A SIGN OF THE TIMES

By Jason Moore FOR many years now I have always got the impression that British holidaymakers were second best to the Germans. Taxi drivers, (a major source of information) were always telling me that the Germans spent more money, left far bigger tips and were generally a better sort of tourist than their British counterpart. But wait, times appear to be changing. A few months ago I took a taxi to Palma airport and it was exceptionally busy and my cabbie's words of wisdom were “plenty of Germans but let's hope we get plenty of Brits as well because they spend the money...” I had to pinch myself, what is this that I was hearing. Initially I thought it was just a one-off but again yesterday another cabbie said that the Germans were good clients but never left a tip while the Brits always rounded it off to the nearest euro. What is going on. He also said that British holidaymakers were always asking about the euro. My cabbie remarked that obviously they were interested in the single currency, “because they realised that one day they would be getting it...” I agreed but thought to myself this is probably not the reason at all. The fact is that the reason why the Brits do seem to have a bit more money is that the pound sterling has remained strong against the euro and as Britain is so expensive even Majorca appears cheap. Welcome, to the big spending Brits!