Dear Sir,
I read with interest the open letter, from Wednesday 5th October.
Whilst I respect Mr Walsh's experience and past achievements, I have to question the statement that there is no one single solution to the lack of tourism/inward tourist spend from the UK/EU outside of the main holiday season.
Quite simply, there is only one key reason. Whilst the airlines refuse to fly substantial programs to Majorca during the winter months, for whatever reason, there will be no major inward investment into the islands and no major winter packages. Hotels will remain closed, businesses will close for winter and people will continue to leave the island for the winter months.
This will escalate and Majorca will become less and less viable over these months. Add to this the continuing insistence of the authorities to continue to chase all EU nationalities for the totally illegal matriculation tax of EU registered charter boats and motor vehicles, and Majorca Inc becomes increasingly un-viable as a leisure destination, particularly to the higher net worth individuals; the higher spenders.
Everything still stems back to the airline's. I go to Dubai for winter, and the Emirate is a GREAT example of how to attract major inward tourism investment and create a year round tourist destination. Dubai has 2 key elements to their success in this field:
1 They created and therefore control their own airline therefore controlling passenger arrivals
2 They have a clear focused 5 year plan that ALL Government departments work towards. Total cohesion.
All of the other shortfalls that Majorca has that Mr Walsh mentions in his open letter; no 5 star hotel investment, golf courses too expensive, property owners selling up and leaving etc all stem from the fact that Majorca continues to be seasonal; more so in recent years. And this is down to the lack of flights.
There is no point spending the islands promotional Euro on winter promotions if tourists cannot get here, and even if they do, nothing is open. Until this airline issue is seriously tackled by ALL of the relevant Government departments, Majorca will continue as a seasonal tourism destination.
Johnny Carr
Majorca/Dubai
Dear Sir, I was in Palmanova this evening with my daughter for a dental appointment when I noticed on my way home how worn the Spanish flag is on the memorial for the two Guardia Civil officers killed by ETA in the car bomb attack two years ago. As an Irish Family living full-time in Port Andratx I would like to contribute 100 towards a new flag and maybe some of your English speaking readers would also like to contribute towards it also. If you can organize this could you please let me know where I can send the donation to.
Derek Mac Dermott
Port Andratx