Opinion: Proposition A is good for small business Joseph Chevalier 

Business News

My favorite coffee mug is a gift from my wife, Kelsey. It has an image of a typewriter and the words “write your own story.”We wrote our own story when we opened Yellow Dog Bookshop in 2013. From the beginning, we wanted our shop to be a welcoming place that could brighten people’s lives and encourage them to write their own story.We all have a great opportunity now to help Missourians write their own stories by voting Yes on Proposition A.By raising the minimum wage, it will help people make a living and have a life that is not a daily struggle to put food on the table and keep a roof overhead. By assuring paid sick time, it will make our workplaces and our communities safer and healthier.Yellow Dog is a Mom and Pop bookshop. Mom and Pops thrive when they are connected to community.We can’t compete with big box stores and big online retailers by shortchanging our employees. We compete by providing a better customer experience – from our wide range of books to author readings and Children’s Story Time to participating in community holiday events like Living Windows. We’re a place where people can wander in and find something they didn’t know they were looking for – and bring a piece of magic home with them.Better customer experience is built on employees who care. And that starts with employers who show they care by how they pay and treat their staff.People like working at our bookshop. We have very little employee turnover.Low employee turnover is a huge benefit. It saves time and money that would otherwise have to be spent on hiring and training new people.Better employee retention brings better customer retention. Employees are better at serving first-time customers. And they are better at serving long-time customers who count on us for recommendations tailored to them and their kids.Proposition A will raise the minimum wage to $13.75 on Jan. 1, 2025 and then $15 on Jan. 1, 2026. After that there will be annual cost of living adjustments so the minimum wage does not lose buying power.If you hear someone saying that $15 by 2026 isn’t reasonable for Missouri, think about this. Nebraskans voted in 2022 to pass a ballot initiative to raise their state minimum wage to $15 by 2026.Minimum wage increases are important for small businesses like ours that depend on local customers with money to spend. When the minimum wage goes up, consumer spending goes up. The ripple effects benefit our businesses, communities and economy.Proposition A will also assure that workers can earn one hour of paid sick time for every 30 hours they work. Businesses with fewer than 15 employees can limit paid sick time to 40 hours while businesses with 15 or more employees can cap it at 56 hours per year.Today, most of the lowest-paid workers in Missouri don’t have access to paid sick leave. If they don’t work sick, they don’t get paid – jeopardizing their ability to pay rent and everything else.That’s wrong. And its counterproductive. Sick workers are less productive, take longer to recover, and can spread illnesses to other staff, customers and our kids.If a small bookstore like ours can plan ahead for the minimum wage increases and paid sick time provisions in Proposition A, so can other businesses.Proposition A has strong business support across our state. Yellow Dog Bookshop has joined with more than 500 businesses in the Missouri Business for a Healthy Economy Coalition. That includes other Columbia businesses like Pasta La Fata, Main Squeeze, Ozark Mountain Biscuit Co., and Makes Scents, to name a few.We know that Proposition A will strengthen Missouri’s workforce, businesses and communities, and lead to a healthier Missouri economy. Let’s write this story together!Joseph Chevalier is the owner of Yellow Dog Bookshop in Columbia and a member of Missouri Business for a Healthy Economy.

International travelers visit Shusha as part of their visit to Azerbaijan’s Karabakh and East Zangazur-

Travel

A group of international travelers representing 33 countries, led by the Head of Piki Reels club, Belgian citizen Yves Bouvier, visited Saturday Aghdam as part of their tour of Azerbaijan’s Karabakh and Eastern Zangazur regions, APA’s Karabakh bureau reports.

During the trip, the foreign travelers familiarized themselves with the traces of Armenian vandalism, as well as the restoration and reconstruction works carried out by Azerbaijan in the city after its liberation from occupation.

During their visit to the Alley of Martyrs in the city of Aghdam, the travelers were informed about the heroic Azerbaijani children who lost their lives in the First Karabakh War, as well as civilians who were victims of the Khojaly genocide. They were also told about the destruction of Aghdam by Armenian vandals and the desecration of graves in the Alley of Martyrs.

The visitors observed the remains of structures demolished by Armenians on Aghdam’s central street and learned that, before the occupation, Aghdam was one of the largest and most developed cities in Azerbaijan. Once known for its vibrancy, the city now lies in ruins.

The delegation’s first stop was the Imarat Complex, which houses the palace of Panakhali Khan, the founder of the Karabakh Khanate. They also visited the nearby Imarat cemetery, the final resting place of many members of the Karabakh khan dynasty, including Ibrahimkhalil Khan, Mehdigulu Khan, and Khurshidbanu Natavan, an esteemed Azerbaijani poetess and Mehdigulu Khan’s daughter. Unfortunately, like other historical and cultural sites in the liberated territories, the Imarat Complex and cemetery suffered vandalism at the hands of Armenian occupants.

They were informed that following the liberation of Aghdam, restoration and archaeological works were launched at the Imarat Complex with the involvement of local and international experts.

The travelers also received information about the ongoing restoration and reconstruction efforts in Aghdam.

***

13:59

A group of international travelers consisting of 33 members from the British club Piki Reels visited Saturday the city of Shusha as part of their trip to Azerbaijan’s Karabakh and Eastern Zangazur regions, APA’s Garabagh bureau reports.

During the trip, the foreign travelers led by the Head of the Piki Reels club, Belgian citizen Yves Bouvier familiarized themselves with the traces of Armenian vandalism, as well as the restoration and reconstruction works carried out by Azerbaijan in the city after its liberation from occupation. They also visited several historical sites of Shusha, including the bullet-riddled monuments of the prominent Azerbaijani personalities, such as Uzeyir Hajibayli, Bulbul, and Khurshidbanu Natavan, located in the central square of the city.

The travelers then viewed the House-Museum of Khurshidbanu Natavan, the “Khan gizi” spring, and the walls of the Shusha Fortress. They also enjoyed the spectacular view from the Jidir Duzu Plain.

***

11:23

A group of international travelers consisting of 33 members from the British club Piki Reels visited Saturday the city of Shusha as part of their trip to Azerbaijan’s Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur regions, APA’s Karabakh bureau reports.

During the trip, the foreign travelers led by Head of Piki Reels club, Belgian citizen Yves Bouvier are familiarizing themselves with the traces of Armenian vandalism, as well as the restoration and reconstruction works carried out by Azerbaijan in the city after its liberation from occupation. The will also visit several historical sites of Shusha.

***

10:17

A group of international travelers consisting of 33 members from the British club Piki Reels kicked off on Saturday their visit to Azerbaijan’s Karabakh and Eastern Zangazur regions, APA reports.

The delegation led by the Head of the Piki Reels club, Belgian citizen Yves Bouvier first arrived at the Fuzuli International Airport, known as the air gateway to Karabakh.

During the three-day trip, the delegation will visit Fuzuli, Khojavand, Shusha, Khojali, Aghdam, Kalbajar, Lachin, Gubadli, Zangilan and Jabrayil districts of Azerbaijan.

Over the past four years, the large delegations of the major international travel networks have visited Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur eleven times. In total, over 400 international travelers from more than 50 countries participated in these trips.

The trip is of great importance in terms of promoting Azerbaijani liberated territories within the framework of “black tourism.”

Business First workers to get EU funding training as part of deal with SEM

Business News

Business First employees are to be trained in how to tap EU funding, under the terms of a cooperation agreement signed between the entity and fellow public agency Servizzi Ewropej f’Malta (SEM).  
The agreement will see Business First workers receive training from SEM experts, while Business First will work with SEM to better inform it about business needs and the types of funding they require.
The deal was signed by SEM CEO Rodrick Zerafa and Business First CEO Marika Tonna. Principal Permanent Secretary Tony Sultana, Economy Ministry Permanent Secretary Nancy Caruana and EU Funds Permanent Secretary Jonathan Vassallo were all present for the signing. So too was Malta Enterprise CEO George Gregory and Darren Grasso, who leads the SEM project support department. SEM is a state agency tasked with promoting the uptake of EU funding and helping individuals, organisations and companies develop projects that can benefit from EU co-financing.
Business First is a state-run entity that serves as the government’s main contact point for businesses. Among other things, it offers businesses support when applying for state-run schemes.

The Comic Book Creators Thanked In Venom: The Last Dance Credits

Arts & Culture, Books

Posted in: Comics, Comics Publishers, Current News, Marvel Comics, Movies, Sony, Venom, Venom | Tagged: Donny Cates, todd mcfarlaneThese comic book creators get special thanks in the credits of Venom 3: The Last Dance, beginning with Todd McFarlane & David MichelinieArticle Summary
Explore comic creators honored in Venom 3’s credits, including McFarlane and Michelinie, Venom’s original creators.
Discover how Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman expanded Venom’s universe with Knull and the King In Black storylines.
Uncover Larry Hama’s significant contributions with Xenophage and Sinner Takes All’s storyline and character development.
Dive into notable series like Venom Vs Carnage and Lethal Protector, featuring iconic work from Milligan and Lim.
These are the comic book creators who get special thanks in the credits of Venom 3: The Last Dance… Venom Created by Todd McFarlane & David Michelinie. Donny Cates, Clayton Crain, Ron Garney, Larry Hama, Len Kaminski, Brian Level, Ron Lim, Greg Luzniak, Clay McLeod Chapman, Peter Milligan, Duncan Rouleau, Evan Skolnick, Ryan Stegman, Guiu Vilanova, Patch Zircher.Photo provided to Bleeding Cool
David Michelenie and Todd McFarlane created Venom in Amazing Spider-Man #300, and Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman created the Knull, The King In Black, Klyntar and the Codex. The Xenophage appeared in the Along Came A Spider series by Larry Hama, Len Kaminski and Evan Skolnicks and first appeared in Venom The Hunted, written by Hama and drawn by Duncan Rouleau. David Michelinie also creates the other symbiote characters with Ron Lim in the Lethal Protector series, redesigned by Brian Level. Larry Hama also wrote Venom Sinner Takes All with other symbiotes drawn by Greg Luzniak. More recently, Clay McLeod Chapman wrote Web Of Venom: Empyre’s End, which was drawn by Guiu Villanova. Peter Milligan wrote Venom Vs Carnage, which was drawn by Clayton Crain.  Ron Garney drew the classic Back In Black image. Patch Zircher redesigned the character as Agent Venom. Also, yes, there’s a mid-credit and a post-credit scene. In case you needed another reason to stay to the very end. Ron Garney posted “Venom: The Last Dance in theaters now— end credit scene and thank you back for the shout out”
Venom: The Last Dance was written and directed by Kelly Marcel, stars Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock and Venom, alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, Rhys Ifans, Stephen Graham, Peggy Lu, Clark Backo, Alanna Ubach and Andy Serkis. It premiered at the Regal Times Square cinema in New York City on the 21st of October 21, 2024, and went on general release yesterday.

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Does alien life need a planet to survive? Scientists propose intriguing possibility

Science and Health

What if we dropped the “terrestrial” from “extraterrestrial”? Scientists recently explored the intriguing possibility that alien life may not need a planet to support itself.At first glance, planets seem like the ideal locations to find life. After all, the only known place life is known to exist is Earth’s surface. And Earth is pretty nice. Our planet has a deep gravitational well that keeps everything in place and a thick atmosphere that keeps surface temperatures in the right ranges to maintain liquid water. We have an abundance of elements like carbon and oxygen to form the building blocks of biological organisms. And we have plenty of sunlight beaming at us, providing an essentially limitless source of free energy.It’s from this basic setup that we organize our searches for life elsewhere in the universe. Sure, there might be exotic environments or crazy chemistries involved, but we still assume that life exists on planets because planets are so naturally suited to life as we know it.In a recent pre-paper accepted for publication in the journal Astrobiology, researchers challenge this basic assumption by asking if it’s possible to construct an environment that allows life to thrive without a planet.

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Related: Alien life may not be carbon-based, study suggestsThis idea isn’t as crazy as it sounds. In fact, we already have an example of creatures living in space without a planet: the astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Those astronauts require tremendous amounts of Earth-based resources to be constantly shuttled to them, but humans are incredibly complex creatures.Perhaps simpler organisms could manage it on their own. At least one known organism, the tiny water-dwelling tardigrades, are able to survive in the vacuum of space.Breaking space news, the latest updates on rocket launches, skywatching events and more!Any community of organisms in space needs to tackle several challenges. First, it needs to maintain an interior pressure against the vacuum of space. So a space-based colony would need to form a membrane or shell. Thankfully, this isn’t that big of a deal; it’s the same pressure difference as that between the surface of water and a depth of about 30 feet (10 meters). Many organisms, both microscopic and macroscopic, can handle these differences with ease.The next challenge is to maintain a warm enough temperature for liquid water. Earth achieves this through the atmosphere’s greenhouse effect, which won’t be an option for a smaller biological space colony. The authors point to existing organisms, like the Saharan silver ant (Cataglyphis bombycina), that can regulate their internal temperatures by varying which wavelengths of light they absorb and which they reflect — in essence, creating a greenhouse effect without an atmosphere. So the outer membrane of a free-floating colony of organisms would have to achieve the same selective abilities.Next, they would have to overcome the loss of lightweight elements. Planets maintain their elements through the sheer force of gravity, but an organic colony would struggle with this. Even optimistically, a colony would lose lightweight elements over the course of tens of thousands of years, so it would have to find ways to replenish itself.Lastly, the biological colony would have to be positioned within the habitable zone of its star, to access as much sunlight as possible. As for other resources, like carbon or oxygen, the colony would have to start with a steady supply, like an asteroid, and then transition to a closed-loop recycling system among its various components to sustain itself over the long term.Related Stories:Putting this all together, the researchers paint the portrait of an organism, or colony of organisms, floating freely in space. This structure could be up to 330 feet (100m) across, and it would be contained by a thin, hard, transparent shell. This shell would stabilize its interior water to the right pressure and temperature and allow it to maintain a greenhouse effect.While such organisms may or may not exist in the universe, the research has important implications for future human endeavors in space. Whereas we currently construct habitats with metal and supply our stations with air, food and water transported from Earth, future habitats may use bioengineered materials to create self-sustaining ecosystems.

Former Post and Courier reporter wins national science award for lithium, sea rise stories

Science and Health

Post and Courier stories about forever chemicals, rising seas and the Southeast’s emerging lithium belt earned former reporter Clare Fieseler a major national science writing award.The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine honored Fieseler in its Eric and Wendy Schmidt Awards for Excellence in Science Communications. The awards recognize journalists, scientists and science communicators. 

Clare Fieseler.

File/Henry Taylor/Staff

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Fieseler’s work explored how chemicals known as PFAS have been found in the ovaries of women struggling to get pregnant.

Another focused on how rising seas are swallowing Confederate monuments, generating new questions about preservation.A third explored the South’s “lithium belt,” areas in Georgia, South Carolina and North Carolina that will play key roles in the clean car revolution.

Judges said Fieseler’s reporting “links past to present and environmental to personal, while calling for accountability in the community.”

Fieseler, now with Politico, wrote all three last year and won in the local/regional category. She was among 24 honorees out of more than 600 entrees. Top winners in various categories received $40,000, with two finalists receiving $20,000 each.

Schmidt Sciences is a philanthropy dedicated to fostering the advancements of science and technology. Its co-founders include Eric Schmidt, former Google CEO, and his wife, Wendy, a philanthropist and investor. 

What are some accidental science discoveries besides Teflon? – Ask Your Science Teacher

Science and Health

Yes, I mentioned; X rays, the Rosetta Stone, vulcanized rubber, nylon, quinine, the electric battery, dynamite, vaccination, the Big Bang, radioactivity, saccharin, the microwave, Play-doh, Corn Flakes, Super Glue, and Velcro. Let’s look at two from the medical field: penicillin and insulin. Both have saved, or prolonged, the lives of millions of people.PenicillinIn 1928, a Scottish professor of bacteriology, Authur Fleming, noticed that mold had started to grow in his petri dish of Staphylococcus bacteria colonies. Fleming had smeared Staphylococcus bacteria on a culture plate before going on holiday. While he was away, a mold spore had flown into the laboratory through an open window from another nearby laboratory where molds were being studied. When he returned, Fleming discovered the bacteria had grown and covered the entire plate except for one area, which was covered in mold.

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After investigating further, Fleming found a substance in the mold that prevented the bacteria from growing, even if it was diluted 800 times. Fleming found that the mold was a type called Penicillium notatum. This mold is similar to the green fuzzy mold that grows on bread. From the mold, Fleming developed the antibiotic now known as penicillin.By the late 1930s penicillin was being used to treat infections in hospitals. During World War II, military doctors used penicillin to treat infected wounds. Veterinarians also made good use of penicillin. Penicillin is now widely used in the treatment of throat infections, meningitis, pneumonia, and other infections. Fleming shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1945 with Howard Florey and Ernst Chain, who had also worked on developing penicillin as a drug.In 1889, two doctors at the University of Strasbourg, Oscar Minkowski and Josef von Mering, were attempting to understand how the pancreas affected digestion. They removed the pancreas from a living dog. Days later, they noticed that flies were congregating around the dog’s urine. That is not normal or expected. They tested the urine and found sugar in it. It dawned on the doctors; they had given the dog diabetes. Minkowski and von Mering never determined what the pancreas produced that regulated blood sugar.In 1921, a young Canadian pharmacologist, orthopedist, and field surgeon, Frederick Banting and his assistant, Charles Best, figured out how to remove insulin from a dog’s pancreas. Before insulin was discovered by Banting and Best, people with diabetes didn’t live for long. There wasn’t much doctors could do for them. The most effective treatment was to put patients with diabetes on very strict diets with minimal carbohydrate intake. This could buy patients a few extra years but couldn’t save them. Harsh diets, some prescribed as little as 450 calories a day, sometimes even caused patients to die of starvation.Banting and Best kept a dog with severe diabetes alive for 70 days. The dog died only when there was no more extract. Later, a more refined and pure form of insulin was developed, this time from the pancreases of cattle.In January 1922, Leonard Thompson, a 14-year-old boy dying from diabetes in a Toronto hospital, became the first person to receive an injection of insulin. Within 24 hours, Leonard’s dangerously high blood glucose levels dropped to near-normal levels.The news about insulin spread around the world like wildfire. In 1923, Banting and Best received the Nobel Prize in Medicine, shared by two other researchers. Soon after, Eli Lilly started large-scale production of insulin. It wasn’t long before there was enough insulin to supply the entire North American continent.Sources: howstuffworks, the diabetes council, nih.com
Larry Scheckel taught science at Tomah High School for 38 years and was named Tomah Teacher of the Year three times. Send comments and questions to [email protected].

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What are some accidental science discoveries besides Teflon? – Ask Your Science Teacher

Science and Health

Yes, I mentioned; X rays, the Rosetta Stone, vulcanized rubber, nylon, quinine, the electric battery, dynamite, vaccination, the Big Bang, radioactivity, saccharin, the microwave, Play-doh, Corn Flakes, Super Glue, and Velcro. Let’s look at two from the medical field: penicillin and insulin. Both have saved, or prolonged, the lives of millions of people.PenicillinIn 1928, a Scottish professor of bacteriology, Authur Fleming, noticed that mold had started to grow in his petri dish of Staphylococcus bacteria colonies. Fleming had smeared Staphylococcus bacteria on a culture plate before going on holiday. While he was away, a mold spore had flown into the laboratory through an open window from another nearby laboratory where molds were being studied. When he returned, Fleming discovered the bacteria had grown and covered the entire plate except for one area, which was covered in mold.

People are also reading…

After investigating further, Fleming found a substance in the mold that prevented the bacteria from growing, even if it was diluted 800 times. Fleming found that the mold was a type called Penicillium notatum. This mold is similar to the green fuzzy mold that grows on bread. From the mold, Fleming developed the antibiotic now known as penicillin.By the late 1930s penicillin was being used to treat infections in hospitals. During World War II, military doctors used penicillin to treat infected wounds. Veterinarians also made good use of penicillin. Penicillin is now widely used in the treatment of throat infections, meningitis, pneumonia, and other infections. Fleming shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1945 with Howard Florey and Ernst Chain, who had also worked on developing penicillin as a drug.In 1889, two doctors at the University of Strasbourg, Oscar Minkowski and Josef von Mering, were attempting to understand how the pancreas affected digestion. They removed the pancreas from a living dog. Days later, they noticed that flies were congregating around the dog’s urine. That is not normal or expected. They tested the urine and found sugar in it. It dawned on the doctors; they had given the dog diabetes. Minkowski and von Mering never determined what the pancreas produced that regulated blood sugar.In 1921, a young Canadian pharmacologist, orthopedist, and field surgeon, Frederick Banting and his assistant, Charles Best, figured out how to remove insulin from a dog’s pancreas. Before insulin was discovered by Banting and Best, people with diabetes didn’t live for long. There wasn’t much doctors could do for them. The most effective treatment was to put patients with diabetes on very strict diets with minimal carbohydrate intake. This could buy patients a few extra years but couldn’t save them. Harsh diets, some prescribed as little as 450 calories a day, sometimes even caused patients to die of starvation.Banting and Best kept a dog with severe diabetes alive for 70 days. The dog died only when there was no more extract. Later, a more refined and pure form of insulin was developed, this time from the pancreases of cattle.In January 1922, Leonard Thompson, a 14-year-old boy dying from diabetes in a Toronto hospital, became the first person to receive an injection of insulin. Within 24 hours, Leonard’s dangerously high blood glucose levels dropped to near-normal levels.The news about insulin spread around the world like wildfire. In 1923, Banting and Best received the Nobel Prize in Medicine, shared by two other researchers. Soon after, Eli Lilly started large-scale production of insulin. It wasn’t long before there was enough insulin to supply the entire North American continent.Sources: howstuffworks, the diabetes council, nih.com
Larry Scheckel taught science at Tomah High School for 38 years and was named Tomah Teacher of the Year three times. Send comments and questions to [email protected].

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Upcoming Book Discussion Highlights the Life of Early Lyon County Settler

Arts & Culture, Books

Middle Ground Books will host author SC Fowler for a discussion and signing of his new historical novel “Bound and Determined: The White Slave of Oryza Hope Plantation.”The book unveils the early life of John Fowler, one of Lyon County’s pioneering settlers. The event is scheduled for 5:30 – 7 p.m. Nov. 6 at the bookstore located at 606 Commercial St.The novel, published by Palmetto Publishing, tells the story of young Johnny Fowler in 1815 Charleston, South Carolina. After being coerced into working on the Oryza Hope Plantation alongside enslaved people, Johnny faces numerous hardships including daily abuse and dangerous conditions while separated from his family. The story chronicles his struggle for survival and his quest to reunite with his mother and siblings who had relocated to North Carolina.This previously untold chapter of local history takes on special significance as John Fowler later became a prominent Lyon County settler, arriving from Indiana in 1855 at age 56 with twelve of his children. His journey from an orphaned apprentice in South Carolina to a Kansas pioneer reflects themes of resilience and determination that shaped the region’s early development.The author, SC Fowler, who developed his passion for literature at an early age, now resides in Iowa following a career in the transportation industry. Local history enthusiasts and descendants of Lyon County settlers are particularly encouraged to attend the event.

“I think Mallorca is well on the way to finding the right tourism balance”

Travel

ABTA, The Travel Association formerly known as the Association of British Travel Agents, will next year be returning to Mallorca after 14 years to hold its annual convention in Calvia. In the meantime, however, the travel industry at large, but in particular in Mallorca, faces a number of challenges, as the chief executive of the association, Mark Tanzer, explained to the Bulletin.
ABTA has just held this year’s annual convention in Greece, and Tanzer said that the mood was “very positive” and that the UK travel industry is “coming off the back of a good summer”. “It slowed a bit in the middle, the football may have had an impact – when we go deep into a football competition people tend to stay at home – but the bad weather encouraged people to travel late, so the late market picked up. I think that overall it’s been very positive and if we look at all our members’ turnover, we’re back towards where it was before the pandemic, so the recovery continues. And I think the season is getting longer generally. I think people are realising that there is good weather to be had later in the year, travelling outside the peak season is becoming more attractive, so I think we’re seeing the shoulders of the market widening now.

“We at ABTA think that tourism is a force for good, but that means that you can’t afford to not acknowledge the challenges that are created environmentally for residents in destinations and so forth, so those need managing. But what I’ve heard from the mayor of Calvia and Mallorcans in general is encouraging. They are trying to find that balance between the desire to welcome people and obviously the important part tourism plays in the Mallorcan economy with the fact that people who are native to the island, residents, want to live their lives as well. And it’s not just Mallorca, it’s every tourist destination which has to find its own right balance and between those two. You can’t walk away from the economic importance of tourism but it doesn’t mean it should trump every other concern,” Tanzer told the Bulletin.

Q.— This year’s anti-tourism protests have had an impact, does society need to be more engaged in tourism policymaking, making it a more hospitable industry as opposed to becoming a hostile one?A. — Yes, very much so. There are sort of three players in this. The way I see it, there are people within the destination who want tourism, to make money from tourism and are employed by tourism and they need to have a discussion with their community about what is the right level of tourism and how the impacts can be managed locally for the residents. Then of course you’ve got us, the incoming tourists, who are the third part of that triangle and who have to behave appropriately as good guests, respect the country as well. I think when you have all three of those in balance you’ve got a really good tourism eco-system and proposition, and that’s what we want everywhere and I think Mallorca is well on the way to achieving that.
Q.— Is Mallorca, or rather the Balearics in general, still a world leading exemplary destination. What are the biggest challenges facing the Balearics moving forward?A. — The numbers are increasing, certainly from the UK. Our data suggests that Mallorca and the Balearics are more popular than ever. So how you manage that increase in popularity and get the balance environmentally and socially is a challenge, but I think it will remain a top destination for the UK. Spain certainly is, and Mallorca within the Spanish market is seen as a very hospitable, effective and close place that we are familiar with. So, I don’t see any signs of Mallorca losing ground in terms of its offering; it’s just a question of making sure we balance all the interest groups.

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Q.— At the recent ABTA convention a number of key players criticised tourist taxes in general. Are extra taxes the solution to some of the problems destinations like Mallorca face or are there others solutions to resolving the potential imbalance?A. — It depends on what the taxes are used for. The comments made at the convention were we’re not against tourism taxes per se, it’s just that we’d like to see them applied to the kind of purposes we’ve talked about. Either investing in better tourism infrastructure or measures which reduce the strain on the domestic systems rather than going into general taxation as just another tax. Tourism is an efficient market, there’s a lot of choice and people are very price aware. You’ve got all the options on the internet, you can easily see what the costs are and the danger is you put the taxes on and the customers head somewhere else, and we don’t want that. We want them to enjoy Mallorca, enjoy Spain, so it’s more a case of how do you use those taxes to reinvest in making the proposition better not just for the guests and visitors but for the residents, which we would like to see.

Q.— Travel habits have changed, especially since the pandemic. More people are concerned about and looking at the effects of climate change, the weather, the temperature. When people are thinking about booking and looking at a destination, what is the bottom line, is it price, the experience, an adventure? A. — It’s increasingly experience. Adventure is a kind of sub category of experience and obviously some tourists are more adventurous than others. But more people are looking for a differentiated experience and that could be because they want to experience it or show it on their social media. We’re certainly seeing a growth in those types of holiday. Escorted tours, adventure holidays are growth segments. Climate change is a big deal for the world and that includes the travel industry, and these record temperatures, hurricanes, the driest, the hottest, the strongest whatever it is, we’re getting these superlatives on a regular basis. This is something that the industry is going to have to recognise and adapt to and I am sure that in ten years time there are going to be destinations where people will have changed their programmes to reflect that. I don’t think they will want to be away in extreme heat and, of course, with that pressure on the natural resources – as a result of climate change – there could be greater competition for scarce resources like water and so forth. So the travel industry is aware of that, we’re aware or of our responsibilities. I am sure that the industry will adapt to that and will change. The detail of the industry will change as people respond to it.
Q.— Next year you will be celebrating 20 years as Chief Executive of ABTA. In those two decades what are the biggest changes you have seen in the travel industry?A. — I suppose the internet initially and then the airlines, the low cost carriers, they’ve opened up more destinations than were available 20 years ago. There’s more flexibility with regard to getting to them, there’s more choice of when you fly and where to. So I think what’s driven the growth in tourism in the UK is that additional choice, and the recognition that there is not ‘the British customer’; there are now many, many different types of customer. There are solo travellers, there are multigenerational holidays and the industry has recognised that and has become more focused on the different needs of the customer rather than assuming there is one sort of generic holiday that everybody is going to want. So from a consumer point of view that would be the big change. Also, the shape of the market has changed. You used to have a group of people who were tour operators and a group of people who were travel agents who sold the tour operators’ products as retailers, but it’s become much more mixed now and the distribution has become more varied. And obviously we’ve sadly lost some major players that were around 20 years but are no longer. Thomas Cook comes to mind, Monarch has gone, but new companies have replaced them and that’s the nature of the industry; it does renew itself constantly.
Q.— Do you think that post-Brexit there’s too much paperwork for travelling Britons like the new hotel registration law in Spain?A. — It is a regulated industry and for good reasons, both in terms of keeping customers and their money safe. There are regulations that exist at EU level and in the UK for protecting holidays and holidaymakers and I think they are good because they help to maintain confidence in the travel industry. If you didn’t have those regulations people might be more circumspect when they come to book or come across more problems when things don’t go according to plan. So I’m not against regulations and red tape because most of the time it’s in the best interests of the clients and the industry. But there is a point when people question why all this information is being gathered and what is going to be done with it, so we do need to keep an eye on that because people are becoming increasingly sensitive about giving away their personal data.

Q.— Would you like to see some form of easing the freedom of movement, especially for young Britons who may want to work a ski season or a summer in Mallorca?A. — Yes, that’s something we’d very much like to see. We’ve been arguing with the previous and the current governments to expand what’s called the Youth Mobility Scheme so young people can work within the EU, get experience, learn languages and it works in both directions. Europeans can come to the UK. It would be very beneficial for the industry and actually for society. It’s very different to the border question, immigration, freedom of movement which was part of the Brexit debate and carries on. What we’re talking about doesn’t give you any long-term immigration status or right to remain, it’s purely to give young people a chance to work in and experience other countries. We have them in place for some countries and extending them to EU countries either at an EU level or on a bilateral basis would be very beneficial. So we’ll keep up the argument and hope that we can persuade the government to start moving on that.