Summer is over...see you in 2007

By Jason Moore AS I have said before in this space, I don't want to ruin the party as regards a bumper year for tourism, but I think I should point out that the majority of British tour operators are not running a winter programme to Majorca this year. So why are the champagne corks still busy popping at the local ministry for tourism? Perhaps they should realise that by the end of next month you will probably be able to count the number of tourists on a single hand. While winter tourism has always been a rather modest affair to Majorca, anything was better than nothing. A small number of hotels stayed open for your long-stay winter tourist and they helped generate some income in resorts. Despite plenty of talk over the years by the local authorities to promote Majorca out of season, their efforts appear to have been largely unsuccessfully. The reason that no tourists come to Majorca after October? Well, it's no secret to us who live here but of course the weather is the principal factor; the winters in Majorca have got colder and who wants to stay in a holiday resort which is like a ghost town? To all those business people in resorts, if you haven't made your money by October 31, you are going to be in a rather difficult situation. The season will not start again until at least May so you've got six months to play with it. A rather sad state of affairs, don't you think?