LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Dear Sir, I READ with interest the articles and letters that you publish on tourism and I think to myself what are these people on! I would be seriously interested to know how some of these people earn or have earned their living. This island is what it is because of tourism - all types of tourism but built mainly on the package holiday. Everyone who lives and works here earns their living either directly or indirectly through tourism. Now, whilst I do not advocate the so called “cheap tourism” I am appalled at the number of people who snub holidaymakers to the island who come here for the sun, sand and sea holiday and the young people who want to have a good time. Are you all blind to the beauty of what we have here? We have a beautiful island with all the resources possible to provide a full compliment of services for ALL types of tourist. We can offer fantastic services for all types of sporting holidays. We have the so-called “up market” areas and the ports for the nautical people and we have beautiful beaches and custom made tourist resorts for the single people, couples and families who want a relaxing holiday with or without the nightlife. The local councils have greedily allowed too many businesses offering similar services to open up in tourist areas and now competition is so fierce that people cannot afford to discriminate and are forced to accept tourists behaviour that they would not normally accept. It is now a difficult situation as these businesses have paid their dues to the local councils, so how do we change things? Everyone has his or her own ideas, but it is delicate. Do we want to make the ordinary tourist feel so unwelcome that they no longer wish to holiday on the island? Personally, I think that would be disastrous. Whilst promoting golf, nautical sports and cycling is good and proper for the island, this kind of tourism will not keep the people here in the style to which they have become accustomed. Who decides what “quality tourism” is? I am a mother of three children and if I were looking for a family holiday and read some of the comments that are written about tourism in our local papers, I would seriously think twice about coming to Majorca. Is this really the kind of attitude that the majority of people on this island want? Again, personally I do not think so. SO, Graham Phillips returned to the fray again on Sunday on a subject one would have thought had been pretty well exhausted following all the columns that appeared in The Daily Bulletin a couple of weeks ago, especially the “Quality v. Cheapo Tourists” who are again excoriated by Mr. Phillips and told to go to Turkey or some other “hell hole” only fit for these derided specimens of humanity! Mr Phillips produces some figures that purport to show that “Quality” tourist numbers have increased by 50'000 since 2001 with a corresponding rise in spending of some 90 million euros. Well, I can tell him that the TOTAL number of British tourists arriving on the Island in 2001 amounted to some 1'600'000. This had risen to 2'400'000 by 2004, an increase of 800'000. (This year probably a bit higher though not much). If one deducts Mr. Phillips' 50'000, that leaves some 750'000 EXTRA “Cheapo” tourists who are bidden to get lost! This policy, if implemented would be a disastrous blow to the economy of Majorca,and though the loss of these tourists would make Mr Phillips happy, I doubt if the majority of Majorcan workers and their families would agree with him. Phil Green, Son Ferrer.