PALMA
CLEARLY lifted by the 54 million euro cash injection into the Balearic tourist industry next year, the President of the Balearics, Francesc Antich, used his Christmas cocktail party with the media to claim that the region will embark on the road to recovery in the New Year.
Antich said yesterday that 2009 has been much tougher than this year and that he is confident that the Balearics will begin moving to economic recovery in 2011.
Recent financial experts have forecast that there will be no green shoots until 2012 and no full recovery until 2014, but Antich's government appears to be far more optimistic. We've got through the toughest period but 2011 is going to begin with more positive figures and that is going to lift the economy and create jobs, the President forecast.
Equally upbeat was the Minister for Tourism and Employment, the government spokesperson Joana Barcelo.
She said yesterday that the Balearics has the necessary tools to climb out of recession and get back on the road to recovery next year.
We're a global brand, we have the business know-how, the skilled people and the capability to all work together, the Minister said.
During her Christmas cocktail party at the Ministry for Tourism, she said that her department is determined to continue working hard to not only lift tourism but also help the economy recover.
Barcelo explained that there are two key policies that the government has and will follow in order to secure the region emerges from the recession and those are strong leadership from the government and its ability to introduce measures, albeit some of them my seem tough, to ensure swift and solid recovery.
However, the government faces another tough challenge in the New Year and that is the May municipal elections.