The feature documentary The Old Mariner's Odyssey, directed by Marta Hierro and Núria Abad, has begun its journey in the film festival circuit on the right foot after premiering at CaixaFòrum Palma. In an interview granted to the Ràdio Illa studios, co-director Núria Abad highlighted the project's warm reception, which has just been awarded first prize for best feature documentary at the Som Cinema festival in Lleida, before continuing its path through the Evolution Mallorca International Film Festival in Palma and the Suncine in Barcelona.

The future of tourism in the Balearic Islands should not imply continuing to increase the number of visitors, but rather improving the well-being of the people who live there. This is the proposal of economist Antonio Pérez Navarro, author of the book The Science of Hospitality (Almuzara, 2026), who will participate this Thursday at 11:30 a.m. in a talk at Espai Buit (Palma) about the need to evolve towards a model that reconciles economic activity, sustainability, and the quality of life of residents.

The Balearic Islands registered a total of 1,730,716 foreign tourists in September, thus becoming the autonomous community with the most travelers residing outside of Spain, ahead of Catalonia (1,576,701) and Andalusia (1,032,177). This is reflected in the Hotel Tourism Situation survey made public this Friday by the National Statistics Institute (INE), which also indicates that the Archipelago received a total of 168,851 Spanish tourists in September.

While institutions repeat the mantra of tourism containment, the machinery of promotion and the search for new markets to attract more tourists does not stop. In the case of the Council of Mallorca, the Minister of Tourism, Guillem Ginard, and the Island Director of Demand and Hospitality, Tomeu Ferragut, will meet with representatives of Turespaña in Italy, the United States, Japan, and the United Arab Emirates, countries that the island institution considers "markets of strategic interest" for the island. The meetings will take place during the Turespaña convention, from October 20 to 22, in Zaragoza.

Catalan mountaineering has made history. Bru Busom, Marc Toralles and Rubén Sanmartín have been awarded a Piolet d’Or, the most prestigious international recognition in mountaineering, for the opening of The essence of commitment, a new route on the east face of Yerupajá (6,634 meters), in the Peruvian Andes. It is the first award of this category granted to a Spanish ascent, a milestone that vindicates the exploration, autonomy and commitment of this route.

Vilafranca de Bonany, together with three other municipalities such as Vilafranca (els Ports), Vilafranca de Conflent, and Vilafranca del Penedès, have officially resumed their inter-municipal collaboration ties. This has taken place in the year that coincides with the twentieth anniversary of a first meeting promoted in 2006: "The four Catalan-speaking Vilafranques are getting back in touch" with the firm will to "recover the bonds that unite them and explore new forms of cooperation".

He is a benchmark for the Catalan language in the Balearic Islands. An expert in sociolinguistics and language models, before retiring Joan Melià Garí (Porreres, 1954) was a teacher at secondary schools and at the University of the Balearic Islands, where he held the positions of associate vice-rector for Linguistic Normalization and director of the Linguistic Service. He has also been the director general of Linguistic Policy for the Government of the Balearic Islands. In 2023, he published with the publisher Lleonard Muntaner Smiling with grammar, and now he brings to light, under the same imprint, Exemplary lives, his first foray into fiction literature, a collection of thirteen stories. He acknowledges the influence of authors such as Quim Monzó and, above all, Pere Calders, to whom he pays tribute in one of the stories. On Saturday, October 17th, at 7:30 PM, he will present the book at the Cultural Association of Porreres, accompanied by Cesca Roig and Maria Muntaner.

The Balearic Islands tourist rental employers' association is satisfied with the application of a 10% VAT on holiday homes, because it believes that the measure "will further professionalize the sector." The president of Habtur, Antoni Barceló, admits that the new tax may slightly reduce profitability, especially for small owners who directly manage a single home, but considers that the impact will be less negative than it may initially seem. "It is true that you will have to deduct this 10% from the prices already agreed upon, but the measures are aimed at greater professionalization of the sector and that is not bad," he points out.

In a television commercial from a few years ago, the players of a board game accepted the absurdity of considering an octopus as a pet in order to continue the game. In the same way goes the game regarding containment in the Islands. The Government boasts about something it calls 'containment', while the number of tourists has not stopped breaking records. It remains to be seen if this year we will reach 20 million tourists.

In 2015, having retired as a hotel manager, 75-year-old Guillem Garau Amorós from Artà felt the need to preserve the pre-touristic Mallorca of his childhood in the book A foravila antany (El Tall Editorial). “With a terrible heartache –he says– I interviewed shepherds, estate owners, sharecroppers, and other witnesses to a world that was disappearing”. One of these witnesses to lost words, tools, customs, and trades was his mother, Magdalena Amorós Ginard, who today, at 104 years old, still keeps a very clear head. “I –she recalls under her son's attentive gaze– was born in 1921 in Artà, in the countryside, at the Can Capblanc estate. I am the eldest daughter. My parents were farmers”.

The Balearic Islands have received between January and August of this year a total of 11.7 million international tourists, 2% more than the same period in 2025, according to the data on Tourist Movements at Borders released this Friday by the National Statistics Institute (INE).

Not building a new control tower has serious consequences for the operability of Menorca airport. On July 21, for example, the radar that makes it function failed, and flight delays occurred that were solely attributable to the deficiencies of the facility, the oldest in Spain.

United Airlines will strengthen the direct connection between Palma and New York in the summer of 2027 with a daily flight between Newark airport and Son Sant Joan. The company plans to operate three weekly frequencies starting in March and increase them to seven from May 26 until October. The route, launched in 2022, is currently the only non-stop connection between Mallorca and the United States.

The Artà City Council plenary session approved this Monday the initial Point Modification number 7 of the Subsidiary Norms (NS), which adapts the municipal planning to the Intervention Plan for Tourist Areas of Mallorca (PIAT) and establishes new limits on the municipality's tourist capacity. The proposal went ahead with the favorable votes of the PSIB-PSOE and El Pi and the abstentions of UIA-MÉS per Mallorca and the PP.

The vice president of the Mallorca Hotel Business Federation (FEHM), María José Aguiló, has stated that one can no longer speak on the island of "a season concentrated into four or five months," in a context where 20% of businesses remain open all year round. She stated this on Friday at a conference on tourism, where she pointed out that openings are progressively moving forward to February, March, and April.