Miguel Fluxá. | R.L.

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The latest annual listing of the world's richest people published by Forbes magazine includes 1,810 billionaires, twenty-one of whom are Spanish and two of whom are Majorcan hoteliers.

At position 906 is Miguel Fluxá of Iberostar, the company that had its origins in Inca's leather and shoemaking trades of the nineteenth century and which eventually diversified into travel agencies and then hotels. The group now has more than 100 hotels in Spain, the Mediterranean and Caribbean. Fluxá's personal fortune is given as two billion US dollars.

The other Majorcan hotelier is Gabriel Escarrer Juliá. He founded the business that was to become Meliá Hotels International sixty years ago this year. Meliá has some 350 hotels in 35 countries, and his fortune is given as 1.3 billion dollars. His ranking is 1,367.

At the top of the global list for the third consecutive year is Bill Gates, said to be worth 75 billion US dollars. In second place is a Spaniard, and that is Amancio Ortega. The company of which he is president is Inditex, but it is best known for its Zara fashion stores. His wealth is put at 67 billion dollars.