We have to educate children about the merits of tourism and its importance to the local economy. True words indeed uttered by the President of the Mallorca Tourist Board, Eduardo Gamero. But I wouldn’t stop there, adults also need the same treatment. “Thank god, I don’t live from tourism,” a bank employee told me last week. I think you do because the vast majority of cash being held by local banks comes from tourism.
We all live from tourism in Mallorca, one way or the other. To say that we don’t is ridiculous and it also leads to problems such as the anti-tourism marches. A complete re-education of Balearic society is needed urgently. It is not a question of a tourist, a friend; it is a question of a tourist, our economy. Years ago I remember a department store boss in Palma telling me that if we have a bad tourist season everyone suffers.
The problem these days is that a small minority of people think that Mallorca can survive quite nicely without tourism. Wrong I am afraid. About 80 percent of Balearic GDP comes from tourism. If we want the economy to prosper then I think it is time that we started being nice to tourists again, because unless someone has invented a Harry Potter-style wand, the local economy can’t survive without them.