Balearic road show hits top British cities

By Humphrey Carter A Balearic tourism road show hit the ground in Britain yesterday at the start of a whirlwind promotional tour of Birmingham and Manchester. Some 20 Balearics business leaders are participating in the tour which will not only feature presentations to key tour operators and travel agents but also a number of “workshops”. The Balearic director general for Tourism promotion Eduardo Gameroa is heading the delegation which includes the Majorca and Ibiza tourist boards as well as the Minorca Tourism Foundation. The first “workshop” and presentations are going to be held today in Birmingham at Aston Villa football stadium, whose chairman, Doug Ellis, was coincidentally one of the pioneers of package holidays to Majorca in the 1950*s. The Lowry Hotel in Manchester will be hosting the second day of the promotional tour tomorrow. Tourism Ministry sources said yesterday that the presentations are very similar to the ones held in Belfast last month and are part of a series of PR events being held across the UK to stimulate the British holiday market and increase demand for Balearic holidays. The latest industry sales figures indicate that, as of the end of January, sales of package holidays and accommodation only trips to the Balearics were up by one percent compared to the start of last year. Sources at ABTA, the Association of British Travel Agents, said that the U.S. boom is tailing off, the Dollar is slightly stronger against the Pound than last year. Also, “people only tend to go to the States once every five years, so this year, most Britons will probably look to a summer holiday in the Euro zone, especially as the Pound is doing better against the Euro than a year ago.” What is more, ABTA sources revealed that the Eastern Europe and Mediterranean boom has taken a small down-turn, although Poland appears to be the fashionable new spot this summer - but nowhere is attracting the kind of numbers Majorca is.