Over the summer we have heard a lot about the decline in the numbers of people travelling to Spain and its islands. Nonetheless, Spain, the Balearic Islands and the Canaries are still the most popular destinations for us when we go abroad. Given all year round warm weather, the Canaries are popular throughout the year. Now the Balearics, (Ibiza, Menorca and Majorca) are trying to convince us that they are winter destinations as well.

The three main Balearic islands had a 12% drop in visitors this year from the UK and more in the case of Ireland. Now they are pushing for more of us to visit the islands when special events are being held or just to enjoy the sports facilities that have been built there. Recently, Rafael Nadal was used to push that message to the travel trade.

There was a lot of publicity last week about the largest cruise ship in the world, Oasis of the Seas, which begins its first cruise on Saturday. We thought that since there was so much publicity you wouldn’t want more from us but no, we were taken to task by some readers for not mentioning it.

The publicity by the media has concentrated on its huge size (225,282 tons, 16 passenger decks) and that it can carry up to 6,200 passengers plus 2,000 crew. By any standards this is big. I’ve lived in smaller villages. The response by writers has been to ask whether it is too big.

Whether you’re staycation-ing or vacationing, CD- traveller tells you what’s happening in the travel world