A Load Of Cox: Why event tourism marketing is wrong

There will have been some weary souls wending their way from Can Picafort this morning. Dawn will have dawned before the decks were put to sleep. Decks and not ducks, for once during the Can Picafort fiestas.

The Carl Cox extravaganza was far from being the first time the DJ had played Can Pic. But the buzz that it created suggested that it could have been. The buzz was perceptible. Cox got people talking in a way that the fiestas rarely get people talking. Partly this was because of rarity value. A question should be - why is it so rare? So rare for international performers to head north, to the north of Mallorca.

The tourism ministry's teaming-up with the promoters to push the Elton John-Andrea Bocelli event in Palma spoke volumes. Spoke volumes for Palma and southern-Mallorca-centricity. Spoke volumes for the fact that if the event cannot be sold out, it might indicate that Mallorca cannot stage a big gig. Spoke volumes for something "safe", something not so much middle-of-the-road but lurching along in the slow lane or coming to a halt on the hard shoulder. And no one has been speaking in loud volume about the event. It has no buzz factor. Carl Cox, on the other hand ... .

A justification for the belated promotion of the Elton John show is that apparently tour operators have been calling for events around which they can mould packages. It's a reasonable enough point, but it ignores the fact that there are "events" which can, or could, form the focus of packages. It also ignores the fact that whatever tourists might be attracted will end up in or around Palma.

What it also ignores is an underlying cynical aspect to such events. Ancient "stars" and the punter will roll up, hopefully coughing up three figures for something that presents Mallorca as a venue for the old hat. The island needs none of this. It needs to project freshness, newness. Tourism and event tourism is going down an antiquated drain inhabited, down, down, deeper and down by other geriatrics - Status Quo, for example.

The tourist market is anything but homogeneous, but this is largely how it is conceived by those who should know better, namely those charged with tourism promotion. It is straight-line thinking. Elton may not conform to all definitions of straight, and a current push for the pink tourist may suggest a broader appreciation of diverse markets, but there remains a lack of innovation and niching when it comes to an appreciation of lifestyle and age-group demographics as well as a lack of "branding " for individual resorts or areas. Segmentation is performed on national and geographic lines - Brits, Germans etc. - rather than on personal motivation.

Carl Cox is not leading-edge in the dance world, but he's as close as it comes in Mallorcan terms. He is also a "name", one that should be shouted very loudly in connection with Can Picafort. There is no reason why a youthful market cannot co-exist alongside the generic family market: witness Magaluf, for example, with which, through BCM, Cox has been closely associated.

All the resorts (and their towns) lend themselves to specific marketing, that which goes beyond the normal and bland. Pollensa and Puerto Pollensa, for example, should be by-words for high sophistication and culture, as evidenced by the Pollensa Music Festival. But it should be a music festival of "real" international importance, as should other events. Can Picafort should be a by-word for dance, for a more youthful market. Don't stop at one event - Cox at the Auba. Do it through the season.

You'll say, ah but they can't afford it. Up to a point, they can't, but there are cover charges for the likes of the music festival and Carl Cox and, as importantly, there is the colossal squandering of money that goes on. Santa Margalida town hall, as with Pollensa town hall, should not have to underwrite its events. It should be done centrally, and when you have the tourism promotion agency in the Balearics (IBATUR) currently under investigation for - get this - forty million euros of questionable spend, you can understand the amount of money that sloshes around and ends up in the wrong pockets that could be used to create highly dynamic, local events and highly dynamic, local marketing.

But they won't, because rather than bolstering the resorts, the spend will end up in Palma and on the crocodile rock of Elton. I don't dislike Elton, I don't dislike Andrea Bocelli, but I couldn't care less about either of them appearing in Palma. Carl Cox on the other hand ...


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.