05/03/2005 00:00
TW
0
By Jason Moore THE few tourist businesses which have opened in Calvia this winter are reporting one of their worst seasons ever and are calling on the council to take urgent action. A group of Calvia taxi-drivers interviewed by our sister newspaper said that during the summer months Calvia sold itself with its fine beaches and great facilities but it is during the winter months when the council should spring into action and encourage more hotels to stay open by reminding tour operators that there is more to Calvia than just beaches. They have a point; Calvia does have a large number of excellent golf courses and its resorts are well equipped to attract even the most distant rays of sun. I must say that one of my favouriate resorts in the municipality is Palmanova. The resort, during my last visit, was nothing more than a ghost town and I did feel sorry for the small number of businesses which had opened and were battling to attract trade. Can winter tourists be attracted to the island? Of course they can but it requires imagination and plenty of hard-work.

Ultima Hora,

Calvia is rightly proud of its resorts; in my opinion they are some of the best on the island with facilties which other tourist resorts can only dream of. But a real effort is needed to keep them open for more than five months of the year. Okay, it can be argued that other resorts across the island are in the same boat but Calvia has always been on pole position when it comes to winter tourists. It would be a sad state of affairs if it went the same way as Alcudia/Pollensa or the Playa de Palma. While the Chess Olympics might have been a success I would say that a golf tournament would have been more lucrative. We can't just throw in the towel every winter. Winter tourists, especially with our present climate, are not easy to attract but they have come to the island in the past and there is no reason why they shouldn't return again.