Palma gets the message

The centre of Palma, in keeping with its new logo, opened its heart yesterday, well at least part of it, to tourists and locals.
Despite being a fiesta and a majority of retailers and businesses having decided to close up for the best part of five days over Easter, there were a number of high street stores open yesterday and, at lunch time at least, were enjoying brisk trade.

In accordance with the tourism laws for the city centre, shops can open on Sundays and fiestas and, while the smaller retailers were enjoying their Easter eggs, the more go ahead stores, including the main department stores were open as usual and were pulling in the punters on a perfect wander round Palma and do some shopping day with the clouds and drizzle threatening all day.

Perhaps, the Mayor of Palma, Mateo Isern, is walking the walk after so many mayors and ministers for tourism have wasted years merely talking the talk about getting Palma moving and open for business on weekends.

With terraces allowed to stay open until midnight during the week, and an hour later on weekends, and shops allowed to open every day if they wish until the end of October, the mayor has certainly given the city centre the tools to transform the capital into a viable and attractive short break destination. The Ministry for Tourism may be in a state of bankrupt flux, but Palma City Council appears to have a clear road map to follow this year.