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The Balearic tourist ministry will spend 90 million pesetas next year in launching eight new commercial marks to differentiate the varied tourist offers in the islands. The marks will be officially launched at the World Travel Market in London on Tuesday. Tourism chief Celesti Alomar, accompanied by representatives of Arthur Andersen who drew up the plan, announced details of the new marks, five of which correspond to Majorca and the others to Minorca, Ibiza and Formentera. The names will be marketed in Catalan and in Majorca cover golf, conventions, cycle tourism, rambling and traditional tourism. Alomar said that the aim was to “rejuvenate” the island and make known the multiple alternatives to “sun and beach.” In Formentera, the accent is on “unique hostals” taking advantage of the small establishments which are a characteristic feature of the island. Minorca will be touted as a “Reserve of the Biosphere” because of its natural landscape. Sport will be the slogan for Ibiza, to draw attention away from its reputation as a centre of night life. Nearly 80 small and medium-sized businesses in the Balearics have expressed their interest in aligning themselves under one of the marks, which will be marketed under the distinctive “Illes Balears” umbrella, according to Elsa Martin of Arthur Anderson. The new marks were designed after diagnosing supply and demand in the islands, and the government has already spent 74 million pesetas on the campaign. A company will now be set up to introduce the marks and draw up strategic plans for launching them. Alomar said that the purpose was to group together small and medium-sized businesses under a distinctive mark, diversify offers and break the seasonal barrier, where the bulk of tourism arrives in the summer. Companies interested must comply with a series of requisites, such as adapting their services and installations to a set of criteria and marketing the business with a common strategy. Alomar said that Ibatur, the Balearic Tourism Institute, would be in charge of promoting the distinctives, each of which can be transferred to the other islands if need be. Alomar also said that a new tourist image of the Balearics would be launched in January.