The Balearic charter fleet in numbers

The Balearic Islands are the largest charter market in Spain by a clear margin. In the first half of 2025 the islands recorded 213 charter registrations out of 905 nationwide, ahead of Barcelona with 124 and Alicante with 116. That is roughly 24 per cent of the Spanish total from a population of about 1.2 million people, and it happened in a market that fell by 21.1 per cent nationally over the same period.

What the sector is worth

Industry figures for 2024 put the turnover of the Balearic yachting sector at 1.106 billion euros, equivalent to 3.1 per cent of Balearic GDP, generated by 879 companies and more than 5,000 direct jobs. Those are not charter revenues alone. The number includes refit, brokerage, marinas, provisioning, crew services and the supply chain that keeps them running, which is the part of the industry that does not show up in a holiday brochure.

A correction, not a collapse

The double digit national decline in charter registrations followed several exceptional post pandemic years, and it reads as a correction rather than a structural break. The Balearic share held while the national number fell, which is the more telling signal: when the market contracts, the fleet concentrates where the demand is, and the demand is here.

What the numbers mean for a charter client

Two things. First, supply in Mallorca is deep enough that a comparison of three or four offers is realistic in any week outside the first fortnight of August. Second, the professional density behind the fleet is unusually high for an island, from crew agencies to the refit capacity described in our piece on the yard that lifts 1,000 tonnes. The practical cost side sits in our guide to what a charter week costs.

Sources

• AENIB: the leisure boat market in the Balearics in 2025
• Balearic Marine Cluster: sector turnover, companies and employment
• Recreational boat registration in the Balearic Islands