Grim Up North: The problems of the season

It's grim up north. It's grim down south. No point beating about the bush, and there's little point in going over the reasons. We all know them. Only too well.

In this week's "Talk Of The North" will be a piece I have written. "Protest Is Futile." Protest is never futile, even if it merely satisfies a psychological need to let off steam and to appear to be doing something. Anything. However, it was written because there is a drive in Alcúdia towards organising a petition. Its target would be all-inclusives. I know who the protagonists are. I wish them well. I hope it does more than I will be suggesting in that piece. Moreover, all-inclusives are the punch-bag for other travails. They aren't the whole story. Of course they're not.

Expressions by bars and restaurants as to the problems of early season are being echoed by the hotels. Ironic perhaps that the devils of the piece seem to be on the same side of those being cast into the hell of a fiery death by all-inclusive. But the hotels' problems speak volumes for the wider issues, those we know all about.

To protest, by means of a petition, seems like kissing in the wind. Who do you petition in the first place? And what effect would it have? The sad fact is that bars, restaurants, hotels even, oh and myself are all controlled by factors that we cannot control. Petition is the attempt to gain some control.

But if matters are as critical as are being said in some quarters, then protest of a more significant nature is called for - maybe. Closing all establishments as a symbol of how things might be is one. Not that you would ever get a collective agreement to do so. Short-term self-interest will always rise to the top. Forget it.

Why not march? A great demo along the main streets of the resorts? Would tourists thank you? Would they thank you for closing for a day? Would they approve of outraged bar owners standing atop hotel blocks with banners? Some might. Some tourists are only too aware of what is going on. Some, plenty, aren't. Some, plenty, have no wish to be informed. They are on holiday. They are not on holiday to bear witness to the apparent collapse of local tourist industries. Would it be fair on them? Maybe it would be. Tourists, we are told by some, should be more ethical. What are ethics when it comes to a fortnight in the sun? As that old managing director of mine once wrote, it's a county in eastern England, a county that's roughly the same size as Mallorca.

It is, we do have to remember, only the middle of May. A middle of May that has been preceded by factors (well, one) no one could have foreseen. Come July and if matters are bad, then this would be the time to protest. But there is some justification for the anger at present. And that is that the season is being compressed into ever shorter a period. This has nothing to do with all-inclusives. It has everything to do with what the regional government would consider to not be the principal problem with the island's tourism - the summer season.

Protest. No, it's not always futile. But protest against the right targets. The idiots in government should be the first. Not really that they can do much either. However, it is they who have been and are kissing in the wind and fiddling Nero-like while they faff around, endlessly pronouncing on less important tourism issues. And kissing? Well, you know, like you know the issues, what word I really mean.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.