YOUR VIEWS

I am in complete agreement with John Lance about the inflexibility of the local ministry for tourism, why do the Balearics feel so strongly about driving out any accommodation opportunities that conflict with the outdated tower blocks that Majorca likes to call 3 and 4 star hotels. Agreed there are some lovely indedependant hotels in Majorca but I would call the majority outdated and overpriced.

Are the board so naive that they believe that if no holiday rentals are available through private individuals that visitors would suddenly flock to these hotels in droves, in the majority of cases I think not. Holiday rentals also put more money back into the local economy such as spend in supermarkets, restaurants, car hire etc. There is a completely different market for all inclusive/half board hotels to independent stays in rented accommodation so neither would those preferring to stay in hotels suddenly want to swap to holiday rentals.

Naturally the hotels are veering towards all-inclusive mass market tourism, it keeps all the money spent in their own hands resulting in no spend in local bars, etc. I also agree with John Lance that it would be better for the industry if any rentals were regulated and if a license fee were applied this would earn considerable extra revenue for the tourist board.

What is it with these islands in that during these difficult recessionary times they feel the need to be so small minded which in the long run does not help the overall situation with the Majorcan tourist industry - nothing like this exists in any other European country (that I am aware of) or for the world for that matter. Surely Joana Barcelo could spend more time sorting out the following: Expensive car hire (1'000 euro for a week Group A in the summer - I could rent a Ferrari in Monaco for not much more!!!)
Convincing the airlines to put on more scheduled flights to the islands from the UK (both BA and BMI dropped the route with BA only flying small aircraft from London City a few times a week) At present only Germany seems to be well served. Obviously nobody has tried to convince either of these airlines of the benefits of flying to this beautiful island, how strange that BA several flights to its smaller sister Ibiza during the summer from 2 London airports.

Repairing roads and replacing broken street lights (particularly in SW) so it is safe for families to walk into town at night.

Michael
Monaco