As well as helping the island's economy directly, luxury hotels, especially on a favourite holiday island to many Europeans and North Americans, will doubtless see Majorca mentioned in the press and on entertainment shows when the stars drop in - already Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones own property in Majorca, as does ex Wimbledon champion Boris Becker, who is understood to be selling one house but looking for another.



The luxury hotel has come about unexpectedly from a project started some ten years ago that ran into financial difficulties, nd it is that will be transformed into Spain's finest, with the hotel anticipated to open for business some time in 2009 or 2010.

The hotel will be owned by a Dubai company which also owns the well known Burj-al Arab hotel in Dubai, as well as hotels in London and New York.

Siuated in Mallorca's Port de Soller it is only 10 miles from the Malloca hotel owned by Richard Branson. In Port de Soller two hotels have marketed themselves as boutiques recently, with Port de Soller and neighbouring Soller aiming to become the lucrative luxury area of Mallorca.

Mallorca as an island has been promoting itself to the UK market recently, with the UK advertising campaign for Majorca including a team distributing information at London's Victoria Station. Trains from Victoria run several times an hour to London's Gatwick Airport, allowing easy access to Mallorca for Londoners.

The Balearic Islands of which Mallorca is part consist of three islands, as well as Malloca there is Menorca (the smallest island)and and Ibiza. Menorca has a season that traditionally is at its peak early May to end September, but is now trying to extend that from mid April to mid October.

As part of the Balearic Islands, Mallorca has welcomed many visitors back to live full time on the island. Menorca property has proved popular too, for those looking for a gentler pace of life than big sister Mallorca.

Property prices in Mallorca are similar to Menorca property, with a range of apartments and villas in both rural and town locations, and with twenty golf courses plenty of golf course developments too on Mallorca.

Menorca has just the one golf course, recently extended to eighteen holes, and is located in Son Parc, which has a choice of hotels, apartments and villas for holiday makers.

The cost of flying to Mallorca has come down in recent years from most European countries due to low cost airlines, especially in the island's core tourist areas of the United Kingdom and Germany, and last year easyJet started direct flights from London's Gatwick Airport to the sister island of Menorca, as well as serving Mallorca itself.

Despite competition from other destinantions, Mallorca looks set to remain a favourite holiday spot for some time to come.