Balearcis must keep its human touch...

Chairman of the International Federation of Tour Operators, Martin Brackenbury, emerging from talks yesterday evening with top Balearic officials, warned “the Balearics must maintain standards and keep the human touch.” Brackenbury said that the meeting with Balearic President Antich, Tourism Minister Celesti Alomar and the head of tourism promotions Tiffany Blackman had been a positive one with the global crisis obviously topping the agenda. However the IFTO said it is still to early to make any sound judgements about the short and long term future of the tourist industry “you'll have to ask me in a week to ten days once we've collated and studied all the facts and figures and we know what is going on.” “We've run though some of the implications of last week's horrendous attacks for tourism generally and for the Balearics in particular. “This has been a unique event and 90 per cent of what I could say at this moment is likely to be wrong, but what is clear is that the American economy is hurt and not strong and the situation in Europe is also not particularly good and what has happened in the short run is not going to help the Balearics,” Brackenbury said.