British Clouds Brighten Menorca

A number of world events have conspired to make this year not a particularly good one for the Mediterranean holiday island of Menorca, a favourite holidays destination for many European families.

The top reason for a drop in visitors is currencies - Menorca like the rest of Spain is part of the Eurozone, while the UK where most of Menorca's visitors are based has maintained her own currency - sterling - and the Euro has gained strength in the last 12 months, making Menorca holidays some ten per cent more expensive this year than last.

But some areas outside the Eurozone - notably Turkey - have gained popularity, with holiday spending money going further there during the week or two away, and allowing a full holiday instead of having to economise on luxuries such as dining out virtually every evening, excursions - and importantly for many Brits, time spent in the bars and clubs night-time.

And Britain's top tour operators shifted part of their holidays campaign away from traditional popular areas like Menorca to the cheaper destinations such as Turkey in a bid to maintain market share, adding to the drop in tourists who booked their flights and accommodation independently of the package holiday companies.

Many in the travel industry, notably in Menorca itself, were widely predicting a drop in the number of people taking Menorca holidays of up to ten per cent, and with the Spanish economy in recession and Menorca's two main markets - Germany and Britain - also in trouble, the outlook has looked bleak.

But the travel industry analysts and tourism experts predicting the drop in Menorca holidays for 2008 had forgotten one chilling factor that has cut that anticipated ten per cent drop to nearly half that figure - the appalling weather and summer in Britain.

Map of Menorca

The clouds of economic woe had been gathering before the summer in Britain, with warnings of a recession and higher unemployment, but to add to the gloom there were real life clouds over Britain - for nearly six weeks the country hardly saw any sunshine at all, to the extent that doctors in Scotland reported a marked increase in the number of patients they were seeing with depression and illness.

Prescription drugs were being handed out to alleviate the depression many people felt after weeks of poor weather - but others took the iniative and realised why they were feeling down - the lack of sunshine - and suddenly holiday bookings started to go up noticeably, with tour operators and holiday companies reporting increased bookings.

One leading Menorca holidays internet site noted a sudden surge in bookings for holidays and flights to Menorca in early September that lasted three weeks - not very long but enough to give the island's tourism a late boost, and considering the season ends in early October it was both unexpected and welcome.

'The weather in the UK certainly impacted the number of people booking a Menorca holiday for September', say the travel site, 'There's normally quite a good number of people who take a week or two on the island once the schools are back - Menorca is quieter but still has all the benefits of an August holiday as everything is still open but the weather is still really good - and the cost of Menorca villa holidays and hotels in Menorca are less - but this was beyond the norm - there was a definite late surge in bookings directly due to the British weather being so poor in August.'

Overall, they believe the number of bookings in late August and through September could see the predicted ten per cent drop in tourism this year be cut. 'Our estimate is that instead of a ten per cent fall this will be revised to six or seven per cent when it comes to announcing the official figures. It's enough to turn it from a disastrous year to a poor year for tourism. Not a lot to celebrate and Menorca needs to do more to draw holidaymakers for the 2009 holiday season.'

As well as the number of tourists for Menorca being affected this year by the strength of the Euro, the Menorca property market has been hit too by potential British buyers of Menorca property waiting for their currency to improve from the lows they are currently experiencing.

Menorca property agents as well as the travel industry will be hoping for more poor British weather!