Thai (Price) Massage: The Swedish and beer prices

The Scandinavians, and the Swedish in particular, are generally looked upon as being a good-spending tourist market; indeed they have seemed to have kept the more diverse resorts, such as Alcúdia, buoyant while the Germans and the British have been floundering. However, a rather alternative take came from someone who, while not Swedish, is all but Swedish - by marriage and business. What he was saying to me the other day was quite surprising.

The assumption that the Swedes, and other Scandinavians, still find the resorts cheap by comparison with their own countries is no longer necessarily valid. Alcohol is expensive in Sweden, and the Mediterranean, not just Mallorca, has been highly attractive to the Swede who fancies getting off his or her face for a fraction of what it costs in Stockholm or Malmo. But now the Swedes are, so I was told, starting to turn their back on resorts like Alcúdia because prices, for example of a "pint", are comparable to those "back home". Typically, a pint will cost around the equivalent of five euros in a Swedish bar (and the Swedes, like the British, are subject to exchange fluctuations as Sweden is not in Euroland; and it might be noted that the krona has shown a downward tendency, just like the pound). When this sort of price can be demanded by, for instance, an Alcúdia beach bar, the attractions of getting bevvied on holiday diminish, especially when there are destinations which are far cheaper. And here, we are not only talking other Mediterranean countries, but also the likes of Thailand.

The argument has long been that, despite apparently increased prices, Mallorca still holds an advantage because of its relative proximity. Thailand is a further seven or eight hours by plane from Sweden, and the Swedes seem to be willing to put up with this if they can be assured of lower prices and also service with a smile. And Thailand, notwithstanding the current unrest, can offer both. Closer to home, a flight to Croatia takes the same sort of time as one to Mallorca. The Swedish tour operators have, it would appear, been adjusting their supply to take account of the greater value for money that competing destinations have, confirming what should already be known, namely that the tour operators hold the aces when it comes to deciding where people go on holiday.

But as ever, citing isolated examples of high prices in Mallorca don't really make the whole case; they may make a case, but it isn't the complete picture, be it one being viewed by a Swede, a Brit or a German. There's a website - http://www.pintprice.com - which gives examples of pint prices, as you might expect, in resorts and town and cities in a whole host of countries. The examples are hardly scientific, but for the most part they bear out the fact that the Swedish is around five euros or pounds, the Thai pint is very cheap and the Spanish/Mallorcan pint is ... well, quite a bit less than most of the Swedish towns (except for eight quid in Ibiza, which is clearly exceptional). What has happened on this particular site is that visitors have cited their individual experiences, of individual establishments in most cases. And that's the problem with all of this price talk. The Swedes are right to find that Mallorca's prices have gone up from the days of a handful of pesetas, but a beach bar in Alcúdia does not prove the case one way or the other. Nevertheless, perceptions are all important, even if they may be wrong.

What I'm going to have to do, I can see, is schlep around a whole load of bars, note the prices for the same "pint" in all of them and then post them here. Then we'll see what pint prices really are.

And apropos prices, my thanks to Geoff who, only delayed for three days because of volcanic ash in Lanzarote (Icelandic ash and not any from a Lanzarote volcano), has reported on the situation there. Roughly the same sort of prices as the UK, but they seem higher because of the pound, for which you can say ditto for Mallorca. But an English breakfast can cost as little as two quid.


Rikki Lash
No, not that one. There is another one, with two k's. She's American, she's young, and she's really quite good: http://www.myspace.com/rikki_n_zach_forever

And further to the very strange thing by the Lash with one k about Mike Smith of the Dave Clark Five, a comment has pointed out that: "Mike Smith has been dead now for 2 years. Sax player Denis Payton is also no longer on this mortal coil. There is less than no chance of any kind of DC5 re-union."


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.