Two-Way Information: Tourist offices which aren't

When is a tourist office not a tourist office? When it's not manned by people with any knowledge that might be useful for a tourist.

Last summer, two tents, boasting tourist information, suddenly appeared in different parts of Playa de Muro. How very sensible I thought. The resort occupies a stretch of three to four kilometres in length. At its outer limits, tourists are a fair old schlep away from the town hall's municipal building which houses the tourist office.

But there was something not quite right about these tents. They were often unoccupied and there was very little by way of information. To help them out, I took some along to one of the tents, even provided a plastic box, purchased at eleven euros, so that stuff didn't fly away in the breeze; the tents were more canopies than actual tents.

The box disappeared. I was unimpressed both by this and by the general absence of any personnel or information. It doesn't reflect well on the town, I thought. But I had made an assumption, always a dangerous thing to do, that these tents were part of Muro town hall's tourism information provision. They weren't.

The tents were put up by the local hotel association. Their primary purpose was not the giving out of information but its gathering. The hotels were engaging in market research.

There was nothing at all wrong with this; indeed, it was extremely sensible. But a false impression was given. The girls at the tents were disarmingly pretty and charming, but they didn't have a clue when it came to local information. Which was probably because they weren't local.

This is not having a dig at the hotel association, as there should be more research performed of tourists once they are in situ, but if, as a tourist, you see something proclaiming to be for tourist information, then that is what you expect it to provide. It was a case not just of reflecting badly on Muro town hall (which had nothing to do with the tents) as also reflecting badly on the cadre of personnel at the front-line of tourist interaction, the staff at the regular tourist offices.

The tourist information offices rarely seem to get much of a mention in the grand tourism scheme, but, from my experiences with offices in the northern part of Mallorca, their staff are knowledgeable, helpful and patient. I take my hat off to them. They do a fantastic job, often under pressure. You try switching between different languages, confronted by a never-ending queue of tourists seeking out information; doing this, day in, day out for several months, rarely getting the chance to take a breather.

It would be understandable, therefore, if this staff were themselves none too impressed by the wannabe tourist offices and the potential for a reputation for helpfulness and knowledge to be undermined.

The wish on behalf of the hotels to undertake some market research was fair enough. Whether the little that seems to be done has much effect is hard to say. Puerto Pollensa has issued a questionnaire for some time now, yet here is a resort which constantly seems to get in the neck for one reason or another. You fancy the results are carefully filed in some dusty archive room and never again see the light of day.

Approaching tourists under the pretext that market research is being done can, however, not be all it seems. The wretched time-share touts of Alcúdia (who mercifully seem not to be around this season) once used this as a tactic; all part, they said, of promotion of the resort. It was utter rubbish of course.

But however market research is done and by whoever, the key to it all is knowing what it is you really find out and asking the right questions. The questionnaire in Puerto Pollensa had such gems as rating, from one to ten, the "price/quality ratio of installations in your accomodation (accommodation spelt incorrectly)". How are you supposed to answer this, even if you know what it means? What is the point of asking about staff "professionality" (does such a word exist) in "non-food shopping facilities"?

Tourism market research. Yes, it's a good idea, but only if it's done meaningfully and not behind the guise of something else.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.