Mesquida said that 85% of this budget would be used for written publicity including emphasis on ease of access of Ibiza from local airports and the rest for online promotion.

The promotion campaign in Germany has been allotted around 180’000 Euros of budget. Advertisements on Ibiza will be published in the daily newspaper “Bild” and also in local papers in Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Stuttgart, Berlin and Munich.

The promotion campaign in Great Britain has been allotted 150’000 Euros with the publicity being made in Scottish daily newspapers and also newspapers in Manchester and Liverpool.

Similarly, the campaign in Italy has been allotted 120’000 Euros where the target newspapers are the daily papers in Turin, Bologna, Milan, Padua and Bergamo.

Mesquida said that of the people coming to visit Ibiza 92 percent are from the European countries, of which, 70 percent come from Great Britain, Germany and Italy. He also said that this campaign aims at merging and reinforcing other such drives which have been carried out throughout the year. He added that the tourism industry is quite resilient and now it needs to find a solution to came out of the current economic crisis.

Riera said that the rise in the volume of waste material accumulated was much more last year than that of this year. This year, in comparison with 2007, the rise in the garbage accumulated is 3.4 percent, where as last year, the rise in garbage accumulated comparison with 2006 was 13.5 percent. Though the increase in the garbage volumes might seem to be reducing, the report says that during this decade, the accumulated growth has reached 40.6%. It is also important to note that, four decades ago, the waste produced by each person on an average was 600 grammes but now, it has come up to two kilos.

This move is expected to make the sea a safer place. ADN plans to establish this service across Spain by next month.

This project is developed by Marattxi, Mallorca Company. ADN said that the captains are already being informed about storms and other dangers through mobile phones, but now, this system is going to be made automated. ADN wants to create an emergency procedure where the captains of the vessels can be informed using simultaneous text messages instead of emergency radio messaging.

For this warning system, a two way network between a central hub and the members of ADN will be set up. The network will automatically select the appropriate warning message to be sent to all the members, currently listing around 250 of them. When this project starts functioning, the warnings received from all the emergency departments and Meteorological centres in the Balearics would be sent instantly.

Yesterday ADN said that sending warnings through radios is not very efficient because whether the captains get the alerts or not depends on many factors. They need to be onboard at that time to receive the warnings, but SMS messaging doesn’t have such limitations.

ADN has members at almost all ports on the islands and they believe that this new system will prove to be very helpful and can avert many dangerous accidents.

The ADN congress today will be a high profile meeting with the head of the Mallorca Martime department, Bartolome Calafell, top director of General Emergencies directorate, Pedro Orfila and the senior official at the Meteorological Office, Agustin Jansa being present. They will make an assessment of introduction of the new technique.

Leading tourism experts say that in many hotels, the prices had to be lowered to fill the rooms and also that many bars and restaurants have planned to close early. The Magaluf water park has already closed, one month earlier than it was expected to close. The business community in Magalluf claimed that the tourists spent less than usual this year.

Most of the local hotels might be closing by this month and this would lead to an increase in unemployment. Right now, there are 43’000 unemployed people in the Balearics and this figure is expected to rise after the summer season. The local government would be under great pressure to attract larger number of tourists to the island in this winter.

According to the information released by General Traffic Directorate, Palma yesterday, 19 of the 42 victims were of less than 30 years old and 27 of them had died in Majorca. The reports also showed that until date, 30 people were injured in road accidents and six people, indirectly involved in such accidents were hurt. The traffic department reports indicated that this year Majorca has the highest mortality rate when compared to all Balearic Islands -27 people died of which 10 were under 30. Also, Majorca has the highest number of people injured in accidents -21. Even last year, 46 of the 58 people who died on Balearic roads were killed in Majorca.

This year, in Majorca, seven people passed away in each of the months of March and May and three people in each of April and July. Only one person was reported dead during the first twenty five days of August.

Yesterday afternoon, on the Arenal road, a driver lost control and his vehicle overturned. Guardia Civil was called to this place. There were no major injuries.

He also blamed the APB for not revealing their future plans for the port. Macia Blazquez said that GOB had asked Triay recently to those plans and more information, but the only resources made available were drawings of 2005, after which many development and expansion programmes were carried out. He accused that there were plans being made of a “mega expansion” scheme and stressed that such undertakings would lead to serious environmental effects.

Blazquez said that Francesc Triay had argued that the enlarged ports would accommodate more ships, which in turn would generate a lot of revenue for business in the Palma area. He also said that Paraires wharf, which would be lengthened by nearly 380 metres, the work beginning within a year, costing 23 million euros, would be exclusively used for them.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXU2p21Utmc

After the meeting, ministry resources said that in spite of bad economic conditions all over the world, the tourism industry of Spain is doing well. They said that, in general, the number of people visiting Spain had remained stable during the last 7 months showing a slight decline of 0.2%. The ministry assumed that the Spanish tourism industry had been very resilient despite the unfavourable conditions. A research conducted by the National Institute of Statistics indicated that in July, overnight stays by foreign visitors all over the country had increased by 2.9 percent. The research also showed that The Balearics had the highest hotel occupation for July with it being 86.95 % of the total capacity.

In July, 9’176’866 visitors stayed overnights in the Balearics’ hotels – 1,388,557 foreign visitors and 234,233 Spaniards. However, the hotel prices have increased the most in Aragon and Balearics, when compared to last year.

The government Spain is planning to launch its Tourism Overhaul Plan for the year 2020. This will include renovating old and established tourist destinations that are wearing down. This will also be advantageous to the different sectors of industry, other than tourism.

During our survey of business owners in Majorca we found that it was not really the number of tourists that were down it was the spend per head. Mainly due to the UK credit crunch and also to the exchange rate.
It is still to be said that good businesses although experiencing this down turn have done so to a lesser extent.
What has also happened is that there is forecast an increase in the amount of businesses for sale in Mallorca before the end of the season, making this a buyers market and one where you need Target Mallorca to ensure you get the best deal for your money.

Jose Fernandez Vaquez was on board that flight which contained 172 passengers. Antonio Garcia Luna, 38, was the captain. He was born in Madrid and later moved to Palma Majorca. His co-pilot was Francisco Javier Mulet, 32, born in Palma. His family owns of one of oldest businesses in Palma – La Pajerita.

The accident reports show that the pilot and the copilot, both had broken arms and investigation officers suspect that they struggled to lift the plane’s nose and held it in air.

Yesterday, Francesc Antich, the Balearic President, paid tribute to those who passed away in the accident and assured maximum help to their families. Ramon Socias, the government delegate to Balearics, and other local politicians also expressed similar sentiments.

Many local business owners have expressed their sorrow at the loss to two well known families.

This July, the amount of waste material collected turned out to be 78.68% less than that in July 2007.

Yesterday, an Environmental Ministry report confirmed that 55’925 kilos of litter was collected in July this year, while in July last year the amount was 262’279 kilos.
However, the garbage collected from the coastal areas of Majorca went up by 6.7% in July 2008 when compare to that of July 2007.  36,513 kilos of material was collected from Majorca in July 2007 whereas in July 2008, the amount was 39,120 kilos.

The authorities of Mallorca reported the degradation of 9,455 kilos of waste from the shores of the island. This amount is 6.7 percent less than the figures for 2007. The most extreme difference was noted in Ibiza, where the figures showed a 97.72 percent less. It was in Ibizan waters in july 2007 that the fuel tanker Don Pedro sank which lead to a cleanup of 211’597 kilos. This July, it was less than 5’475 kilos.

All this of course means great news for tourists and also for the businesses in Majorca that rely on the income that they bring.

Tourists and people looking for business for sale in Majorca can rest easy. We have not had any such attacks on the island of Mallorca

Two small bombs exploded in a Malaga holiday resort on Sunday morning. The police responded aptly to a bomb warning and hence, no one was hurt in these blasts.

Yesterday, Ramon Socias, the central government delegate of the Balearics, said that there was not much damage and the people need not worry. The police had evacuated a beach just in time before the first bomb exploded at nearly 1 o’clock at noon and then, they moved people in thousands out of a port in Benalmadena just before the second bomb blast occurred at 3 in the evening. The incident apparently triggered chaos on practically, the busiest weekend in Spain.

The spokesperson from central government office in Malaga said that two bombs had exploded, one in Benalmadena and the other on Guadalmar beach. The spokesperson also mentioned that since the devices were not very powerful, they did not cause major injuries or serious damage. Further, the spokesperson denied the reports claiming Basque separatist rebels ETA’s involvement in these attacks.

ETA exploded four such bombs last month at some famous resorts in the northern parts of the country, beginning its summer bombing campaign, which it conducts every year, to disturb the proper functioning of one of the vital segments of the economy of Spain.

A ministry spokesman said that in search of a third explosive device, the police sealed off Spain’s main coast road.

In response to these incidents, The Foreign and Commonwealth Office put up a travel advice yesterday informing all British visitors that the higher authorities in Spanish are taking appropriate measures to avoid such terrorist attacks and are trying to protect the tourists. They also stated that similar attempts by terrorists, real or hoax, can be expected in the future and hence, they need to be vigilant and should follow the rules and instructions of the police and other local authorities.

Socias said that the security levels in the Balearics are very high and also that National Police, National Intelligence centre and the Guardia Civil are working rigorously to prevent any terrorist attacks in Spain.
Also, revealing some of the information, Socias said that exhaustive checks at entry and exit ports in the Balearics would make it very difficult for the terrorists to access the region. He said that though some of these checks may be lengthy, they are a part of the huge operation which is designed to provide security of life and property to the residents and visitors of Balearics. He added that since the royal family of Spain is on a holiday at Majorca, and that being the only place where an attempt to assassinate the king had been made, the security levels are maximum on the island.

Alfonso Meaurio, the director, Majorcan Hotel Federation, said there is no reason to worry. He added that, just because Basque separatist group ETA organizes a summer campaign every year, there is no reason to expect that the same will happen here in Malaga. Nearly 400 additional National Police and Guardia Civil members, including dog handlers and bomb squad units, were sent to the Balearics in order to increase the security levels this summer. They will also assist the existing forces prevent any further incidents of crime as well as drug trafficking.