Dear Sir,
I read with great interest Jason Moore’s account of missing tourists, the airport numbers may indicate that yes tourists arrived but the check outs indicate that the spending was down.
Now one would consider that yes the additional cost of tourist tax may drive people to rentals and they make full use of these facilities.
Another notion may be that the doubled tourist tax is expensive for family holidays and therefore tourists are staying for less time.
Either way there is an air of uncertainty of the reasons why.
If we consider that holidaymakers are not endless suppliers of cash which Majorca can use to obtain money on the pretence that they will improve the infrastructure for all, yet it has not been proven where this windfall cash has been spent.
There is an old saying that you cannot get blood from a stone or to put it simply has Majorca reached a turning point where the greed to cash in on the downfall of other tourist locations has finally come home to roost.
One only has to read the comments made about the tourist tax to see that the people are saying "we won’t come back".
The tourist minister is quoted as saying that the tax is as little as 5% of the tourists average spending on the island, now firstly the minister has an assumption that tourists have an endless pot of money.
I would suggest that she gets a real manual job and grafts and works to save money for a holiday as a reality check.
Secondly we had a highwayman named Dick Turpin who hid by the side of the road and robbed travellers on the highways, what does she think when holidaymakers who have grafted and saved to go on holiday only to be told with no notice that the tourist tax has doubled.
There are other tourists resorts with golden sandy beaches and deep blue seas where tourist tax is applied at a minimal amount and tourists are happy to pay.
Now we have seen that tourists are not welcome on the island and that Majorca is aiming for a better class of tourists, if we examine this very carefully.
Life is like a pyramid we are all born and only a few people reach the top of this pyramid say 120 years old, well tourism is like this we have plenty of tourists but only a few wealthy tourists.
We now have tourists deserting the island and the tourist board looking to promote wealthier clientele and both of these do not go hand in hand.
Fewer tourists means empty hotels, bars and restaurants and less employment opportunities, there are fewer wealthy tourist who are more likely to frequent five star hotels and more seclusive bars and restaurants and again less employment opportunity.
The one common thread that runs through all tourist locations is cost and people will look at airplane flights, hotel fees, spending money, tourist tax and weigh it all up, at the end of the day they will book where they get the best value for money.
B. Rowe