Major fall in winter tourism to islands

Palma.—A shortage of winter flights led to a major slump in winter tourism to the Balearics this year despite claims by the government, both locally and in Madrid, that they were trying to reverse the fall in low-season visitors.
The Balearics received 416,000 visitors in the first quarter of this year, a fall of almost 25 percent.  Last month just 24,000 tourists came on holiday to the Balearics compared to the three million nationwide. The 24,000 tourists represented a drop of 30 percent.
The decline in winter tourism has been blamed on the lack of winter flights. For many years now British airlines  have slashed their winter programmes to Majorca. This year they were joined by the Germans who also reduced the number of  flights to the islands.