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By Jason Moore

WITH all this bad news about I am the first to welcome some good news but I was rather sceptical when I read the official tourism spending figures which claimed that the amount of money spent by holiday makers in July had risen by 12 percent. Now, these are official figures and should reflect a true picture of the state of the local tourist industry.

Now, unless I missed Paris Hilton and the Sultan of Brunei going on a shopping spree in Palma I would say that tourists are spending much less than last year. It is easy to support my argument because some resorts look like ghost towns and in Palma an increasing number of shops are closing down. Everyone I talk to claims that business is bad and it has been an awful season. So who is spending all this money?

Well, I don´t really know and nor do the people who have compiled this report. If tourism spending was 12 percent higher then the island has little to worry about, the good times are back and we can all have a great winter. But sadly this is not the case. It is going to be one of the hardest winters on record and I suspect that scores if not hundreds of businesses in the resorts will be closing down for good next month. The official line is very different but does anyone actually agree with it?