Viewpoint

Winter tourism Winter tourism and Majorca do not mix. Airport figures out for January showed a major decline in German and British tourism basically putting an end to the local government's dream of making the island an all year round holiday destination. One of Britain's leading tour firms said this week that if the government seriously wanted more tourists in the winter they should speak to God and get a change in the weather! But on a more serious note winter tourism will always be flawed until a serious effort is made and not just comments and statements at press conferences. During the month of January Palma and other parts of the island basically staged 20 days of street parties, parades, concerts and scores of other types of activities. All would have been of interest to tourists but were these events promoted in Germany and Britain? Unfortunately not. Tourists naturally want something to do and you can't go to the beach in January. So the tourism authorities should be making better use of what we've already got. The carnival in the Canary Islands gets almost world-wide publicity, San Sebastian in Majorca gets zero outside the island.