Rubbing Off: Microsoft in Mallorca

If you take a look at the list of companies on Palma's ParcBit technology park, many will probably be unfamiliar. Halfway down the alphabet, though, you will find a very familiar name. Microsoft.

In May 2009, Microsoft opened its first technology centre devoted to tourism anywhere in the world. The Palma-based Microsoft Innovation Center (note the suitably Americanised spelling) Tourism Technologies was founded with three main objectives in mind, one being, and this would be pretty obvious, to create new initiatives for technological innovation that add value to the tourism sector.

Microsoft's mere presence in Mallorca has been a boost to the island's technology industry, but how much of a boost?

When the Microsoft centre was opened, the then president, Francesc Antich, spoke of it as contributing to an aim of raising the value of innovation and development in the Balearics to 5.6% of GDP by the end of his period in office. This was probably always a somewhat ambitious target. Though spend on I+D increased by 10.5% in 2010, the actual contribution in terms of GDP via investment was the lowest of any region of Spain - 0.41% of regional GDP.

One of Microsoft's flagship developments was a "distribution platform" for the whole tourism offer in the Balearics. This web-based portal, described as not being a website as such, was intended to be a single system for different players in the tourism industry by which they could commercialise their services and products and make savings of up to 40% in doing so.

The fanfare that surrounded its announcement in spring last year did rather downplay the fact that it was going to cost the regional government more than had been envisaged. As always, I stand to be corrected, and I would very much like to be, but I cannot find a reference to its having been launched.

Another development has been the "global tourism hub" for the Windows Phone 7, a "killer" application for the tourism industry. Whether it will really prove to be a killer app is another matter. Microsoft also faces competition; from Google, for instance.

Nevertheless, the development, with the Palma centre behind it, has indicated Microsoft's intent and, as much as Microsoft also provides consultancy services to local businesses, it is the rub-off effect from its presence on Mallorca's technology industry that is arguably the greatest benefit the island stands to gain in its aim of getting I+D to be a far more significant element in the regional economy.

The gain for I+D is not, though, the only one that is hoped for, because tourism is at the heart of the Microsoft technologies, and the rub-off effect for tourism is coming from a possibly unexpected area - that of tourism connected to the cinema.

Though, as far as I am aware, it has not been stated as such, a reason for the filming of parts of "Cloud Atlas" on Mallorca may have been Microsoft. The company's reputation (and its being American) is one thing, but as important if not more is its relationship with the Mallorca Film Commission and with the Cluster Audiovisual, the association of audiovisual producers in the Balearics.

Microsoft, together with the Cluster Audiovisual, has come up with what is potentially a brilliant idea, and one that goes a long way to overcoming what might be the disadvantage for tourism from filming at locations such as those used for "Cloud Atlas". The idea is known as "Film Travelling", the slogan for which is "what film do you want to journey to'".

Essentially what this is, or will be, is a video database that will show locations of a film on a map. The intention is to map the Balearics and give a guide to where filming has occurred and what was filmed, and it wouldn't have to be confined to cinema productions. The rub-off would be that the database could be used by the tourism industry to sell visits related to the locations.

When the filming for "Cloud Atlas" was first spoken about, along with its potential benefits for tourism, a point I made was that these benefits would not be as great as might be hoped for as fans of the film wouldn't necessarily know what the locations were. "Film Travelling" solves this problem. It will be launched, it is hoped, at the same time as the premiere of "Cloud Atlas", which does just make you wonder a bit more about whether Microsoft had some influence on the choice of location. Whether the company did or didn't, its benefits to Mallorca's technology and to its tourism are beginning to rub off.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.