Everything was going beautifully, even some money had been put aside to invest on wildlife preservation. The new luxury hotel was going to be built in the hills above the terraces of Banyalbufar, right beside the private estate, Son Bunyola, where entrepreneur Richard Branson (owner of Virgin Records, Virgin Air and Virgin Cola) spends time with his relatives and friends, among whom is Bob Geldof (famous for his song "I Don't Like Mondays"). But all in vain, because until further notice Branson's 3,500 million peseta macroproject has come up against a brick wall. For the moment it doesn't look like there's going to be another Residencia on Mallorca's west coast. The local hero who has dared cross the multimillionaire promoter (whose private fortune is estimated to be around $ 1,2 billion according toTime magazine) is Banyalbufar's mayor. The building license has been denied! Branson, whose status among the locals was seriously affected by the devastating fire on the property a few years ago, declares in an interview with the local newspaper, Diario de Mallorca: "My airline's chief executives are studying the viability of a direct London-Palma connection, although under the current light of things I could just as easily see coming back to sell the property".

Mallorca is in a sailing frenzy. After the Mallorquín Pepote Ballester and his companion Fernando León won the gold Olympic trophy in the Tornado class, the Copa del Rey-Trofeo Agua Brava being held here in the Bay of Palma, is keeping sailing buffs well occupied. Against all predictions, the German sailing ship, Pinta, sailed by Willi Illbruck, has come in number one in the provisional classification of the first stage. Quite a ways back, the Royal sailing ships, the Bribón, the Aifos and the Azur de Puig, respectively sailed by King Juan Carlos (Foto), Prince Felipe and Infanta Cristina have come in eighth, sixteenth and twenty-fifth.

Everything is ready for the pilot program of a new series on the German TV station, RTL, to come on the air on August 9th at 21.15. This series, Good Morning, Mallorca, is set in Mallorca and stars Werner Schulz-Erdel and Ute Willing (see photo), playing a couple in love who live on the island and are intensely involved in the day to day ins and outs of a radio station and a bar in Puerto de Sóller. Among others, the guest stars will be, Jochen Busse, Diana Körner, Claus Wilcke, Sonja Ziemann, Martin Semmelrogge, Nadja Tiller along with an impressing cast of German TV's old flames and today's heroes. Fritz W. Schlüter's(Stories from the Island of Sylt) product needn't worry those who are afraid the island will once again be target of the clichés created by the Ballerman and Bierstrasse phenomenons. He says: "We are marketing the best image of Mallorca, showing the most beautiful parts of the island. We'll be including its of nature and landscapes".

After the folding of tour operator Hetzel, (see Mallorca News No.6), the Mallorquin Association of Hotel owners have given their lawyers the go-ahead to carry out an investigation. Hotel owners, who have lost at least 200 million pesetas, justify these measures by their suspicion that there could be fraud involved in the tour operator's folding, which was heavily in debt lately. No more than a month ago, Germania Air had made the symbolic downpayment of 1 marc (84 pesetas) for the acquisition of 60% of the remaining shares.

New York model Gigi Howards, Prince Felipe's fleeting girlfriend (see Mallorca News No. 3) has taken Spanish photographer Carlos Hugo Arriazu to court in New York. He is accused of contracting two private detectives to tap the model's phone...all to be testimony -if only in hearing - of her regal beau's love words.