PIMECO has listed a range of ways in which the government can support small commercial units. Yesterday, PIMECO said that it has chosen this moment to make the request to the ministry for Commerce and Industry as the Balearic government is drafting its budget for the next year.

In an official publication, PIMECO has warned all of its members that over that past few months, the economic indicators of the region show that it is suffering due to the world-wide credit crunch.

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.

He was 30 years old and was one of Palma’s most talented nightclub music makers. His family is coping with what had happened.

His parents were in the middle of the holiday when they heard the news and rushed back home. Mr. Malcolm Dungey, the victim’s father, said that they had no idea of how it happened. He added that their son had a passoin for music. He said that Ian had a collection of about 25’000 records and CDs and that being a DJ was not just a job to him, instead it was his passion.

Ian had joined The Western Mail and Echo which is now Media Wales ten years back on a youth opportunities scheme. There he earned two promotions and then moved on to work at National Assembly offices, Cardiff Bay.

Mike Collins, a holiday maker who was with his family at Alcudia, said that it had been a nightmare. He said that they came to know that XL had filed for administration through media reports and tried to find out about their flight back home, but did not get any information. He added that yesterday morning they went to the airport without knowing which flight to catch. He said that they were lucky as they had booked for holiday package and hence were covered by the company’s bond. Another holiday maker, Ian Hallsworth, said that they booked a flight with XL for next summer and now, they have lost it. He also said that they have no information about what is going to happen next.

But, around 2 p.m. the Collins and the Hallsworths were accommodated in a flight back home. They said that this had been a very unpleasant holiday.

The remaining passengers were waiting to fly home in the afternoon.

According to the reports, among the passengers affected in Britain were a couple going to marry in Florida, honeymooners going to Skiathos Island in Greece and a marriage party heading for Greece.

Passengers on a flight to Orlando, Florida, informed that the police stopped their plane on the runway just when it was to take off. Damon Emery, who was travelling along with his family, told that it was complete chaos and they were told to return the terminal.

Terry Baldwin from London who was about to go on a holiday to the USA with his family came to know that their flight has been cancelled only after arriving at the Gatwick Airport, London. He said that they were taking money from the passengers until last night and this is nothing but robbery. He said that since they had booked using a debit card, they do not think they will be getting back any of the money.

The XL Group blames the economic crisis and the volatile fuel costs for its collapse. One of the administrators, Kroll, said that there will be significant job losses while Phil Wyatt, the Chairman said that all the 1’700 staff was at risk.

A spokesman of the Civil Aviation Authority said that around 85’000 tourists in North Africa, the Caribbean and the United States were affected due to the XL Leisure Group grounding all their flights on Friday. The CAA said that they would provide special flights for many tourists to fly back home but, around 10,000 people who booked only flights with will have to pay for another ticket. They said that they would make the arrangements as soon as possible.

Those who booked holidays through an XL tour operator will be protected under the ATOL scheme of the CAA but those who booked flights through XL but arranged their own accommodation will not be protected under this scheme. The CAA said that they will try to accommodate them on their planes for affordable fees.

Both the Spanish airline company Futura International and The Zoom airlines have collapsed during recent weeks. Willie Walsh, the Chairman of British Airways predicted that 30 more companies could go out of action in the next 4 months.

On its official website, XL stated that they are not able to cope up from the economic downturn, volatile fuel prices and low funding. Its companies include The Really Great Holiday and Kosmar Villa Holidays.

Alastair Beveridge, Simon Appell, Nick Cropper and Stuart Mackellar were appointed the joint administrators. XL said that they cannot continue trading and hence, all flights had been cancelled immediately and the aircraft were also grounded. Further, they said that the joint administrators might not be able to continue trading this business or operating the aircraft.

XL advised all those passengers who didn’t begin their journeys yet, to make other possible arrangements. Those who booked package holidays with XL will have reimbursed the cost of the return journey through a scheme of the Civil Aviation Authority of Britain, but the passengers who booked flights only do not come under this scheme.

Europe’s largest travel company, TUI Travel, said that it will help XL’s customers struck at different places abroad in coming back home to the UK. Peter Long, the CEO of TUI Travel, criticized the unpredictability in protection for such holiday makers. He said that although they would help wherever possible, it is for the government to realize that a level field is to be provided for all players in this market. He said that most holiday makers think that they will get the necessary protection if any problem arises, but this does not usually happen.

This week, Europe’s largest independent medium-haul charter company, Palma-based Futura International, also went into administration, as a result of which British firm Seguro Holidays had to cease operations.

XL had gone through a management takeover in recent years. The shares in TUI were 4.1% higher at 230-3/4 pence at 3:05am EDT, and Thomas Cookwas up by 3.5% to 243-1/4 pence, with investors expecting them to take advantage of the reduced competition in the market.

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.

The storms weren’t very heavy in Majorca but there were torrential rains. The Pollensa port was flooded when 50 litres per square metre of rain fell and the storm brought a lot of water on to the land. In Lluc, the rain fall was 20 litres/ square metre and in Capdepera gale winds at 99 kilometres/ hour created problems for ships. Mahon Airport, Minorca, also faced some problems due to high winds.

The temperatures dropped by a little today and only Minorca is on the rain alert. The weather conditions are expected to improve with return of the sunshine, and remain the same till Thursday. More showers are expected on Thursday with the autumn nearby.

The members of the socialist party demanded an overall “re-thinking” of the issue to come out with fresh ideas to overcome this problem. They said that they had analysed the present economic situation carefully and also assert that the present government is not trying its best to come up new ideas to solve this problem. Further, they add that this problem evolved more because of the poor planning of the Partido Popular than the economic slump. The spokesman of socialist party said that there were no incentives for new companies and also that the town council does not give any support to those which are already operating in Inca. He also said that the present unemployment rate is the worst since 1997. He said that the Partido popular did not make good use of the business funds accrued in its previous term in office which is clearly evident from the fact that in the last thirteen years, no land has been allotted for companies or industries.

The Opposition plans to draw support from unions, businessmen, trading organisations and other political parties to protest against the job slump.