Letters to the Editor

OK, only 100,000 tourists came to Majorca in February? How is that figure arrived at? Is it based on the number of passengers on each plane that arrived at Palma airport? It must be, otherwise nobody could work out how many people came here on holiday. But, what is a tourist?

If you come from Barcelona for a day’s shopping in Palma, are you a tourist?

And don’t forget, a lot of people that fly via Air Berlin using the Palma hub, don’t stay here but fly on to destinations like Alicanta and Malaga that offer nearby winter tourists resorts (with hotels are that are open) for their passengers.

Maybe, as I have suspected for many a year, these figures are just plucked out of the air.

Right, if there were just eight flights a week from the UK in February, and each one was, for example, a Boeing 737-400 then that would mean 5,376 tourists from the UK - but don’t forget, a lot of those people on the planes would have been resident’s returning from a visit ‘back home’ - in other words, they weren’t tourists.

So that means that less that than 5% of tourists to Majorca in February were British.

Aren’t statistics a wonderful thing?

TRUE or FALSE?

Ian Morrison

Porto Colom

Sir,

My wife and I have been visiting this island frequently since we spent our honeymoon here 50 years ago.

There have been many changes of course, some good and some bad, but it still remains a beautiful island.

We like to motor and visit both familiar and new sites and these trips form an important part of our holiday. However over the last 2-3 years we have noticed an increasing number of cyclists on the roads. Now this will not be news to you and I daresay there have been articles and letters expressing views which we have not seen.

Yesterday we travelled from Pollensa to Soller and the experience was horrendous.

Countless racing cyclists, many coming in the opposite direction, frequently travelling fast, often in groups and most frighteningly in the middle of the road made for a scary experience.

We can’t be the only people to have noticed such encounters.

As a retired surgeon I wonder what the accident/ death rate is involving cyclists and if it is increasing. Could it be that there are a number of visitors, like us, who are having their trips to Majorca spoilt by the worsening road conditions and have made a decision not to come again? We are seriously considering staying away.

Yours truly,

Robert Dawkins FRCS

by Email.