Hotel staff starting to go on holiday

Hoteliers in some of Majorca's key tourist resorts are offering employees the chance of taking early holidays because of the fall in bookings. The President of the Majorcan Hoteliers Federation, Pere Cañellas, said that bookings are down by as much as 25 per cent, in comparison to last year, “and many hoteliers are giving their staff holidays, something which has not happened since the eighties.” Cañellas is worried about the situation which has been caused by the Germans staying away in their masses. The British market is forecast to pick up, but Cañellas says that the lack of water, power cuts, alarming headlines in the German press, the crisis over the tourist tax and even some of our members being threatened by ETA have all had a negative affect.” While Cañellas admits that last year's tourism figures were very good, he said that the sector is extremely worried about this summer's significant drop. Cañellas is confident that August, as usual will see the island fill up, mainly fuelled by the British market, but he says that tourism has to be encouraged in other months. Some 60'000 people are employed by the hotel sector, but the fact that some are already being offered holidays is “very worrying” he said.