TOURISM
The first trickle of tourists did not arrive in Minorca until 1955. Without them Minorca had in fact been self sufficient. This late development was almost entirely due to the extremely poor external communications.

External communications
Some degree of inaccessibility may add to the charm of an island, but the desire to cut travelling time is not a new one. In the eighteenth century three weeks' sail from England via Gibraltar was considered tedious. When Britain was not at war with France, it was popular to travel by post-chaise from Calais via Paris, Lyons and Marseilles, and then by mail packet to Fornells in the north. If one did not run into a storm in the Gulf of Lyons, this could cut the journey to about fifteen days.
Two hundred years later, in 1949, it could take as long as five days. The only route was, as always, across France to Barcelona, then by the thrice-weekly steamer from there to Mahon. Today modern ferries ply between Mahon, Ciutadela and Majorca and Barcellona.

However, it was the advent of air travel that was decisive in making Menorca an important tourist centre. The first commercial flight from Barcelona to Mahon took place in 1949 in a DC3, operated by the newly formed Aviaco Company. The first charter flights from England to Menorca took place during the summer of 1955 in a Douglas DC3. They used the small dusty airstrip at San Luis.
Six years later, in 1961, the total number of tourists was still only 1,500, although by 1964 it had risen to nearly 10,000. In the following year the figure rocketed to 113,853, of which 52,620 were air passengers, and by 1973 the total number of visitors exceeded half a million (there were 374,632 air passengers in 1972).
The new international class airport built between San Clemente and Mahon, which opened in 1969, and is continually expanding, largely contributed to this increase and today handles over 2 million passengers a year! 

Tourist developments
Menorcans have coped well with this influx, having undertaken a vast building programme to house the tourists, and established one more industry - building - which has brought still more prosperity, although it has drained more men from the land. There is more emphasis on villa developments - these are less likely to spoil the landscape - and there are more than thirty major urbanisations, mostly around the more popular playas.
Strict government controls regulated the location and standard of building. Lessons learned from elsewhere in Spain were heeded and 'concrete jungles' avoided. That was the intention anyway. Many believe overdevelopment has taken place in certain areas, particularly along the northern coast. Additional capital from Madrid, Barcelona and Britain has poured in. Villas are mostly privately owned, mainly by the British, but also by Spanish, Dutch, Germans, Italians and other nationalities. Some owners sublet them through agencies to tourists as part of inclusive holidays.

Two of the largest and most ambitious 'urbanisations' were at 'Shangri-la' (the developer's name) on the rolling downs overlooking the lake of Albufera, and Son Parc near the beach of Son Saura. Both of these are on the northern coast. At each, in addition to luxury villas, there were golf courses, hotels, clubs, restaurants, swimming-pools and shops planned. The first was illegally built and failed,  but Son Parc with Son Saura are now thriving new communities and there is an established 18 hole golf course at Son Parc. 
The developers, in selecting northern sites, have boldly gone against the population pattern of countless centuries, and braved the tramontana.
 

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