WRITING ON THE WALL

THE other night I was talking to a Calvia taxi-driver and I asked him about the summer season. “It started on the 1st,” he replied. “What the 1st of July?,” I enquired, “Oh no, the 1st of August,” he said. “Surely not,” I said but I was shocked by his reply: “this has been the worst summer season I can remember and to earn a living even in the peak season is proving to be a nightmare.” Back in Palma on Tuesday night and the city is a ghost town. There are a few people wandering along the Paseo Maritimo, but that is it. I asked a Palma cabbie how things were going. “Terrible,” was his reply. Judging by the cabbies, who are obviously at the frontline of tourism, all is not well. But to make matters worse I was rather surprised to hear this weekend that thousands of foreign expatriates have returned to Britain and Germany and the principal reason is that Majorca is too expensive. Are all the island´s ills caused by the same problem, price? Well, yes it appears so. Tourists are going to cheaper holiday destinations and foreign residents are moving back to their country of origin. When are the local authorities going to wake-up and realise that this island is facing probably its biggest ever crisis. The writing is on the wall and I just wish that someone would read it.