Dancing In The Dark: The Mallorca season 2010 starts

The first of May. Onto the pagan and Germanic roots of the day have been grafted a labour symbolism, originally an American phenomenon, now celebrated all over the place, including Spain. It is a day of demonstration as much as it is one of celebration; it also marks the month of "Mary" in more religious Spanish circles. For the Mallorcans, it holds another meaning - the first day of the summer season.

Paganism, the labour movement, the Virgin Mother and holidays. Four seasons in one day. And the most important is the latter. Few "seasons" can have been anticipated with more trepidation and uncertainty than this one, and that includes last year. Season 2010 was always likely to suffer the after-shocks of the quake of confidence collapse of 2009. There may be grounds for optimism, but try telling some and they'll laugh - or more likely cry - in your face, while the damn volcano didn't do anything to set the hats of business owners at a more jaunty angle. The deteriorating situation in respect of the Spanish economy and the breach of the 20% unemployment rate just add to an atmosphere of tension. Every season can seem like make or break, but in some instances things are already broken. They should erect some maypoles and let everyone have a dance to keep their spirits up, even if it might seem like whistling or dancing in the dark.

The season begins with the pathetic sight of hotels boarded up. The collapse of Globespan and the impact on its hotels in Puerto Pollensa is a fable for the current malaise and worries. Like consumers and businesses were caught out by and caught up in the incomprehensible workings of an out-of-control and distant banking industry, so the company was brought down by the e-commerce and distant banking tangles of a credit-card processing concern, one that was, to all intents and purposes, unregulated. The financing food chain has starved many, Globespan among them, and at the bottom of this chain, the small businesses of holiday resorts are forced to eat the thin gruel of a creditless holiday consumer market.

But there have always been collapses: Clarkson, Laker, Intasun, similarly the victims of recession if not of the pagan rituals of the current-day finance industry. We'll get over it, like we always get over it. Hard though it may seem, when a psychology of fear takes hold, to smile in the face of adversity is what has to happen. For the tourists' sakes, if no one else's. They come to enjoy themselves, not to be told about "cree-sis" and how tough things are. They know this anyway.

However, one can predict, with some degree of certainty, that the season will be littered with stories of high prices, poor service, things not being as they used to be and the end of tourism civilisation in Mallorca as we know it. And some tourists will be the ones relating the stories, selectively, anecdotally and prejudicially. One can also predict that the tourism ministry and other authorities will issue statistics that no one believes; that there will be voices of complaint regarding all-inclusives; that the car-hire agencies will be the whipping boys of the price agitprop; that the authorities who must always do something will be pressed to act by a groundhog-day press.

Yet amongst all this negativity, one thing will be overlooked, and this is that thousands, millions of people will start arriving as of today, and that they will leave happy but also sad, because they are having to leave. But they will know that they can come back, and they do.

The first of May. Hug a tourist day. Hug a tourist every day. Today is when things get better.


QUIZ -
"Dancing in the dark" - who?

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.