Closing Palma airport at night, increasing the rate of the tourist tax and the controversial holiday home rental plan are three of the proposals which have rather underlined how out of touch the local authorities are at the moment. The airport proposal is probably the most stupid of the lot and would require months of hard work and planning and would reduce the operating capability of the airport. I get the impression sometimes that they are just headline-grabbing plans which are just that; silly season ideas.
But I do notice a trend. Not long ago it was "a tourist, a friend". These days it is more a question of "a tourist, who we do not want at all costs". In other words the day when the tourist was king are gone. These days it is tourism as long as it doesn't hit our daily lives. In some ways it is quite a normal reaction. For decades the tourist industry has gone from strength to strength. In fact, we haven't had a bad season for years. People have got complacent and now they are demanding more when years ago it was a question of the more tourists the better.
The change in attitude will continue and government policy will change as a result. But there are dangers. Majorca can't sit back. Tourists need to be welcomed in the same way as they were years ago. A tourist is a friend when you have an economy which is just based around tourism. If a tourist feels unwelcome, he or she will go elsewhere.