Festive Palma

I must admit that central Palma appears unusually quiet for this time of the year. Perhaps it could be the arrival of the new out-of-town shopping centres, but I was quite shocked the other night to see that many of the central Palma streets were empty even though we are in the middle of the Christmas party season. What is going on? We have been told that the local economy is in fine shape and the recession is a distant memory. But people have long memories. They still remember the bad old days of the recession, and I get the impression that Majorcans are saving rather than spending.

Many of the shops in central Palma make most of their money from tourism in the peak summer months. But as there is little tourism about at this time of the year then we get empty streets. As I mentioned in this space earlier this week, shops have been forced to discount items quite heavily and, believe it or not, there are many bargains to be found. So, it is a quiet Christmas this year in Palma. Perhaps the big rush will come nearer to the weekend, but so far there is not much festive spending joy about.