More on sustainability
With September approaching, can Majorca anticipate being less "saturated"? Hoteliers were saying that occupancy will be slightly lower than in either July or August but that September will be the most profitable month of the year - all down to a different type of tourist. Saturation and tourism sustainability remained themes of last week, a survey finding that 10% of its 680 respondents ranked limiting the number of tourist places as the third most important measure for creating sustainability.
Once more, we weren't convinced about the saturation arguments or indeed that the public fully comprehends what sustainability means. As an example, we highlighted the fact that a mere 2% identified measures to deal with all-inclusives as being important for greater sustainability. All-inclusives, we pointed out, fail to meet a key test for sustainability - that of generating general economic welfare. Humphrey Carter in the Tuesday Viewpoint wondered if, rather than there being a problem because of "saturation", getting served in restaurants was all down to poor management. You picked up on this angle - employment of staff - suggesting there were issues with the "horrendous" cost of employing staff and with flexibility on hiring.
Too many terraces?
Palma, when not saturated in other respects, appears to constantly be saturated because of the space that all its terraces occupy. Aurora Jhardi, deputy mayor for public services, was making new proposals that would cut terrace space. Reductions of terraces would not be "drastic", and she was not going to neglect the economic interests of local people. The Majorca Restaurants Association suggested that she would be doing precisely that and estimated that 500 terraces (around 28% of the total) could disappear. A reaction to this wondered if it was the general public who were "bonkers" for wanting to use terraces and to contribute to the city's prosperity or if "our politicians" were the crazy ones.
Apropos Palma's terraces we learned that revenue from fines for transgressions had gone by around 90%.
Road safety
A British woman was knocked down and killed on the coast road between Alcudia and Puerto Pollensa on Tuesday. This prompted a British resident, Oliver Bray, to set up a petition to demand greater road safety. In Thursday's paper, Oliver explained some of the issues and outlined possible measures, such as speed bumps. Several of you offered your views, most coinciding in highlighting aspects to do with this particular road (and others in the area). One of you, Ron Forbes, observed that a Pollensa politician, Joan Cifre, is the new head of "carreteras" at the Council of Majorca. Will he be able to tackle such safety issues? Yesterday we asked a similar question of Sr. Cifre and also wondered if he would be getting to grips with other matters in Puerto Pollensa, such as the promised new bus station.
Poles in Capdella
There was naturally a great deal of sympathy for the victim of the accident, but another matter which Bulletin readers made news during the week didn't attract quite the same level of sympathy. Steel poles were appearing in Es Capdella in Calvia, which falls within the Unesco Tramuntana World Heritage Site. There was "outrage" over what were considered to be a blot on that Unesco landscape, but lack of clarity as to the purpose of the poles (for lighting in fact) drew a response which wondered if the "shocked" residents had not noticed any prior installation. "Surely they didn't just come along and stick them in the ground?"