Majorcan tourism facing a balancing act which should not be too hard to get right

LONDON/PALMA.
WHILE the Balearic travel industry has spent the past four days locked in talks with the professionals about the effects of the credit crunch and how the next 12 months are going to pan out, did anyone take time out to talk to the people on the streets of London - the potential tourists and the real victims of the global recession?

On Leaving the World Travel Market on Wednesday night I leapt in to the first London Black Cab - one of 30'000 according to the Stepney born Eastender driver Tom - and where has he and his family been holidaying for years and intends to return next year? Majorca.

He is also an avid reader of the Daily Bulletin when on the island in Cala D'Or, what he calls his “paradise lost.”