19/10/2014 00:00
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Bonfire night cancelled    
A sad week for the expat community on the island when the highly successful bonfire night at the Mallorca Cricket Ground was cancelled for health and safety reasons. Frank Leavers, Bulletin columnist and chairman of the Cricket Club wrote in one of his columns:“In some ways the sad demise of Bonfire Night this year because of rising costs and health & safety and management issues, is a mere reflection of what happened in the United Kingdom 10 to 15 years ago. Perhaps I live in a fanciful world, but until that time hundreds of cricket clubs the length and breadth of England and Wales would ‘host’ bonfire nights for their own communities. Yet slowly but surely, they dwindled away.”  Councillor Angela Guererro wrote in her Saturday column;“The  “National”  law which changed in February 2014, is far more stringent than ever for health and safety measures at ANY event.  This is following the tragedy at Madrid Arena where lives were lost. It is a good thing that events should be made safer, although sometimes it can be impractical to apply ALL of the requirements.”

A new business association
A new business association had been created in Calvia to bring many of the area´s bar and restaurant owners together with special emphasis on Magalluf. The association agreed that Magalluf needed to be cleaned up while the Minister for Tourism, Jaime Martinez, welcomed the  association but called on them to ban bar crawls. He also announced that they would be presenting their plan, which calls on tourists to behave while on holiday at the World Travel Market in London. A Bulletin Viewpoint article said: “Basically, if the local ministry for tourism told me to watch my behaviour I might decide to go somewhere else on holiday because at the end of the day it is a buyer’s market.”

Thank you and good night
The summer season was coming to a close on the island with reports of more hotels than ever closing their doors for business. The Bulletin in a series of Viewpoints said that this was a sad state of affairs but a letter to the editor stated: “Once and for all, accept that outside Palma there is little demand during the winter because of the climate. The airlines know this, the hoteliers know it and so do the tourists.”

Flying the flag
The El Corte Ingles department store was flying the flag for Britain organising, in association with the British government, a Best of British fair of  food products, fashion and lots more across all their branches in Spain. In Palma, El Corte Ingles has a food fair of almost 500 British brands.


Ebola
The Spanish and Balearic government were under fire this week for not be prepared for a possible outbreak of Ebola. Medical staff in Palma slammed the Balearic government for not giving  local hospitals the necessary equipment.

More winter flights?
Palma airport said that landing fees at the airport over the winter had been frozen in an effort to attract more winter flights. Also, this week a British investment company took a stake in the Spanish airport authority AENA, which is being partly privatised.


And finally
Tennis ace Rafa Nadal has bought a  hotel in Cala  Millor which he intends to transform into a luxury hotel.  Nadal will be spending an estimated five million on the project.