25 Per Cent: Crazy tourism

Further to the piece of 2 June (Window-Dressing), in which I mentioned a contact I had made with Inestur, the since-defunct government tourism "company", I got a phone call. It came not from Inestur, because it doesn't exist any longer, but from what is now the Tourism Agency for the Balearic Islands, a combination of Inestur and IBATUR (the former tourism agency). The gentleman who rang was extremely helpful and extremely chatty.

As my enquiry had to do with Mallorca alone, he explained, I would have to get in touch with the Mallorca Tourism Foundation (Fundación Mallorca Turismo), a body, I confess, I had completely forgotten existed. The gentleman said, at one point, that the system for promotion was a bit "crazy". He isn't kidding. Let's just try and clarify, shall we. The new agency, the one the chap was calling from, has overall co-ordination for tourism across the islands, but each island has its own "foundation", dedicated to promoting that island. Mallorca's foundation falls within the control of the Council of Mallorca, as opposed to the regional government. The Fomento del Turismo, the private-sector "tourism board", which has existed since 1905, doesn't do any tourism promotion, despite its confusing pretensions to being a tourism board.

So, I hope that's cleared up how tourism administration works now, as I'm sure you would have been wondering.

When the gentleman came on the phone, one of the first things he said, thinking - as I had suspected - that I was looking for money, was that there is no money. A state of affairs I had also suspected. He was quite surprised when I said I wasn't looking for money. Normally that's why people get in touch with him. That there isn't any money, much of what there had been having ended up where it shouldn't have, is slightly worrying. It is a regular enough theme of course that more and more money should be thrown at tourism promotion in its different guises. One wonders quite how tourism promotion is going to be both funded and organised over the next few months or years. The austerity measures are one thing. Who controls the purse strings, were there a purse to be strung, is another. The upheaval in the "crazy" system of tourism administration does invite questions.

This might not be so bad were it not for some alarming figures that one hears. Yesterday I was told about the situation at one establishment in Alcúdia. Last year (not a great year of course), the bookings at the start of June were around 75%. What do you think they are at present? 50 per cent? Go lower. 25 per cent. 25 per cent!! Even more alarming is the fact that July is not exactly full to overflowing.

As always one has to balance this with reports elsewhere, and there are certainly examples of hotels with good occupancy rates, but a quarter full in early June is quite shocking a statistic. Workers would normally be paid off at the end of the season with money in lieu of their holiday entitlement. Not this year they won't. They'll be taking holidays, a situation that is all but unheard of.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.