The youth hostels that aren’t

The cycling event was a factor that contributed to 100% occupancy at many hotels in Palma over the May Day holiday; the Palma International Boat Show was another. This occupancy was largely at the city's boutique hotels, which are a far cry from youth hostels in Palma and indeed elsewhere in Mallorca. Youth hostels aren't classified as being tourist accommodation, but the Council of Mallorca came to realise that there were twelve which were being used as tourist accommodation illegally and were therefore “ignoring current tourism regulations”. Among these regulations is payment of the tourist tax; youth hostels aren't obliged to charge it.

The twelve hostels in question have been given until June to “regularise their situation” as either proper youth hostels or as regulated tourist accommodation. Inspections will start in June and proceedings will be opened if necessary.

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arics reported that at the end of last week the average temperature of the Balearic Sea was 17.8C. This was 2.07 degrees above normal for a 1982 to 2015 reference period, and it was the result of April having been exceptionally warm. Nice for taking a dip, it was a worrying temperature nevertheless, given that there were five marine heat waves in the Balearic Sea last year, the highest average in August having been 29.7C and the highest temperature of all having been at a buoy off the island of Dragonera - 33.3C.

● In Palma, there has long been a problem with rubbish containers being set on fire deliberately. More recently, this problem has been transferred to cars - a spate of incidents, most of them in Pere Garau district. In the early hours of Tuesday morning, and a good distance from Palma, thirteen cars were set ablaze over a twohour period. Porreres was the village to have suffered

earlier, and autumn later.

As to this summer, she said that it was hard to know if historical records would be set. “From May to September we believe that the temperature will be higher than normal. But whether there will be a record or not isn't known.”

Mallorca isn't suffering the kind of drought conditions that exist in parts of the mainland, but the drought is starting to have an impact on the island. The president of the distributors association in the Balearics, Bartolomé Servera, says that while it had seemed as if food prices