Five years ago, the then vice-president of the Mallorca Hoteliers Federation, Inma Benito, spoke about the economy being "broken" because of the August hotel occupancy rate. It was around 90%. Benito said that it should be much higher, even implying that it should be 100%. She would have known, as anyone in the industry knows, that there is no such thing as 100%. Some hotels maybe, but across the board it never happens.
The hotel occupancy rate is an indicator that needs to be considered with care. It's important but behind the rate there are factors that have to be taken into account. It is also important to distinguish between forecasts and actual. Talk of a five per cent decline in occupancy in September is forecast talk. The real figure won't be known until late on next month. Moreover, the forecast itself didn't chime with the figures from the Balearic Statistics Institute. For September last year it showed an occupancy rate of 85.94, almost identical therefore to the 85% being forecast for this September. How can there therefore be a five per cent drop? It probably depends on what statistical base is adopted. If the hoteliers have a different one, then there needs to be an explanation as to the variance.
That 86%, was about as good as it has ever been for a Mallorca September. The year before it was 83.4%. If the hoteliers are right, and the rate is around 85% this year, then it would still represent a very positive figure. But as I say, the hoteliers seem to be operating from an alternative base.
The point about occupancy is, quite obviously, that it is a ratio linked to the number of rooms and beds. A further point - also obvious - is that occupancy applies to the full range of hotels and so therefore to their star categories and their prices. Both of these points, however obvious they are, can easily be overlooked.
As part of the modernisation process of Mallorca's hotels, some have added rooms. The 2012 tourism law facilitated this. More rooms mean more beds mean higher potential occupancy. The process is only now drawing to a conclusion.
So one has to be aware that in certain instances one isn't comparing like with like because of an increased number of rooms. A further ingredient in the modernisation process has been the upgrading of star categories. There are now that many more four-star superior and five-star hotels. There have never been as many. And it is with these hotels where occupancy can begin to look potentially troublesome. The much-vaunted quality has risen and so has the price.
In July the occupancy of these top-notch hotels was no better than it had been the previous year. Forecasts (always forecasts) had anticipated that they would be better, but they weren't. August is likely to have shown no difference. In September, well in September might it be that a fall in occupancy, if it truly emerges, is in this high-end sector? The problem is that one doesn't get an accurate picture because the occupancy rate is a catch-all.
The experience in Ibiza is particularly startling. Several hotels at the high end were only scraping 60% occupancy in July. To put this figure into context, the July occupancy for Ibiza and Formentera last year was 88%, below Mallorca's 91.35. It now emerges that there are current offers of up to 30% off for some hotels in Ibiza, with the high end among those making the offers. The president of the Council of Ibiza, Vicent Torres Benet, who has specific responsibility for tourism, says the season has not been as had been anticipated, and that's because of prices.
Ibiza isn't the same as Mallorca in that its hotel occupancy is typically lower, but it does act as a barometer. While Mallorca's hoteliers can point to increased revenues, courtesy of higher prices, a further key indicator for them - the RevPar revenue per available room - may just start to go into reverse. The price is up but the take-up is lower.
Yet for all this, we had a situation in July where occupancy in Mallorca (based on overnight stays) outstripped everywhere else in Spain with the possible exception of Benidorm. In Andalusia, Costa del Sol and all, there was an average occupancy of 67% compared with the 90% plus in Mallorca. And this is for a region which spends healthy sums of money on promotion, the opposite to what happens in Mallorca.
September's occupancy is something of a red herring, but lurking behind it is the issue of price and not just the price for the high end. It's next year we should be looking at. It is suggested that the strength of the Mallorca "brand" can withstand most that it is thrown at it. This may be so, but what about the prices?
Showing posts with label Hotel occupancy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hotel occupancy. Show all posts
Thursday, August 31, 2017
Wednesday, July 27, 2016
Between Realities And Fictions: Mallorca's tourism
Mallorca's tourism has long offered a battleground of argument between hard realities and apparent fictions. The former, unfortunately, are mostly based on anecdotal evidence. This non-scientific approach confronts the latter's data gathering and report generation. Consider if you will: tourist spending statistics; airport arrival statistics; hotel occupancy statistics. Combine these factual bases and a form of meta-research gives succour to the headlines of bonanza, boom and record. The anecdotes, though, can and do suggest alternative realities.
It has been like this for years but the discrepancies are heightened at times when there are the supposed bonanzas, as at present: ones served on the plates of terrorism and competitor destination insecurities. Take the degree of disbelief regarding warnings of overbooking, which itself is inherent to hotel occupancy stats. There always is overbooking. It's the nature of the beast for the hotel sector. Statistical methodologies are at play here as well. They determine the degree by which hotels can anticipate reservations not being fulfilled. This degree is filled with overbooking in the hope of securing 100% rates of occupancy and is supported by arrangements entered into by hotels to ensure guest transfer to other accommodation. The problem arises if the stats fall down, which may indeed be the case this summer.
The disbelief arises as a consequence of the anecdotal evidence, the sharing of opinion from the touristic coal face which argues that the stats are all to cock: factual fictions, or should it be fictitious facts? Because this is not empirical evidence and only oral, it cannot be substantiated, but its existence breeds suspicion of the data-based "facts". By its very nature, though, it is discriminatory. One resort's anecdotes are not reflected by those of other resorts. Even within resorts where there are differing anecdotes. Some bars in Magalluf reporting a worse-than-ever season is evidence of Magalluf, or a part of it. Such evidence cannot be extrapolated and be used as a conclusion for the entire island. As some never tire in insisting, Mallorca is not Magalluf.
Nevertheless, there is some factual support (if one cares to believe it). Last summer it was said that bars in Magalluf had taken hits of up to 40% lower turnover, the consequence of the drive to root out "drunken tourism" (as well as the influence of all-inclusives). If that was really the case, then why should this summer be any different? By contrast, there is the evidence of boom times this summer for Palma's restaurants: turnover up by 15% and even 20% in the centre. The conclusion one draws is that the 15% applies to Playa de Palma. There will doubtless be those who disagree.
Because there are discrepancies between anecdotal facts and the apparent fictions, the process of dissonance (reconciling competing positions) errs on the side of the fictitious and therefore disbelief. It is easy to satisfy individual prejudices that will always prefer not to accept official claims, those made by the statistics purveyors, government, hoteliers and other employers. Not, it has to be said, that these prejudices are necessarily wrong; simply that they lack substantial and hard evidence.
There are other apparent fictions which have to be contended with. These are the qualitative as opposed to purely quantitative statements. For Mallorca they embrace the evidence of transformations, as with Magalluf, the upgrading of hotels and so the quest for and implementation of greater quality among the island's hotel stock (and indeed other accommodation). They can also refer to levels of service, to improved standards of cuisine, to a broader offer of complementary facilities.
Market research opinion surveys can never hope to provide a complete picture, but the statisticians with their degrees or error and so on can offer indicators to back up claims of leaps in Mallorca's quality (or not). So it is with the latest annual survey of tourist satisfaction by Gadeso. One doesn't of course know where the tourists surveyed were staying or certain demographic information about these tourists, but if the survey is to be accepted at face value, the claims regarding transformations and improved quality are only that: claims, unsupported by the tools of market research.
Gadeso discovers, inter alia, a slip in the level of satisfaction with accommodation. This is a marginal decline, but it is a decline nevertheless at a time when accommodation is meant to be acquiring greater quality. "Specialised offers" of cuisine and retailing have fallen further than in previous years: both are "deficient". Even beach services have slipped. In fact there is very little which shows greater satisfaction: health care and public safety are notable in that they have.
Where lies the truth with Mallorca's tourism? Impossible to say. What is certain is that we'll go through all this again next year, and Gadeso may well report a greater blip on the price-quality ratio for hotel satisfaction. Why? Satisfaction or otherwise with the tourist tax.
It has been like this for years but the discrepancies are heightened at times when there are the supposed bonanzas, as at present: ones served on the plates of terrorism and competitor destination insecurities. Take the degree of disbelief regarding warnings of overbooking, which itself is inherent to hotel occupancy stats. There always is overbooking. It's the nature of the beast for the hotel sector. Statistical methodologies are at play here as well. They determine the degree by which hotels can anticipate reservations not being fulfilled. This degree is filled with overbooking in the hope of securing 100% rates of occupancy and is supported by arrangements entered into by hotels to ensure guest transfer to other accommodation. The problem arises if the stats fall down, which may indeed be the case this summer.
The disbelief arises as a consequence of the anecdotal evidence, the sharing of opinion from the touristic coal face which argues that the stats are all to cock: factual fictions, or should it be fictitious facts? Because this is not empirical evidence and only oral, it cannot be substantiated, but its existence breeds suspicion of the data-based "facts". By its very nature, though, it is discriminatory. One resort's anecdotes are not reflected by those of other resorts. Even within resorts where there are differing anecdotes. Some bars in Magalluf reporting a worse-than-ever season is evidence of Magalluf, or a part of it. Such evidence cannot be extrapolated and be used as a conclusion for the entire island. As some never tire in insisting, Mallorca is not Magalluf.
Nevertheless, there is some factual support (if one cares to believe it). Last summer it was said that bars in Magalluf had taken hits of up to 40% lower turnover, the consequence of the drive to root out "drunken tourism" (as well as the influence of all-inclusives). If that was really the case, then why should this summer be any different? By contrast, there is the evidence of boom times this summer for Palma's restaurants: turnover up by 15% and even 20% in the centre. The conclusion one draws is that the 15% applies to Playa de Palma. There will doubtless be those who disagree.
Because there are discrepancies between anecdotal facts and the apparent fictions, the process of dissonance (reconciling competing positions) errs on the side of the fictitious and therefore disbelief. It is easy to satisfy individual prejudices that will always prefer not to accept official claims, those made by the statistics purveyors, government, hoteliers and other employers. Not, it has to be said, that these prejudices are necessarily wrong; simply that they lack substantial and hard evidence.
There are other apparent fictions which have to be contended with. These are the qualitative as opposed to purely quantitative statements. For Mallorca they embrace the evidence of transformations, as with Magalluf, the upgrading of hotels and so the quest for and implementation of greater quality among the island's hotel stock (and indeed other accommodation). They can also refer to levels of service, to improved standards of cuisine, to a broader offer of complementary facilities.
Market research opinion surveys can never hope to provide a complete picture, but the statisticians with their degrees or error and so on can offer indicators to back up claims of leaps in Mallorca's quality (or not). So it is with the latest annual survey of tourist satisfaction by Gadeso. One doesn't of course know where the tourists surveyed were staying or certain demographic information about these tourists, but if the survey is to be accepted at face value, the claims regarding transformations and improved quality are only that: claims, unsupported by the tools of market research.
Gadeso discovers, inter alia, a slip in the level of satisfaction with accommodation. This is a marginal decline, but it is a decline nevertheless at a time when accommodation is meant to be acquiring greater quality. "Specialised offers" of cuisine and retailing have fallen further than in previous years: both are "deficient". Even beach services have slipped. In fact there is very little which shows greater satisfaction: health care and public safety are notable in that they have.
Where lies the truth with Mallorca's tourism? Impossible to say. What is certain is that we'll go through all this again next year, and Gadeso may well report a greater blip on the price-quality ratio for hotel satisfaction. Why? Satisfaction or otherwise with the tourist tax.
Friday, April 10, 2015
"Record" Easter, Elections And Eco-tax
Easter joy. Mallorca enjoyed the best Easter of the last decade. Hotel occupancy was at 76% with 80% of hotels open. In some parts of the island the occupancy was into the eighty-percentage bracket or even 90% (Camp de Mar). Joy indeed, but are we convinced? An analysis I made of Alcúdia revealed that the percentage of hotels open was not of the order that was being boasted; it was more like 50%. Alcúdia is only one resort, but if it is indicative, then where were the 80%?
Forgive my scepticism, but do I detect the proximity of elections and the support of the hoteliers' federation for the regional government? Good news on the tourism front can act as a boost to the Bauzá administration not just because of tourist numbers but also because of more employment, something that the federation has also been at pains to point to. This good news should say to the electorate that "tourism is working" under the PP and thus quell any talk of policies which might interrupt this, e.g. the revival of a tourist tax, and fire a pre-electoral broadside against parties that might undo this work.
If the good news is genuinely to be believed, it is the consequence principally of a revival in the domestic market, by which one means both Spanish mainland and Mallorcan: there were, for example, hotels in the north with Easter-breakers from the south. It is also a consequence, perhaps to a lesser degree, of instability elsewhere, notably Tunisia. Both these factors will come to Mallorca's aid this summer, but neither is proof that "tourism is working" under the PP per se.
This said, a change to the political landscape does introduce an element of uncertainty to the island's tourism. With the elections moving ever closer, issues such as a tourist tax are moving higher up the debating agenda. Som Palma, which is the city's version of Podemos, is speaking of introducing a specific tourist tax for Palma, the "same as exists in other European cities", while at a forum during the week, tourism minister Jaime Martínez and the hoteliers' president, Aurelio Vázquez, clashed with David Abril of Més over the potential for a tax. Martínez said that now was the time to be lowering taxes not creating new ones. Vázquez alluded to the disaster that was the old eco-tax. Abril insisted that a tax would be about "sharing prosperity" and recovering the future (whatever this means).
Francina Armengol for PSOE - and she may well become the next president of the Balearics - spoke earlier in the week about a tourist tax, saying that it might have to be looked at if financing from the state for the Balearics was not improved. Linking the possible introduction of a tax to the issue of financing was an attack on the regional government's perceived failure to negotiate an improved financing arrangement with Madrid, but doubts remain as to how committed PSOE might be to such a tax. Despite one of its spokespeople, Cosme Bonet, having talked up a tourist tax, the party has not forgotten the eco-tax disaster that Vázquez was quick to remind everyone of at the forum. It was a tax that a PSOE-led government introduced.
Nevertheless, battle is well and truly being joined, and tourism, especially in the form of a tourist tax, is going to be one of the key issues of the forthcoming elections.
Forgive my scepticism, but do I detect the proximity of elections and the support of the hoteliers' federation for the regional government? Good news on the tourism front can act as a boost to the Bauzá administration not just because of tourist numbers but also because of more employment, something that the federation has also been at pains to point to. This good news should say to the electorate that "tourism is working" under the PP and thus quell any talk of policies which might interrupt this, e.g. the revival of a tourist tax, and fire a pre-electoral broadside against parties that might undo this work.
If the good news is genuinely to be believed, it is the consequence principally of a revival in the domestic market, by which one means both Spanish mainland and Mallorcan: there were, for example, hotels in the north with Easter-breakers from the south. It is also a consequence, perhaps to a lesser degree, of instability elsewhere, notably Tunisia. Both these factors will come to Mallorca's aid this summer, but neither is proof that "tourism is working" under the PP per se.
This said, a change to the political landscape does introduce an element of uncertainty to the island's tourism. With the elections moving ever closer, issues such as a tourist tax are moving higher up the debating agenda. Som Palma, which is the city's version of Podemos, is speaking of introducing a specific tourist tax for Palma, the "same as exists in other European cities", while at a forum during the week, tourism minister Jaime Martínez and the hoteliers' president, Aurelio Vázquez, clashed with David Abril of Més over the potential for a tax. Martínez said that now was the time to be lowering taxes not creating new ones. Vázquez alluded to the disaster that was the old eco-tax. Abril insisted that a tax would be about "sharing prosperity" and recovering the future (whatever this means).
Francina Armengol for PSOE - and she may well become the next president of the Balearics - spoke earlier in the week about a tourist tax, saying that it might have to be looked at if financing from the state for the Balearics was not improved. Linking the possible introduction of a tax to the issue of financing was an attack on the regional government's perceived failure to negotiate an improved financing arrangement with Madrid, but doubts remain as to how committed PSOE might be to such a tax. Despite one of its spokespeople, Cosme Bonet, having talked up a tourist tax, the party has not forgotten the eco-tax disaster that Vázquez was quick to remind everyone of at the forum. It was a tax that a PSOE-led government introduced.
Nevertheless, battle is well and truly being joined, and tourism, especially in the form of a tourist tax, is going to be one of the key issues of the forthcoming elections.
Thursday, July 17, 2014
A Very Peculiar Summer
It has indeed been a peculiar summer. Following a booming April, there was a May for which all manner of concerns were raised about the level of tourism but which were largely not realised, mainly it would seem because of bookings for private holiday accommodation. Then there was June - pretty good - but further worries about July, and in particular the first two weeks of July. Those worries appear to have been well founded, but they were all the more strange because only two years ago July had registered the highest levels of hotel occupancy in Mallorca since the turn of the century. It might yet be that July hits the heights of occupancy because suddenly things changed during the week. Was it all down to the World Cup after all?
To give an indication, my "manor" is the tourism centre of Alcúdia. One has become used over the years to complaints about the number of tourists and the consequent lack of business and so one has become used to treating these complaints with a touch of scepticism. This early July, however, has given no grounds for scepticism. The area around the Mile has indeed been dead. However, tour operators had suggested that there would be a pick-up from the middle of the month, and they seem to have been spot-on. Bellevue, the bellwether of tourist activity in the zone, has suddenly gone from being under 50% full to being all but full. This turnaround will be attributed to a surge in the British market, which is indeed part of the explanation, but Bellevue, as with the whole of Alcúdia, is by no means British alone.
There have been dark mutterings about a sharp fall in British bookings to Mallorca this summer, but until we know how the season shakes out - and we won't for some while yet - it will be difficult to know for sure. If the second half of July and August rescues the summer, then all well and good, but it is not all well and good if we are really talking about a season of feverish activity which lasts a mere six weeks or so.
The Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodation (CEHAT) has, for its part, announced that this summer will be the best since the pre-crisis summer of 2007. Overbookings for August are said to be on the cards; or at least occupancy of above 90% in most Spanish tourist resorts, representing an overall increase in activity of around 11%. But CEHAT has reminded governments of different sorts of the need for major investment in tourism promotion, pointing to the significant rises in bookings to competitor destinations - Turkey up 17%; Greece, a rise of 22%.
To give an indication, my "manor" is the tourism centre of Alcúdia. One has become used over the years to complaints about the number of tourists and the consequent lack of business and so one has become used to treating these complaints with a touch of scepticism. This early July, however, has given no grounds for scepticism. The area around the Mile has indeed been dead. However, tour operators had suggested that there would be a pick-up from the middle of the month, and they seem to have been spot-on. Bellevue, the bellwether of tourist activity in the zone, has suddenly gone from being under 50% full to being all but full. This turnaround will be attributed to a surge in the British market, which is indeed part of the explanation, but Bellevue, as with the whole of Alcúdia, is by no means British alone.
There have been dark mutterings about a sharp fall in British bookings to Mallorca this summer, but until we know how the season shakes out - and we won't for some while yet - it will be difficult to know for sure. If the second half of July and August rescues the summer, then all well and good, but it is not all well and good if we are really talking about a season of feverish activity which lasts a mere six weeks or so.
The Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodation (CEHAT) has, for its part, announced that this summer will be the best since the pre-crisis summer of 2007. Overbookings for August are said to be on the cards; or at least occupancy of above 90% in most Spanish tourist resorts, representing an overall increase in activity of around 11%. But CEHAT has reminded governments of different sorts of the need for major investment in tourism promotion, pointing to the significant rises in bookings to competitor destinations - Turkey up 17%; Greece, a rise of 22%.
Friday, July 12, 2013
The Myth Of The Record Tourism Season
How very odd. One moment we are told this will be a record tourism season and the next moment we are told that it will not be. Last month, the word was that hotel occupancy for July and August was 80%, a rate with which the hoteliers were happy, as they could anticipate last-minute sales boosting the rate to over the 90% mark, which will almost certainly happen. But, or so it would appear, this last-minute business requires lowering prices.
It would indeed be odd were this not to turn out to be a record season, given events in Egypt and Turkey and the fact that certain destinations, notably Croatia, do not have the volume of hotel places to meet demand that Mallorca has. It would also be odd, as June had indicated that Mallorca was indeed heading for a record season, as demonstrated by a record number of passengers having used Palma airport - slightly under three million and an increase of 1.3% over last year.
There will of course be an explanation for the apparent discrepancy between increased passenger numbers and under-occupancy, and it will be the provision of illegal private tourist accommodation. The hoteliers will make much of this, as they always do, because it is part of their usual propaganda.
Record or not record. High occupancy rates or not so high occupancy rates. What do we believe? As for lowering prices, it is not uncommon for there to be special offers for last-minute bookings, but who drives these offers? Is it the hotels or is it the tour operators? The latter have planes they need to fill as much as they have hotels. They will do what they have to do in order to ensure decent returns on all aspects of their holiday offer.
Occupancy rates, assuming they do go over the 90% mark, which they surely will do, are in fact good occupancy rates. At no time this century has there been 100% occupancy; 100% across the whole of Mallorca, that is. It just doesn't happen. July's occupancy last year, which went well over the 90% mark, was a record for this century.
When a travel source is quoted as saying that "if Mallorca is not full in July, then we can forget a record season", this travel source is echoing the hysterical claim made by the hoteliers last year, that Mallorca not being full was evidence of a "broken economy". There is no such thing as Mallorca being full. Travel sources and hoteliers should look at the historical data.
There is with average percentages of occupancy a great difference between resorts and even within resorts. There are and will be hotels that are full. There are hotels which have been full for several weeks and there will be those which are full for most of the season. Some may have made special offers, some may have not, but the special offer is not evidence of a non-record season; it is common practice.
There has to be some caution when one is confronted with any of the "record" or non-record talk. It is never as straightforward as it is made out to be. But while such talk can disguise certain realities, there is one issue on which there is general agreement, and that is tourist spend. When hoteliers complain that their guests are not spending, they are often right to complain.
I accept that one anecdotal example is far from sufficient, but let me give the example anyway. A hotel I know is full and has been full for several weeks. The other evening its entertainment room was packed. However, bar sales (this is not an all-inclusive) were poor. Among the people in the room was one particular group. They stayed for the whole evening's entertainment without buying a single drink.
Tourism spend, or the lack of it, is becoming an increasingly serious matter. What does a hotel do? One option is to press to become all-inclusive. This does at least give it certain guarantees. But in so doing, it makes worse the general situation caused by all-inclusives and lower spend. Another option, one for three-star hotels, is to upgrade in the hope of attracting a wealthier clientele. But let's say that most or all Mallorca's hotels suddenly became four or five-star. What then? Could they sell all their places? No they couldn't.
Talk of record seasons or not record seasons is largely irrelevant. It is predicated on occupancy rates which disguise various factors that make such talk irrelevant. There is no such thing as a record season. Just as there is no such thing as 100% occupancy.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
It would indeed be odd were this not to turn out to be a record season, given events in Egypt and Turkey and the fact that certain destinations, notably Croatia, do not have the volume of hotel places to meet demand that Mallorca has. It would also be odd, as June had indicated that Mallorca was indeed heading for a record season, as demonstrated by a record number of passengers having used Palma airport - slightly under three million and an increase of 1.3% over last year.
There will of course be an explanation for the apparent discrepancy between increased passenger numbers and under-occupancy, and it will be the provision of illegal private tourist accommodation. The hoteliers will make much of this, as they always do, because it is part of their usual propaganda.
Record or not record. High occupancy rates or not so high occupancy rates. What do we believe? As for lowering prices, it is not uncommon for there to be special offers for last-minute bookings, but who drives these offers? Is it the hotels or is it the tour operators? The latter have planes they need to fill as much as they have hotels. They will do what they have to do in order to ensure decent returns on all aspects of their holiday offer.
Occupancy rates, assuming they do go over the 90% mark, which they surely will do, are in fact good occupancy rates. At no time this century has there been 100% occupancy; 100% across the whole of Mallorca, that is. It just doesn't happen. July's occupancy last year, which went well over the 90% mark, was a record for this century.
When a travel source is quoted as saying that "if Mallorca is not full in July, then we can forget a record season", this travel source is echoing the hysterical claim made by the hoteliers last year, that Mallorca not being full was evidence of a "broken economy". There is no such thing as Mallorca being full. Travel sources and hoteliers should look at the historical data.
There is with average percentages of occupancy a great difference between resorts and even within resorts. There are and will be hotels that are full. There are hotels which have been full for several weeks and there will be those which are full for most of the season. Some may have made special offers, some may have not, but the special offer is not evidence of a non-record season; it is common practice.
There has to be some caution when one is confronted with any of the "record" or non-record talk. It is never as straightforward as it is made out to be. But while such talk can disguise certain realities, there is one issue on which there is general agreement, and that is tourist spend. When hoteliers complain that their guests are not spending, they are often right to complain.
I accept that one anecdotal example is far from sufficient, but let me give the example anyway. A hotel I know is full and has been full for several weeks. The other evening its entertainment room was packed. However, bar sales (this is not an all-inclusive) were poor. Among the people in the room was one particular group. They stayed for the whole evening's entertainment without buying a single drink.
Tourism spend, or the lack of it, is becoming an increasingly serious matter. What does a hotel do? One option is to press to become all-inclusive. This does at least give it certain guarantees. But in so doing, it makes worse the general situation caused by all-inclusives and lower spend. Another option, one for three-star hotels, is to upgrade in the hope of attracting a wealthier clientele. But let's say that most or all Mallorca's hotels suddenly became four or five-star. What then? Could they sell all their places? No they couldn't.
Talk of record seasons or not record seasons is largely irrelevant. It is predicated on occupancy rates which disguise various factors that make such talk irrelevant. There is no such thing as a record season. Just as there is no such thing as 100% occupancy.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, June 28, 2013
Mallorca Is A Volvo
Volvos have long been considered to be very safe and very reliable but terminally boring. In days gone by when perceived lack of safety or reliability dogged other cars, a Volvo's boredom factor was worth accepting as a trade-off against a steering-wheel suddenly coming off in your hands or the ignition flatly refusing ever to ignite. Nowadays, all cars (well, most) are safe and reliable. And most are boring. The regular family car, whatever its make, is like the regular family holiday. The family wants to know that it will be safe, it wants somewhere that is reliable and isn't prone to suffer all manner of breakdowns in service, and it will quite happily go to destinations which, while they may be boring, if only because of familiarity, are chosen as the trade-off against lack of safety or reliability. The Volvo may no longer be pre-eminent as the ultra-safe, ultra-reliable and ultra-boring motor car, but there remains a pre-eminince of similar virtues in the family holiday industry. This industry doesn't have the same homogeneity of attributes across its different makes.
Mallorca is a Volvo. Of course, it isn't boring in the sense of there being nothing to do, because there obviously is, but it is boring because of its familiarity. And this familiarity is proving to be the island's single greatest asset along with its safety and reliability. There's nothing wrong with a Volvo. Indeed, there is a great deal to commend a Volvo, the Volvo of the family holiday industry, because not all other destinations have the same attributes as the Mallorcan Volvo has.
One can understand why the local tourism industry rushes to the island's defence when a report like that in "Bild" the other day suggests that safety may not be guaranteed (if only in one or two resorts). Undermine the safety factor, and the Volvo status is also undermined. One can also understand why everyone gets into a blind panic at the mere mention of strikes affecting transport. Undermine the reliability factor, and that Volvoism is also threatened. One can also understand the pride expressed in new ventures for modernising resorts, but this is modernisation which needs to come with an appreciation of maintaining the familiar. Improve, enhance, make more beautiful, but never lose sight of why the familiarity arose in the first place.
Mallorca can anticipate its third successive bumper tourist crop. Occupancy statistics for hotels show levels to be at least as high as 80% for July and August, and these mean that they will turn out to be very much higher; last-minute will see to that. And last-minute is being aided, as ever, by the less than total presence of the two key factors of safety and reliability. Turkey has unrest, Egypt can never be totally relied upon, and even Croatia, deemed one of Mallorca's greatest competitors, if not the greatest, cannot claim reliability in one very important respect - it doesn't have anything like the hotels to accommodate the numbers which come to Mallorca.
The Volvo is being exported in ever larger numbers not just to the traditional markets but also to the newer ones. More Russians than ever are coming to Mallorca, as we knew they would be, but there are more Brits, more Germans and more Nordic types (especially, no doubt, the Volvo-loving Swedes).
So, everyone will be congratulating themselves on another excellent summer. The hoteliers will be happy and are already happy, and this will make, as always, their attacks on the so-called illegal offer seem more bizarre than ever. The government will be happy. Growth is returning. Jobs are back. But these are the usual back-slapping suspects. It will be the others out there who aren't congratulating themselves, those running on empty caused by lower tourism spends, all-inclusives and the great divergence in terms of the resorts' have and have-nots.
Safe, reliable, familiar. The Mallorcan Volvo attracts its millions, and the hoteliers and the government can laud its attributes and attribute a highly successful season to this consistency of performance. The only trouble is that, for much of the time, the Volvo never leaves the garage.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Mallorca is a Volvo. Of course, it isn't boring in the sense of there being nothing to do, because there obviously is, but it is boring because of its familiarity. And this familiarity is proving to be the island's single greatest asset along with its safety and reliability. There's nothing wrong with a Volvo. Indeed, there is a great deal to commend a Volvo, the Volvo of the family holiday industry, because not all other destinations have the same attributes as the Mallorcan Volvo has.
One can understand why the local tourism industry rushes to the island's defence when a report like that in "Bild" the other day suggests that safety may not be guaranteed (if only in one or two resorts). Undermine the safety factor, and the Volvo status is also undermined. One can also understand why everyone gets into a blind panic at the mere mention of strikes affecting transport. Undermine the reliability factor, and that Volvoism is also threatened. One can also understand the pride expressed in new ventures for modernising resorts, but this is modernisation which needs to come with an appreciation of maintaining the familiar. Improve, enhance, make more beautiful, but never lose sight of why the familiarity arose in the first place.
Mallorca can anticipate its third successive bumper tourist crop. Occupancy statistics for hotels show levels to be at least as high as 80% for July and August, and these mean that they will turn out to be very much higher; last-minute will see to that. And last-minute is being aided, as ever, by the less than total presence of the two key factors of safety and reliability. Turkey has unrest, Egypt can never be totally relied upon, and even Croatia, deemed one of Mallorca's greatest competitors, if not the greatest, cannot claim reliability in one very important respect - it doesn't have anything like the hotels to accommodate the numbers which come to Mallorca.
The Volvo is being exported in ever larger numbers not just to the traditional markets but also to the newer ones. More Russians than ever are coming to Mallorca, as we knew they would be, but there are more Brits, more Germans and more Nordic types (especially, no doubt, the Volvo-loving Swedes).
So, everyone will be congratulating themselves on another excellent summer. The hoteliers will be happy and are already happy, and this will make, as always, their attacks on the so-called illegal offer seem more bizarre than ever. The government will be happy. Growth is returning. Jobs are back. But these are the usual back-slapping suspects. It will be the others out there who aren't congratulating themselves, those running on empty caused by lower tourism spends, all-inclusives and the great divergence in terms of the resorts' have and have-nots.
Safe, reliable, familiar. The Mallorcan Volvo attracts its millions, and the hoteliers and the government can laud its attributes and attribute a highly successful season to this consistency of performance. The only trouble is that, for much of the time, the Volvo never leaves the garage.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, May 30, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - Best May for tourism for years
Passenger numbers through Palma airport and occupancy statistics in some of the main tourism centres such as Alcúdia, Can Picafort and Magalluf suggest that this May has been the best for tourism for several years, levels up by as much as 10% over 2012 in some cases.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
Sunday, October 07, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Last minute bookings create record tourism year in Mallorca
Last minute sales in various European markets have helped to create a record tourism year in Mallorca in terms of hotel occupancy and traffic through Palma airport. The figures, though, cannot disguise the fact that there is a concentration of high numbers of tourists into four months of the season.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
Tuesday, September 18, 2012
From Woe To Joy: Tourism announcements
I hate to bang on about all this, but some decidedly odd and contradictory statements have been emanating from sectors of the tourism industry over the past few weeks.
Towards the end of August, the hoteliers federation came out with its now infamous statement about the economy being broken on account of a failure to register 100% occupancy in August, a statement I showed to be fallacious as historically August occupancy across Mallorca averages around 90%. At the same time predictions for September and October were said to be poor. From the middle of September, added the federation, bookings were set to fall drastically and from the start of October there would be "a massive closure of hotels".
We now have a situation in which September, according to the federation, will be "exceptional" and the "most profitable of the whole season, better than other years". Moreover, October is looking that good that the season, which had looked as though it would end prematurely with the massive closure of hotels in the first week of the month, will certainly extend until around the 20th of the month.
The simple explanation for this positive news appears to be an unexpectedly high level of last-minute bookings, with the British market performing particularly well. It is quite possible that bad weather, the Olympics and Paralympics can explain this late rush, but the British market is not unique; most markets are apparently performing well - German, Russian, Scandinavian, Italian, you name it.
While one can never truly understand tourist consumer behaviour and so dismiss a collective desire to book last minute across much of Europe, it seems more than slightly strange that the situation should have changed so dramatically from one of woe three weeks ago to one of joy now. But in fact, one didn't have to wait three weeks. On 3 September, a week after the federation was issuing its warnings about a poor second half of the month, certain hotel chains were explaining to the website preferente.com that their figures for September were already exceptional: Garden Hotels with seven establishments in the north, Arenal and Cala Millor were announcing 92.3% occupancy for September; Viva Hotels (thirteen hotels in the north and Palmanova) were anticipating at least 90% and possibly even 95%. Moreover, in Viva's case the first half of October was pretty much full.
This altogether rosier picture does appear taken some hotels and the federation by surprise, or so they say, but is it all attributable to last-minute bookings? Perhaps it is, but if it is, then it serves as a reminder (again) to be wary of what actually is announced by sources such as the hoteliers. Even poor forecasts should come with a caveat; they can apparently change dramatically.
Then we have the island's tourist attractions. At the end of the first week of August I wrote about how the attractions can blame the wrong sort of weather for a failure to bring in the punters. Too hot and people stay away. Yet we were told a week ago that August had been very good for many attractions (and we're not talking waterparks here). And this despite this August having been the second hottest since 1961. So, how can this very good August be explained? A change in the profile of visitor, it is said, to a family visitor and from a youthful tourist in previous months.
This in itself is odd. It's hardly news that August attracts more families than other months. I'm sure the attractions are well aware of this historical trend. Have they therefore been taken by surprise by good August sales as much as the hoteliers have been by September's and October's? It would appear that they have as the logic of the hot weather spin would suggest that they should have done poorly in August.
The explanation regarding the family tourist in August doesn't chime with what one is typically told on the streets. Plenty of businesses hate August because tourists, despite the numbers, spend less, precisely because they are families who, not unreasonably, are worried about the pennies when they have various juniors in tow. And as for tourists in June or July being more "youthful", I simply don't buy the argument. Apart from anything else, especially in July, there are plenty of families because of variations in school summer holidays in Europe.
I am left to conclude, and I shouldn't really need these latest examples as confirmation, that most of what one is fed by the local tourism industry is, for different reasons, at best questionable and at worst just plain wrong. Why do we (I) even bother reporting what they say or comment on it? God knows.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Towards the end of August, the hoteliers federation came out with its now infamous statement about the economy being broken on account of a failure to register 100% occupancy in August, a statement I showed to be fallacious as historically August occupancy across Mallorca averages around 90%. At the same time predictions for September and October were said to be poor. From the middle of September, added the federation, bookings were set to fall drastically and from the start of October there would be "a massive closure of hotels".
We now have a situation in which September, according to the federation, will be "exceptional" and the "most profitable of the whole season, better than other years". Moreover, October is looking that good that the season, which had looked as though it would end prematurely with the massive closure of hotels in the first week of the month, will certainly extend until around the 20th of the month.
The simple explanation for this positive news appears to be an unexpectedly high level of last-minute bookings, with the British market performing particularly well. It is quite possible that bad weather, the Olympics and Paralympics can explain this late rush, but the British market is not unique; most markets are apparently performing well - German, Russian, Scandinavian, Italian, you name it.
While one can never truly understand tourist consumer behaviour and so dismiss a collective desire to book last minute across much of Europe, it seems more than slightly strange that the situation should have changed so dramatically from one of woe three weeks ago to one of joy now. But in fact, one didn't have to wait three weeks. On 3 September, a week after the federation was issuing its warnings about a poor second half of the month, certain hotel chains were explaining to the website preferente.com that their figures for September were already exceptional: Garden Hotels with seven establishments in the north, Arenal and Cala Millor were announcing 92.3% occupancy for September; Viva Hotels (thirteen hotels in the north and Palmanova) were anticipating at least 90% and possibly even 95%. Moreover, in Viva's case the first half of October was pretty much full.
This altogether rosier picture does appear taken some hotels and the federation by surprise, or so they say, but is it all attributable to last-minute bookings? Perhaps it is, but if it is, then it serves as a reminder (again) to be wary of what actually is announced by sources such as the hoteliers. Even poor forecasts should come with a caveat; they can apparently change dramatically.
Then we have the island's tourist attractions. At the end of the first week of August I wrote about how the attractions can blame the wrong sort of weather for a failure to bring in the punters. Too hot and people stay away. Yet we were told a week ago that August had been very good for many attractions (and we're not talking waterparks here). And this despite this August having been the second hottest since 1961. So, how can this very good August be explained? A change in the profile of visitor, it is said, to a family visitor and from a youthful tourist in previous months.
This in itself is odd. It's hardly news that August attracts more families than other months. I'm sure the attractions are well aware of this historical trend. Have they therefore been taken by surprise by good August sales as much as the hoteliers have been by September's and October's? It would appear that they have as the logic of the hot weather spin would suggest that they should have done poorly in August.
The explanation regarding the family tourist in August doesn't chime with what one is typically told on the streets. Plenty of businesses hate August because tourists, despite the numbers, spend less, precisely because they are families who, not unreasonably, are worried about the pennies when they have various juniors in tow. And as for tourists in June or July being more "youthful", I simply don't buy the argument. Apart from anything else, especially in July, there are plenty of families because of variations in school summer holidays in Europe.
I am left to conclude, and I shouldn't really need these latest examples as confirmation, that most of what one is fed by the local tourism industry is, for different reasons, at best questionable and at worst just plain wrong. Why do we (I) even bother reporting what they say or comment on it? God knows.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, August 30, 2012
The Dumbing Silence Of A Strange Season
Stranger and stranger. As "Ultima Hora" put it: "the logical extrapolation from the flow of visitors to the island has been (increased) hotel occupancy rates". Passenger traffic at Palma's Son Sant Joan airport was at a record level in July. Just under 3.5 million passengers does not mean 3.5 million people arriving to have a holiday, but it is still a significant movement of human traffic (and I feel I need to correct a letter to "The Bulletin" which suggested that the number was 22.7 million; this was the figure for the whole of the AENA airport network in July).
Increased passenger numbers will logically lead to increased occupancy and, as I have pointed out, July had exceptionally high levels of hotel occupancy. August's occupancy levels are likely to be lower than July's, though around the average (as I have also pointed out).
Confronted with record airport numbers, record occupancy levels (in July) and the most profitable high season since 2007, what has the Mallorcan hoteliers federation been telling us? That there is a broken economy. Doesn't sound like it, but not to worry; spin can keep spinning. The season, the federation now says, has been "strange", though it is not anything like as strange as the bizarre doublespeak that emanates from the hoteliers and the dumbness of the local press.
This is the final part of a tetralogy of articles, themes of which have been the hotels' manipulation of information, press incuriosity in challenging such information and the absence of genuine debate as to issues which do not accord with the vision of tourism that the hotels (and regional government) would prefer. One knows already of course how record levels of airport passengers are explained away. Not by surprisingly high July occupancy figures (because these would not chime with the notion of a broken economy) but by all the very naughty tourists who are booking into apartments they shouldn't be booking into.
While there is an absence of genuine debate, it is wrong to assume that there aren't some organisations knocking around who take issue with the hotel-centric philosophy of tourism. The problem they have, however, is that their views get lost or ignored or that these views become subordinate to self-interest.
In Menorca and Ibiza/Formentera there are associations for "viviendas vacacionales", i.e. holiday homes. The Menorcan association, via the small to medium-sized business association on the island, lobbied for an amendment to the tourism law which would have liberalised holiday lets. They wanted any accommodation to be made available, legally, for holiday let purposes, which is the direction that Catalonia is moving in. Menorcan businesses, and not only the association for holiday homes, had pleaded for this liberalisation because of the particular savaging Menorca has experienced at the hands of the devil's work of tourism - all-inclusives and ever more pronounced seasonality.
What happened? Well, nothing of course. No one took any notice and apart from the reporting of the business association's lobby for an amendment, little more was said in the local (Mallorcan) press. The Menorcans were distinctly miffed by there having been no recognition of their plight in the new tourism law.
In Ibiza and Formentera a similar association for holiday homes wasn't so miffed. Indeed, it "applauded" the new law. It was "sympathetic" to the same demand that the Menorcans had been making, but it supported a law that has established a framework whereby owners of holiday homes (villas and houses and not apartments) can become businesses. So here was an association which adopted a sort of I'm all right Jack approach on behalf of owners who could let their properties in any event, hence the whiff of self-interest at the expense of apartment owners.
In Mallorca there are two associations for holiday homes, both headquartered in Pollensa, a town with a massive reliance on the rental of private accommodation to tourists. Back in January they had been making their fears regarding the new law known, but once again they were no more than just reported. The town's mayor took up their cause but could get no movement from the government.
The point is that, and notwithstanding the somewhat self-serving attitude in Ibiza, there are organisations out there who have a different view to the dominant hotel-centric philosophy. But when are their voices ever heard? Really heard, as in their being brought into a genuine debate.
They aren't heard and they probably never will be. Not, that is, while the media is as compliant as it is in swallowing the constant arguments released by the all-powerful hoteliers. The whole debate, not that there really is one, just gets stranger and stranger.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Increased passenger numbers will logically lead to increased occupancy and, as I have pointed out, July had exceptionally high levels of hotel occupancy. August's occupancy levels are likely to be lower than July's, though around the average (as I have also pointed out).
Confronted with record airport numbers, record occupancy levels (in July) and the most profitable high season since 2007, what has the Mallorcan hoteliers federation been telling us? That there is a broken economy. Doesn't sound like it, but not to worry; spin can keep spinning. The season, the federation now says, has been "strange", though it is not anything like as strange as the bizarre doublespeak that emanates from the hoteliers and the dumbness of the local press.
This is the final part of a tetralogy of articles, themes of which have been the hotels' manipulation of information, press incuriosity in challenging such information and the absence of genuine debate as to issues which do not accord with the vision of tourism that the hotels (and regional government) would prefer. One knows already of course how record levels of airport passengers are explained away. Not by surprisingly high July occupancy figures (because these would not chime with the notion of a broken economy) but by all the very naughty tourists who are booking into apartments they shouldn't be booking into.
While there is an absence of genuine debate, it is wrong to assume that there aren't some organisations knocking around who take issue with the hotel-centric philosophy of tourism. The problem they have, however, is that their views get lost or ignored or that these views become subordinate to self-interest.
In Menorca and Ibiza/Formentera there are associations for "viviendas vacacionales", i.e. holiday homes. The Menorcan association, via the small to medium-sized business association on the island, lobbied for an amendment to the tourism law which would have liberalised holiday lets. They wanted any accommodation to be made available, legally, for holiday let purposes, which is the direction that Catalonia is moving in. Menorcan businesses, and not only the association for holiday homes, had pleaded for this liberalisation because of the particular savaging Menorca has experienced at the hands of the devil's work of tourism - all-inclusives and ever more pronounced seasonality.
What happened? Well, nothing of course. No one took any notice and apart from the reporting of the business association's lobby for an amendment, little more was said in the local (Mallorcan) press. The Menorcans were distinctly miffed by there having been no recognition of their plight in the new tourism law.
In Ibiza and Formentera a similar association for holiday homes wasn't so miffed. Indeed, it "applauded" the new law. It was "sympathetic" to the same demand that the Menorcans had been making, but it supported a law that has established a framework whereby owners of holiday homes (villas and houses and not apartments) can become businesses. So here was an association which adopted a sort of I'm all right Jack approach on behalf of owners who could let their properties in any event, hence the whiff of self-interest at the expense of apartment owners.
In Mallorca there are two associations for holiday homes, both headquartered in Pollensa, a town with a massive reliance on the rental of private accommodation to tourists. Back in January they had been making their fears regarding the new law known, but once again they were no more than just reported. The town's mayor took up their cause but could get no movement from the government.
The point is that, and notwithstanding the somewhat self-serving attitude in Ibiza, there are organisations out there who have a different view to the dominant hotel-centric philosophy. But when are their voices ever heard? Really heard, as in their being brought into a genuine debate.
They aren't heard and they probably never will be. Not, that is, while the media is as compliant as it is in swallowing the constant arguments released by the all-powerful hoteliers. The whole debate, not that there really is one, just gets stranger and stranger.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Saturday, April 07, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Foreign tourism saves Balearics' Easter
Mainland Spaniards, apparently turned off by an increase in the cost of air travel, have turned their backs on the Balearics this Easter, leaving the British and Germans to come to the islands' rescue. Some 70% of hotels are open with occupancy averaging 72%, down 10% on last year (though the point should again be made that Easter was later last year). The role of the weather, even in April, is highlighted by the fact that one hotel chain, Barceló, points out that in the Canaries good weather is guaranteed, while in the Balearics ... . Locally, there has been some rain and wind; not really beach weather.
See more: El Mundo
See more: El Mundo
Saturday, March 31, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Hotels in Mallorca expect lower occupancy this Easter
Predictions as to hotel occupancy rates in Mallorca this Easter suggest that they will be down by 9% over Easter last year. There again, Easter was later last year.
See more: El Mundo
See more: El Mundo
Thursday, August 25, 2011
MALLORCA TODAY - 88% hotel occupancy anticipated for September
With tourism levels in August meaning that the "no vacancies" signs have been put up on many hotels in Mallorca, September is set to be a good month as well, with 88% occupancy being anticipated, a rise of 11% over last year. Other parts of the tourism economy are enjoying a boom summer as well: rent-a-car agencies and boat charter firms are booked out.
Sunday, August 14, 2011
MALLORCA TODAY - July hotel occupancy in Mallorca tops 90%
Figures for hotel occupancy in July show that 93% of Mallorca's hotel places were taken up, the highest percentages being recorded in Porto Cristo and Can Picafort (both 97.1%). The prediction for August is for a small fall in these figures - to 89%.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
MALLORCA TODAY - 75% occupancy at Easter
Hotels in Calvia are looking forward to an excellent Easter, with up to 75% occupancy. This figure does disguise fluctuations in the municipality. Palmanova anticipates only 49%; Santa Ponsa, 57%. In the resorts of Calvia, problems with specific markets have been highlighted. While the British market is improving slightly, the Irish market has been badly affected. It is the German market which is making figures for Easter look particularly buoyant and not just in Calvia. The Mallorca hotel federation expects island-wide occupancy to be between 65 and 70%.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Número Uno: Can Picafort and occupancy stats
"And at number one in August, it's Can Picafort!"
The charts for August hotel occupancy in Spain have been topped by Santa Margalida. Can Picafort, in other words. How on earth has this happened?
Back in the middle of August, the Mallorcan hotel federation was indicating that, unlike some resorts which had enjoyed decent Julys, Can Picafort had been on the opposite scale. Rather than number one, it had bombed. What a difference a month makes, especially to a resort often seen as the poor relation within the trinity of conurbation it forms together with Puerto Alcúdia and Playa de Muro.
The Spanish national statistics office is the one that has elevated Can Pic to the lofty heights of suddenly being the country's most successful resort. Does the town get a plaque or something? The town hall should put up a new sign. "Welcome to Can Picafort, number one in Spain", with August 2010 in small type. 50,630 foreigners and 3,981 Spaniards can't be wrong. 97.67% occupancy. God, how they love all this junk. And for many it is junk because they don't believe it. Maybe the chaps at the stats office just stick a pin in a map and then roll some dice to see what numbers they can come up with.
To explain Can Picafort's ascendancy may have to do with factors like discounts, Germans and the position of the planets. I had wondered if having a fiesta during August, and one with some hugely entertaining duck tossing, might have been a further factor, but under four thousand Spaniards suggests otherwise; foreign tourists are not normally attracted by fiestas per se. Nope, quite why it's number one is a mystery to me, and will also be to many in a resort who are prone to wearing the long face of "cree-sis" and to letting anyone unfortunate enough to be in earshot to know about it. They will also let you know about the devil's work of the all-inclusive.
Getting to grips with quite how prevalent all-inclusive is in Can Picafort is difficult. Look at certain hotels' websites and you will find no mention of it, but go off to an agency's site and you will. There are hotels in the resort which everyone knows to be all-inclusive and which don't mind telling the world that they are, but there are others which are a bit coy. Of the approximately 50 hotels (depending on your definition) in the resort, it's not unreasonable to assume that at least a third of them offer AI; the number is probably higher.
August's celebratory occupancy figures for Mallorca as a whole, partly attributed to the rain-soaked British who fortuitously found an under-used credit card stashed in the pocket of a hastily retrieved winter overcoat, disguise the real truth - what's being spent. Despite the positive figures on spend, issued generally rather than per resort, the all-inclusive/spend relationship has been proven. The research at Palma university says it all: an average daily spend by an AI guest that is under half of that of a guest staying B&B. There are plenty who would probably disagree with this, putting it at more like a quarter, if that.
To compensate for this 50% lower spend, you need an awful lot higher than average spend by all the other tourists. With the greatest respect to Can Picafort, it has a reputation for tourism which, how can one put it, is not at the wallet-bulging end of the market. And this is not me saying this; it's a view often expressed by business owners. Nigh on full occupancy for the peak month of August doesn't mean a great deal when you place it in the context of the nature of the market.
The statistics which get pumped out may be questioned by many. I'm less inclined to; they aren't always positive. But more fundamentally, the regularity of their production and the prominence granted to them can create an illusion, or indeed a delusion. They may be correct, but they enable politicians and others to boast of "records" and of tourist seasons being "good" ones (and this one has been, according to Spain's minister for tourism) and thus fail to appreciate how tourism is working - less at the macro level but more at the micro levels of the individual resorts.
Well done though, Can Picafort, you could do with a break, but you will also know that having a number one can be deceiving. Milli Vanilli, anyone?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Happy Together? Hotel occupancy Alcúdia and Can Picafort
Following on from the mention of low occupancy in Puerto Alcudia on 8 June, some firmer figures, not just those for one establishment. The combined Alcúdia and Can Picafort hotel association reports (from "The Diario") rates similar to last year. Currently, occupancy stands at 57% in Alcúdia and 58% in Can Picafort. Not very high in other words. The forecast for July puts the numbers at 78% in Alcúdia and 72% in Can Picafort. For July, these aren't particularly impressive; indeed, they are distinctly unimpressive.
Leading lights in the association gathered for a chinwag a couple of days ago. The report from "The Diario" included a photo, featuring, among others, Juan from the Sol Alcúdia Center and Ricardo from the Siesta 1 Apartments. They looked happy enough for the camera. Not so sure that they really are.
The association approves of the regional government's attempts to attract new markets, but reckons that the push on the Russian front is unlikely to bear much fruit in either of the resorts, as the Russian market, mainly high worth, prefers four or five-star accommodation. Which does, I suppose, beg a question as to the standard, overall, of hotels in the resorts. Not, however, that there aren't four-star hotels. Relatively greater numbers of four stars and indeed two five stars are, however, in Playa de Muro. Not for the first time, I wonder why Playa de Muro hasn't combined with the associations in Alcúdia and Can Picafort, especially as Playa de Muro sits between the two other resorts. Or maybe this Russian thing gives the game away. Muro wants Russian. It already has it, and yes, they, the Russians, do go to five-star hotels.
In an attempt to drum up more business, the association has invited representatives of 25 tour operators to come along for some gentle persuasion on Friday. It will, apparently, be highlighting such wonders as the improvements to the beach in Alcúdia and the restoration of dunes, and then following it all up with a meal at Son Real, just outside Can Picafort. God, they know how to win and influence tour operators. Here are some new showers on the beach, here are some dunes with some walkways, here is a nature area where no one much goes to. I don't think we should be holding our breath. But hats off, nonetheless; at least the association is trying. Or is it desperate?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Leading lights in the association gathered for a chinwag a couple of days ago. The report from "The Diario" included a photo, featuring, among others, Juan from the Sol Alcúdia Center and Ricardo from the Siesta 1 Apartments. They looked happy enough for the camera. Not so sure that they really are.
The association approves of the regional government's attempts to attract new markets, but reckons that the push on the Russian front is unlikely to bear much fruit in either of the resorts, as the Russian market, mainly high worth, prefers four or five-star accommodation. Which does, I suppose, beg a question as to the standard, overall, of hotels in the resorts. Not, however, that there aren't four-star hotels. Relatively greater numbers of four stars and indeed two five stars are, however, in Playa de Muro. Not for the first time, I wonder why Playa de Muro hasn't combined with the associations in Alcúdia and Can Picafort, especially as Playa de Muro sits between the two other resorts. Or maybe this Russian thing gives the game away. Muro wants Russian. It already has it, and yes, they, the Russians, do go to five-star hotels.
In an attempt to drum up more business, the association has invited representatives of 25 tour operators to come along for some gentle persuasion on Friday. It will, apparently, be highlighting such wonders as the improvements to the beach in Alcúdia and the restoration of dunes, and then following it all up with a meal at Son Real, just outside Can Picafort. God, they know how to win and influence tour operators. Here are some new showers on the beach, here are some dunes with some walkways, here is a nature area where no one much goes to. I don't think we should be holding our breath. But hats off, nonetheless; at least the association is trying. Or is it desperate?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
It Only Takes A Minute
Or a second, or not even that really. I have this in my mind as I drive the roads. Only takes a second for potential oblivion for someone, myself included. I commend it as a thought for everyone to hold in their heads. It only took a second for the driver of one of the vehicles involved in the smash in Alcúdia the other day to not observe the stop sign and end up in a collision with a van and a people-carrier, with a three-year-old left in a serious condition.
The accident took place at the junction of the Avenida Tucan (the Hidropark road) and the bypass by the mountain. It is not an accident that is hard to understand happening. Some of the junctions are confusing and downright dangerous, no more so than the one at the turning into the road for Cala San Vicente. The combination of fast-moving traffic, filter system and means of turning left from one road makes these junctions accidents in waiting. They should get rid of all of them and replace them with roundabouts. The locals may not be too clever where roundabouts are concerned, but at least they slow traffic and create less confusion. Roundabout accidents tend to be confined, at worst, to shunts, but they rarely cause multiple pile-ups; the filter junctions do. And while on confusing road layouts, can someone try and explain to me what in God's name one is supposed to do on those roads by the Eroski on the outskirts of Pollensa going into the industrial estate; it is a complete shambles of confusion.
It only takes a second, but if you need several seconds to be really sure, then take them, regardless of the idiot behind doing the gesticulating or giving it large on the horn.
Thirty-three ... the interior ministry
Ever ones to try and interfere with the previously unmolested workings of fiestas and tourism, different ministries seem intent on finding new ways of generally hacking everyone off with the irrelevant and the stupid. Let's run this one by you. In the municipality of Marratxí, there has been a tradition during the fiesta in Pòrtol of holding a street bingo. Money raised from the event this year has been earmarked to go towards renovation work on the local church. In step the heavy boots of the interior ministry, via the local police, which says that it cannot take place as it is illegal; these bingos take place in many other villages and towns. The ministry reckons that they have got out of control, that their prizes are too valuable and that they do not exclude those under eighteen.
The street bingos are something of a tradition, and frankly what harm do they do? If there was really a desire to eradicate some traditions, then the authorities should concentrate on more questionable aspects such as those involving genuine animal cruelty (and no not the ducks in Can Picafort, which is even more potty than it was now that rubber ducks are involved). Anyway, the bingo in Pòrtol did take place, and seemingly no-one tried to intervene to prevent it.
No flights?
And something of a follow-up to the piece of two days ago about the hoteliers and the so-called "catastrophe" that is this season. I am told that many hotels, those contracted to certain tour operators, have no real problem with occupancy, in that they are contracted for their allocations. A problem lies with the airlines providing sufficient flights. One hotel in Alcúdia has places but is unable to sell them - and there is demand - because flights cannot be obtained. Or that is what is being said. Not sure. On a different matter, I am also told that one tour operator, First Choice, is pulling tourists out of Bellevue and placing them elsewhere - Sea Club or, in the case of guests signed up for all-inclusive, Jupiter. There are, apparently, "certain problems".
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - For example, The New Christy Minstrels, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vXmx3A1SyA. Today's title - no clue needed.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
The accident took place at the junction of the Avenida Tucan (the Hidropark road) and the bypass by the mountain. It is not an accident that is hard to understand happening. Some of the junctions are confusing and downright dangerous, no more so than the one at the turning into the road for Cala San Vicente. The combination of fast-moving traffic, filter system and means of turning left from one road makes these junctions accidents in waiting. They should get rid of all of them and replace them with roundabouts. The locals may not be too clever where roundabouts are concerned, but at least they slow traffic and create less confusion. Roundabout accidents tend to be confined, at worst, to shunts, but they rarely cause multiple pile-ups; the filter junctions do. And while on confusing road layouts, can someone try and explain to me what in God's name one is supposed to do on those roads by the Eroski on the outskirts of Pollensa going into the industrial estate; it is a complete shambles of confusion.
It only takes a second, but if you need several seconds to be really sure, then take them, regardless of the idiot behind doing the gesticulating or giving it large on the horn.
Thirty-three ... the interior ministry
Ever ones to try and interfere with the previously unmolested workings of fiestas and tourism, different ministries seem intent on finding new ways of generally hacking everyone off with the irrelevant and the stupid. Let's run this one by you. In the municipality of Marratxí, there has been a tradition during the fiesta in Pòrtol of holding a street bingo. Money raised from the event this year has been earmarked to go towards renovation work on the local church. In step the heavy boots of the interior ministry, via the local police, which says that it cannot take place as it is illegal; these bingos take place in many other villages and towns. The ministry reckons that they have got out of control, that their prizes are too valuable and that they do not exclude those under eighteen.
The street bingos are something of a tradition, and frankly what harm do they do? If there was really a desire to eradicate some traditions, then the authorities should concentrate on more questionable aspects such as those involving genuine animal cruelty (and no not the ducks in Can Picafort, which is even more potty than it was now that rubber ducks are involved). Anyway, the bingo in Pòrtol did take place, and seemingly no-one tried to intervene to prevent it.
No flights?
And something of a follow-up to the piece of two days ago about the hoteliers and the so-called "catastrophe" that is this season. I am told that many hotels, those contracted to certain tour operators, have no real problem with occupancy, in that they are contracted for their allocations. A problem lies with the airlines providing sufficient flights. One hotel in Alcúdia has places but is unable to sell them - and there is demand - because flights cannot be obtained. Or that is what is being said. Not sure. On a different matter, I am also told that one tour operator, First Choice, is pulling tourists out of Bellevue and placing them elsewhere - Sea Club or, in the case of guests signed up for all-inclusive, Jupiter. There are, apparently, "certain problems".
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - For example, The New Christy Minstrels, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vXmx3A1SyA. Today's title - no clue needed.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Saturday, August 25, 2007
It’s Good News Week
Well, at least the weather has improved enough for the beaches to be, if not packed, then well-attended. And near me in Playa de Muro attended also by the Guardia and a television crew (to be precise one person with a camera, but crew will do). What were they doing? Not sure; you don’t exactly walk up to the Guardia and enquire, but there was some chap with a clipboard and documents. Could have been more on the sunbed/lounger over-provision (15 July).
Some while ago, ages ago it seems, I mentioned the attempt to eradicate illegal holiday apartments. There has been more activity on this recently, with owners rushing to get their properties legalised, only for their applications to be rejected (in not every case, but in a majority). I bring this up because a correspondent to “The Bulletin” makes some pretty strident comments on the subject. He makes a very valuable point, namely that this form of accommodation has a benefit in that it offers high-value, year-round tourism, while those renting this accommodation are the sort of people who will go out. He finishes - “their (the people doing the renting) spend bears no comparison to what a typical hotel bed contributes”. Well said, I reckon.
And while on hotel beds. More “good news” statistics. Apparently the tourist season is exceeding all expectations. Ah yes, of course it is. Anyway, July’s hotel occupation for Alcúdia was 95% and Muro’s nearly 97%. What strikes one, well me at any rate, is the imbalance between Spanish and other tourists. You might recall my saying that the whole tourist season is being buoyed by an increase in Spanish tourism to Mallorca, a form of tourism that does tend to have a high spend (not that everyone would agree with that, but be that as it may). Yet look at Alcúdia, and the number of overnight stays during July were as follows - 8,439 (Spanish), 650,949 (foreign) - and for Muro they were, respectively, 35,004 and 515,965. As I pointed out on 7 August, the congratulatory noises regarding Spanish tourism were unlikely to be echoed on the streets of Alcúdia. I didn’t realise by how little. To put this into perspective, the proportion of Spanish to foreign tourists (per overnight stay) in July in Palma was about 1 to 5. In Alcúdia it was 1 to 77! The overall proportion for the island was around 1 to 11. Enough said.
Finally, just a quick word of consolation to Jane and Kevin at JKs Bar in Puerto Pollensa who have had a flood. All will be back and in order by tomorrow. It never rains, it pours. And Puerto Pollensa got it in the neck more than anywhere.
QUIZ
The Smiths everyone should have known. The other one was The Corrs “Would You Be Happier”. As a counterpoint to yesterday and because of the “good news” (allegedly) about the season’s numbers, who recorded today’s title?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Some while ago, ages ago it seems, I mentioned the attempt to eradicate illegal holiday apartments. There has been more activity on this recently, with owners rushing to get their properties legalised, only for their applications to be rejected (in not every case, but in a majority). I bring this up because a correspondent to “The Bulletin” makes some pretty strident comments on the subject. He makes a very valuable point, namely that this form of accommodation has a benefit in that it offers high-value, year-round tourism, while those renting this accommodation are the sort of people who will go out. He finishes - “their (the people doing the renting) spend bears no comparison to what a typical hotel bed contributes”. Well said, I reckon.
And while on hotel beds. More “good news” statistics. Apparently the tourist season is exceeding all expectations. Ah yes, of course it is. Anyway, July’s hotel occupation for Alcúdia was 95% and Muro’s nearly 97%. What strikes one, well me at any rate, is the imbalance between Spanish and other tourists. You might recall my saying that the whole tourist season is being buoyed by an increase in Spanish tourism to Mallorca, a form of tourism that does tend to have a high spend (not that everyone would agree with that, but be that as it may). Yet look at Alcúdia, and the number of overnight stays during July were as follows - 8,439 (Spanish), 650,949 (foreign) - and for Muro they were, respectively, 35,004 and 515,965. As I pointed out on 7 August, the congratulatory noises regarding Spanish tourism were unlikely to be echoed on the streets of Alcúdia. I didn’t realise by how little. To put this into perspective, the proportion of Spanish to foreign tourists (per overnight stay) in July in Palma was about 1 to 5. In Alcúdia it was 1 to 77! The overall proportion for the island was around 1 to 11. Enough said.
Finally, just a quick word of consolation to Jane and Kevin at JKs Bar in Puerto Pollensa who have had a flood. All will be back and in order by tomorrow. It never rains, it pours. And Puerto Pollensa got it in the neck more than anywhere.
QUIZ
The Smiths everyone should have known. The other one was The Corrs “Would You Be Happier”. As a counterpoint to yesterday and because of the “good news” (allegedly) about the season’s numbers, who recorded today’s title?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
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