phenomenon to tourists’ reduced spending power, higher flight and hotel room prices, and increased business expenses, including rising rents and raw material prices.
The news item was shared on X by the account «Pobre Millennial» (Poor Millennial), which is dedicated to providing investment and trading advice. In economic terms, this user wanted to deliver their own particular ‘I told you so’ with a tweet that reads: «Remember how I’ve been talking about false tourist overcrowding for two years? Well, it’s happening. People are broke’.
The «Overton window» is a sociological model that argues that things that seem normal to us today would have been unthinkable years ago, and vice versa. It is the mental framework of a defined society whose ideas can range from the «unthinkable» to the «popular», passing through the radical, the acceptable, the sensitive, the popular and the political.
At the time of writing, the post has 400 comments, 1,000 retweets and 3,000 likes. One of the most prominent, which sparked public debate, reads: ‘Two weeks ago in Formentera, maybe these prices also have something to do with it,’ accompanied by a receipt from a well-known restaurant in the south of the Pitiusan Islands. This user blames hoteliers for the low occupancy of terraces, due to the price increases that the hospitality industry has experienced in recent years.
The total for a table of seven people comes to almost 400 euros, specifically 357.50 euros. As expected, the comments have gone wild.
‘I hope the croquette included the boletus mushroom and, as a bonus, the family of the gnome that lived inside,’ commented one user, referring to the price of the boletus croquette, 9.50 euros.
As for the white sangria, which costs 42 euros, users commented ironically: ‘Is it called white sangria because you turned white from the «sangria» they served you?’
Among the detractors was a young man who commented, ‘Did you think having your photo taken in Formentera would cost the same as in Malvarrosa? You should have gone to the sandwich bar opposite.’ Another user made a similar comment, saying, ‘You went to a Michelin-starred chef’s restaurant. There are cheaper options. It’s like going to StreetXO and saying, «Madrid is so expensive,«’ in reference to the famous restaurant of the renowned chef Dabiz Muñoz. It should be noted that the account in question belongs to a renowned Spanish chef who owns another Michelin-starred restaurant on the peninsula.
Another user commented: ‘Well, a Michelin-starred chef, in the middle of a natural park, a World Heritage Site and on the most expensive island in Spain... it’s expensive, but it was to be expected.’
Finally, the user «Lluvia de Esperanza» replied: ‘Anyone who charges six euros for a bottle of water deserves everything bad that happens to them’.