I must admit I do find it rather strange that so many hotels and businesses are closing down early this year especially as we are enjoying better weather now than we had in August. The unions have claimed that hoteliers are just trying to alarm everyone and make the situation worse than it really is. It does seem quite incredible that most tourist resorts resemble a ghost town eventhough we are enjoying beach type weather. Surely, if the summer season has been so poor why don't the hotels stay open for a few more extra weeks? Like clockwork, the majority of hotels will close this week marking the end of the summer season. A large number have already done so. Thousands of seasonal workers will be out of a job. However, I am sure that there would be thousands of tourists who would be more than willing to head to local resorts if they found that the necessary hotels were open along with bars and restaurants. If there is a more sinister reason for the early closing of hotels as some politicians have suggested then the tourist industry here has serious problems. How can the island try and attract more winter tourists if the industry has basically closed down? The frosty relationship between hoteliers and local government is really clouding the situation at the moment and the consequences for the local economy and for Majorca's future could be very serious. It's a great pity that industry and government can not settle their differences.