Flights: £1768.00
Villa rental: £3041.00
Car hire: £538.00
Cash spending money: £1860.00
Total: £7207.00
These figures were for four people but last year we had a party of eight which I know cost in excess of £10,000.00. I would argue that of these amounts of money the island will have helped to generate jobs, profit for business owners and, in turn, taxes for the government.
The cost per person is becoming almost unsustainable now and a further imposition of tax will only see visitors finding less expensive areas to spend their hard-earned holiday money.
We will probably continue to holiday on the island because we now have friends who live there and love the way of life but if the government continue to add further costs to already expensive holidays there is going to be a reluctance by many others of all nationalities to say enough is enough this year we will go elsewhere.
Yours sincerely,
Alan Carleton
Granborough, Bucks, England.
Dear Sir,
The Balearics offer of the youth hostel in Arenal to accommodate refugees is welcome but 70 places is a drop in the ocean (MDB Thursday). Even the UK, which is receiving much criticism over the paucity of its offer, is proportionately four times greater than ours.
Approximately four million Syrians have flown their country to avoid the civil war. Large numbers of refugees have fled similar wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and that’s not counting the economic migrants from Asia and Africa. Some estimate that a resettlement of two million in the EU is needed. Proportionally, this would equate to 4000 for our islands.
Our government could possibly alleviate this load by quantifying the number of illegals from Sudan, Nigeria etc., we already have. A decade ago an amnesty was offered to all illegals who could demonstrate employment. Is it possible that we could trade our share of the current refugee burden by legally accommodating some of our existing economic refugees?
Mike Lillico
Playa de Palma.
2 comments
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The cost of a tourist tax in the Balearics is negligible as far as I am concerned but the the very idea of it makes me so insensed when I already support the local economy that I would simply choose to go elsewhere as a matter of protest. Have been to Corsica, Capri and plenty of other beautiful islands without the "punish the beastly tourist" attitude.
Profits from your flights went straight to a foreign-owned airline group, and your villa rental costs went straight into the hands of a private owner, right?We don't want people like you who want Mallorca to be a cheap holiday destination. Feel free to take your parsimony elsewhere. As reported in the Bulletin, hotel occupancy and spend in the newer more up-market establishments show that low-cost tourism is dead. Thank goodness.