Palma at odds with Madrid over tourism

Despite confirmation from the Secretary of State for Tourism in Madrid this week that tourism during the first seven months of this year in the Balearics fell by 4.2 per cent, Balearic Tourism Minister Celesti Alomar disputed the figures yesterday adding “there is neither a tourism or political crisis in the Balearics. Alomar “does not want a war of figures” and his calculations are made on the airport and port figures, where everybody is counted twice, arriving and leaving and not all of the passengers are tourists. In Madrid the figures are provided by the Spanish Tourist Board, which Alomar said are less correct. Alomar said that tourism spending is up on last year. During the first six months of the year, 535.000 million pesetas was spent by tourists in the Balearics.