It would have been twenty-five years ago, a generation ago. I was invited onto a working party reporting to the European Commission. The subject was what was then referred to in broad terms as electronic publishing. We knew about the internet, we knew (vaguely) about what was about to come - the world wide web - we knew about database publishing and we knew about how different nets (networks) had been functioning primarily for military and academic purposes. What we didn't know and nor did the Commission was where this might all lead in terms not just of publishing but also information provision.
The working party was not unique in having an environment in which a certain tension existed. At my company this was called, because it suited the organisation's politics, creative tension, when in reality it was purely tension. On the one side were the strategists, the marketers, the businesspeople. On the other side were the technology buffs. At that time, it is perhaps fair to say, the techies looked down on their counterparts. They understood the gobbledegook. The business side didn't. The result was usually argument rather than proposal or action.
I was a non-technologist in search of a technologically understandable (possibly) organisational business model. Certain things had led me to where I was at that time in terms of thinking. One, from a few years before, had been a boss's insistence that I familiarise myself with Edward de Bono and lateral thought. Another was meeting someone called Peter Schwartz, nowadays referred to as a "futurist", then the head of scenario planning with Royal Dutch Shell. Schwartz dealt with what-ifs on a grand scale. Little was not possible, if you only applied your thoughts to it.
There were other influences, such as what Jan Carlzon had implanted as CEO of the Scandinavian Airlines System, i.e. an organisational pyramid with the customer at its peak, and any amount of case-study research from Harvard and elsewhere into the application and diffusion of then recent innovations in applied technology - the PC, the Mac, the digital watch, the Sony Walkman.
What if Carlzon's pyramid was adapted? It could still be the customer on top of the pyramid, but who was the customer? Or rather, who would be the customer? Would the customer be more than this? A user perhaps. The term user had little currency at that time, but it was there nevertheless. The nets which ultimately led Tim Berners-Lee to the web had users. PCs had users. What if there was a wholesale shift of values within society, towards greater technology acceptance and use? Advances had in the few years before suggested there might be.
This was the essence of the model. It wasn't one which foresaw technological developments or their rapidity, but it was one to form the bones onto which the flesh of those developments might be grafted, and a generation on, it is pretty much how technology now is. The intensity has increased enormously of course, but organisations of all types have come to understand that the user sits on top of the pyramid and is there to be served. Or maybe one should say that some organisations understand this model.
Something else that would have been hard to foretell was just how much societal values were to alter. There might have been a clue from the bulletin boards which pre-dated the web and the forums which sprang up once it was established. But it needed a game-changer, and that was Amazon, not because of its original book delivery service but because of the facility for user review. It was Amazon which popularised the notion of user opinion on the web; readers in its case. From this came all manner of opinion, recommendations and criticisms. The genie was out of the bottle and it has proved to be unstoppable in the ways in which information is shared and sought after. It is now hard to conceive of a time when a fundamental shift in society's values in its use and acceptance of technology might even have been questioned.
All this leads to the present day and to Mallorca and to its tourism. Some organisations get it. The regional government doesn't. Where are the users (the tourists) in its model? Heaven knows. They are not recognised by there being the means for information sharing - through official channels of social media. They are not recognised by there being an appreciation of the latest leap in societal values, namely the whole culture of sharing and the technological applications which enable this, the P2P phenomenon which is proving to be a further game-changer. The government is oblivious to the user, to his or her values. It is beholden to those who might say that they have the user (customer) at the top of their pyramids: the tour operators who shove product at the customer and call it a brand in the hope that a loyalty is created which itself is questionable in a user-led society that has outsmarted the conventions of business; and also to the hoteliers, latecomers to product as branding, but safeguarding and indeed reinforcing a model in which the hotel is the tourist experience in an age when "experiences" have taken on an alternative meaning, enabled by sharing, which goes way beyond the confines of the hotel campus.
It is as though the last twenty-five years haven't happened. A generation ago the tourist was fed limited information that did his or her thinking. The tourist was constrained in his or her outlook by the boundaries of non-technological society. This is not how it now is. The tourist is a flexible user in conversation with others - peers if you like - who are not part of a still rigid tourism model. Twenty-five years on, and it is not understood who it is who drives an organisation. The user.
Showing posts with label Internet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Internet. Show all posts
Thursday, January 08, 2015
Monday, April 14, 2014
Ten Things That Changed Mallorca's Tourism
In celebrating twenty years of existence, the travel magazine "Hosteltur" has identified twenty words or terms which have defined tourism since 1994. These are terms which are applicable to tourism generally, so I have narrowed the parameters and considered themes which have been of fundamental importance to Mallorca since 1994.
1. All-inclusive. The origins of the all-inclusive can be argued about. They are normally attributed to Club Med and their expansion to complexes such as Sandals. While Club Med had been around on Mallorca since the 1950s, it hadn't been a significant player, and the all-inclusive, as we now know it, didn't become a feature of the tourism landscape until roughly twenty years ago, and even then it was limited largely to the north and east of the island. We all know about its diffusion since then and the extent to which it has disrupted the previously harmonious balance between hotel and complementary sectors.
2. Beach zoning. On 4 March 1994 the Balearic Government issued a decree which established criteria for what could happen and what couldn't happen on beaches and on which parts. Different zones were created, some of which had limits set as to space which could be used. Why does this make the list? Firstly, because there hadn't previously been such a system and secondly, and perhaps more importantly, it was a form of standardisation which removed improvisation and arguably also removed some of the fun that had been had on beaches.
3. Crisis. Mallorca has experienced previous economic hard times - the oil crisis in the 1970s and the recession of the early 1990s - but the crisis (still with us but not as bad as it had been) shook tourism in different ways, such as by cutting credit and making even more popular the cost appeal of the all-inclusive holiday.
4. EasyJet. It may seem remarkable that easyJet isn't even twenty years old yet: it was founded in 1995. By 1998 the airline was flying daily from Luton to Palma as part of its summer schedule (late March to late October). EasyJet and the other low-cost airlines were to be significant in increasing passenger traffic through Son Sant Joan and in putting an impetus behind independent travel to the detriment of the package holiday.
5. Euro. 1 January 1999 was when it happened; when suddenly everything in Mallorca became that much more expensive. This is the commonly held view, and one that has some justification. It removed the inconvenience of changing currency, but only for those tourists from countries which adopted it.
6. Internet. In 1994 the internet was still an unproven concept and was far from being in everyday use. How things have changed. The web has not just been a fundamental change, it has been a revolution. Tourism has been turned on its head. Bookings, information, recommendations ..., it gave the tourist-consumer a power he previously hadn't possessed.
7. Ley General Turística. 24 March 1999 was the day when the Balearics' first tourism law was approved. The more recent 2012 tourism law reinforced much of what was in this first law, including prohibitions on some types of private property as holiday accommodation. One of the mysteries that surrounds the holiday-lets argument is quite why anyone finds it a comparatively new argument. It has certainly existed since 1999, though in fact there was a law as long ago as 1984 which tackled the subject - the "ley sobre alojamientos extrahoteleros".
8. POOT. The Plan de la Oferta Turística de Mallorca was approved by decree on 6 April 1995. It was a plan that was of profound importance. Though there had been previous plans which sought to organise how land was used for tourism purposes, the POOT was the first time that hard-and-fast criteria had been adopted. Essentially what POOT does is to place limits on the amount of tourism development within municipal boundaries.
9. Secondary activities. This is the newest of the fundamental changes. Part of the 2012 tourism law, secondary activities allow hotels to offer activities to the general public (and so not just guests) which had previously been the domain of the non-hotel, complementary sector. They can include all manner of things - restaurants, shops, clubs, concerts to name but a few. It is early days but secondary activities are likely to disrupt even further the balance between the hotel and complementary sectors.
10. Sustainability. An at-times nebulous concept and one that seems more often to be used for marketing purposes than for practical ones, sustainability is supposed to strike a balance between the demands of tourism and those of the environment, resources and the local economy. One of the first conferences dedicated to the subject was held in 1995.
Space has permitted only ten themes. There are others, and perhaps you have your own suggestions as to ways in which Mallorca's tourism has been changed over the last 20 years.
1. All-inclusive. The origins of the all-inclusive can be argued about. They are normally attributed to Club Med and their expansion to complexes such as Sandals. While Club Med had been around on Mallorca since the 1950s, it hadn't been a significant player, and the all-inclusive, as we now know it, didn't become a feature of the tourism landscape until roughly twenty years ago, and even then it was limited largely to the north and east of the island. We all know about its diffusion since then and the extent to which it has disrupted the previously harmonious balance between hotel and complementary sectors.
2. Beach zoning. On 4 March 1994 the Balearic Government issued a decree which established criteria for what could happen and what couldn't happen on beaches and on which parts. Different zones were created, some of which had limits set as to space which could be used. Why does this make the list? Firstly, because there hadn't previously been such a system and secondly, and perhaps more importantly, it was a form of standardisation which removed improvisation and arguably also removed some of the fun that had been had on beaches.
3. Crisis. Mallorca has experienced previous economic hard times - the oil crisis in the 1970s and the recession of the early 1990s - but the crisis (still with us but not as bad as it had been) shook tourism in different ways, such as by cutting credit and making even more popular the cost appeal of the all-inclusive holiday.
4. EasyJet. It may seem remarkable that easyJet isn't even twenty years old yet: it was founded in 1995. By 1998 the airline was flying daily from Luton to Palma as part of its summer schedule (late March to late October). EasyJet and the other low-cost airlines were to be significant in increasing passenger traffic through Son Sant Joan and in putting an impetus behind independent travel to the detriment of the package holiday.
5. Euro. 1 January 1999 was when it happened; when suddenly everything in Mallorca became that much more expensive. This is the commonly held view, and one that has some justification. It removed the inconvenience of changing currency, but only for those tourists from countries which adopted it.
6. Internet. In 1994 the internet was still an unproven concept and was far from being in everyday use. How things have changed. The web has not just been a fundamental change, it has been a revolution. Tourism has been turned on its head. Bookings, information, recommendations ..., it gave the tourist-consumer a power he previously hadn't possessed.
7. Ley General Turística. 24 March 1999 was the day when the Balearics' first tourism law was approved. The more recent 2012 tourism law reinforced much of what was in this first law, including prohibitions on some types of private property as holiday accommodation. One of the mysteries that surrounds the holiday-lets argument is quite why anyone finds it a comparatively new argument. It has certainly existed since 1999, though in fact there was a law as long ago as 1984 which tackled the subject - the "ley sobre alojamientos extrahoteleros".
8. POOT. The Plan de la Oferta Turística de Mallorca was approved by decree on 6 April 1995. It was a plan that was of profound importance. Though there had been previous plans which sought to organise how land was used for tourism purposes, the POOT was the first time that hard-and-fast criteria had been adopted. Essentially what POOT does is to place limits on the amount of tourism development within municipal boundaries.
9. Secondary activities. This is the newest of the fundamental changes. Part of the 2012 tourism law, secondary activities allow hotels to offer activities to the general public (and so not just guests) which had previously been the domain of the non-hotel, complementary sector. They can include all manner of things - restaurants, shops, clubs, concerts to name but a few. It is early days but secondary activities are likely to disrupt even further the balance between the hotel and complementary sectors.
10. Sustainability. An at-times nebulous concept and one that seems more often to be used for marketing purposes than for practical ones, sustainability is supposed to strike a balance between the demands of tourism and those of the environment, resources and the local economy. One of the first conferences dedicated to the subject was held in 1995.
Space has permitted only ten themes. There are others, and perhaps you have your own suggestions as to ways in which Mallorca's tourism has been changed over the last 20 years.
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Spain Lackofinfo.es
There is a new website portal for travellers to Spain. It is sort of new. Spain.info has been relaunched. And relaunched with some fanfare as well as some anxiety.
The new, improved Spain.info, an all-Spain travel information system that falls under the national tourism promotion agency Turespaña, is going to be all-singing, all-dancing. Possibly. It isn't exactly all-singing or all-dancing just at present, despite the fanfare of its relaunch that might have suggested it would be.
The revamped system works but only after a fashion. I have put it to a few simple tests, using the "international English" version of the site. The first test was to find accommodation. Now, where does one find this? It isn't listed on the main banner menu. It must be under "What are you looking for?". No, not there. "Practical information"? Yes, there it is. How silly of me to think that it would have been listed under the more obvious heading.
By default, having clicked on "Accommodation", a search for "Hotels" comes up. There is a downwards arrow with the Hotels banner to suggest you can look for other types of accommodation. It doesn't work. Not to worry, there are five other types listed below and they have upwards arrows. How about flats? Yep, that works. So, let's find Mallorca. Enter. And what do you get? Seven pages of rental agencies and estate agents in places other than Mallorca.
Not to worry, let's try Hotels anyway. Mallorca. Enter. What do you get? Page upon page upon page, starting not with Mallorca but with Almeria. I didn't bother to wade through the numerous pages to discover if there were indeed any hotels for Mallorca.
What about transport? There's a specific "Book your trip" thing on the home pages. Flights or trains. Let's go for flights. Origin: let's use London Luton. Destination: Palma de Mallorca. Enter. What do we get? Another portal. Skyscanner. In Spanish, not English. It wants the origin and destination information again, as it seems not to have registered this. Enter. Ah, four flights. Easyjet. As I might have expected.
These few and simple tests were not wholly satisfactory, though of course one of them wouldn't be expected to throw up any information. Flats. Mallorca. If there were any information, it would be very odd and it would also be very illegal, according to the Balearics Government at any rate. Moreover, it may well become very illegal in other parts of Spain (if it isn't already), now that the Tenancy Act has shifted responsibility to regional governments to enact legislation that may (or may not) be along the same lines as that in the Balearics. Even if these other regional governments don't have the same attitude, the very presence of "Flats" on what is a Spanish Government website is odd in itself. This is a Spanish Government which, as with the Balearics Government, wants to stamp out the so-called illegal offer, and that, by and large, means flats. Maybe someone will point this anomaly out to Segittur, the governmental organisation which specialises in tourism technologies and which has been responsible for overhauling Spain.info.
The fanfare for the relaunch, with national tourism minister José Manuel Soria blowing the loudest trumpet, included reference to grand features such as being able to compare prices for flights, which is all fine and dandy, but isn't it a bit late? Google Flights and others are already doing this. So, the Spain.info finder is useful but not exactly innovative, while it isn't actually its finder system anyway; it's Skyscanner's.
The upgraded website has caused anxieties amongst Spain's travel agents, who were under the impression that users would be able to book direct and so miss them out. This isn't the case, so the travel agents can breathe more easily. But to what extent the portal will create additional business for them may be questionable.
Much will depend on how easy users find the system, and the initial impression is that it isn't as easy as it might be. Perhaps there are teething troubles, though it looks more like the website has been put up without having been finished. If it has been, then no one's going to be booking any hotels in Mallorca.
More than this, though, is whether users actually think to go to a site for Spain if they want to go to Mallorca (or any other part of Spain). Put another way, do travellers think "Spain" rather than individual parts of the country? Rather like the "Marca España" is now a questionable concept, so a whole-country internet travel portal is also questionable.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The new, improved Spain.info, an all-Spain travel information system that falls under the national tourism promotion agency Turespaña, is going to be all-singing, all-dancing. Possibly. It isn't exactly all-singing or all-dancing just at present, despite the fanfare of its relaunch that might have suggested it would be.
The revamped system works but only after a fashion. I have put it to a few simple tests, using the "international English" version of the site. The first test was to find accommodation. Now, where does one find this? It isn't listed on the main banner menu. It must be under "What are you looking for?". No, not there. "Practical information"? Yes, there it is. How silly of me to think that it would have been listed under the more obvious heading.
By default, having clicked on "Accommodation", a search for "Hotels" comes up. There is a downwards arrow with the Hotels banner to suggest you can look for other types of accommodation. It doesn't work. Not to worry, there are five other types listed below and they have upwards arrows. How about flats? Yep, that works. So, let's find Mallorca. Enter. And what do you get? Seven pages of rental agencies and estate agents in places other than Mallorca.
Not to worry, let's try Hotels anyway. Mallorca. Enter. What do you get? Page upon page upon page, starting not with Mallorca but with Almeria. I didn't bother to wade through the numerous pages to discover if there were indeed any hotels for Mallorca.
What about transport? There's a specific "Book your trip" thing on the home pages. Flights or trains. Let's go for flights. Origin: let's use London Luton. Destination: Palma de Mallorca. Enter. What do we get? Another portal. Skyscanner. In Spanish, not English. It wants the origin and destination information again, as it seems not to have registered this. Enter. Ah, four flights. Easyjet. As I might have expected.
These few and simple tests were not wholly satisfactory, though of course one of them wouldn't be expected to throw up any information. Flats. Mallorca. If there were any information, it would be very odd and it would also be very illegal, according to the Balearics Government at any rate. Moreover, it may well become very illegal in other parts of Spain (if it isn't already), now that the Tenancy Act has shifted responsibility to regional governments to enact legislation that may (or may not) be along the same lines as that in the Balearics. Even if these other regional governments don't have the same attitude, the very presence of "Flats" on what is a Spanish Government website is odd in itself. This is a Spanish Government which, as with the Balearics Government, wants to stamp out the so-called illegal offer, and that, by and large, means flats. Maybe someone will point this anomaly out to Segittur, the governmental organisation which specialises in tourism technologies and which has been responsible for overhauling Spain.info.
The fanfare for the relaunch, with national tourism minister José Manuel Soria blowing the loudest trumpet, included reference to grand features such as being able to compare prices for flights, which is all fine and dandy, but isn't it a bit late? Google Flights and others are already doing this. So, the Spain.info finder is useful but not exactly innovative, while it isn't actually its finder system anyway; it's Skyscanner's.
The upgraded website has caused anxieties amongst Spain's travel agents, who were under the impression that users would be able to book direct and so miss them out. This isn't the case, so the travel agents can breathe more easily. But to what extent the portal will create additional business for them may be questionable.
Much will depend on how easy users find the system, and the initial impression is that it isn't as easy as it might be. Perhaps there are teething troubles, though it looks more like the website has been put up without having been finished. If it has been, then no one's going to be booking any hotels in Mallorca.
More than this, though, is whether users actually think to go to a site for Spain if they want to go to Mallorca (or any other part of Spain). Put another way, do travellers think "Spain" rather than individual parts of the country? Rather like the "Marca España" is now a questionable concept, so a whole-country internet travel portal is also questionable.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Monday, June 24, 2013
Cinema's Black Weekends
The weekend before last was Black Saturday and Sunday for Spanish cinemas. Box-office takings were at their lowest ever. And they weren't just slightly lower; they were, as "El País"* reported, lower by a whopping 30%. Receipts amounted to not a great deal more than two million euros.
Weather may have had something to do with lower numbers, as also may have had the absence of a real box-office draw, but the slump was of such a level that these explanations aren't sufficient. The fact is that Spanish cinemas are in their own state of economic crisis. The national economic mess has only now really started to affect them; the previous record low before the 30% fall on Black Saturday and Sunday was in April this year.
A factor in this sudden fall, and it is impossible not to conclude that it must be a factor, is the rise in the cost of going to the cinema that was brought about by the increase in IVA to 21%. Though this increase was introduced some nine months ago, Spanish cinema-goers are suffering the cumulative effect of several months of 13% higher tax and have said enough is enough. Black Saturday and Sunday and the weekend in April have not been isolated weekends; four other weekends this year mean that 2013 has registered two-thirds of the worst weekends for box-office takings.
Economic crisis, though, has affected the cinema in a different way. Watching films hasn't become any less popular; indeed, it is probably more popular than ever. What better way of getting around the cost of an evening at the cinema and the 13% rise in IVA than by watching the latest film at home for free? Spain is acknowledged as Western Europe's leader when it comes to copyright piracy.
For some years, the international film industry and especially Hollywood has taken a dim view of Spanish laxness in tackling illegal downloads and piracy. It also hasn't taken that kindly to Spanish courts having ruled on several occasions that file-sharing and the "torrenting" of copyright material, so long as it is for private use, is legal. Hollywood has applied more and more pressure, and the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has been monitoring Spain's responses to the accusation of piracy champion of Western Europe. It has recently looked favourably on Spain by not putting it back on the so-called 301 Watch List of naughty-boy countries. But Spain is on probation. The USTR performs what it calls "out-of-cycle reviews", which mean that it can add a country to its watch list at any time and not just when it issues its annual list (which it did in May).
The principal reason for Spain having avoided being put back on the naughty list is the law on intellectual property. Originally called the Sinde Law (after the minister in the previous government), it has become a double-barrelled law, Sinde-Wert Law. Yes, its that man again. José Ignacio Wert, this time firmly with his culture hat on rather than his educational one. The legislation was enough to allow the USTR to look kindly on Spain.
The Spanish Government has pretty much admitted that the mere threat of trade sanctions by the USA through a failure to improve its intellectual property record has been the reason for the law; it couldn't have said anything else, once Wikileaks had established the fact. Whether there would ever be trade sanctions is questionable, but the government hasn't been taking any chances. It also wanted to avoid not just being put back on the watch list but being put on the priority watch list along with international copyright pariahs such as China, Pakistan and Russia.
The probation may, though, prove only to be probation. The USTR out-of-cycle review could well unearth enough concerns to put Spain back on the naughty chair, and the reason why is because the law has been proving to be ineffective. Under the law, there is a committee which receives requests to inspect websites suspected of providing material for illegal download. A year after it was set up, the committee had investigated only just over a hundred websites that warranted serious consideration and under a quarter of these investigations resulted in content being removed. Various organisations, such as one for film producers, have already lost faith in the committee's effectiveness and don't bother lodging complaints.
While the cost of going to the cinema may be the main reason for declining box-office numbers, there is another reason, and it is one that the government is still failing to address.
* El País
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Weather may have had something to do with lower numbers, as also may have had the absence of a real box-office draw, but the slump was of such a level that these explanations aren't sufficient. The fact is that Spanish cinemas are in their own state of economic crisis. The national economic mess has only now really started to affect them; the previous record low before the 30% fall on Black Saturday and Sunday was in April this year.
A factor in this sudden fall, and it is impossible not to conclude that it must be a factor, is the rise in the cost of going to the cinema that was brought about by the increase in IVA to 21%. Though this increase was introduced some nine months ago, Spanish cinema-goers are suffering the cumulative effect of several months of 13% higher tax and have said enough is enough. Black Saturday and Sunday and the weekend in April have not been isolated weekends; four other weekends this year mean that 2013 has registered two-thirds of the worst weekends for box-office takings.
Economic crisis, though, has affected the cinema in a different way. Watching films hasn't become any less popular; indeed, it is probably more popular than ever. What better way of getting around the cost of an evening at the cinema and the 13% rise in IVA than by watching the latest film at home for free? Spain is acknowledged as Western Europe's leader when it comes to copyright piracy.
For some years, the international film industry and especially Hollywood has taken a dim view of Spanish laxness in tackling illegal downloads and piracy. It also hasn't taken that kindly to Spanish courts having ruled on several occasions that file-sharing and the "torrenting" of copyright material, so long as it is for private use, is legal. Hollywood has applied more and more pressure, and the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) has been monitoring Spain's responses to the accusation of piracy champion of Western Europe. It has recently looked favourably on Spain by not putting it back on the so-called 301 Watch List of naughty-boy countries. But Spain is on probation. The USTR performs what it calls "out-of-cycle reviews", which mean that it can add a country to its watch list at any time and not just when it issues its annual list (which it did in May).
The principal reason for Spain having avoided being put back on the naughty list is the law on intellectual property. Originally called the Sinde Law (after the minister in the previous government), it has become a double-barrelled law, Sinde-Wert Law. Yes, its that man again. José Ignacio Wert, this time firmly with his culture hat on rather than his educational one. The legislation was enough to allow the USTR to look kindly on Spain.
The Spanish Government has pretty much admitted that the mere threat of trade sanctions by the USA through a failure to improve its intellectual property record has been the reason for the law; it couldn't have said anything else, once Wikileaks had established the fact. Whether there would ever be trade sanctions is questionable, but the government hasn't been taking any chances. It also wanted to avoid not just being put back on the watch list but being put on the priority watch list along with international copyright pariahs such as China, Pakistan and Russia.
The probation may, though, prove only to be probation. The USTR out-of-cycle review could well unearth enough concerns to put Spain back on the naughty chair, and the reason why is because the law has been proving to be ineffective. Under the law, there is a committee which receives requests to inspect websites suspected of providing material for illegal download. A year after it was set up, the committee had investigated only just over a hundred websites that warranted serious consideration and under a quarter of these investigations resulted in content being removed. Various organisations, such as one for film producers, have already lost faith in the committee's effectiveness and don't bother lodging complaints.
While the cost of going to the cinema may be the main reason for declining box-office numbers, there is another reason, and it is one that the government is still failing to address.
* El País
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, February 15, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - Widening Wifi coverage in Pollensa
Free Wifi access to the internet in Pollensa is to be widened, an agreement having been signed by the town hall and provider IB-Red. It will take in, for example, the sports centre in Pollensa town and will also be broadened in the port.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
Friday, October 12, 2012
Open Systems: Town halls' e-government
With some fanfare, Alcúdia town hall has launched a separate website, described as one of the most advanced in Spain and designed to bring the town hall administration closer to the people. It is a system to show current and past activities and procedures engaged in by the town hall and to allow for certain bits of bureaucracy to be conducted online, such as registering change of address and requesting reservations of the public way (e.g. for specific events, one presumes).
At a cost of 330,000 euros, the system is bound to raise some questions as to whether it is a wise spend in these economically tough times, but it is confirmation that Alcúdia is wanting to be closer to the people (its words) and to be more open, as evidenced previously by an in-depth study of the town hall's financial situation over the past few years.
For all this, being a system that is one of the most advanced in Spain doesn't say a great deal about how well town halls engage with their citizens. I would like to be able to explain more about what the system is, but unfortunately, and despite the system having been announced to the local media, it isn't working (or wasn't yesterday). The impression, though, is that it is no more than might be considered normal communication practice by a local authority.
Transparency, accountability and openness form the accepted mantra by which local authorities should operate. A common accusation levelled at Mallorca's local authorities is that their affairs aren't transparent, while a further one charges the public service as a whole with having been slow to embrace modern technologies in order that day-to-day matters can be performed via the internet.
The perception, however, is probably some way short of the truth. There have been notable advances by Mallorca's public authorities in making the internet a means of making people's lives easier, but when it comes to openness in revealing financial affairs the accusation is more valid.
An assumption might be made that local authorities here have dragged their heels in being more transparent and being more up-to-date in the way that they communicate information. But in supposedly more open Britain, it isn't necessarily the case that local councils are that brilliant at exposing their financial affairs to public scrutiny, despite demands having been placed on them by the substantial figure of Eric Pickles, the local government secretary.
The financial requirements to provide good "e-government" in the form of online information systems for the citizenship can be a constraint, both in Britain and in Spain, and Alcúdia's system highlights the sort of cost that is required. Culturally, it is probably fair to say that the Spanish mentality veers towards a lack of transparency, while it is also fair to say that local authorities have often had good (and less than legitimate) reasons to keep their affairs under wraps, but such lack of openness is not universal. The organisation Transparency International has conducted a survey of provincial governments across Spain and a few have extremely high levels of openness. The Council of Mallorca isn't one of them but it does manage to score more than a 50% threshold of transparency, considered the minimum to qualify as being transparent, but it only just manages to exceed 50% in being ranked sixteenth out of 45 administrations.
Culture, as much as funding wherewithal, is the key to more open local government in Mallorca together with the political will to be more open. National government hopes to introduce greater transparency at all levels of government through a new law, but it has been criticised for being half-hearted. The political will, therefore, is more one that is shown at specific local levels, and in Alcúdia it does appear to exist.
Mostly all town hall politicians are well aware of the need for greater transparency, and many of them have placed themselves more in the firing-line by being on Facebook and other social networks. A good case in point as to how social media can swiftly change a town hall decision was that of the secretarial appointment of Nora Tugores by Pollensa's mayor Tomeu Cifre; opposition politicians went into immediate overdrive on Facebook in attacking the appointment, and it was revoked within a matter of days.
The social media, therefore, are playing an important role in creating a cultural shift towards an appreciation of openness by town halls in Mallorca. Indeed, it might not be an exaggeration to suggest that social media are and will be instrumental in limiting the potential for less than acceptable behaviour by local politicians.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
At a cost of 330,000 euros, the system is bound to raise some questions as to whether it is a wise spend in these economically tough times, but it is confirmation that Alcúdia is wanting to be closer to the people (its words) and to be more open, as evidenced previously by an in-depth study of the town hall's financial situation over the past few years.
For all this, being a system that is one of the most advanced in Spain doesn't say a great deal about how well town halls engage with their citizens. I would like to be able to explain more about what the system is, but unfortunately, and despite the system having been announced to the local media, it isn't working (or wasn't yesterday). The impression, though, is that it is no more than might be considered normal communication practice by a local authority.
Transparency, accountability and openness form the accepted mantra by which local authorities should operate. A common accusation levelled at Mallorca's local authorities is that their affairs aren't transparent, while a further one charges the public service as a whole with having been slow to embrace modern technologies in order that day-to-day matters can be performed via the internet.
The perception, however, is probably some way short of the truth. There have been notable advances by Mallorca's public authorities in making the internet a means of making people's lives easier, but when it comes to openness in revealing financial affairs the accusation is more valid.
An assumption might be made that local authorities here have dragged their heels in being more transparent and being more up-to-date in the way that they communicate information. But in supposedly more open Britain, it isn't necessarily the case that local councils are that brilliant at exposing their financial affairs to public scrutiny, despite demands having been placed on them by the substantial figure of Eric Pickles, the local government secretary.
The financial requirements to provide good "e-government" in the form of online information systems for the citizenship can be a constraint, both in Britain and in Spain, and Alcúdia's system highlights the sort of cost that is required. Culturally, it is probably fair to say that the Spanish mentality veers towards a lack of transparency, while it is also fair to say that local authorities have often had good (and less than legitimate) reasons to keep their affairs under wraps, but such lack of openness is not universal. The organisation Transparency International has conducted a survey of provincial governments across Spain and a few have extremely high levels of openness. The Council of Mallorca isn't one of them but it does manage to score more than a 50% threshold of transparency, considered the minimum to qualify as being transparent, but it only just manages to exceed 50% in being ranked sixteenth out of 45 administrations.
Culture, as much as funding wherewithal, is the key to more open local government in Mallorca together with the political will to be more open. National government hopes to introduce greater transparency at all levels of government through a new law, but it has been criticised for being half-hearted. The political will, therefore, is more one that is shown at specific local levels, and in Alcúdia it does appear to exist.
Mostly all town hall politicians are well aware of the need for greater transparency, and many of them have placed themselves more in the firing-line by being on Facebook and other social networks. A good case in point as to how social media can swiftly change a town hall decision was that of the secretarial appointment of Nora Tugores by Pollensa's mayor Tomeu Cifre; opposition politicians went into immediate overdrive on Facebook in attacking the appointment, and it was revoked within a matter of days.
The social media, therefore, are playing an important role in creating a cultural shift towards an appreciation of openness by town halls in Mallorca. Indeed, it might not be an exaggeration to suggest that social media are and will be instrumental in limiting the potential for less than acceptable behaviour by local politicians.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Alcúdia launches internet public information system
Alcúdia town hall, with an investment of 330,000 euros has launched an electronic information system whereby townspeople will be able to consult all municipal procedures conducted by the town hall. Described as being one of the most advanced systems in Spain, it is designed to being the town hall administration closer to its citizens. (Unfortunately, the URL for the system does not appear to be functioning at present.)
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
Saturday, June 02, 2012
Make Mine An Estrella
What a video. If you haven't seen the Estrella Damm commercial, then why haven't you? Get on YouTube now, and watch it. It is the best promotional video since Thomson's brilliant "Time For A Holiday" ad for this summer was launched last year, and the Estrella one was shot on Mallorca, unlike Thomson's.
I say promotional video, but it isn't a promotional video for Mallorca. Not officially at any rate. It is a promotion for Estrella Damm beer. I don't know what sort of impact these commercials have on Estrella sales (the commercials are now an annual and much anticipated event), but if nothing else, an immense amount of gratitude should be extended to the Catalonian brewery; the 2012 video does more in terms of Mallorcan promotion than any advert that has ever been the product of governmental control.
Remember the cheesy Nadal-on-a-boat thing? The soundtrack which sounded like it was by The Corrs? Predictable and unimaginative it was. The Estrella video isn't. It tells a story and manages simultaneously to capture all manner of facets of Mallorca that are not confined to its locations (in and around Banyalbufar, it would appear).
The Nadal thing was a total and utter waste of money, a video created in the misguided belief that celebrity sells, when it doesn't. What does sell is emotion, and Estrella's video, like Thomson's, has this by the bucket-load, not sentimentally as was the case with the Thomson ad, but more subliminally. It is charming and a creative work of art of which Estrella, and its agency, should be extremely proud.
While Estrella will anticipate a boost to beer sales, the video is about far more than selling. Estrella has caused something of a sensation with its annual ads. The anticipation of their release matches the anticipation of where they are to be shot and what they will be about. When it was known that Estrella would be coming to Mallorca to shoot this year's video, there was a huge buzz, and the buzz that surrounds the videos extends all the way across the social media spectrum. Estrella goes viral via Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.
For Estrella Damm, it is primarily about image and brand awareness and brand enhancement. The video is not solely youthful but mainly it is. The brewery has been astute in cultivating a hip image, one that can be clearly seen on its website. Here, there are examples of bold bottle design and of associations with youth culture and music - Lana Del Ray, Dizzee Rascal, The Chemical Brothers, they all find their way into the Estrella orbit, along with, for an older market, the Human League and Roxy Music. Posters for music events, such as that staged at the old brewery in 2010 and which featured Belle and Sebastian, are retro in a style reminiscent of the 1930s; the one for the 2010 event looks as though a giant young woman has replaced King Kong.
It is very, very clever marketing, and its cleverness, innovation, image creation, brand enhancement, use of internet and social media contrasts massively with the staid approach of official Mallorcan and Balearic promotion. Tired, uninspiring websites, an apparent indifference to social media, a lack of innovation. Amidst all the debate about what should be promoted about Mallorca, e.g. for boosting winter tourism, it is all too easy to forget about how it should be promoted. Instead of the introspective and formulaic approach that is normally adopted, a leaf out of the Estrella book should be taken.
Estrella's advertising campaign is apparently costing 2.5 million euros, and its advert is to be aired for the first time in the UK this year (I'm not sure if it is the whole video or a cut-down version or whether it might just be for cinemas). This isn't a huge amount, but it's rather more than the Balearic Government has at its disposal. Yet, if a similar buzz could be created by an advert that is official promotion for Mallorca, the costs of production and advertising would all be worthwhile. The Estrella video is not just an advert, it is an event; this is the cleverness of it, a cleverness that has eluded those responsible for official tourism promotions.
Still, the Balearic Government will doubtless be grateful to Estrella for doing its job for them. Maybe in fact the video is an example of tourism privatisation. And why not? That there are some beer bottles being handed around, well fine. Beer is drunk on holiday, it is very much part of a holiday. Let Estrella do Mallorca's advertising for it, and one thing's for sure, it would do an altogether more effective job than has been the case up to now.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
I say promotional video, but it isn't a promotional video for Mallorca. Not officially at any rate. It is a promotion for Estrella Damm beer. I don't know what sort of impact these commercials have on Estrella sales (the commercials are now an annual and much anticipated event), but if nothing else, an immense amount of gratitude should be extended to the Catalonian brewery; the 2012 video does more in terms of Mallorcan promotion than any advert that has ever been the product of governmental control.
Remember the cheesy Nadal-on-a-boat thing? The soundtrack which sounded like it was by The Corrs? Predictable and unimaginative it was. The Estrella video isn't. It tells a story and manages simultaneously to capture all manner of facets of Mallorca that are not confined to its locations (in and around Banyalbufar, it would appear).
The Nadal thing was a total and utter waste of money, a video created in the misguided belief that celebrity sells, when it doesn't. What does sell is emotion, and Estrella's video, like Thomson's, has this by the bucket-load, not sentimentally as was the case with the Thomson ad, but more subliminally. It is charming and a creative work of art of which Estrella, and its agency, should be extremely proud.
While Estrella will anticipate a boost to beer sales, the video is about far more than selling. Estrella has caused something of a sensation with its annual ads. The anticipation of their release matches the anticipation of where they are to be shot and what they will be about. When it was known that Estrella would be coming to Mallorca to shoot this year's video, there was a huge buzz, and the buzz that surrounds the videos extends all the way across the social media spectrum. Estrella goes viral via Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.
For Estrella Damm, it is primarily about image and brand awareness and brand enhancement. The video is not solely youthful but mainly it is. The brewery has been astute in cultivating a hip image, one that can be clearly seen on its website. Here, there are examples of bold bottle design and of associations with youth culture and music - Lana Del Ray, Dizzee Rascal, The Chemical Brothers, they all find their way into the Estrella orbit, along with, for an older market, the Human League and Roxy Music. Posters for music events, such as that staged at the old brewery in 2010 and which featured Belle and Sebastian, are retro in a style reminiscent of the 1930s; the one for the 2010 event looks as though a giant young woman has replaced King Kong.
It is very, very clever marketing, and its cleverness, innovation, image creation, brand enhancement, use of internet and social media contrasts massively with the staid approach of official Mallorcan and Balearic promotion. Tired, uninspiring websites, an apparent indifference to social media, a lack of innovation. Amidst all the debate about what should be promoted about Mallorca, e.g. for boosting winter tourism, it is all too easy to forget about how it should be promoted. Instead of the introspective and formulaic approach that is normally adopted, a leaf out of the Estrella book should be taken.
Estrella's advertising campaign is apparently costing 2.5 million euros, and its advert is to be aired for the first time in the UK this year (I'm not sure if it is the whole video or a cut-down version or whether it might just be for cinemas). This isn't a huge amount, but it's rather more than the Balearic Government has at its disposal. Yet, if a similar buzz could be created by an advert that is official promotion for Mallorca, the costs of production and advertising would all be worthwhile. The Estrella video is not just an advert, it is an event; this is the cleverness of it, a cleverness that has eluded those responsible for official tourism promotions.
Still, the Balearic Government will doubtless be grateful to Estrella for doing its job for them. Maybe in fact the video is an example of tourism privatisation. And why not? That there are some beer bottles being handed around, well fine. Beer is drunk on holiday, it is very much part of a holiday. Let Estrella do Mallorca's advertising for it, and one thing's for sure, it would do an altogether more effective job than has been the case up to now.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, May 03, 2012
Overtaken By The Fear: Holiday lets
Some people are just too helpful in cyberland. Along comes a request, one which asks for advice on renting an apartment as a holiday let, and the help flows in. The help cannot be faulted. It is informative, and the information can be trusted, especially when a respondent displays his or her credentials as an owner of an apartment for rent as a holiday let. Another respondent says that such apartments can be found on a map, and intimates where this map and therefore properties can be located. Great. This is really helpful. Thanks very much. Oh, and by the way, the one who made the request was from the Balearics tourism ministry.
I've made this last bit up. But you never know in cyberland, do you. I read the help being offered with my jaw firmly dropped. Admission as to private apartment being rented out as a holiday let and a map to help find it. Are you kidding!? Would it not be simpler to just put a flashing neon sign outside the apartment in the shape of a finger pointing at the apartment and which says "tourism ministry, we're here"?
The Balearic Government, in case you hadn't noticed, doesn't much care for private apartments being rented out as holiday lets. So little does it care for them that, in strictly legal terms, they don't exist. They haven't been airbrushed out of existence, as they have never been formally identified as existing under tourism law. By not mentioning them, they are therefore excluded from the categories of tourism accommodation which do exist in law.
The government has been saying, as it has said in the past, that it intends to be rigorous in identifying this illegal holiday accommodation. And this rigour is being reserved in particular for the internet and even more particularly for English websites.
But will the government be as rigorous as it has said that it will be? Does it in fact need to be? Create enough publicity about illegal holiday lets and there will be those, including myself, who help to spread this publicity more widely. It's a brilliant strategy: put the fear of God into property owners, and you get rid of the problem of holiday lets without lifting a finger.
Well, possibly. Or possibly the government will in fact be as rigorous as it has suggested it will be but hasn't necessarily been in the past. This said, it takes a fair old amount of resources to keep tabs on all the property that is knocking around which is being rented out without official clearance. Something else you might have noticed is that the government is boracic and that one ministry to have its budget heavily slashed is the tourism ministry which polices accommodation.
It could all be that the government's announcements about rigour are PR aimed at its friends from the hotel sector. It says it's going to do this and that, but in the end it doesn't. The trouble is that there is always the worry that it keeps to its word. Plus there is an additional worry, as also alluded to by government, of other ministries joining in with the rigour, namely the Hacienda which enjoys the benefit of the cunning collection of copies of electricity bills.
There is, despite all the publicity, a widely held view that the government's announcements are all bluster and that there is no possible way that it can check on all the hundreds, thousands of apartments. This may be the case, and it may also be the case that what rigour there is, is confined to parts of Mallorca and not to others. By which I mean? Well, let's consider somewhere like Pollensa. Mayor Cifre has made clear to the government that Pollensa relies heavily on holiday rentals, and not just those that are regulated.
I am willing to wager that, if the government does apply its rigour, Puerto Pollensa will escape its attentions. The damage that just one publicised case of action against an illegal let in the resort would cause would potentially be disastrous. Cifre knows this and the government will know this, as it will know that the mayor is a member of its party. Everyone knows, moreover, that the hotel lobby in Pollensa isn't as strong as elsewhere. There aren't the hotels of other resorts, and the hotels seem quite content to co-exist with the holiday-let market.
I would also be willing to wager that there would be apartments in Mallorca which would escape the rigour because of who owns them. How many apartments, do you imagine, belong to politicians, their families or friends, or those from executive or shareholding ranks of the hotel industry?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
I've made this last bit up. But you never know in cyberland, do you. I read the help being offered with my jaw firmly dropped. Admission as to private apartment being rented out as a holiday let and a map to help find it. Are you kidding!? Would it not be simpler to just put a flashing neon sign outside the apartment in the shape of a finger pointing at the apartment and which says "tourism ministry, we're here"?
The Balearic Government, in case you hadn't noticed, doesn't much care for private apartments being rented out as holiday lets. So little does it care for them that, in strictly legal terms, they don't exist. They haven't been airbrushed out of existence, as they have never been formally identified as existing under tourism law. By not mentioning them, they are therefore excluded from the categories of tourism accommodation which do exist in law.
The government has been saying, as it has said in the past, that it intends to be rigorous in identifying this illegal holiday accommodation. And this rigour is being reserved in particular for the internet and even more particularly for English websites.
But will the government be as rigorous as it has said that it will be? Does it in fact need to be? Create enough publicity about illegal holiday lets and there will be those, including myself, who help to spread this publicity more widely. It's a brilliant strategy: put the fear of God into property owners, and you get rid of the problem of holiday lets without lifting a finger.
Well, possibly. Or possibly the government will in fact be as rigorous as it has suggested it will be but hasn't necessarily been in the past. This said, it takes a fair old amount of resources to keep tabs on all the property that is knocking around which is being rented out without official clearance. Something else you might have noticed is that the government is boracic and that one ministry to have its budget heavily slashed is the tourism ministry which polices accommodation.
It could all be that the government's announcements about rigour are PR aimed at its friends from the hotel sector. It says it's going to do this and that, but in the end it doesn't. The trouble is that there is always the worry that it keeps to its word. Plus there is an additional worry, as also alluded to by government, of other ministries joining in with the rigour, namely the Hacienda which enjoys the benefit of the cunning collection of copies of electricity bills.
There is, despite all the publicity, a widely held view that the government's announcements are all bluster and that there is no possible way that it can check on all the hundreds, thousands of apartments. This may be the case, and it may also be the case that what rigour there is, is confined to parts of Mallorca and not to others. By which I mean? Well, let's consider somewhere like Pollensa. Mayor Cifre has made clear to the government that Pollensa relies heavily on holiday rentals, and not just those that are regulated.
I am willing to wager that, if the government does apply its rigour, Puerto Pollensa will escape its attentions. The damage that just one publicised case of action against an illegal let in the resort would cause would potentially be disastrous. Cifre knows this and the government will know this, as it will know that the mayor is a member of its party. Everyone knows, moreover, that the hotel lobby in Pollensa isn't as strong as elsewhere. There aren't the hotels of other resorts, and the hotels seem quite content to co-exist with the holiday-let market.
I would also be willing to wager that there would be apartments in Mallorca which would escape the rigour because of who owns them. How many apartments, do you imagine, belong to politicians, their families or friends, or those from executive or shareholding ranks of the hotel industry?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Monday, March 19, 2012
The Lazy Man's Guide To Travel Writing
The reasons why I refer occasionally to items from "The Guardian" are: a. it is free online, unlike a certain other "quality" British newspaper; b. it isn't the "Daily Mail"; c. following on from b., I don't therefore have a desire to throw the computer out the window.
Another reason is that it does come up with the odd inspirational piece. Not inspirational in the way that it is written, but inspirational in giving me something to talk about. So it is with a short thing entitled "Spain's best festivals and parties", written by a certain Rachel Dixon who "works for the life & style site" at the paper. What this means is that she gets gigs to go and sample tourism and travel opportunities that few people would ever consider and would still not consider once they have read Rachel's contributions.
The other day, Rachel was enjoying "gourmet horse riding in Andalucía" (and how nomenclaturely correct of the paper to opt for Andalucía, with its c and its accented i, rather than its s and no accent). Never fear, it isn't the horse that is being gourmeted, or at least I don't think it is. As if this wasn't enough travel for one day and for one person, Rachel then departs Andalucía and heads around Spain for her tour of the best festivals and parties.
These, it mainly turns out, are publicity for music concerts. Not boring ones with sombre-looking gents in tuxes and equally sombre-looking ladies in evening gowns but pop, rock, dance and what have you. Best they all are, even if one of them claimed by Rachel to be among the best has never actually taken place before.
We read all this travel-writing stuff and think "I wish I could do a job like that". Gourmet horse riding one day, the best festivals the next day, or even the same day in Rachel's case. But it's the appearance of the not-having-taken-place-yet festival that helps to prove what I have believed for some time. Travel writers don't in fact get gigs to go and sample tourism at all. What they do is spend all day in their studies in Hackney pied-à-terres and look at YouTube.
This may sound as though writers are being rather duplicitous in suggesting that they have been horse riding when the only riding they have been doing is taking the Central Line, but we should applaud them, especially if they work for the life & style site at "The Guardian". Life & style (strangely always ampersanded) in a Guardian style requires attention to carbon emissions. What better than to never leave home but still appear to have, as though you are a current-day Judith Chalmers wishing your readership that they were there but having Photoshopped yourself onto an entire landscape of Andalucía, preferably with the odd gourmet horse or two chewing in the background.
With most of it, as with gourmet horse riding, you can be on pretty firm ground. No one is clearly ever going to do it, as no one ever does anything that is suggested in the travel pages of newspapers. So no one can challenge the accuracy of the report. Not that they would, because the report would be accurate, unless someone had, as a joke, posted gourmet horse riding in the Shetland Islands onto YouTube and called it Andalucía.
The travel-writer's research is today done for him or her. As well as YouTube, there are the likes of Pinterest. What an astonishing resource this is. Just go to the travel & places section (more of the ampersand, note) and a whole world awaits your typing skills to convert the images into someone's next dream holiday. How about Niue for example? Don't know where it is. Nor did I, but I now do, thanks to Pinterest, and studying the photos I could conjure up a world for you of velvety white sands and electric-blue sea (see also Trip Advisor re Puerto Alcúdia).
I wouldn't even need to plagiarise the text. I am quite capable of writing my own, thanks very much. And realising quite how easy this can all be, I have decided to issue my "Lazy Man's Guide To Mallorca", to be published this summer. While I know a fair bit about Mallorca, I can't claim to know it all, but why should I bother spending the petrol money to find out when it's all there on the internet, awaiting my transformation into an indispensable guide for tourists from all good bookshops at the reasonable price of 9.99 euros (IVA included). With any luck, I can find some charitable souls willing to hand over their photos for free as well.
But why stop at Mallorca? My next project will be a guide to the Russian Steppe. Have I ever been to it? Are you kidding? Of course not. I don't even know where it is, but Wikipedia can tell me.
So, thank you, "The Guardian", and thank you, Rachel. A moment's attention paid to Spain's best festivals and parties, and you have shown me the light. And it's on YouTube.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Another reason is that it does come up with the odd inspirational piece. Not inspirational in the way that it is written, but inspirational in giving me something to talk about. So it is with a short thing entitled "Spain's best festivals and parties", written by a certain Rachel Dixon who "works for the life & style site" at the paper. What this means is that she gets gigs to go and sample tourism and travel opportunities that few people would ever consider and would still not consider once they have read Rachel's contributions.
The other day, Rachel was enjoying "gourmet horse riding in Andalucía" (and how nomenclaturely correct of the paper to opt for Andalucía, with its c and its accented i, rather than its s and no accent). Never fear, it isn't the horse that is being gourmeted, or at least I don't think it is. As if this wasn't enough travel for one day and for one person, Rachel then departs Andalucía and heads around Spain for her tour of the best festivals and parties.
These, it mainly turns out, are publicity for music concerts. Not boring ones with sombre-looking gents in tuxes and equally sombre-looking ladies in evening gowns but pop, rock, dance and what have you. Best they all are, even if one of them claimed by Rachel to be among the best has never actually taken place before.
We read all this travel-writing stuff and think "I wish I could do a job like that". Gourmet horse riding one day, the best festivals the next day, or even the same day in Rachel's case. But it's the appearance of the not-having-taken-place-yet festival that helps to prove what I have believed for some time. Travel writers don't in fact get gigs to go and sample tourism at all. What they do is spend all day in their studies in Hackney pied-à-terres and look at YouTube.
This may sound as though writers are being rather duplicitous in suggesting that they have been horse riding when the only riding they have been doing is taking the Central Line, but we should applaud them, especially if they work for the life & style site at "The Guardian". Life & style (strangely always ampersanded) in a Guardian style requires attention to carbon emissions. What better than to never leave home but still appear to have, as though you are a current-day Judith Chalmers wishing your readership that they were there but having Photoshopped yourself onto an entire landscape of Andalucía, preferably with the odd gourmet horse or two chewing in the background.
With most of it, as with gourmet horse riding, you can be on pretty firm ground. No one is clearly ever going to do it, as no one ever does anything that is suggested in the travel pages of newspapers. So no one can challenge the accuracy of the report. Not that they would, because the report would be accurate, unless someone had, as a joke, posted gourmet horse riding in the Shetland Islands onto YouTube and called it Andalucía.
The travel-writer's research is today done for him or her. As well as YouTube, there are the likes of Pinterest. What an astonishing resource this is. Just go to the travel & places section (more of the ampersand, note) and a whole world awaits your typing skills to convert the images into someone's next dream holiday. How about Niue for example? Don't know where it is. Nor did I, but I now do, thanks to Pinterest, and studying the photos I could conjure up a world for you of velvety white sands and electric-blue sea (see also Trip Advisor re Puerto Alcúdia).
I wouldn't even need to plagiarise the text. I am quite capable of writing my own, thanks very much. And realising quite how easy this can all be, I have decided to issue my "Lazy Man's Guide To Mallorca", to be published this summer. While I know a fair bit about Mallorca, I can't claim to know it all, but why should I bother spending the petrol money to find out when it's all there on the internet, awaiting my transformation into an indispensable guide for tourists from all good bookshops at the reasonable price of 9.99 euros (IVA included). With any luck, I can find some charitable souls willing to hand over their photos for free as well.
But why stop at Mallorca? My next project will be a guide to the Russian Steppe. Have I ever been to it? Are you kidding? Of course not. I don't even know where it is, but Wikipedia can tell me.
So, thank you, "The Guardian", and thank you, Rachel. A moment's attention paid to Spain's best festivals and parties, and you have shown me the light. And it's on YouTube.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
The Pressure Of Tourism Recommendation
Another day, another barometer. The barometer used to be a contraption hanging on the wall in your great aunt's house that was intended to measure something to do with weather. Next to it would hang a piece of old seaweed, and consulting a combination of the two would lead to the conclusion that it was about to snow or to be 80 degrees (in old money). It was a de rigueur wall adornment for great aunts' houses, a device employed not solely as a means of weather forecasting but as a guide to the daily arthritis bulletin and as a way of keeping small children quiet while they stood and stared at the damn thing in the hope that its gauge might move.
The barometer has been updated for the modern marketing era. It is now what used to be called a survey. And in keeping with modern times, the barometer has gone European. The European Commission's "Eurobarometer" not only has 27 member-state points on its changing-conditions compass it also has those for wannabe EU members, for couldn't-care-less, not-about-to-be EU members (Norway) and for members that have no chance of being members as they are not European (Israel).
The thirty-four member and non-member states have been surveyed - sorry, barometered - as to what their people think about tourism. The Commission does this each year, which is good of them, and no one of course takes any notice of the results. Oddly though, the 2012 barometer might just demand slightly more attention than usual.
Most of it is almost totally pointless, as in, for example, the discovery that 48% of respondents the length and breadth of the European Union and other parts of Europe as well as parts that aren't Europe go on holiday for rest and recreation. Well, not entirely pointless, as what are the other 52% doing?
You will be able to amaze your friends with the knowledge, as I am being good enough to tell you, that the Czechs, with a huge 65% of the vote, come in at number one in saying that natural features, including weather, would make them revisit the same holiday destination. This is a full 7% lead over the Dutch in second place. Coming in tailed off in this category are the people of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. A lousy 24% rated natural features, which makes one wonder what would entice a Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonian to go on holiday anywhere. Or perhaps they mistook the Eurobarometer question for the Eurovision Song Contest and gave the answer as "Serbia".
Reassuring for Spain and therefore Mallorca among all this barometering is that Spain is the most visited country. And given that the Brits are so important to the local tourism industry, it might be noted the UK is Eurobarometer champion in the quality of accommodation as a reason for revisiting a destination category. 48% of Brits are happy with accommodation, while the Estonians are the least happy, a miserly 12%.
Where the Eurobarometer does get interesting, and trust me that it does, is the bit about how holidaymakers come to make decisions about where to go on holiday and what influences this decision. What do you think? A TV ad perhaps? A magazine article? Both do, but to nothing like the degree that you might think. The most important influence is personal recommendation. 52% of respondents are swayed by the views of friends, colleagues or relatives. A mere 7% are influenced by either a TV ad or by something in a magazine or guidebook.
If this isn't a persuasive case for the power of word of mouth over other forms of promotion, it would be hard to know what it is. And it is the combination of word of mouth and technology that makes for a powerful means of tourism selling. We're back of course to social media and to how they are defined.
40% of respondents also say that an internet site influenced them. Of this 40%, you can be pretty sure that Trip Advisor or something similar was one of these sites. It differs from the obvious social media, but Trip Advisor is very much a part of broader social marketing via the internet or mobiles. And its recommendations are from those who travellers don't know personally (as are its recommendations to avoid a destination).
The conclusion from this is clear. Forget the expensive TV ads. When it comes to tourism promotion, harness the power of word of mouth and the media which enable it. This is the barometer of the change in how holidays are chosen. And it is a change across the whole of Europe.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The barometer has been updated for the modern marketing era. It is now what used to be called a survey. And in keeping with modern times, the barometer has gone European. The European Commission's "Eurobarometer" not only has 27 member-state points on its changing-conditions compass it also has those for wannabe EU members, for couldn't-care-less, not-about-to-be EU members (Norway) and for members that have no chance of being members as they are not European (Israel).
The thirty-four member and non-member states have been surveyed - sorry, barometered - as to what their people think about tourism. The Commission does this each year, which is good of them, and no one of course takes any notice of the results. Oddly though, the 2012 barometer might just demand slightly more attention than usual.
Most of it is almost totally pointless, as in, for example, the discovery that 48% of respondents the length and breadth of the European Union and other parts of Europe as well as parts that aren't Europe go on holiday for rest and recreation. Well, not entirely pointless, as what are the other 52% doing?
You will be able to amaze your friends with the knowledge, as I am being good enough to tell you, that the Czechs, with a huge 65% of the vote, come in at number one in saying that natural features, including weather, would make them revisit the same holiday destination. This is a full 7% lead over the Dutch in second place. Coming in tailed off in this category are the people of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. A lousy 24% rated natural features, which makes one wonder what would entice a Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonian to go on holiday anywhere. Or perhaps they mistook the Eurobarometer question for the Eurovision Song Contest and gave the answer as "Serbia".
Reassuring for Spain and therefore Mallorca among all this barometering is that Spain is the most visited country. And given that the Brits are so important to the local tourism industry, it might be noted the UK is Eurobarometer champion in the quality of accommodation as a reason for revisiting a destination category. 48% of Brits are happy with accommodation, while the Estonians are the least happy, a miserly 12%.
Where the Eurobarometer does get interesting, and trust me that it does, is the bit about how holidaymakers come to make decisions about where to go on holiday and what influences this decision. What do you think? A TV ad perhaps? A magazine article? Both do, but to nothing like the degree that you might think. The most important influence is personal recommendation. 52% of respondents are swayed by the views of friends, colleagues or relatives. A mere 7% are influenced by either a TV ad or by something in a magazine or guidebook.
If this isn't a persuasive case for the power of word of mouth over other forms of promotion, it would be hard to know what it is. And it is the combination of word of mouth and technology that makes for a powerful means of tourism selling. We're back of course to social media and to how they are defined.
40% of respondents also say that an internet site influenced them. Of this 40%, you can be pretty sure that Trip Advisor or something similar was one of these sites. It differs from the obvious social media, but Trip Advisor is very much a part of broader social marketing via the internet or mobiles. And its recommendations are from those who travellers don't know personally (as are its recommendations to avoid a destination).
The conclusion from this is clear. Forget the expensive TV ads. When it comes to tourism promotion, harness the power of word of mouth and the media which enable it. This is the barometer of the change in how holidays are chosen. And it is a change across the whole of Europe.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Saturday, March 03, 2012
Promoting Shanty Towns
Arenal, despite its current-day association with German tourism, wasn't always German-dominated. It was the first resort in Mallorca that I had any experience of. This was at the end of the 1960s. I can't say I remember much about the place, other than the sight of what was like a shanty town next to the hotel.
Today's Arenal is one of those resorts that doesn't, you might believe, need much promoting. It is synonymous among many a German visitor with Mallorca, those for whom Peguera and Cala Ratjada aren't synonyms. It's as well if it doesn't need much promoting because the municipality in which Arenal is located - Llucmajor - is scrapping its tourism trust, i.e. tourism board.
The trust was spending around 170,000 euros a year. This went on a few tourism fairs to publicise the different attractions of Llucmajor as a whole and not just Arenal and for a director who took a salary of 34,000 euros. Neither the spend nor the salary was in any way excessive.
The thinking where Llucmajor town hall, boracic like all other town halls, is concerned is that, as it now no longer receives any grants for promotion from the government, there is no point in having a tourism promotion operation. Couldn't the town hall manage without these grants? No. Because, or at least this is what the town hall is saying, the tourism minister Carlos Delgado has told them to stop the local tourism trust and to concentrate efforts on Mallorca and the Balearics that are operated by the ATB (Balearics Tourism Agency).
This is a strange explanation. Strange because other town halls are continuing to arrange their own promotion. Pollensa, for instance, has reserved 300,000 euros for this purpose. It is even stranger as Delgado had appeared to "get it" about promotion. He has said that promotion of a generic Balearics brand wasn't a particularly good idea, and he was absolutely right. In fact, it has always been a lousy idea because there is no recognisable Balearics brand as such. Indeed, Delgado had gone so far as to suggest that rather than just promotion of the individual islands, which do carry brand recognition, it was sensible for there to be promotion of specific parts of the islands, as in resorts for instance.
So has Delgado performed a U-turn or is Llucmajor inventing Delgado's instruction? Hard to say. Whatever the situation, there is no questioning the fact that money for tourism promotion is in desperately short supply whether it be for the islands or for the resorts, but there is also little doubt that Delgado's apparent enlightenment was correct; individual towns and resorts should benefit from their own promotion because there is no such thing as a "Mallorca" which embraces the whole island. Arenal, for example, is most certainly not Puerto Pollensa.
To make matters worse, Llucmajor's internet activities appear to have ground to a complete halt; even a Facebook page is not being updated. But Facebook, apart from being a powerful tool, is also extremely cheap. Indeed, it doesn't cost anything, apart from, in the case of a commercial operation, which Llucmajor is in a tourist sense, the cost of paying someone to maintain the page. Surely to goodness they can find a couple of grand a year for this if nothing else.
Abandoning even a basic internet presence such as Facebook is incredibly short-sighted, but so is abandoning promotion full stop. Let's be clear once again. Tourism is what Mallorca does. It is what many of its towns do. The expectation that Germans will just turn up in Arenal is similar to what I spoke about the other day with regard to British tourists being taken for granted. Yes, they probably will just turn up, but acting as though these tourists don't really exist in curbing communications so much that they are curbed out of existence is a sure way in the long term, or even the short to medium term, of making tourists wonder if they are wanted.
Llucmajor is Mallorcan tourism promotion in microcosm. It has all but given up, especially where the major markets are concerned. But as there aren't the funds for grand advertising campaigns, then at least some should be found for the social networks. Delgado has, after all, alluded to finding more flexible and creative ways of stretching limited budgets. So have I. Repeatedly. Returns on Facebook and other social media are likely to be good. But they won't be if no one can be bothered.
At the end of the sixties, Arenal could have been anywhere. It meant nothing. We were going to Madge-orca. That was all that mattered. We are no longer in the sixties. But you wonder sometimes. Are things so bad? Maybe there are shanties again.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Today's Arenal is one of those resorts that doesn't, you might believe, need much promoting. It is synonymous among many a German visitor with Mallorca, those for whom Peguera and Cala Ratjada aren't synonyms. It's as well if it doesn't need much promoting because the municipality in which Arenal is located - Llucmajor - is scrapping its tourism trust, i.e. tourism board.
The trust was spending around 170,000 euros a year. This went on a few tourism fairs to publicise the different attractions of Llucmajor as a whole and not just Arenal and for a director who took a salary of 34,000 euros. Neither the spend nor the salary was in any way excessive.
The thinking where Llucmajor town hall, boracic like all other town halls, is concerned is that, as it now no longer receives any grants for promotion from the government, there is no point in having a tourism promotion operation. Couldn't the town hall manage without these grants? No. Because, or at least this is what the town hall is saying, the tourism minister Carlos Delgado has told them to stop the local tourism trust and to concentrate efforts on Mallorca and the Balearics that are operated by the ATB (Balearics Tourism Agency).
This is a strange explanation. Strange because other town halls are continuing to arrange their own promotion. Pollensa, for instance, has reserved 300,000 euros for this purpose. It is even stranger as Delgado had appeared to "get it" about promotion. He has said that promotion of a generic Balearics brand wasn't a particularly good idea, and he was absolutely right. In fact, it has always been a lousy idea because there is no recognisable Balearics brand as such. Indeed, Delgado had gone so far as to suggest that rather than just promotion of the individual islands, which do carry brand recognition, it was sensible for there to be promotion of specific parts of the islands, as in resorts for instance.
So has Delgado performed a U-turn or is Llucmajor inventing Delgado's instruction? Hard to say. Whatever the situation, there is no questioning the fact that money for tourism promotion is in desperately short supply whether it be for the islands or for the resorts, but there is also little doubt that Delgado's apparent enlightenment was correct; individual towns and resorts should benefit from their own promotion because there is no such thing as a "Mallorca" which embraces the whole island. Arenal, for example, is most certainly not Puerto Pollensa.
To make matters worse, Llucmajor's internet activities appear to have ground to a complete halt; even a Facebook page is not being updated. But Facebook, apart from being a powerful tool, is also extremely cheap. Indeed, it doesn't cost anything, apart from, in the case of a commercial operation, which Llucmajor is in a tourist sense, the cost of paying someone to maintain the page. Surely to goodness they can find a couple of grand a year for this if nothing else.
Abandoning even a basic internet presence such as Facebook is incredibly short-sighted, but so is abandoning promotion full stop. Let's be clear once again. Tourism is what Mallorca does. It is what many of its towns do. The expectation that Germans will just turn up in Arenal is similar to what I spoke about the other day with regard to British tourists being taken for granted. Yes, they probably will just turn up, but acting as though these tourists don't really exist in curbing communications so much that they are curbed out of existence is a sure way in the long term, or even the short to medium term, of making tourists wonder if they are wanted.
Llucmajor is Mallorcan tourism promotion in microcosm. It has all but given up, especially where the major markets are concerned. But as there aren't the funds for grand advertising campaigns, then at least some should be found for the social networks. Delgado has, after all, alluded to finding more flexible and creative ways of stretching limited budgets. So have I. Repeatedly. Returns on Facebook and other social media are likely to be good. But they won't be if no one can be bothered.
At the end of the sixties, Arenal could have been anywhere. It meant nothing. We were going to Madge-orca. That was all that mattered. We are no longer in the sixties. But you wonder sometimes. Are things so bad? Maybe there are shanties again.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Survey Reservations: Hotels and modernisation
If you are a commercial website, there are a number of things you can do in order to attract more interest in and traffic to your site. I'm not referring to the jiggery-pokery of optimisation or rankings, but to simple publicity, and one way of getting publicity is to do a survey and, more importantly, get the press to mention it and write up the findings.
Such surveys come out with regular frequency, monotony even. Some can be quite useful, but one does always have to be slightly wary. Generally speaking, the methodology behind the surveys isn't revealed. Their rigour cannot, therefore, be verified. The headlining findings are what attract the press, always eager for free copy to fill a space or several, and they are presented without comment or question.
There is a Spanish hotel-bookings site called reservahoteles.com. It has conducted a survey, the findings of which have duly found their way into the media. They make good copy for the press as the subject of the survey, Spanish hotels, is found to be lacking in making attempts at modernisation. It is good copy with which to knock the hotels, therefore.
What is this survey, however? It is in fact one of travel agencies, 22 in all. One of the main findings is that more than 50% of Spanish hotels aren't bothered with investing in "fundamental aspects" of their offer which should now be more or less standard, such as providing leisure and entertainment services and activities or attracting the business and incentives market.
The travel agencies are probably in a reasonable position to judge, but the survey smacks a bit of the monkey and the organ grinder. If you really want to know about hotels' attitudes, what they might be planning and what they provide, wouldn't it make more sense to ask them and not the travel agencies?
Nevertheless, let's be kind to the survey, as it does rather reinforce an image of some hotels. A lack of modernisation in Mallorca is an aspect that the Balearic Government's new tourism law is seeking to address, and there are unquestionably hotels that are so past their sell-by dates that no amount of investment, short of pulling them down and starting again, will ever bring them adequately into the modern world. On the other hand, there are plenty of hotels which are very much of the modern day and which do everything the survey suggests they don't; the Iberostar chain is just one.
The survey suggests that a lack of investment can be explained by a concentration on sun-and-beach tourism and on sun-and-beach tourism alone. It's a reasonable point, but, and this applies to most hotels in most Mallorcan resorts, you run up against the inevitable problem of pursuing business that isn't sun and beach, primarily that of the off-season when everywhere, including the hotels, is shut.
When the survey draws attention to a lack of marketing and a lack of internet presence on behalf of many hotels, it again has a point. However, for many hotels, this hasn't been necessary, as they have been used to others doing it all for them, such as travel agencies and tour operators, while contracts with tour operators make more direct marketing irrelevant and indeed potentially open to allegations of breaches of contract.
If the hotels are contracted, if they know there is little or no business when they are not contracted during the dead winter season, then why should they bother making the sorts of investment in marketing or in attempting to attract business when they know full well it won't be forthcoming? Except of course, they should bother, if for no other reason than that hotels are massively under-utilised and totally unproductive for six months of the year. We've reached a point where, if anything is going to happen to resolve problems of the dead season, someone has to make the first move and not just blame everyone else; perhaps that someone should be the hotels.
But on the issue of the travel agencies criticising hotels for a lack of internet presence, the fact is that the wherewithal does exist for hotels to advertise and market directly and bypass the travel agencies completely. Google's different services, Travelzoo, what Microsoft probably has in mind with its global tourism hub all can leave the traditional travel distribution chain minus one of its core constituents, the travel agents: they should be careful who they criticise and what they wish for.
And there are always of course specific websites through which hotels can market themselves. Hotel reservation? Reservahoteles.com. Survey, anyone?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Such surveys come out with regular frequency, monotony even. Some can be quite useful, but one does always have to be slightly wary. Generally speaking, the methodology behind the surveys isn't revealed. Their rigour cannot, therefore, be verified. The headlining findings are what attract the press, always eager for free copy to fill a space or several, and they are presented without comment or question.
There is a Spanish hotel-bookings site called reservahoteles.com. It has conducted a survey, the findings of which have duly found their way into the media. They make good copy for the press as the subject of the survey, Spanish hotels, is found to be lacking in making attempts at modernisation. It is good copy with which to knock the hotels, therefore.
What is this survey, however? It is in fact one of travel agencies, 22 in all. One of the main findings is that more than 50% of Spanish hotels aren't bothered with investing in "fundamental aspects" of their offer which should now be more or less standard, such as providing leisure and entertainment services and activities or attracting the business and incentives market.
The travel agencies are probably in a reasonable position to judge, but the survey smacks a bit of the monkey and the organ grinder. If you really want to know about hotels' attitudes, what they might be planning and what they provide, wouldn't it make more sense to ask them and not the travel agencies?
Nevertheless, let's be kind to the survey, as it does rather reinforce an image of some hotels. A lack of modernisation in Mallorca is an aspect that the Balearic Government's new tourism law is seeking to address, and there are unquestionably hotels that are so past their sell-by dates that no amount of investment, short of pulling them down and starting again, will ever bring them adequately into the modern world. On the other hand, there are plenty of hotels which are very much of the modern day and which do everything the survey suggests they don't; the Iberostar chain is just one.
The survey suggests that a lack of investment can be explained by a concentration on sun-and-beach tourism and on sun-and-beach tourism alone. It's a reasonable point, but, and this applies to most hotels in most Mallorcan resorts, you run up against the inevitable problem of pursuing business that isn't sun and beach, primarily that of the off-season when everywhere, including the hotels, is shut.
When the survey draws attention to a lack of marketing and a lack of internet presence on behalf of many hotels, it again has a point. However, for many hotels, this hasn't been necessary, as they have been used to others doing it all for them, such as travel agencies and tour operators, while contracts with tour operators make more direct marketing irrelevant and indeed potentially open to allegations of breaches of contract.
If the hotels are contracted, if they know there is little or no business when they are not contracted during the dead winter season, then why should they bother making the sorts of investment in marketing or in attempting to attract business when they know full well it won't be forthcoming? Except of course, they should bother, if for no other reason than that hotels are massively under-utilised and totally unproductive for six months of the year. We've reached a point where, if anything is going to happen to resolve problems of the dead season, someone has to make the first move and not just blame everyone else; perhaps that someone should be the hotels.
But on the issue of the travel agencies criticising hotels for a lack of internet presence, the fact is that the wherewithal does exist for hotels to advertise and market directly and bypass the travel agencies completely. Google's different services, Travelzoo, what Microsoft probably has in mind with its global tourism hub all can leave the traditional travel distribution chain minus one of its core constituents, the travel agents: they should be careful who they criticise and what they wish for.
And there are always of course specific websites through which hotels can market themselves. Hotel reservation? Reservahoteles.com. Survey, anyone?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Getting Into An I Pad-dy: Newspapers
I Pad, U Pad, Wii Pad. We all Pad together.
Unfortunately, for Apple and for newspaper and magazine publishers, we don't. We may in some distant future. But for now, we pad as a small minority.
The publishers are ambivalent to this future. They would happily dispense with one of their biggest cost bases - printing - but they are no nearer creating a business model that satisfactorily digitalises and monetises hard copy into oblivion. Ah but the iPad will be that model. Some might think so; some, like Steve Jobs, would hope so. But the mere newspaper-reading mortal continues to be a Steve Unjobsworthy who hasn't become an Apple organisation man and hasn't been commanded by the contemporary tablets of stone, the ostentatiously styled modern miracle of the iPad tablet and its peers.
There's bad news for newspaper publishers; good news for publishers of magazines. PriceWaterhouseCoopers have reported that whereas revenue from digital magazines is set to "sky rocket", thanks to the iPad, sales of subscriptions of newspapers in this digital form will not be sufficient to offset the fall in print sales.
The iPad is many things, but essentially, for many of its products, its newspaper products, it is merely a digital replacement of the hard copy. The hype, and that also for the iPhone, the Android and any other current-day trickery you care to mention, outstrips the reality. There are many, many users of course. But this doesn't mean that newspapers will suddenly disappear. As pointed out by the UK firm Enders Analysis: "Ten million pay for a daily newspaper in the UK. They spend roughly 30 pounds a month each. There will not be 10 million people spending 30 pounds a month on the iPad any time soon".
In a way, the iPad is an experiment, as is much digital and internet publishing. It is worthwhile playing with, but it is only one aspect of the digital future. Newspaper publishers who see it as the only holy grail of a prosperous non-print new world are seriously deluding themselves. Experiments need to be conducted in different ways, and one is to create a wholly new product (or products) with its own revenue stream. It's thinking out of the box, but the fear is that publishers will be seduced into boxing themselves solely inside the iPad tablet box.
All of which brings us to the "Majorca Daily Bulletin". It is now iPad-able, online in full. At a price. Part of a service under the non-snappy moniker of Kioskoymas, through which we are told "the most complete offer of press of quality" is available, the Bulletin is the only English paper in what is an online iPad-oriented system for Spanish newspaper and magazine publishers. A bizarre aspect of this service, were you minded to want to subscribe to the paper, is that you would need to read Spanish. Obviously you would. They're not going to have an English version to guide you through the online registration and payment process when the service is meant to be for Spanish readers.
And subscription is a not unimportant element. Getting the punter to buy a month or more ahead does wonders for cash planning in the uncertain digital world but it runs counter to consumer psychology. Subscriptions to hard-copy newspapers have only ever been a small part of publishers' businesses. Readers habitually buy daily, a truism for a daily publication. Why would you stump up in advance when you haven't in the past? News International is facing this conundrum along with other more pressing matters.
A solution is an incentive. Yet from what I can make out, unless you have a multiple subscription, i.e. to at least more than one title through Kioskoymas, you pay the going rate. And unless you, as an English reader, are inclined to also read Spanish papers or even able to, then you are not going to have a multiple subscription. Moreover, a month seems to be the minimum subscription period, this being unlike other services which enable you to pay daily.
And one of these services is Orbyt. This was launched last year and features "El Mundo", "La Razón" and other Spanish papers as well as magazines. So Kioskoymas is a rival and a less elegant one than Orbyt, if the websites of the two services are anything to go by. The competition with Orbyt is probably quite significant. The Bulletin is part of the Grupo Serra stable, of which "Ultima Hora" is its biggest-selling paper. And "Ultima Hora" is a competitor with the Balearics version of "El Mundo". For it to have an iPad presence as a rival makes sense, and you wonder if this is the main reason why The Bulletin is now iPad-able; it has been bundled in, but it is "Ultima Hora" that really matters.
The Bulletin might gain from this service, it might not, but fundamentally it cannot be seen as the be all and end all, and this is the message for any newspaper publisher. The iPad is basically a means of cannibalising the product. It is a replacement technique more than it is a new-product technique and it is the latter that publishers need to work on.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Unfortunately, for Apple and for newspaper and magazine publishers, we don't. We may in some distant future. But for now, we pad as a small minority.
The publishers are ambivalent to this future. They would happily dispense with one of their biggest cost bases - printing - but they are no nearer creating a business model that satisfactorily digitalises and monetises hard copy into oblivion. Ah but the iPad will be that model. Some might think so; some, like Steve Jobs, would hope so. But the mere newspaper-reading mortal continues to be a Steve Unjobsworthy who hasn't become an Apple organisation man and hasn't been commanded by the contemporary tablets of stone, the ostentatiously styled modern miracle of the iPad tablet and its peers.
There's bad news for newspaper publishers; good news for publishers of magazines. PriceWaterhouseCoopers have reported that whereas revenue from digital magazines is set to "sky rocket", thanks to the iPad, sales of subscriptions of newspapers in this digital form will not be sufficient to offset the fall in print sales.
The iPad is many things, but essentially, for many of its products, its newspaper products, it is merely a digital replacement of the hard copy. The hype, and that also for the iPhone, the Android and any other current-day trickery you care to mention, outstrips the reality. There are many, many users of course. But this doesn't mean that newspapers will suddenly disappear. As pointed out by the UK firm Enders Analysis: "Ten million pay for a daily newspaper in the UK. They spend roughly 30 pounds a month each. There will not be 10 million people spending 30 pounds a month on the iPad any time soon".
In a way, the iPad is an experiment, as is much digital and internet publishing. It is worthwhile playing with, but it is only one aspect of the digital future. Newspaper publishers who see it as the only holy grail of a prosperous non-print new world are seriously deluding themselves. Experiments need to be conducted in different ways, and one is to create a wholly new product (or products) with its own revenue stream. It's thinking out of the box, but the fear is that publishers will be seduced into boxing themselves solely inside the iPad tablet box.
All of which brings us to the "Majorca Daily Bulletin". It is now iPad-able, online in full. At a price. Part of a service under the non-snappy moniker of Kioskoymas, through which we are told "the most complete offer of press of quality" is available, the Bulletin is the only English paper in what is an online iPad-oriented system for Spanish newspaper and magazine publishers. A bizarre aspect of this service, were you minded to want to subscribe to the paper, is that you would need to read Spanish. Obviously you would. They're not going to have an English version to guide you through the online registration and payment process when the service is meant to be for Spanish readers.
And subscription is a not unimportant element. Getting the punter to buy a month or more ahead does wonders for cash planning in the uncertain digital world but it runs counter to consumer psychology. Subscriptions to hard-copy newspapers have only ever been a small part of publishers' businesses. Readers habitually buy daily, a truism for a daily publication. Why would you stump up in advance when you haven't in the past? News International is facing this conundrum along with other more pressing matters.
A solution is an incentive. Yet from what I can make out, unless you have a multiple subscription, i.e. to at least more than one title through Kioskoymas, you pay the going rate. And unless you, as an English reader, are inclined to also read Spanish papers or even able to, then you are not going to have a multiple subscription. Moreover, a month seems to be the minimum subscription period, this being unlike other services which enable you to pay daily.
And one of these services is Orbyt. This was launched last year and features "El Mundo", "La Razón" and other Spanish papers as well as magazines. So Kioskoymas is a rival and a less elegant one than Orbyt, if the websites of the two services are anything to go by. The competition with Orbyt is probably quite significant. The Bulletin is part of the Grupo Serra stable, of which "Ultima Hora" is its biggest-selling paper. And "Ultima Hora" is a competitor with the Balearics version of "El Mundo". For it to have an iPad presence as a rival makes sense, and you wonder if this is the main reason why The Bulletin is now iPad-able; it has been bundled in, but it is "Ultima Hora" that really matters.
The Bulletin might gain from this service, it might not, but fundamentally it cannot be seen as the be all and end all, and this is the message for any newspaper publisher. The iPad is basically a means of cannibalising the product. It is a replacement technique more than it is a new-product technique and it is the latter that publishers need to work on.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Saturday, July 09, 2011
Henry The Seventh: Social media success
Do you "like"? Do you "tweet"? Do you tube? Does your business do any or all of these things and, if so, does it really know what it is doing with them?
Social media. Social networks. Once upon a time, social networks were just networks of people, doing what people do, i.e. being social, being friends, being business acquaintances. Whatever the type of network, the purpose is the same: to make contact and connections.
And that's what it's about. "Making connections." The words of Seamus Cullen at No Frills Excursions when I told him I was going to be talking to his business partner, Toni Alenyar, about social media.
No Frills is a small business, but it is a successful one, and one reason why it is successful is that it goes about its business in a purposeful fashion. It plans. And among its plans is one for the use of social media. I have a copy: all fourteen pages of it.
Not every business can devote significant time and resources to social media, but most have come to appreciate that they are, as Toni says, "essential tools". Many businesses have Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and the like, but do they really appreciate what they are doing with them?
No Frills is guided by a seven-step strategy. It is one that is partly specific to it as an excursions' operator, but most of the steps can be applied to or adapted by any business. How the company uses social media is geared to meeting one or more of these seven steps. Crucially, they are not the company's, they are the customer's.
From the customer's seeking of holiday inspiration and information to his planning and decision-making, to his taking action (making a booking and travelling) and to his sharing of his experiences, social media accompany each step along the way.
No Frills tests out any social media going. With some it is a case of learning what they offer and which may assume greater importance in the future. But with all its social media activity, there is a wish for the business to be visible, to enhance its reputation and to be seen as innovative.
Of the different networks, the most important to the company are Facebook, You Tube and Trip Advisor. The glowing reviews that No Frills attracts on Trip Advisor come quite obviously as a result of good experiences and good service, but the company actively encourages customers to review what it does, whether good or not so good, and spends time in responding to reviews which are posted.
The sharing of experiences by customers on Trip Advisor is the seventh step in the company's strategic approach, but it can just as easily be seen as the first step. As Toni points out, Trip Advisor is that significant now that a majority of travellers consult it as part of their initial planning.
The attention given to the traveller's information-gathering process is one that has led No Frills to be highly proactive and innovative. For example, it now makes short videos about hotels and posts them on You Tube. Why? Because someone interested in coming on holiday searches for information about specific hotels. No Frills videos give a short tour of the hotel and other relevant information about the resort, and relevance is a keyword in Toni's vocabulary.
But how does this benefit the business? It's not about selling as such. Of course, selling is the outcome that is sought, but it comes back to making connections. Someone sees a video about a hotel, it comes from No Frills, there will be some means of connecting to more No Frills information and the result ... There may be a sale either online or in-resort. Critically though, trust and credibility are being created.
Actually quantifying the benefits of the company's social media activity is nigh on impossible. Toni freely admits this. But then much promotional activity is hard or impossible to quantify. It is hard to place a value on the benefits derived from visibility, reputation and innovation, but social media, used well and planned well, will bring such benefits, and the importance attached to social media by No Frills is reflected by the fact that there is now a full-time member of staff who concentrates on the company's internet presence.
There is way more to the No Frills internet story. I've not mentioned how Google search enquiries have helped to create a whole separate website, I've not mentioned that each of the four No Frills offices (three in Puerto Alcúdia and one in Puerto Pollensa) has its own You Tube channel, and I've not mentioned Henry the elephant. You might guess though that Henry has his own Facebook page.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Social media. Social networks. Once upon a time, social networks were just networks of people, doing what people do, i.e. being social, being friends, being business acquaintances. Whatever the type of network, the purpose is the same: to make contact and connections.
And that's what it's about. "Making connections." The words of Seamus Cullen at No Frills Excursions when I told him I was going to be talking to his business partner, Toni Alenyar, about social media.
No Frills is a small business, but it is a successful one, and one reason why it is successful is that it goes about its business in a purposeful fashion. It plans. And among its plans is one for the use of social media. I have a copy: all fourteen pages of it.
Not every business can devote significant time and resources to social media, but most have come to appreciate that they are, as Toni says, "essential tools". Many businesses have Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and the like, but do they really appreciate what they are doing with them?
No Frills is guided by a seven-step strategy. It is one that is partly specific to it as an excursions' operator, but most of the steps can be applied to or adapted by any business. How the company uses social media is geared to meeting one or more of these seven steps. Crucially, they are not the company's, they are the customer's.
From the customer's seeking of holiday inspiration and information to his planning and decision-making, to his taking action (making a booking and travelling) and to his sharing of his experiences, social media accompany each step along the way.
No Frills tests out any social media going. With some it is a case of learning what they offer and which may assume greater importance in the future. But with all its social media activity, there is a wish for the business to be visible, to enhance its reputation and to be seen as innovative.
Of the different networks, the most important to the company are Facebook, You Tube and Trip Advisor. The glowing reviews that No Frills attracts on Trip Advisor come quite obviously as a result of good experiences and good service, but the company actively encourages customers to review what it does, whether good or not so good, and spends time in responding to reviews which are posted.
The sharing of experiences by customers on Trip Advisor is the seventh step in the company's strategic approach, but it can just as easily be seen as the first step. As Toni points out, Trip Advisor is that significant now that a majority of travellers consult it as part of their initial planning.
The attention given to the traveller's information-gathering process is one that has led No Frills to be highly proactive and innovative. For example, it now makes short videos about hotels and posts them on You Tube. Why? Because someone interested in coming on holiday searches for information about specific hotels. No Frills videos give a short tour of the hotel and other relevant information about the resort, and relevance is a keyword in Toni's vocabulary.
But how does this benefit the business? It's not about selling as such. Of course, selling is the outcome that is sought, but it comes back to making connections. Someone sees a video about a hotel, it comes from No Frills, there will be some means of connecting to more No Frills information and the result ... There may be a sale either online or in-resort. Critically though, trust and credibility are being created.
Actually quantifying the benefits of the company's social media activity is nigh on impossible. Toni freely admits this. But then much promotional activity is hard or impossible to quantify. It is hard to place a value on the benefits derived from visibility, reputation and innovation, but social media, used well and planned well, will bring such benefits, and the importance attached to social media by No Frills is reflected by the fact that there is now a full-time member of staff who concentrates on the company's internet presence.
There is way more to the No Frills internet story. I've not mentioned how Google search enquiries have helped to create a whole separate website, I've not mentioned that each of the four No Frills offices (three in Puerto Alcúdia and one in Puerto Pollensa) has its own You Tube channel, and I've not mentioned Henry the elephant. You might guess though that Henry has his own Facebook page.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Have I Got Videos For You
"This week's odd-one-out round. Paul and Jon, your four are Harold "Hype" Williams, some happy slappers from West Bromwich, the MKTGONLINEIB and the Iberostar Alcúdia Park hotel, Playa de Muro, Mallorca."
"Is it the? What did you call it? The Muckt-gon-lee-nee-aye-bee? Is it the only one who looks like a robot which looks like it could do with getting out more?"
"No, actually it's the Iberostar Alcúdia Park hotel, Playa de Muro, Mallorca. Shall I tell you why?"
"No thanks."
"Well, I'll tell you anyway. It's the only one that doesn't make videos, but has videos made of it. In fact, there is one about it that appears at the top of the list of other videos to watch on YouTube next to this edition of 'Have I Got News For You', assuming you are watching S40E01 extended parts one to three and probably also assuming that you are watching it in Playa de Muro."
"And why's that exactly? Just because you're watching this particular show and because you're in - where's that place called again?"
"Playa de Muro. It's in Mallorca."
"Is it really. But that doesn't answer my question."
"I'm not sure why."
"But you play Sherlock Holmes, you should know why."
"They didn't have YouTube in my, erm, in Holmes's day. I think it's to do with intelligently figuring out the location of the user or something like that."
"Intelligent!? But if you're in this place, whatever it's called ..."
"Playa de Muro. It means the beach of the wall."
"In the beach of the wall, why would you want to know about a tourist hotel? You're not going to stay in it, if you're already there."
"That's a very good question."
"Yea, I know. That's why I asked it."
"In fact, the video is in Spanish as well. And I don't think this show has many Spanish viewers."
"So it's not intelligent at all, then."
"No, I suppose it isn't."
"So, why did you say it was, then? And this MKTGONLINEIB, how do we know it's a robot?"
"We don't. In fact it's probably a person."
"A robot's a person!? What is this? The return of the Borgs or something?"
"It's the name that appears under the video. The poster I think you call it. Or him. Or her. Anyway, shall we move on?"
"Yes, let's."
The above is of course made up, but is intended to raise a question about promotional videos and the like that are placed on the internet. Why would you, if you were in Playa de Muro, as in I was when I was watching the "Have I Got News For You" video, or anywhere else for that matter, be interested in a tourist hotel that's just up the road? I assume the video was placed because location was detected. But what's the good of that?
And this, if you're interested, is the video in question. There is something alarming about it. Not only can it detect where you are, it can also feature you in the video. At 0:37, who the hell is that bloke sitting by the bar?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
"Is it the? What did you call it? The Muckt-gon-lee-nee-aye-bee? Is it the only one who looks like a robot which looks like it could do with getting out more?"
"No, actually it's the Iberostar Alcúdia Park hotel, Playa de Muro, Mallorca. Shall I tell you why?"
"No thanks."
"Well, I'll tell you anyway. It's the only one that doesn't make videos, but has videos made of it. In fact, there is one about it that appears at the top of the list of other videos to watch on YouTube next to this edition of 'Have I Got News For You', assuming you are watching S40E01 extended parts one to three and probably also assuming that you are watching it in Playa de Muro."
"And why's that exactly? Just because you're watching this particular show and because you're in - where's that place called again?"
"Playa de Muro. It's in Mallorca."
"Is it really. But that doesn't answer my question."
"I'm not sure why."
"But you play Sherlock Holmes, you should know why."
"They didn't have YouTube in my, erm, in Holmes's day. I think it's to do with intelligently figuring out the location of the user or something like that."
"Intelligent!? But if you're in this place, whatever it's called ..."
"Playa de Muro. It means the beach of the wall."
"In the beach of the wall, why would you want to know about a tourist hotel? You're not going to stay in it, if you're already there."
"That's a very good question."
"Yea, I know. That's why I asked it."
"In fact, the video is in Spanish as well. And I don't think this show has many Spanish viewers."
"So it's not intelligent at all, then."
"No, I suppose it isn't."
"So, why did you say it was, then? And this MKTGONLINEIB, how do we know it's a robot?"
"We don't. In fact it's probably a person."
"A robot's a person!? What is this? The return of the Borgs or something?"
"It's the name that appears under the video. The poster I think you call it. Or him. Or her. Anyway, shall we move on?"
"Yes, let's."
The above is of course made up, but is intended to raise a question about promotional videos and the like that are placed on the internet. Why would you, if you were in Playa de Muro, as in I was when I was watching the "Have I Got News For You" video, or anywhere else for that matter, be interested in a tourist hotel that's just up the road? I assume the video was placed because location was detected. But what's the good of that?
And this, if you're interested, is the video in question. There is something alarming about it. Not only can it detect where you are, it can also feature you in the video. At 0:37, who the hell is that bloke sitting by the bar?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
Underground, Overground, Infrastructure Isn't Free
It is easy to forget just how much Mallorca has developed in a relatively short period of time. The island's "industrial revolution" is not even 50 years old; mass tourism in terms of massive tourism across Mallorca didn't become fact until the '70s. It is unsurprising, perhaps, that the infrastructure to support this revolution has taken time to become a reality.
Gas, natural gas, is the latest infrastructure development. The connection from the mainland came on-stream in late 2009. One of the things holding up the creation of the network is the inevitable process of getting agreement from all parties, not least owners of land who will be affected by the installation of pipes. The first phase of taking the gas into the regions, from Palma to Andratx, has run up against exactly this obstacle.
Objections are not solely being made on grounds of environmental disruption. There is also the safety angle, and the objections seem bizarre, quaint even, for those of us used for years to natural gas in the UK. Local fears are of the unknown, of the new-fangled. Yet, you couldn't get much more old-fangled than what natural gas would ultimately put an end to - butane supply. Natural gas would have an enormous benefit not just because of its convenience; it would mean an end to hernias and pulled back muscles. The "butaneros" of Mallorca may find themselves out of a job, and so may many a chiropractor.
Natural gas would have an additional benefit, that of putting a stop to the butane scams. Two separate actions by the police forces are currently ongoing. For this reason alone, the arrival of natural gas will be a huge bonus, as it will also be if it means not seeing the flames flicker and then go out on the hob and having to go outside in a howling gale and horizontal rain in order to mess around with changing the gas bottle.
The supply of gas has not, as yet, run up against a different obstacle, one facing electricity cabling from the mainland. How exactly does it happen that a town hall, Sagunto in this instance, can suddenly turn round and say that the supplier, Red Eléctrica, does not have permission to occupy land in the mainland municipality and also has to pay a tax in order to continue work on laying the cable to the Balearics? The how probably has something to do with this latter aspect. Some bright spark at the town hall eyes up the opportunity for some extra revenue.
Whatever the infrastructure development, there is some hassle associated with it. A new road, such as the so-called "via conectora" in Palma to take some strain off of the creaking road system around the city, becomes mired in objections. The siting of train lines encounter similar squabbles. Re-development of Playa de Palma, ditto. It makes you wish for the old days when a Franco-esque official would have come along one day, nailed the order for works to commence to the head of a passing peasant and the next day sent in the boys with the shovels.
And back then, whatever was built would have been as cheap as chips. Today? How much might we end up paying for natural gas? Don't bank on it being cheap. Don't bank on it being operated in a fashion that might be competitive and with the consumer first in mind.
Telecommunications are another element of infrastructure which has come on in leaps and bounds. Sort of. Time was, really not so long ago, the start of the '90s, that parts of the island weren't able to moan about Telefonica because they had no lines to moan about. Parts of the island still can't, because phone lines can't be laid across some of it. But where it is, the service is neither inexpensive nor satisfactory. Let me give you a personal example.
For some time there has been a problem with my ADSL. It has finally emerged that I have been paying for three megabytes (only three) which cannot be adequately supplied because of the distance I am from the exchange. I have, in fact, been getting little more than one megabyte. The internet provider, Orange, does at least see my argument, that perhaps I am entitled to some form of recompense.
Regardless of this, internet provision is absurdly expensive. And one also has the honour of forking out for Telefonica's line rental when the phone itself is barely used. This rental brings you to another sort of rental, that of the "potencia" contract for electricity supply.
Can anyone explain this to me? It seems to have no rhyme nor reason, other than to stuff the coffers of Endesa. It was not something I paid much attention to (I seem to be one of the few people in Mallorca never to have had much of a problem with electricity bills, while my "potencia" is low) until some correspondence I received and some checking with neighbours highlighted the apparent iniquities with this charge, to say nothing of why it is made in the first place.
Yes, Mallorca has developed greatly in a relatively short period of time. Developed in terms of constant objections, expense, uncompetitiveness and the Heath Robinson; current-day utilities don't get much more Heath Robinson than faffing around with a butane bottle. Not yet 50 years of industrial revolution. In another 50, they may just have got round to something like reasonably priced efficiency.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Gas, natural gas, is the latest infrastructure development. The connection from the mainland came on-stream in late 2009. One of the things holding up the creation of the network is the inevitable process of getting agreement from all parties, not least owners of land who will be affected by the installation of pipes. The first phase of taking the gas into the regions, from Palma to Andratx, has run up against exactly this obstacle.
Objections are not solely being made on grounds of environmental disruption. There is also the safety angle, and the objections seem bizarre, quaint even, for those of us used for years to natural gas in the UK. Local fears are of the unknown, of the new-fangled. Yet, you couldn't get much more old-fangled than what natural gas would ultimately put an end to - butane supply. Natural gas would have an enormous benefit not just because of its convenience; it would mean an end to hernias and pulled back muscles. The "butaneros" of Mallorca may find themselves out of a job, and so may many a chiropractor.
Natural gas would have an additional benefit, that of putting a stop to the butane scams. Two separate actions by the police forces are currently ongoing. For this reason alone, the arrival of natural gas will be a huge bonus, as it will also be if it means not seeing the flames flicker and then go out on the hob and having to go outside in a howling gale and horizontal rain in order to mess around with changing the gas bottle.
The supply of gas has not, as yet, run up against a different obstacle, one facing electricity cabling from the mainland. How exactly does it happen that a town hall, Sagunto in this instance, can suddenly turn round and say that the supplier, Red Eléctrica, does not have permission to occupy land in the mainland municipality and also has to pay a tax in order to continue work on laying the cable to the Balearics? The how probably has something to do with this latter aspect. Some bright spark at the town hall eyes up the opportunity for some extra revenue.
Whatever the infrastructure development, there is some hassle associated with it. A new road, such as the so-called "via conectora" in Palma to take some strain off of the creaking road system around the city, becomes mired in objections. The siting of train lines encounter similar squabbles. Re-development of Playa de Palma, ditto. It makes you wish for the old days when a Franco-esque official would have come along one day, nailed the order for works to commence to the head of a passing peasant and the next day sent in the boys with the shovels.
And back then, whatever was built would have been as cheap as chips. Today? How much might we end up paying for natural gas? Don't bank on it being cheap. Don't bank on it being operated in a fashion that might be competitive and with the consumer first in mind.
Telecommunications are another element of infrastructure which has come on in leaps and bounds. Sort of. Time was, really not so long ago, the start of the '90s, that parts of the island weren't able to moan about Telefonica because they had no lines to moan about. Parts of the island still can't, because phone lines can't be laid across some of it. But where it is, the service is neither inexpensive nor satisfactory. Let me give you a personal example.
For some time there has been a problem with my ADSL. It has finally emerged that I have been paying for three megabytes (only three) which cannot be adequately supplied because of the distance I am from the exchange. I have, in fact, been getting little more than one megabyte. The internet provider, Orange, does at least see my argument, that perhaps I am entitled to some form of recompense.
Regardless of this, internet provision is absurdly expensive. And one also has the honour of forking out for Telefonica's line rental when the phone itself is barely used. This rental brings you to another sort of rental, that of the "potencia" contract for electricity supply.
Can anyone explain this to me? It seems to have no rhyme nor reason, other than to stuff the coffers of Endesa. It was not something I paid much attention to (I seem to be one of the few people in Mallorca never to have had much of a problem with electricity bills, while my "potencia" is low) until some correspondence I received and some checking with neighbours highlighted the apparent iniquities with this charge, to say nothing of why it is made in the first place.
Yes, Mallorca has developed greatly in a relatively short period of time. Developed in terms of constant objections, expense, uncompetitiveness and the Heath Robinson; current-day utilities don't get much more Heath Robinson than faffing around with a butane bottle. Not yet 50 years of industrial revolution. In another 50, they may just have got round to something like reasonably priced efficiency.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Wednesday, February 09, 2011
I'll Be Watching You
Watch out! I'm watching you. I'm watching you in a bar. I'll be coming but you won't know me. I'll be sitting there, watching. I am the eyes of the government, the tax office, the social security, employment. I'll be in your bar.
The tax office, along with the other departments, is stepping up its efforts. "An aggressive plan" against the black economy, the absence of papers or the papers not quite right. More inspections. Checking on those claiming dole, but receiving a wage. Checking on everything, including the importing of goods from Asia and elsewhere.
When the money's tight, the government does what it can to ensure its revenue stream. Quite reasonably so. But when money's tight, the propensity for rule-bending increases. It is the vicious circle of crisis.
The checks are not out of the ordinary. They happen all the time. Just that they're going to be increased. That "aggressive plan". Watching and waiting.
The watching happens in different ways. There's the watching on the internet. For some time, websites with accommodation to rent have been paid particular attention to, especially websites of British origin. The tourism ministry has netted some apartments in Calvia. The fines can be as high as 30,000 euros. The ministry's inspectors paid a visit to one apartment, all perfectly well turned out, cleaned, with the use of pool and garden. 4,500 euros to rent. Except it wasn't quite legal. Others offer even more, such as transfer to and from the airport. Who's doing the transferring?
This watching of websites and of accommodation intensified a couple of years ago. The checking of apartments and villas for quality, safety and tax was not new, just that the level of effort increased and the technology was made greater use of. You wondered whether it would have much effect. It would appear that it has. There is the vicious circle of renting, though. The hoops and obstacles of trying to be legit, only to come up against the impossible barriers. Not everyone wants to do it improperly. But not everyone can do it properly. So the watching continues and becomes more intense.
There's the watching on the roads. The director-general of Tráfico was in Palma not so long ago. More controls are planned. More promotion of the risks of speed and of being distracted, but more potential for revenue, you would have to imagine. Again, not unreasonably though. And then there is also the automated watching. The new radars. They're not watching. Not yet. More investment is needed to make them work.
They need to step up the controls, not just to stop speed, drink-driving and "distractions" (playing with mobiles, sat-navs etc.) but also to compensate for the loss of revenue during what was something of a work-to-rule by traffic police last summer. The number of fines fell by 15% along with a reduction in the number of vehicles that were stopped, albeit, however, that during the first half of last year as a whole the number of drivers caught for drink-driving went up by a staggering 114%.
Watching employees, watching the number of chairs on terraces, watching the needle on a music limiter, watching the PRs, watching the space occupied by sunbeds on a beach. Now watching the smokers. Maybe there are even detectives watching the detectives.
All this watching has its value. Calvia, when setting its budget for this year, placed an amount on what it anticipates coining in through fines. Maybe local authorities all do this, wherever they are. Maybe it is a part of "good" public financial management. I confess it had never occurred to me that local government or any other government income might actually take into account what comes in by way of fines.
Revenue from fines, you might think, would simply be the jam on the other revenue. The bonus. It would seem not. But by formalising the outcomes of all the watching, giving it a number in the accounts, it is as though it institutionalises wrong-doing. The expectation is to break the law. Human nature being what it is, then maybe this is a pragmatic approach. Yet it is a system which appears set up for social failure as it undermines the psychological contract of reciprocity between authority and citizen, the latter afforded the role of the unscrupulous, whoever the citizen might be.
And all the while, the citizen does his or her own watching. That of the politicians and others in positions of authority or in positions within businesses with close connections to these authority figures doing their own fiddling.
The whole world's watching. Each other. In Mallorca, at any rate.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The tax office, along with the other departments, is stepping up its efforts. "An aggressive plan" against the black economy, the absence of papers or the papers not quite right. More inspections. Checking on those claiming dole, but receiving a wage. Checking on everything, including the importing of goods from Asia and elsewhere.
When the money's tight, the government does what it can to ensure its revenue stream. Quite reasonably so. But when money's tight, the propensity for rule-bending increases. It is the vicious circle of crisis.
The checks are not out of the ordinary. They happen all the time. Just that they're going to be increased. That "aggressive plan". Watching and waiting.
The watching happens in different ways. There's the watching on the internet. For some time, websites with accommodation to rent have been paid particular attention to, especially websites of British origin. The tourism ministry has netted some apartments in Calvia. The fines can be as high as 30,000 euros. The ministry's inspectors paid a visit to one apartment, all perfectly well turned out, cleaned, with the use of pool and garden. 4,500 euros to rent. Except it wasn't quite legal. Others offer even more, such as transfer to and from the airport. Who's doing the transferring?
This watching of websites and of accommodation intensified a couple of years ago. The checking of apartments and villas for quality, safety and tax was not new, just that the level of effort increased and the technology was made greater use of. You wondered whether it would have much effect. It would appear that it has. There is the vicious circle of renting, though. The hoops and obstacles of trying to be legit, only to come up against the impossible barriers. Not everyone wants to do it improperly. But not everyone can do it properly. So the watching continues and becomes more intense.
There's the watching on the roads. The director-general of Tráfico was in Palma not so long ago. More controls are planned. More promotion of the risks of speed and of being distracted, but more potential for revenue, you would have to imagine. Again, not unreasonably though. And then there is also the automated watching. The new radars. They're not watching. Not yet. More investment is needed to make them work.
They need to step up the controls, not just to stop speed, drink-driving and "distractions" (playing with mobiles, sat-navs etc.) but also to compensate for the loss of revenue during what was something of a work-to-rule by traffic police last summer. The number of fines fell by 15% along with a reduction in the number of vehicles that were stopped, albeit, however, that during the first half of last year as a whole the number of drivers caught for drink-driving went up by a staggering 114%.
Watching employees, watching the number of chairs on terraces, watching the needle on a music limiter, watching the PRs, watching the space occupied by sunbeds on a beach. Now watching the smokers. Maybe there are even detectives watching the detectives.
All this watching has its value. Calvia, when setting its budget for this year, placed an amount on what it anticipates coining in through fines. Maybe local authorities all do this, wherever they are. Maybe it is a part of "good" public financial management. I confess it had never occurred to me that local government or any other government income might actually take into account what comes in by way of fines.
Revenue from fines, you might think, would simply be the jam on the other revenue. The bonus. It would seem not. But by formalising the outcomes of all the watching, giving it a number in the accounts, it is as though it institutionalises wrong-doing. The expectation is to break the law. Human nature being what it is, then maybe this is a pragmatic approach. Yet it is a system which appears set up for social failure as it undermines the psychological contract of reciprocity between authority and citizen, the latter afforded the role of the unscrupulous, whoever the citizen might be.
And all the while, the citizen does his or her own watching. That of the politicians and others in positions of authority or in positions within businesses with close connections to these authority figures doing their own fiddling.
The whole world's watching. Each other. In Mallorca, at any rate.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Money Isn't Everything: Tourism promotion
Something rather odd has been happening. Prospects for this summer's tourism are looking good. It's not just the regional government saying so, the tourism industry is also confident.
This may not be odd when you consider factors such as increased prices in competitor destinations and events in Tunisia, but it is when you add in one further element, or rather its absence. Promotion. The government's promotion.
As mentioned yesterday, haggling is still going on in governmental circles as to what exactly the budget for promotion will be. Though the tourism agency (ATB) announced a couple of weeks ago that it will be assigning 22 million euros, precise spend and therefore precise plans have yet to be agreed.
Despite this, we are presented with evidence painting a rosy picture for this coming season. Which leads you to question the role of the government's promotion. There hasn't been any, yet there are optimistic noises.
Regular are the calls for more government money to be spent on tourism promotion and for television campaigns. Regular also are the links made between a failure to spend, a failure to engage in high-impact campaigns and a future of dwindling tourism in the face of international competition. Far less regular are any suggestions that this promotional spend and these campaigns may not make massive amounts of difference.
You can point to any number of reasons as to why the noises are optimistic, and one of them is reliability. It may not be an exciting message, but for a tourism market which is generally less than adventuresome and wishes only to be guaranteed reasonable value for money, then Mallorca can satisfy this wish. It doesn't necessarily need to offer excitement, especially as, as a "brand", one built up over many years, its attributes are well-enough known.
When promotion is spoken about, it tends to be done so in terms of headlining advertising, such as that involving Rafael Nadal. But this advertising is only part of the promotional equation. Its value lies as much with creating "front of mind" or reinforcing a message to the punter as it does with creating significant new business. Just as important is what goes on that is largely hidden, for example the co-operative campaigns between the government and the tour operators.
When the tourism minister Barceló was threatening to remove funding for such co-operation with Thomas Cook when it started deducting 5% from what it owed hotels, she was playing politics. It would never have been done, as to have done so would have been a case of cutting off her nose to spite Mallorca's face.
What is overlooked when it comes to tourism promotion is the sheer volume of it that is done on the government's behalf. The government has its own websites, but how many others are out there doing promotion that is as good if not better? In addition to tour operators and villa agencies, there are numerous websites, blogs, Facebook and Twitter accounts, apps for mobiles all doing their bit. Where the government has been missing a trick is in not engaging with this informal resource that does so much work for it.
The internet has totally transformed tourism promotion and, for the most part, it is considerably less expensive than television or glossy print advertising. Criticisms of the style of headlining advertising, of the Nadal type, or of its absence miss the point that its value is greatly exaggerated within the mix of media and the vast number of sources of information and promotion that are available to the tourist.
Shortage of funding for the government's tourism promotion is, in one respect, a positive. Or will be if it has the effect of making the tourism agencies think more carefully about how they use the different tools that exist in order to get their message across. Having a huge budget does not guarantee anything other than potentially wastefully expensive, "vanity" campaigns, the returns on which are difficult if not impossible to calculate. The Nadal campaign was an example of "ego" advertising; not Nadal's ego but that of the person responsible for commissioning it.
Altogether less glamorous are the associations with the tour operators, travel agencies and online brokers; the optimisation of websites and the working with those who are performing a task for tourism promotion; the tourism delegations, especially those in the newer markets. They are less glamorous but they are more meaningful.
So if it turns out there isn't some expensive TV campaign, it shouldn't be considered a failure. It might just actually be the most sensible thing the tourism ministry has done.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
This may not be odd when you consider factors such as increased prices in competitor destinations and events in Tunisia, but it is when you add in one further element, or rather its absence. Promotion. The government's promotion.
As mentioned yesterday, haggling is still going on in governmental circles as to what exactly the budget for promotion will be. Though the tourism agency (ATB) announced a couple of weeks ago that it will be assigning 22 million euros, precise spend and therefore precise plans have yet to be agreed.
Despite this, we are presented with evidence painting a rosy picture for this coming season. Which leads you to question the role of the government's promotion. There hasn't been any, yet there are optimistic noises.
Regular are the calls for more government money to be spent on tourism promotion and for television campaigns. Regular also are the links made between a failure to spend, a failure to engage in high-impact campaigns and a future of dwindling tourism in the face of international competition. Far less regular are any suggestions that this promotional spend and these campaigns may not make massive amounts of difference.
You can point to any number of reasons as to why the noises are optimistic, and one of them is reliability. It may not be an exciting message, but for a tourism market which is generally less than adventuresome and wishes only to be guaranteed reasonable value for money, then Mallorca can satisfy this wish. It doesn't necessarily need to offer excitement, especially as, as a "brand", one built up over many years, its attributes are well-enough known.
When promotion is spoken about, it tends to be done so in terms of headlining advertising, such as that involving Rafael Nadal. But this advertising is only part of the promotional equation. Its value lies as much with creating "front of mind" or reinforcing a message to the punter as it does with creating significant new business. Just as important is what goes on that is largely hidden, for example the co-operative campaigns between the government and the tour operators.
When the tourism minister Barceló was threatening to remove funding for such co-operation with Thomas Cook when it started deducting 5% from what it owed hotels, she was playing politics. It would never have been done, as to have done so would have been a case of cutting off her nose to spite Mallorca's face.
What is overlooked when it comes to tourism promotion is the sheer volume of it that is done on the government's behalf. The government has its own websites, but how many others are out there doing promotion that is as good if not better? In addition to tour operators and villa agencies, there are numerous websites, blogs, Facebook and Twitter accounts, apps for mobiles all doing their bit. Where the government has been missing a trick is in not engaging with this informal resource that does so much work for it.
The internet has totally transformed tourism promotion and, for the most part, it is considerably less expensive than television or glossy print advertising. Criticisms of the style of headlining advertising, of the Nadal type, or of its absence miss the point that its value is greatly exaggerated within the mix of media and the vast number of sources of information and promotion that are available to the tourist.
Shortage of funding for the government's tourism promotion is, in one respect, a positive. Or will be if it has the effect of making the tourism agencies think more carefully about how they use the different tools that exist in order to get their message across. Having a huge budget does not guarantee anything other than potentially wastefully expensive, "vanity" campaigns, the returns on which are difficult if not impossible to calculate. The Nadal campaign was an example of "ego" advertising; not Nadal's ego but that of the person responsible for commissioning it.
Altogether less glamorous are the associations with the tour operators, travel agencies and online brokers; the optimisation of websites and the working with those who are performing a task for tourism promotion; the tourism delegations, especially those in the newer markets. They are less glamorous but they are more meaningful.
So if it turns out there isn't some expensive TV campaign, it shouldn't be considered a failure. It might just actually be the most sensible thing the tourism ministry has done.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Have Your Say: Balearic Government opinion seeking
The Balearic Government is giving people their say. An internet campaign that goes under the title of "tú tienes la palabra" offers the possibility to cast opinions as to various initiatives undertaken by the government. The very use of the familiar, informal "you" form ("tú") gives the campaign the air of consultant-led marketing puffery styled in the language of the intimate; citizens are the government's friends. Of course they are.
It's all a bit of catch-up. Together with the informality, it is designed to make the government appear inclusive and to make the citizen participative. It's an approach that has been doing the rounds for years, one that sprang up in the US and which was couched in the managerialist vocabulary of the consultant - accountability, social responsibility, customer-focussed, stakeholder. It has taken it's time to catch on in the Balearics where the notion of citizen participation has only recently started to be given some prominence or respect.
If you are inclined to, you can visit the part of the government's website that enables opinion to be cast - balearsopina.caib.es. There you will find the various initiatives, new ones appearing on a daily basis. Anything from support for immigration to cultural promotion to statistical information that the government pumps out and to the politics of language. An interesting aspect of all this, where I'm concerned at any rate, is that I seem to have written about most of them at some point; some of them on many an occasion.
Whilst the drive towards inclusiveness and participation is not in itself unwelcome, certain questions arise. One is how much interest there is. The answer, given the number of responses to questions regarding initiatives already posted, is not very much. The campaign started on 10 December. Only now is information regarding it surfacing in the media, probably in recognition of the fact that there has been so little response. There isn't a lot of point in inviting opinion and not telling anyone that you wish to. Perhaps further opinion should be invited as to how well the government (and other public bodies) publicise things. I think we know what the answer would be.
A second question is what happens with the information. The fear is that it will simply add to one of the initiatives, that of statistical information provision. Percentages will be released in great abundance to the press who will slavishly reproduce them, and this will be the end of it. There will be an appearance of involvement and no more.
This government campaign is not the only attempt at getting citizens to participate or to voice opinion. Pollensa town hall, for example, invites comments and suggestions. You send them by email. And then? Who knows. One can guess at the sort of thing that they will include, as they are voiced often enough. Dog mess, street cleaning and so on. For a town hall that took little practical notice of some thousand people marching in the streets of Puerto Pollensa to complain about town hall neglect, you would have to wonder what notice they would take of emails from "disgusted of the Moll". The town hall now has its perfect response in any event, having finally got round to rolling out its 800 grands' worth of annual contract for new cleaning equipment combined with satellite positioning technology to show where is being cleaned and which the citizenry of Pollensa will eventually be able to consult via the town hall's website.
A third question that arises, or would were there any real interest in this government campaign, is the potential for manipulation. Not by government but by respondents. The weakness of online voting and opinion is the same weakness that one gets with text voting. It is a weakness that stems from a strength of both the internet and SMS: that of whipping up support, be it for an "X Factor" contestant, a Sports Personality or a political initiative. The democracy of inviting opinion, of quasi-referendums via new technologies, is to also invite the tyranny of minorities masquerading as majorities. It is the modern-day take on John Stuart Mill's tyranny of the majority in a democracy, without even the certainty that it is a majority view.
For the moment, however, there is no fear that this will occur with the government's campaign. So uninterested does the Balearics citizen appear to be in voicing his or her opinion that in one poll - on equality and women - a question as to the prioritisation of a protocol for detecting, preventing and drawing attention to sexist violence drew precisely no responses.
If the government is serious about citizen participation and counselling public opinion then it needs to rethink its online campaign and probably relaunch it with much stronger publicity and a message that you don't just have your say; your opinion will actually matter.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
It's all a bit of catch-up. Together with the informality, it is designed to make the government appear inclusive and to make the citizen participative. It's an approach that has been doing the rounds for years, one that sprang up in the US and which was couched in the managerialist vocabulary of the consultant - accountability, social responsibility, customer-focussed, stakeholder. It has taken it's time to catch on in the Balearics where the notion of citizen participation has only recently started to be given some prominence or respect.
If you are inclined to, you can visit the part of the government's website that enables opinion to be cast - balearsopina.caib.es. There you will find the various initiatives, new ones appearing on a daily basis. Anything from support for immigration to cultural promotion to statistical information that the government pumps out and to the politics of language. An interesting aspect of all this, where I'm concerned at any rate, is that I seem to have written about most of them at some point; some of them on many an occasion.
Whilst the drive towards inclusiveness and participation is not in itself unwelcome, certain questions arise. One is how much interest there is. The answer, given the number of responses to questions regarding initiatives already posted, is not very much. The campaign started on 10 December. Only now is information regarding it surfacing in the media, probably in recognition of the fact that there has been so little response. There isn't a lot of point in inviting opinion and not telling anyone that you wish to. Perhaps further opinion should be invited as to how well the government (and other public bodies) publicise things. I think we know what the answer would be.
A second question is what happens with the information. The fear is that it will simply add to one of the initiatives, that of statistical information provision. Percentages will be released in great abundance to the press who will slavishly reproduce them, and this will be the end of it. There will be an appearance of involvement and no more.
This government campaign is not the only attempt at getting citizens to participate or to voice opinion. Pollensa town hall, for example, invites comments and suggestions. You send them by email. And then? Who knows. One can guess at the sort of thing that they will include, as they are voiced often enough. Dog mess, street cleaning and so on. For a town hall that took little practical notice of some thousand people marching in the streets of Puerto Pollensa to complain about town hall neglect, you would have to wonder what notice they would take of emails from "disgusted of the Moll". The town hall now has its perfect response in any event, having finally got round to rolling out its 800 grands' worth of annual contract for new cleaning equipment combined with satellite positioning technology to show where is being cleaned and which the citizenry of Pollensa will eventually be able to consult via the town hall's website.
A third question that arises, or would were there any real interest in this government campaign, is the potential for manipulation. Not by government but by respondents. The weakness of online voting and opinion is the same weakness that one gets with text voting. It is a weakness that stems from a strength of both the internet and SMS: that of whipping up support, be it for an "X Factor" contestant, a Sports Personality or a political initiative. The democracy of inviting opinion, of quasi-referendums via new technologies, is to also invite the tyranny of minorities masquerading as majorities. It is the modern-day take on John Stuart Mill's tyranny of the majority in a democracy, without even the certainty that it is a majority view.
For the moment, however, there is no fear that this will occur with the government's campaign. So uninterested does the Balearics citizen appear to be in voicing his or her opinion that in one poll - on equality and women - a question as to the prioritisation of a protocol for detecting, preventing and drawing attention to sexist violence drew precisely no responses.
If the government is serious about citizen participation and counselling public opinion then it needs to rethink its online campaign and probably relaunch it with much stronger publicity and a message that you don't just have your say; your opinion will actually matter.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
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