War of words over winter Calvia tourism

Joan Collins THE Calvia council's councillor for Tourism, Kate Mentink, yesterday claimed that, during this Winter, tourism has risen by one percent to 250'000 visitors in this area, in comparison to last year. This contradicts the hoteliers in Palmanova, Magalluf and Paguera, who complained that the Winter season was “ruinous and worse every year” with regard to hotel occupancy and is “going backwards”. Speaking to the press, Mentink recognised that “the figures could always be better”, but said that this Winter, “we haven't suffered a fall in tourist numbers in Calvia although we haven't had much of an increase either”. To this end, she said, Calvia council has been working with the hoteliers associations in the area with the aim of improving tourist offers from November to March, through different cultural and sporting activities encompassed by the programme “Calvia, European Winter”. Mentink said she considered it was necessary, above all, to target the traditional markets of Britain and Germany, adding that the majority of Winter tourists are older people from these two countries, who “are more and more active and want cultural and sporting activities in the open air”. Because of this, Mentink said she thought that, to attract more tourists during the Winter season, Calvia council should work jointly with the hoteliers and business associations to “increase and improve Winter offers to tourists”. She then went on to speak about her “optimism” for the expected number of tourists visiting the Calvia area for Easter which, she said, were “excellent” and “a rise of more than 10 percent in the number of tourists who visited in 2005 is expected”. She estimated that there will be an “important” rise in British and German tourists as well as Spaniards due to the fact that Easter falls in April.