If You’re Going To San Francisco

Welcome back to the Department of Fatuous Statistics. The first six months has seen the level of tourist spend on the islands increase by some 5%. In real terms, this equates to a spend - per day, per tourist - of 99 euros. What is unclear, and these statistics are rarely clear, is whether this spend takes into account the actual cost of a holiday. If not, the 99 (let’s call it 100 shall we) doesn’t sound that bad. But I’m unconvinced. Recently, elsewhere on the internet, I gave some info to a chap coming to stay in Alcanada. His budget for him, his wife and two kids was 130-140 euros per day for all four of them, or 35 euros per day, per tourist. This isn’t a huge amount if you start to weigh up costs of meals, transport (necessary in Alcanada), drinks, the odd excursion, hire of fans perhaps, a bit of shopping, more drinks. But it still adds up, over a fortnight, to something a bit short of 2000 euros. Now, that’s quite a lot of money.

And still one hears that things are slow. The tourist offices are a good gauge of activity, and the one at the top of the Greasy Mile reports that the number of enquirers is down, especially amongst the Brits and Germans. What is holding up is the Scandinavian market (if one takes enquiries as an indicator). But with increased mortgages in Britain and a less favourable exchange rate, one can understand things being slow.

A different angle on mortgages - local ones. As mentioned some while back (15 June: I’m Forever Bursting Bubbles), interest rates are on the rise and are expected to continue to rise. This has already had an impact on property prices, in parts of Palma at any rate. There, prices are down by as much as 30% (sorry, another statistic), so there does appear to be a trend towards a correction in the property market, which is long overdue.


CAN PICAFORT FIESTA
Added to the WHAT'S ON BLOG is a list of stuff for the fiesta fortnightish in Can Picafort, one highlight of which is the all-nighter party, shifted this year to the sports arena.


1967
One of the beauties of doing a blog is that you can do what you like - well, within reason. So, indulge me. And I only ask because I know how surprisingly popular all this music and trivia quiz stuff is on this blog.

I heard Pink Floyd’s “See Emily Play” last night. Forty years. 1967. Forty of your whole years. It was summer then; it’s summer now. But this was 1967. I was twelve. Bournemouth. Hippies in the Winter Gardens. Two years before my first experience of Mallorca (Arenal, if you must know, and I can still remember what looked like a shanty town at the back of the hotel).

But 1967. In no particular order, in addition to “See Emily Play”, Procol Harum “A Whiter Shade of Pale”, The Monkees “Pleasant Valley Sunday”, The Supremes “The Happening”, Keith West “Excerpt From A Teenage Opera”, The Young Rascals “Groovin”. Rose-tinted glasses I know, but they don’t make summers like 1967 any more. Anyone else any recollections, especially of the musical variety, so long as they don’t involve Engelbert Humperdinck.

Quiz stuff - Yesterday, The Ronettes and The Searchers. Today’s title. It was the anthem of 1967. Who? Easy, I would reckon.

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