“A nail in the coffin”

l Dear Sir,
GRAHAM Phillips is a little too glib and simplistic in observing that apropos of Rental cars, “Things have become too cheap in Majorca”. I wonder where he has been living over the past several years and earlier, a period which has seen vast rises in the general cost of living, restaurants and bars in particular doubling or trebling prices, especially since the advent of the Euro. I have never rented a car so I cannot comment on his assertion that hire charges are low or lower than the Mainland. I DO know however, that the cost of driving a private vehicle is immeasurably more expensive, so I hardly think that hire cars can be exempt from the great surge of oil prices and consequent increases at petrol pumps. Be that as it may, one would have had to be living on Mars not to be aware of the inflationary spiral that is inevitable each year and has affected the cost of living in every sphere, and I am afraid that even though Mr. Phillips proclaims “Something needs to change”, such statements mean absolutely nothing and will not alter the economy one iota.
Phil Green, Son Ferrer.
l Dear Sir,
I REFER to the letter by Graham Phillips ”Too many bodies”. Apart from yet another tax on tourists, his comment is factually wrong. “Rent-a-car here, for as long as I can remember, has always been ridiculously cheap compared to just mainland Spain”. On reading the website, Europcar, hired cars, for five days, hire at 10am and deposit at 10am. Hire from London Gatwick Airport 108.78 Pounds, hire from Barcelona Airport 99.71 Pounds, hire from Palma Airport 102.87 Pounds. I do not find the cost in Palma ridiculously cheap compared with mainland Spain! This is yet another nail in the coffin to lure even more tourists away from Majorca towards other destinations in Europe. In fact, charter flights from the UK to Palma have been dramatically reduced next summer and this is the first winter that British Airways are not flying direct from certain UK airports direct to Palma. This, surely, has to mean something! Why is Majorca constantly pushing tourists away? The island has not yet recouped from the loss of tourists under the Eco-Tax (or Tourist Tax), and probably never will. The world is a much smaller place than before and tourists have much more choice. Majorca needs to attract tourists, not push them away.
Barbera Briggs, by e-mail