Coffee Time (Again): Playa de Muro, prices and investment

Playa de Muro. I guess we've been here before. "Ugly." That's a quote from someone who has a business in Playa de Muro, with whom I took a coffee yesterday. Another businessman recently described part of Playa de Muro as "horrible".

What neither of them was referring to was the beach, the hotels or Albufera. It was specficially the monotonous row of shops and "locales", a number of them empty, which form much of the "strip". And strip is more appropriate when describing Playa de Muro than other "strips", such as that in Magaluf or The Mile in Alcúdia. It is a strip precisely because it is a strip, a strip of land between the sea and Albufera. And strip, save for the inland encroachment by the Las Gaviotas lake, is pretty much it where Playa de Muro is concerned. Always of course assuming that anyone knows that they are actually in Playa de Muro and not Alcúdia.

There has been virtually no investment in Playa de Muro, other than that made by the hoteliers and some other businesses. The main road may have been upgraded, but national funds went towards that. The town hall does almost nothing. It can see fit to fork out close to half a million euros on the "heritage" bull-ring site in the town in the misguided belief that it will form part of a "tourist route", but it cannot bring itself to fund developments in or changes to its resort. It, the town hall, places a lot of store in a golf course, which may or may not be built, but which won't, strictly speaking, even be in Playa de Muro. And it, the town hall, wouldn't pay for this either.

The chap with whom I was taking a coffee pointed to the pavement next to where we were drinking. It's narrow, he said. People have to walk in the road. Puerto Pollensa, he went on, Puerto Alcúdia, in the port, people love them, because they can walk along the promenades. Not in Playa de Muro they can't, because it doesn't have one. There's no centre, there's no anything.

This is a Mallorcan speaking. But he's not necessarily typical. He's not totally Mallorcan for one thing. Part northern European. Outward looking. And critical. "Why don't they make you tourism minister?" he ventures. I thank him for his support. "I don't care if someone doesn't speak Catalan." He goes on to attack the appointment of Ferrer as tourism minister: "it was his turn". We talk about investment, or lack of it, and about prices. There's this constant harping on about prices, about how expensive Mallorca is, much of it coming via the English press locally. "Yea, it has become expensive," he admits. But so much of the price criticism is bullshit, he says. It comes from those who don't understand how things have changed; from those living in a low-cost past. And it isn't just Mallorca.

"Ok, we have to say it's not cheap, but that's why we have to be better than the rest." Which means investment. It's not as though there isn't investment, just that it isn't always the right investment. He cites the money that gets pumped into promoting Catalan. And this is a Catalan (Mallorquín) speaker. He's having none of it, especially compared with miserly sums that might get pumped into tourism, often of the wrong sort. If investment at all, which brings us back to Playa de Muro. You can understand why the hoteliers, which have created some outstanding hotels in the resort, can get upset when they see the lack of attention being paid elsewhere.

Later, I see that hotels on the island are dropping their prices. The press makes out that this somehow vindicates what has been said by, among others, Harry Goodman. Possibly so, but who benefits? The tour operators are turning the screw, but does this mean they will lower their own prices or just make better margins? I said to someone else a few days ago that you would think that the press would be less simplistic than merely trot out the often banal prices mantra. Not so, he responded, and held up a paper in front of his face. What did he mean? The press hides away, it is too remote, too lacking in an appreciation. It's probably true and is the opposite of what you would hope the press would be. It takes a lot of coffees and a lot of time sitting in cafes, but if you want to know what is happening, really happening, this is what you have to do. Yes, there is moaning and groaning, but there is also much that is realistic and constructively critical, starting with understanding that prices are never going to be what they were and that investment, of the right type, needs to be made.


Alcúdia supermarkets at Easter
There was a question left as a comment to a piece a couple of days ago, which asked about supermarket opening hours over Easter. To answer the question, no, it isn't the thing I would normally do on the blog, but whatever ... . According to the Eroski near to the Playa de Muro boundary in Puerto Alcúdia, it will be closed on Sunday, but will be open till two on the Monday and this coming Thursday and Friday. They seemed to think that the Eroski in the old town and in Can Picafort would be open till two on Sunday (and possibly also the one going into the port in Alcúdia). Tourist supermarkets, which are of course quite a bit more expensive, will - in all likelihood - be open all hours. I hope this answers the question.


QUIZ -
Yesterday: Stone Roses, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4bHMVAKDao

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.


Index for March 2010

All-inclusives - 12 March 2010, 14 March 2010, 23 March 2010
Anti-corruption movement - 4 March 2010
Beaches - 17 March 2010
Cala San Vicente - 17 March 2010
Car-hire prices - 3 March 2010, 19 March 2010
Celebrities - 6 March 2010
Corruption in Mallorca - 2 March 2010, 21 March 2010, 25 March 2010, 28 March 2010
Crime and insecurity - 29 March 2010
Cultural tourism - 26 March 2010
Flights to Mallorca - 18 March 2010
Freemasonry - 15 March 2010
German tourists - 20 March 2010
Hairdressers (Styl Hair, Alcúdia) - 16 March 2010
I Need Spain - 8 March 2010
Jaume Matas - 25 March 2010, 28 March 2010
Looky-looky men - 20 March 2010
Mallorca International Film Festival - 10 March 2010
Mills, restoration of - 22 March 2010
Miquel Ferrer - 24 March 2010
Muro bull-ring - 1 March 2010
Muro golf course - 1 March 2010
Performing rights - 7 March 2010
Playa de Muro - 31 March 2010
Potholes - 11 March 2010
Prices - 31 March 2010
PSM-Entesa Nacionalista - 9 March 2010
Santa Margalida fair - 30 March 2010
Season 2010 - 30 March 2010
Smoking law - 4 March 2010
Snow - 11 March 2010
Tourism and business promotion - 8 March 2010, 13 March 2010, 14 March 2010, 18 March 2010
Tourism investment - 31 March 2010
Tourism problems - 27 March 2010
Tourism sustainability - 5 March 2010