Mini invasion

The Majorca airlift proved successful early yesterday with thousands of British tourists flying into Majorca just minutes after the midnight end of the general strike. Almost 80'000 people were expected to pass through the airport yesterday, and many had been forced to travel later because of Thursday's general strike. Airlines had cancelled hundreds of flights which resulted in Palma airport being relatively trouble free. But there was also bad news for the airport yesterday. Figures announced for the crucial end of June week (June 22 to June 28) showed a further fall in tourism. An airport source indicated that over the next six days (Friday to Thursday) more than 523'000 people would pass through the airport compared to 546'000 during the same period in 2001. Although the drop is small it confirmed the downward trend which has hit the airport from the start of the year. This weekend alone will see a reduction in passenger figures by 10'000. Every cloud has a silver lining as they say and England's exit from the World Cup might be good news for Majorca. Many people had elected to stay in Britain and delayed booking their holiday. Now travel agents are expecting an avalanche of bookings but whether Majorca will be popular remains to be seen. Naturally the general strike and the tourist tax will not help. The strike has been widely reported in Britain. Turkey and Greece, which have already seen bookings rise significantly this year, are expected to benefit. The tourist industry said yesterday that eventhough Thursday's general strike had been somewhat of a damp squib it still gave Spain a negative image. Tour firms said that the last thing that the Balearics needs at the moment was an industrial dispute.