The Islands Have Shot The Goose

Dear Sir, WE are just finalising our holiday arrangements for 2006. We are taking two breaks of a fortnight each in May and September, with the possibility of a third in July. For the first time since 1994 we will be taking no holidays on either Minorca or Majorca. Each year since then we have had at least one holiday per year (more often two, spring and summer) on these islands, but last summer was the last for the forseeable future at least. The decline in value for money which began for us with the ridiculous Euro-inflation in the bars and restaurants culminated last July in two weeks of hideously overpriced accommodation in Cala En Porter (in place of our usual stay at the Audax in Cala Galdana) in an expensive apartment with poor fittings and where even the air conditioning was an expensive and highly over-priced “optional extra”. It's no good the bar, restaurant, hotel and apartment owners complaining about reducing demand for their products when they themselves are the reason for that reduction. They have shot the goose that laid the golden egg.