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ARCHIVED - Mallorca bites back at claims it does not want British tourists
Several British tabloids have claimed the Spanish island “seeks to exclude” UK tourists next summer
Mallorca’s Director of Tourism, Lucía Escribano, has unleashed a media and political storm after implying at the recent World Travel Market in London that the island is no longer interested in welcoming budget UK tourists and would prefer more upscale holidaymakers from other parts of Europe.
The devil though, as always, is in the details.
“We are not interested in having the budget tourists from the UK, we don’t care if they go elsewhere to Greece and Turkey,” Ms Escribano reportedly told The Sun newspaper.
“We are also interested in having fewer people from the UK and more from other parts of Europe where there is better airline connectivity,” she is said to have added.
The rest of the British tabloids jumped on her comments, with headlines screaming that Mallorca “refuses” to welcome Britons next summer and instead “seeks to exclude” them.
According to the Mallorcan authorities though, the statement by the tourism boss was taken completely out of context and “maliciously misrepresented” by the UK tabloids.
Balearic Islands representatives have insisted that Ms Escribano’s statements were made in reference to Mallorca wishing to promote itself as a top winter destination rather than being inundated, as it is now, during the summer months.
“We are not interested in promoting the island in summer. We are trying to encourage tourists to visit outside the summer season to enjoy sports or our cultural attractions and museums. We want to focus more on out-of-season activities than sun and beaches,” the Tourism Director went on to say.
However, a series of harsh restrictions and rules implemented before the high season in an attempt to cut down on so-called drunken tourism still looms large in the minds of many holidaymakers, and there is a general feeling amongst Britons that they are no longer as welcome as they once were.
Earlier this year, certain resorts like Magaluf set limits on the amount of alcohol that can be sold at all-inclusive hotels, and the Mallorca government has already reduced the number of tourist beds available on the island.
Despite the justifications for the statements, business owners reliant on tourism remain furious about Ms Escribano’s unintentional “anti-tourism” message.
“This time the British market has been hurt, making tourists believe that they are not welcome on our islands. Nothing could be further from the truth and from the hotel sector we want to make it very clear that British customers are always welcome,” a spokesperson from the Majorca Hotel Business Federation explained, adding that ambiguous statements such as this can result in “incalculable damage” to the tourism market.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
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