Tag: Formentera

Jet2holidays introduces Formentera for Summer 2024

Jet2holidays, the UK-based tour operator, has announced the latest addition to its Summer 24 programme: Formentera, Spain.

Formentera, the southernmost gem of the Balearic islands, is renowned for its unspoiled beaches and crystalline waters. Holidaymakers can choose from a variety of resorts, including Platja de Migjorn and Es Pujols, each offering an array of experience-based activities, such as water sports, snorkelling, diving, and boat trips. For those seeking a more relaxed pace, bike and scooter rentals are available. The island’s enchanting salt flats provide scenic cycling routes, and despite its modest dimensions-20km in length and 2km at its narrowest point-Formentera offers breathtaking vistas and secluded coves.

The eagerly anticipated holiday programme is now available for booking, with multiple weekly departures from 11 major UK airports: Belfast International, Birmingham, Bristol, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds Bradford, Liverpool John Lennon, London Stansted, Manchester, and Newcastle International. The holidays are scheduled to operate from May 16 through to October 5.

Jet2holidays packages include Jet2.com flights to Ibiza airport, 22kg baggage allowance, complimentary child places, and transfers, by securing a booking deposit of GBP60 per person.

Steve Heapy, CEO of Jet2.com and Jet2holidays, said: ‘We are incredibly excited to be launching packages to Formentera for Summer 24. As well as giving customers the opportunity to enjoy a well-deserved summer holiday, the unspoilt island is a peaceful paradise and one of the most idyllic destinations in the Balearics.’

He added: ‘As well as experiencing strong demand for last-minute Summer 23 getaways, we are also seeing customers wanting to book ahead for next summer and the Balearics are proving popular. This expansion further strengthens our biggest ever summer programme as we continue to offer customers and independent travel agents unrivalled choice and flexibility, thanks to the launch of Formentera. We know that it will be a popular destination as customers look to escape the UK and enjoy some much-needed summer sun.’

With this expansion, Jet2holidays extends its reach to encompass well over 550 beach and city resorts, spanning across 60 destinations for the Summer 24 season.

ABTA protests Balearics car hire tax

The Association of British Travel Agents, ABTA, has asked authorities in the Balearic Islands to reconsider the imposition of a tax on rental cars that is due to be implemented from April this year.

The Spanish-owned Balearic Islands, the largest and most visited of which are Majorca, Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera, are intending to impose the tax as an ecological measure, but ABTA is concerned that the added cost to a week’s car rental will be bad for tourism to the archipelago.

The tax is set to vary between €3 and €7.5 per day, to be levied depending on the CO2 emissions of the individual car that is rented. This would make the cumulative weekly rental cost as much as €52.5, or £46 more expensive than it is currently. The amount will be payable when the car is collected from the rental company, even if the rental was prepaid in the renters home country.

The tax is intended to raise €15m per year for the Balearics’ government, but ABTA has asked them to delay its introduction and to reconsider.

Abta head of destinations and sustainability, Nikki White, said, ‘Hasty decisions that don’t give travel businesses time to prepare and take tourists by surprise can have a very damaging impact. Taxing tourists does more harm than good in the long term.’

ABTA has an ally in Jose Manuel Soria, Spain’s tourism minister, who, commenting on the proposed tax at last November’s World Travel Market in London, described it as, ‘Unfair.’

It remains to be seen if the new tax will be imposed on its scheduled date of April 1 this year.