The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore

Following on from the mention on 3 September of that one hundred thousand tourists pitching up this summer, here is an explanation that puts rather stringy meat on none-too-large a bone. I had rather suspected this was the case, and it is. The 100,000, if indeed that turns out to be the number, are those being sent to Mallorca as part of a "social" tourism exercise. In itself, it is nothing new; just the numbers are greater. Basically, what it entails is that OAPs from European countries get a free or subsidised stay during winter. The Danes, for instance, have been doing this for years. It can work out as or more cost-effective to pack the oldsters off to hopefully warmer climes than to fork out for energy during a Scandinavian winter. There's probably also a touch of good old therapy and calculation of savings to the country's national health service in all of this as well. Add to that the fact that the sun in effect disappears for much of the Scandinavian winter; the sun doesn't shine anymore, especially for the old folk.

So this exercise is part of the island's tourism salvation in winter. Don't get too excited. 100 grand's worth of senior citizenry may sound a lot, but, as a measure of the island's tourism, stand this against the annual total; it's around the 11 or 12 million mark. The so-called pilot scheme that will bring this latest wave of visitors will amount to slightly less than one per cent of that total. Apparently this latest initiative has been put into place quite quickly. You bet it has. Small the number may be in percentage terms, but it will still enable them to issue some glowing statistics to show that winter tourism is on the increase, and they will be entirely misleading.

Swelled though the winter tourism numbers may well be by this intake, it will make very little difference. Hotels may find it viable to open in order to welcome the pensioners through their revolving doors, but they won't be employing vast armies to serve them. There may be some extra jobs to be had, but not many, certainly not at the sort of level that will help to alleviate the unemployment crisis.

As I say, this is not actually new. In Alcúdia there have, for a number of years, been Scandinavian visitors in winter, brought here courtesy of their governments. As far as the wider economy is concerned, they have little or no impact. You will not find that restaurants, bars and shops all decide to suddenly stay open in anticipation of winter riches. This form of tourism is not your Saga, mortgage-paid-off, well-pensioned septuagenarian with a full wallet ready to be pickpocketed. The term "social" tourism says all that needs to be known.


Another sign that winter is approaching is that the local environment ministry is to undertake, during October, a programme of fumigation of forest areas in a bid to combat the "plague" of processionary caterpillars. The moths that are responsible for the caterpillars, the same moths that those bags you see hanging off trees are supposed to capture, are probably not the target for the biological bacterial insecticide to be used; rather, one presumes, it will be directed at the eggs the moths lay. Whatever. The spraying is to be done by light aircraft, so when you wonder why there are low-flying planes this autumn this will be the reason. The caterpillars are not only harmful to trees, they can be extremely unpleasant if they come into contact with human skin, so anything that gets rid of the damn things is to be welcomed. However, pine trees are not confined to forest areas alone. There's a bloody great big one in the neighbour's garden, and several in the streets just in the immediate area. Keep wearing those hoodies in February and March in case a procession falls off and marches along your neck - it is the caterpillar's hairs that emit the toxin which, generally no worse than a wasp or bee sting, can be more serious for some.

And while on insect life that can make human existence miserable, what is with it flies in the late summer and then winter? During most of the summer you hardly see or hear one or have one buzz you with the sort of persistence they do from September onwards. Come, say, November, and while the weather is agreeable enough to do some sunning on the sun terrace, a stint under the rays is often curtailed thanks to the appearance of squadrons of flies. Why?


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Suzanne Vega (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FQoiqa_A9A). And Marlene was of course Marlene Dietrich. Today's title - it was great; who were they?

And the bar was ... Foxes Arms, Puerto Alcúdia. The Leicester stuff was the giveaway.

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