Palma´s Dome

THE Palma Convention Centre was planned in the heady boom days in Majorca when the island, or Spain for that matter, could do little wrong. An enormous project which would firmly place Majorca on the international convention map. Well that was the theory. But like most projects during the boom period it was badly planned and the building and administration costs were enormous. But when you´ve got money flowing in by the bucket load, you haven´t got a problem. But when the money dries up, that is when the problems start. Work has now been halted on the convention centre basically because of a lack of funds. It now looks as if this enormous, uncompleted building will blight the beautiful Palma promenade for many years as a lasting reminder of the recession. I suspect that when the economic conditions improve a saviour for the Convention Centre might be found but until then I believe that it will just remain an uncompleted shell. It is just too big for Majorca. It is an enormous building which could handle in excess of 3'000 people. How anyone could have thought that 3'000 people would be attracted to Majorca every week is almost unbelievable. Perhaps, the best thing to do for now is to try and camouflage this uncompleted building as best as possible. The Convention Centre is rapidly becoming Palma´s answer to the Millenium Dome, unfortunately at the moment, no-one has any clear vision for it.