Editorial: Better late than never

THE now infamous Magalluf incident hasn´t exactly shown the local authorities in their best light and they appeared ill prepared and slow to deal with an incident which could still affect the tourist industry. It basically took them a week to bring the Magalluf incident under control and by which time the British media had been all over Magalluf.  The problem is that the local government needs to create an official press centre with English and German speaking staff to deal with problems of this type. The biggest problem the British media find is that there is no-one in authority in Palma who can give them the official line. Now, obviously the official line is simple;Magalluf is just one of many resorts on the island and the rest are trouble free and ideal for a family holiday. So there are important lessons to be learnt or re-learnt. The local authorities need to act much faster and bring the situation under control before it gets out of hand. So far the whole Magalluf episode has cost the Balearic Government in excess of 500,000 euros, which is the sum which is being spent on  an advertising campaign in Britain telling tourists to behave. We will know shortly whether or not it has affected holiday bookings. Overall, this was not Majorca´s finest hour. We have a multi-billion euro tourist industry but it also needs help to get its message across. The Balearics need to go on a public relations exercise sooner rather than later.