"Willkommen auf Mallorca!" Germans to test out virus tourism

MADRID (AP) — Spain’s sunny, beautiful Balearic Islands will allow thousands of German tourists to fly in for a two-week trial that tests out how to balance the needs of Spain's vital tourism industry with new regulations to curb the country's coronavirus outbreak.

The trial that begins June 15 comes before the archipelago and the rest of the country re-open to international tourism on July 1. The Spanish government is under heavy pressure to re-activate an industry that generates 12% of Spain’s GDP and provides 2.6 million much-needed jobs.

Through an agreement with the German tour group TUI, other tour operators and several airlines, up to 10,900 Germans will be allowed into the archipelago, its President Francina Armengol announced Tuesday.

As many as that may seem in the coronavirus era, the figure represents only 0.41% of the visitors that the Mediterranean islands welcomed in the second half of June last year. The islands, which include Mallorca, Ibiza and Menorca, are a magnet for northern European visitors and others seeking sunny beaches, rocky coves and nightlife.

“We will be the first region (in Spain) to open to international tourism under safe conditions,” said Armengol, adding that Germany had been chosen because that government has kept tight controls on its outbreak, just like the Balearic Islands have done.

Germany's virus death toll — at 8,695 — is about five times less than Britain's and four times less than Italy's.

Germans, together with Moroccans and Italians, make up the largest group of foreign residents living in the islands, something that has prompted the joke that the archipelago is Germany’s 17th state. Restaurant menus are often translated into German and the daily Mallorca-Zeitung keeps tabs on the wide-ranging German...