During May, passengers arriving at Son Sant Joan Airport saw some unusual suitcases on baggage reclaim belts. They were for a campaign devised by the Balearic government's communications department. Suitcases carried messages or were transparent, and passengers were invited to give their reactions on video.
The title of the campaign is "Water is very scarce. Remember that!". It is aimed at residents as well as at visitors, and makes the point that the Balearics are subject to drought because there is so little rain in summer and the annual rainfall cycle does vary. It therefore wants to raise awareness and to promote responsible use of water and its saving.
The availability of water is not typically something that visitors would consider, and so the campaign - in Catalan, Castellano, English and German - wants to drive the message home. A slogan on the suitcases was "These islands have many things, but little water". A different approach was with the transparent suitcases with two containers to compare summer rainfall in the Balearics with that in the countries of origin (including northern Spain) of the majority of passengers.
The suitcases did seem to get the message across. One passenger from Manchester observed that with the number of tourists and the amount of water, everyone can see that it is not sufficient. Another noted that at home there are so many rivers that one assumes the rest of the world has them.
The video is being distributed via social media.
