Your views

Dear Sir,
Re: your campaign to ban all-inclusive holidays. Would this mean that hotels would have to start charging guests separately for meals, would they be banned from serving meals entirely, or is it just the free drinks that are the problem? Either way, it seems an excellent way to discourage tourism and allow Majorca to return to its peaceful tranquillity of former years.
Anton Barkhuysen
Sta. Eugenia

Dear Sir,
Ijust would like to respond to Jason Moore’s Viewpoint to the all-inclusive so called problem you are having on Majorca. I for one love the idea of all-inclusive. The restaurants and bars in Majorca for years have ripped off the tourist coming to the island. I should state not all fall into this category, there are many good restaurants and bars that give the tourist good value for money. I tend to go away from the touristy places to get a good meal in a local cafe or restaurant for a good price. I do not mind paying for a meal just not getting ripped off.
You are saying that the all-inclusive’s will kill off the local trade for these people and yes they might do that. Then again if the hotels go all-inclusive they will have to hire more locals to work within the hotel to make it run smoothly. As you and I both know the staff during the so called high season work 12-16 hours a day, 7 days a week, and then on the low season they go on the dole for the winter.
This would make it better for the staff over all since they would not have a low season. The tourists would come all year round, so now you have employees working 40 hours a week for 52 weeks of the year and you would hire more people to work in these all-inclusive resorts.I for one am booked in an all-inclusive this May for my 2 weeks holiday. I have been to Majorca over 20 times in the last 20 or so years and the last 5 times all-inclusive. I do not plan on sitting around the pool all day eating the endless supply of food and drinking the booze all day. I still love going out and exploring the island and visiting all the towns and villages in the mountains. I have my breakfast and I will still have the occasional lunch or dinner out of the resort. When you go all-inclusive, yes, you don’t have to worry about the food or drinks, but you can then also go out and enjoy the local trade without having to be forced to do this on a daily grind!! Which I do about 5 or 6 nights and 4 or 5 lunches during my usual stay.
I do understand that everyone has to make money but the Caribbean resorts have been doing all-inclusives for years and they are surviving. Quite well in fact with all year round trade. So if you want to have the winter trade then you need to get the people coming not only for the summer season, and the only way they will come to Majorca and not Tenerife and Gran Canary is if they get the deals on all -inclusive. As we know the weather is a major factor in Majorca in the winter. Heat your pools in the winter I say to the hoteliers. Make the resort enjoyable all year round.
People in these truly hard economic times need to budget their funds for the holidays, and if Majorca is giving them a great deal on the winter all-inclusives they will come!! They will come!!
Regards,
Neil Cruickshank
Senior Agent
Durham Travel