Holiday TravelWatch director concerned about Majorca tourism

Holiday TravelWatch campaigns on behalf of many thousands of holidaymakers who have suffered appalling holidays abroad.
The Club Aguamar in Majorca has been the subject of many group actions for diseases caught while staying at this property and I have been involved in all of them.

The Club Aguamar is not the only property in Majorca that has been involved in group action litigation. There is a long list of hotels where diseases have been contracted by British holidaymakers while staying in Majorca.

The United Kingdom is a very consumer orientated country. Fifty percent of the British consumers have access to the internet in their homes or in the workplace.

We have consumer programs on TV and Radio and we have a very active Consumer Organisation.
My organisation, Holiday TravelWatch recently visited Spain along with The Heads of Health and Safety of both Thomson and Airtours to meet with the Minister of Tourism, in the Spanish Senate in Madrid.

The Minister at that time was Eduardo Gamero. Holiday TravelWatch brought to the Minister's attention several factors as to why there would be a decline in the amount of tourists that would be visiting Majorca in 2001 and possibly in 2002.

Many of our television programmes feature such series as “Holidays From Hell” series 1'2'3 and 4 “Package Holidays” 2000, 2001 and 2002 “Watchdog” “Destination Nightmare” “Danger Abroad” and recently “Destination Despair”.

These programmes receive very high viewing figures, are televised at peak time and are watched by millions of people who are all holidaymakers.
When the viewing public see these programmes and continually see hotels featured in Majorca, is it no wonder that they do not book holidays to Majorca.

There is a long list of hotels in Majorca that have been responsible for holidaymakers contracting Salmonella, Cryptosporidium and other highly infectious diseases caused through food and water contamination.

If Majorca wants the British tourist to return to the island, it has got to insist that hoteliers invest more money in health and safety and work more closely with some of the British tour operators, otherwise the decline in tourism will continue and it will take a long time for the island of Majorca to recover from this kind of bad publicity.

Holiday TravelWatch has two websites on the internet.
One informs holidaymakers what they can do if they have an appalling holiday and gives advice, information and informs consumers of their rights.
The other is a Forum, membership only and where anyone can detail and place reports about any hotel they have stayed at, be it good or bad.
If you wish to print this, then please do so.
Who knows, perhaps someone will begin to listen and start to see where the real problems lie and then perhaps the tourism figures which are declining will start to increase again and perhaps the British tourist will have the confidence to return to the island of Majorca.

brenda.wall@which.net
http://www.holidaytravelwatch.com

Tourist tax, what's all the fuss about?

Dear Sir,
Having visited your magnificent island approx 40 times in the last 28 years, I feel that we are as qualified as anybody to comment on the debate that is occurring over the Tourist Tax.

Having read all the negative comments over recent weeks (Bulletin viewed via Internet), we can't see what the objections are.
After all, the demands on water, refuge disposal and associated services are purely down to us tourists.
We cause it, so why shouldn't we pay for it? Don't try to tell us that anybody with a genuine love of the island will object to the meagre amount of money being asked on top of what they would spend over 1 or 2 weeks holiday! After all, if we were resident in Majorca (chance would be a fine thing), we would not be at all pleased if local amenities suffered purely because of the vast number of visitors to the island.

We can assure you that it would take a lot more than this Tourist Tax to stop us from visiting your “piece of paradise”.

Yours sincerely

PS: Just for the record, Puerto Pollenca is our preferred resort. Let's hope the Tourist Tax helps to eliminate the stench that has recently started emanating from the water inlet a couple of hundred meters from the Port (next to Tolos Restaurant).

No one is accountable

“There is always a spin, always some-one to stick up and say this should have happened or that should have happened, we have made a mistake we are going to change things. But why do they have to be changed after the event.” These are not my words but the words of the father of the premature baby who was thrown into a washing machine at a Kent hospital this week. And he continues “She (my girlfriend) is trauamatised, she has lost her son, she's gone to Spain, to be with her family and to get medical treatment because it is a lot quicker there.” True words indeed uttered by the latest victim of the National Health Service. This must be one of the most disgraceful episodes in the tarnished history of the British National Health Service and nothing will be done because no-one in Britain is accountable anymore. There is so much spin or what I would call passing the buck that episodes like this just become a slagging match between the people concerned. The government will blame the Tory party for 18 years of under-funding and probably say that it was the Tory Party which privatised the cleaning company in the first place. The Tory Party will say that the National Health Service is worse now than when they were in power and the Liberal Democrats will claim that if higher taxes were paid this would never have happened. We've heard the same old script so many times we know exactly what everyone is going to say. I once had an editor who had a sign on his desk which said “the buck rests with me”. It's a shame that more people in power in Britain don't follow his example because no-one appears to be accountable for anything.