Spain’s Balearic Islands could see tourists pay with cryptocurrency

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

The technical director of a joint local government-private enterprise group in Spain’s Balearic Islands said that tourists in the near future can pay by cryptocurrencies effortlessly.

Fundación Impulsa Technical Director Antoni Riera said that the pace of cryptocurrency adoption in the tourism sector would “depend on how quickly economic paradigms change in [overseas] countries.”

Nevertheless, he added, “I am aware that [crypto pay] is a future scenario that will end up taking place.”

The Fundación Impulsa comprises many of the area’s biggest hotel and restaurant chains, along with a number of major Spanish banks and shopping outlets.

The islands, the biggest of which are Mallorca, Menorca, Formentera and Ibiza, welcome around 17.5 million tourists every year.

Many areas of the Balearic Islands are open to embrace payment via cryptocurrency. Many hotels and restaurants there have started accepting bitcoin and altcoins in recent years – while cryptocurrency brokerages and exchanges have also started setting up shop on the islands.

Earlier this year, Mallorca’s Playa de Palma resort earlier unveiled a pilot project whereby crypto ATMs were installed at key tourist hotspots, while eateries and hotels in the resort were equipped with technology for processing crypto payments.

Playa de Palma is expected to become Europe’s “first tourist resort to operate on cryptocurrencies.”

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