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By Humphrey Carter “PALMA can be visited 365 days of the year,” councillor for tourism and overseas promotion Francisca Bennássar proclaimed yesterday. What she failed to make clear was whether Palma is now going to be open 365 days of the year. “Palma 365” is the city's new tourism promotion campaign which will set out to promote the capital as a dynamic, modern and easily accessible city which is open every day of the year.

The new public relations exercise was presented yesterday during the inauguration of new tourism and overseas promotion council department's offices in Calle Morey, deep in the heart of the historic part of Palma.

In the company of mayor Catalina Cirer, tourism councillor Francisca Bennássar, stressed the need for Palma's tourism industry to have a much wider appeal and to no longer depend on summer tourism. “You can visit Palma 365 days of the year,” she claimed. “Everything is in easy reach,” she added. “Either on foot or by using public transport,” hence the new slogan unveiled in Catalan yesterday “Tot tan a prop,” (everything close at hand).

Cirer said that the city boasts a “never ending list of activities, much more than just a postcard of the beach. “We've got to transform Palma into one of the jewels of the Mediterranean which appeals to all the different kinds of visitors,” she said.
The campaign will feature five different information leaflets, each published in four different languages.
One will be a concise general guide to the city while the other four will provide specialist information on the city's culture, business and nautical sector with the fourth pamphlet containing information for people on holiday.

TOURISM CENTRE
This new promotional campaign is the first of many expected to come out of the new tourism centre which will also be home to Palma's Municipal Tourism Institute, a think-tank to develop new tourism strategies and schemes. It will also house a new Virtual Tourism Office which, via internet, will provide all the relative cultural and vacational information about the city.

Palma city council hopes that, out of its new headquarters, the tourism department will be able to put new tourism strategies into practice, work on improving the qualities of services and facilties offered to visitors while creating an all-year-round tourism industry.

A fresh impetus is to be given to promoting the capital, especially new developing markets such as the convention sector while making sure that the industry, as a whole, is better managed and controlled.

An estimated three million tourists visit Palma every year. But, despite excellent air links to most parts of Europe, it has yet to establish itself as one of Europe's top short break destinations. This is because most of the city is closed on the weekends and that is one of the prime complaints from visitors.