A long way down: a robot moves a car at VW’s plant in Wolfsburg

The sun-kissed Balearic island of Majorca may seem remote from the financial crisis that is gripping the west’s capitals. But for Carmen Riu, co-owner of a large chain of hotels in the Spanish resort destination, these are the most difficult times in her long career in tourism: “It is the most uncertain period I have known in 30 years on the island.”