Jason Moore06/09/2016 00:00
TW
2

Podemos, the left-wing political party formed out of the anti-austerity movement, wants tourism promotion to be eased in an effort to curb the number of tourists because there is "no room at the inn in Majorca". I agree with them. Tourism promotion is rather a waste of time in its present form. Majorca has been a mass market holiday destination for 40 years, I think you can safely say that everyone knows that Majorca has beautiful beaches and that there are 300 days of sun a year.

But I do not agree with Podemos that we should try and curb the number of tourists. As we all know it is a long winter on Majorca, and the more money that is made during the summer months, the better. The two issues do, though, go hand in hand. I would urge the local authorities to concentrate their promotion efforts on low-season tourism. We want more visitors, not necessarily in the summer but certainly during the winter. In an ideal world it would be fantastic if we could split the number of tourists who visit us throughout the whole year. This is never going to happen, but if we had more tourists in the winter then the mad rush for trade during the summer months could be avoided. It would also ease the unemployment cycle. If hotels remain open during the winter there will be a fall in unemployment. What Majorca needs is a properly devised plan to attract winter visitors. But we don´t want to curb tourism, we want more tourists.