What Is The Real Shock For Tourism?

Now that they've gone and done it there is almost a sense of shock. It's the immensity which can seem shocking, but do 30,000 illegal tourist rental apartments constitute immensity? This is the number that the tourism ministry reckons that there are in Mallorca.

If one assumes that these 30,000 apartments can accommodate four people, they represent 120,000 places. Another figure that the ministry has been desperate to let us know is the limit that there is to be on all (legal) tourist places on the island: 435,707 (isn't such precision a thing of wonder). The illegal apartment places therefore equate to more than a quarter of this legal figure. Or put another way, they are 25% more than there should be. Immense? I leave that to your own judgement.

More than shock, there is a sense of bewilderment. There is also, inevitably, confusion. The most bewildered are the unfortunate tourists who have booked apartments. There is no best time to introduce legislation, but the rentals' law has come in at the height of summer. People are naturally concerned that they may lose their holidays.

The Aptur holiday rentals association has issued advice to remove all illegal apartments from websites. The threat of fines will exercise many a mind. There will be owners who, to put it crudely, will be bricking it. There are of course those who argue that fines of up to forty grand won't get paid because of legal challenges and even lobbying of Brussels. Perhaps. But who is going to risk that the fines don't stick? Besides, it's not as if there weren't already fines; only that the level has been bumped up.

In isolation, the enforcement of the rentals' law wouldn't be particularly shocking. We have after all known for months that it was coming. But this enforcement isn't in isolation. The timing may be bad for poor tourists worrying about their reservations, but the law has come in against the timing of other events.

The president of the federation of travel agencies associations has described the anti-tourism protests as fascistic. The Fomento del Turismo (Mallorca Tourist Board) hasn't used the word fascist, but it has alluded to it. It has written an open letter to Arran in which it compares their protest actions (and the protests of others) to the "great tragedies of the twentieth century". The greatest of those tragedies was fascism.

The protests haven't of course gone unnoticed abroad. Abta and the European Tourism Association (the leading association for tour operators) have both commented. The foreign media have picked up on them. In Spain, they have become an issue for Congress. The Exceltur organisation is calling for an urgent meeting of the Spanish Tourism Council. And while Palma and Barcelona have been at the epicentre, San Sebastian in the Basque Country finds itself embroiled as well. Graffiti was daubed on the Basque Tourism Agency's building on Wednesday.

It could prove to be the case that this is all a flash in the pan, but the protests have an air of coordination. They aren't unique to Mallorca or Spain, but it is here where the focus is centred. It is here where the protests are becoming a matter for the state to get a grip on. The haven of safety away from terrorism in parts of the Mediterranean can appear to be less of a haven. It's terrorism without the violence, though concerns are being expressed about an escalation.

We have other issues, such as the passport-control queues, though these seem to now be being dealt with: passengers are whizzing through. Another is price. This isn't something that has suddenly emerged, given that the prices of holidays have been going up and indeed went up sharply this year. But for some tourists who are now looking ahead to 2018, there is a suddenness. Prices seem to be going through the roof.

Anecdotes on social media about giving Mallorca a miss because of the prices hardly constitute scientific research, but there are anecdotes from people who have been loyal to the island for years and years. They are looking at alternatives. At some point, the anecdotes might actually represent a critical and proven mass.

So ironically, all the fears about mass - tourism, that is - could be dealt with by the operation of the free market, the very market under attack from the protesters for having created saturation. Moreover, so it is being argued, the elimination of the illegal places could push hotel prices up even higher.

We can get wrapped up in all the agonising about a few idiots who are going around putting stickers with anti-tourism messages on hire cars, when in fact the real shock is to be seen on websites. Not adverts for holiday rentals hurriedly being deleted, but prices for holidays. Concern? Not for the government, as it will be hailing the limits on tourist numbers.

Culture v. Hotels: What Matters To Tourists?

Sun, you may not be surprised to know, is the most important thing for a holiday in Mallorca. This is, in order to dispel any possible confusion, sun in the sky as opposed to The Sun. The latter, if it is of any importance at all, may fall into a category "none of these", which was one of seven options offered to online users of The Bulletin in a recent poll.

The sun, the yellow thing, only made it by a whisker - 23.65% ahead of prices on 22.18%. But sun, of which we have had a fair amount of the hot variety just recently, will always rank high up the list for a predominantly northern European user base, which is what the website has. Without sun, whatever some tourism promoters might believe to the contrary, Mallorca wouldn't have one of its main USPs, albeit that I'm not sure how there can be more than one unique selling point.

Sun, for the purposes of the poll, was divorced from its normal partner - beaches. They ranked almost ten percentage points lower. Perhaps the natural alliance of sun and beach isn't quite as strong as it has always been. If so, the regional tourism ministry will feel satisfied. The more it attempts to diversify tourism away from the warmer months, the more that beaches, except for walking on or looking at, become less central to the tourism mix.

The ministry might also be pleased to discover what came third, namely culture. It scooped 16.9% of the poll and was separated from what can be considered a facet of culture - food and drink, which came in with 11.85%. And it is culture that I found to be one of the two most interesting results. The other was hotels. These came last, with 4.42%.

The point has to be made, as ever, that this was hardly scientific. But the sample size, into the thousands, would have been substantially greater than surveys tend to be. No, there was no margin of error or probability element, but nevertheless the results were somewhat intriguing.

Let's take hotels first. When one considers all the constant reminders of how much has been and is being invested into hotel stock in order to upgrade it (and push its prices up), an importance factor of less than 4.5% doesn't sound terribly encouraging for hoteliers wishing to make huge returns on their investments. Not of course that they will be worrying, because they clearly are making returns, what with levels of profit having risen significantly over the past two to three years.

But can one interpret this lowly importance to the existence of rival accommodation? I think you'll know to what I refer, and I also think that there will be many of you in agreement. Rental accommodation, of whatever sort, can offer a better experience. A further poll might seek to determine this. What does the general holidaymaking (or potential holidaymaking) market prefer? Hotel or not hotel?

The comparatively high importance given to culture differs greatly to a survey that I've dug out from 2010. That one, and I don't know who conducted it as I merely cited the results in an article, found that slightly under two per cent of all tourists who came to Mallorca classified themselves as having been cultural tourists. One has to say that there is a difference between how someone self-classifies him or herself and placing an importance on culture. Even so, there does seem to have been a big shift in the cultural direction, and just to reinforce the point, another survey of 2010 placed Mallorca and the Balearics second bottom among Spain's regions when it came to cultural interest for tourists.

The thing with culture is that it can be difficult to define. It can be the culture of the environment and landscape, the culture of music and the arts, the culture of buildings and physical heritage, the culture of history, or the culture of fiestas. It would probably be a worthwhile exercise to ask people to define culture, but as a collective concept, the importance given to it is, I would suggest, rather encouraging. Mallorca has, for so long, battled to create alternative tourist "products". Perhaps it is finally succeeding.

The poll did exclude an option which may well be more important than all others. Had security and safety been included, one fancies that this would have beaten the rest by some distance. And prices, having run the sun so close, may say something about safety. One interprets the rating for prices as being a desire for value for money and for not being excessive. Which maybe brings us back to hotels and their prices. Safety is paramount, but it can mean only so much price.

At least the sun is free, as indeed is much culture.

Arguing Over Price: Hotels v. Tour Operators

The hoteliers and the tour operators have been at it. Rather, they were at it a week ago in Berlin. The hoteliers haven't let things lie, though. They've been keeping things on the boil.

This is an unseemly spat between the two primary institutions of the tourism industry. Or are they? It is a row which does at least owe something to the diminished roles of both. The hoteliers are assaulted by Airbnb. The tour operators carve out nothing like the percentage of the market they once did. It was a Mallorcan hotelier who called Tui a dinosaur this week. He could have said the same about his industry.

It is a row which on the surface is easy to figure out. Mallorca's hoteliers up their prices. The tour operators say their customers (Germans) can't afford these prices. It is less easy to figure out when one goes beneath the surface of the headlines. These are the same tour operators which were grabbing all the places that were available for this year because demand was going (is going) to be so high. The hoteliers said as much, and they were only too happy to tag along. Get exclusive deals, and the job's done.

The beef with the hoteliers' prices didn't just suddenly arise in Berlin last week. If it had previously, then it was when contractual arrangements were being made for this year. They weren't made in Berlin; they were months ago. The tour operators knew the prices, especially their UK divisions. What was it that the hoteliers intimated? If the UK tour operators don't like our prices, we'll sell to tour operators from elsewhere. The German wings seemed only too happy to oblige.

The statements by the tour operators can be explained in different ways. One is that they genuinely are aghast at the higher prices, though this takes some accepting, given that the prices have been known about and factored in. The second is that the tour operators are telling consumers that they shouldn't blame them for higher prices; it's the hoteliers' fault. The third is if the tour operators haven't passed on the prices. If not, then their margins are seriously eroded.

The likes of Tui and Thomas Cook took big hits last year, mainly because of Turkey. It was noticeable that Turkey wasn't being bigged up in Berlin; it was Egypt. That destination may be recovering, but it is still only a modest recovery, and the tour operators have admitted as much. Turkey remains flat, and they know it, because again their own figures suggest this.

Mallorca helped to salvage tour operators' 2016 summers. With the hoteliers seeking payback for the profit flatlining which occurred for several years of crisis, they decided to over-indulge themselves this year, content in the knowledge that the tour operators had been saying all the right things; which they had been. There wasn't going to be a sudden massive revival in the eastern Med trouble spots this summer.

The tour operators, meanwhile, were needing to recoup 2016 losses. With hotel prices going up, the potential for doing this was reduced, if these prices were not wholly passed on. Their spokespeople will have had shareholders whispering in their ears. Senior management will have been taking some fright. One might recall the bashing that Thomas Cook took from shareholders over salaries, especially given the losses it reported.

Both parties have therefore been engaged in the politics of tourism - their own. Ultimately, they both need each other, but different dynamics have changed this historical relationship. There are more holidays for sale than there were twenty years ago, but the tour operators' share of the market has dropped significantly in relative terms. The hoteliers, if not tied by exclusive deals that the tour operators have signed, have the direct channels to sell through or the online agencies.

The relationship may have been weakened, but in another way it has been strengthened, and that is through the investment which tour operators have themselves poured in to hotels. They are not about to see that go west. And the hoteliers, meanwhile, protest that investment (from whatever source) has been made so that quality is raised. The price-quality ratio has therefore been raised: both the price and the quality. Unfortunately for the hoteliers, surveys don't necessarily bear this out. Mallorca's quality hasn't, when tourists are surveyed, leapt up. And this can partially be explained by all the tourists who have been "borrowed" from Egypt and Turkey. They have experienced quality-plus. Mallorca is playing catch-up with quality.

The hoteliers and the tour operators will stick to their sides of the argument, aware that they still have a reliance on each other.

Playing Hardball With Tour Operators

In a book published in 2011 entitled The British On Holiday, author Hazel Andrews wrote that in 1998 the head of the Palmanova-Magalluf hoteliers association had told her that the most important relationship in the resorts was that between hotels and tour operators and that the most important tour operator was Thomson.

Earlier this month, a Frontur report concerning international tourist movement into Spain revealed that slightly under 23 million tourists travelled with a tour operator on a holiday package. That is to say that in 2016 the percentage of holidaymakers relying exclusively on a tour operator was just short of 22%. Twenty years before, so a little time before Hazel Andrews spoke to the hoteliers' president, over 80% of holidaymakers booked packages with a tour operator.

A great deal has therefore happened in the past twenty years, one aspect of which is that Thomson, important or not as a provider of Magalluf tourists, is to be consigned to the brand waste bin.

Another obvious development since the late 1990s is the extent to which holidaymaker booking behaviour has altered. The package holiday's obituary has been written often enough, but - and bearing in mind also the significant increase in the number of tourists in the past twenty years - it remains resilient, not least if it is an all-inclusive one. Moreover, these are figures for Spain, to which low-cost airlines fly in abundance and where there is no shortage of alternative accommodation: alternative to hotels, that is. Other destinations aren't necessarily quite as easy as Spain is for the independent traveller.

The package holiday, for all the predictions of its demise, still holds a decent share of the market, decent enough for tour operators like Tui to snaffle up as many hotel beds as they can. There need be no tears being wept for the tour operators in this shifting scenario. They still exert great power and they still have massive offer to sell.

But can it be said, as it was in 1998, that the hotel-tour operator relationship remains the most important one, and not just in Magalluf and Palmanova? The Frontur figure of 22%, one suspects, is a good deal higher in resorts, so arguably it is, even though it won't be anything like the 80% of 1998. Tour operator power has thus been diminished, if only to a degree, and the scramble for beds (along with increased prices) that has been occurring just recently because of the elevated demand for Mallorca holidays demonstrates how the hotel-tour operator relationship has changed.

Historically, tour operators have always held the whip hand. Mallorca was almost solely reliant on foreign companies at the start of the boom, a fact that was dramatically exposed by the oil crisis of the 1970s and by the collapse of Court Line and Clarkson. This shock to the tourism industry was such that there was a determination to assert Mallorca's own power over it, but this never happened. The package holiday and its selling by foreign tour operators  just kept on getting stronger.

Given this strength, tour operators were able to keep control over prices. Although there have long been partnerships with hotel chains - direct ones in certain instances, such as between Tui and Riu - the tour operator was the more powerful partner. It could also dictate the type of offer. Few hotels have genuinely wanted to provide all-inclusive, because of the lower margins and the far lower possibilities for making add-on sales to clients. At the bottom end of the AI market, as a hotel manager once admitted to me, the hotel would have much rather been in a position to provide greater quality. But it couldn't. The quality was crap, and he recognised that it was.

Something else which has significantly altered the scene since the late 1990s is the level of competition, to which can be added the demands of a more critical and sophisticated holidaymaker. It is this context which goes a long way to explaining the apparent abandonment of Mallorca (and the Canaries) by Thomas Cook. While this has been greatly exaggerated, the tour operator is ditching a number of hotels as part of an overall strategy of moving up-market.

Thomas Cook has also taken into account the elevated prices being demanded by hotels. The relationship in terms of power has been disrupted by current circumstances, and while there seems to have been some glee among hoteliers as well as indifference to continuing relationships with certain markets, notably the British, the hoteliers are taking risks. There may not have been such statements in Mallorca, but in the Canaries the president of the hoteliers association has warned against "abuse" of prices. Some hoteliers may believe they can play hardball with tour operators. For the moment maybe they can. In the Canaries at least, there is concern about the harmful effect on the historical relationship.

The Illusion Of Purchasing Power

It was one of those statistical tidbits, of which we are fed a vast diet but which, I suspect, we take comparatively little notice, except when there is a nibble to make one wish to digest it. It had to do with purchasing power, defined in this instance as the relationship between consumer prices and average salaries. When I read it or, more accurately, wrote it, because it was a news item from the statistics bombarders of the news syndicates, it did for once make me stop and think. Not, as is sometimes the case, to try and fathom out what contradictory or erroneous message was being conveyed - trust me, this stuff is full of mistakes - but because of its implication.

What it said was that purchasing power in the Balearics has fallen this year by 0.9%: not a huge fall by any means but a fall nonetheless. The explanation for this diminution of power was that prices had risen whilst average salaries had gone down. On the price side, one might think that this was a result of inflation. There is inflation in the Balearics, the highest rate among the regions, but it is currently only 0.6%. There are deflationary pressures in parts of Spain, but not in the Balearics. Only just though. Inflation isn't much of a factor.

But even if it were, there was the fact that average salaries have fallen. How on earth can this be? Are we not supposed to be going through times of economic improvement, of recovery, of growth, of greater business confidence? One could always question the finding, but if it is true and if purchasing power is declining as a consequence, then this all hints at something that the announcements of better times don't: the recovery is not as strong as we're being led to believe.

Easy it would be to say that the positivity - that of politicians, in particular those from the Partido Popular - is all a pre-general election smokescreen: that the recovery is all baloney not matched in reality. Yet, we learn how in the Balearics there is greater buoyancy on the high street (not that there is one in the British sense), there is more spend in restaurants and what have you, there is more being spent at petrol stations. Which may all be true, but how much of it actually comes from the purse of the ordinary Josés of Mallorca (aka Joseps)? The restaurant sector, for example, has been saying that the buoyancy has been mostly confined to the tourism centres, thus implying that it is tourists who are the ones contributing to better times, and of these, it may well be the Brits who are doing much of the contributing, what with the pounds in their pockets stretching to ever greater euro purchasing power.

The retail sector may be a better guide, especially for certain parts of it which are showing good growth: household goods, for instance. As a general rule, tourists don't splash out on things like washing machines as souvenirs, so it's fair to say the growth is local. But this isn't necessarily the case across the whole of the retail sector. The petrol stations are enjoying the spend of the car-rental market, the supermarkets are benefiting from the rise in residential tourism.

Is growth, therefore, purely temporary? Instinctively, you would have to think that it is, given the nature of so much economic and employment activity in Mallorca. And if, underlying this, there is a trend towards reduced purchasing power, then the imbalance of the economy will be more sharply revealed come the winter months.

But this still doesn't explain why it might be that average salaries appear to be falling. Unless, that is, one factors in the growth of seasonal employment. When there are that many more people on low pay, taken on because of increased tourism demand, then the average distribution will tend to show a reduction: a greater proportion of the lower paid will drag down the average of the higher paid.

Does this really matter? In a way it doesn't. It has been ever thus with the seasonal nature of employment, after all. The likelihood might be that purchasing power, following the definition applied here, would rise in winter but only because of all the low-paid who go on the dole. But it does matter from the point of view of all that is being said of the "precarious" nature of this employment, the inherent insecurity and the potential for abuse and exploitation, plus the sheer seasonality of it.

This has been one of the themes of this summer, principally because the new government has made it one. But will this cycle ever be broken? The hoteliers are raising prices massively for next year. Will these result in better pay? Don't bet on it.

Tourist Satisfaction Not Guaranteed

We are told, repeatedly, that things have never been better for peak-summer tourism. In they come, the holidaymakers, great droves of them, boosting occupancy levels in some resorts to 100% (a figure which may be given but which is only truly attained in specific instances and never resort-wide). More passengers than ever before have passed through Son Sant Joan. The "irregular" offer of holiday accommodation is booming in much the same way as the legitimate offer is. But this joyous news is, as always, tempered by realities created by all-inclusives and of genuine spend. It may well be up, but the spread is not uniform.

It is also tempered by concerns that there are simply too many people. The strains on services, on infrastructure, on the environment are such that the regional government appears willing to consider what has not previously been unthinkable but which has not been acted upon or at least seen through: a deliberate and concerted strategy aimed at reduction, offset, the government would hope, by a smoothing of tourist numbers to create a longer season.

While the politicians agonise over this human and environmental pressure, dabble with financial engineering (tourist tax, off-season social security discounts) and constantly utter the mantra of a tourist base of greater quality, the hoteliers have been hard at it, raising their game along with their star classifications and so prices. Profit is up, turnover is up. Tour operators are gladdened by the upward trend in the quality of hotel stock. Mallorca may be more expensive - hotel-wise - than most of the Mediterranean, but to the advantages of reliability, safety and durability can be added this recent qualitative leap.

But if this is all the case, why are the people who really matter - the holidaymakers - not more satisfied? Are the strains causing them to be less satisfied? Are they more discerning, more demanding than ever before? Is dissatisfaction simply the result of their not having been asked before?

Gadeso, the Mallorcan research organisation, does ask tourists. It has been asking for a few years now. It isn't alone. Cala Millor is an example of a resort having finally cottoned on to the need to conduct surveys with the objective - it might be hoped - of the opinion-asking being more than just PR. But the surveying is limited; Gadeso's sample base is small - only 400 interviews.

Given the size of the sample, should the latest tourist satisfaction survey be considered credible? Can it ever be truly representative of what is, after all, a highly diverse market? Tourists form anything but a homogeneous market. It is one that differs in every way imaginable: demographics, attitudes, country of origin, expectations, to cite just a few.

The findings, therefore, come with this caveat. Nevertheless, there are worrying trends. Take the upping of the quality ante and of prices. The price-quality ratio for accommodation is deemed "adequate" (six out of ten), but it is slipping by a point year upon year. It's impossible to know if this is as a consequence of higher prices or of, for example, a more demanding attitude, one that may be influenced by experiences in other destinations. Whatever the cause, despite the efforts to raise quality, the satisfaction level stubbornly continues to drop.

It is when one leaves the hotel, however, that things go decidedly pear-shaped. The price-quality ratio satisfaction for the "specialised" offer - restaurants, beach services, shops, sports facilities, leisure activities - has gone from "deficient" to "very deficient" (2.9 out of ten). Gadeso supports this finding by referring to excessively high prices for food and shopping that are "repetitive and outmoded". It is an embarrassing finding, given that gastronomy is supposedly one of the great saviours of Mallorca's tourism.

Then there is what may be evidence of those strains of human pressure. Down have gone assessments for water quality (the sea's), for air pollution, for the general environment. Down also are opinions on what previous surveys had already identified as the two most deficient factors - cleanliness and noise (acoustic contamination).

Palma's new mayor, José Hila, has identified filth as a major problem for the city, and his administration is making efforts in rectifying this. But is Palma unique? Cast an eye around and observe, for example, plastics recycling containers that are overflowing and so not emptied often enough. Has it not occurred to anyone that there is high plastics waste on account of all those bottles of water and drinks being purchased? This is only one example, and standards of waste collection will doubtless vary from resort to resort, as will complaints about noise.

Gadeso cannot be taken as being definitive, but it is an indication. As such, therefore, it should serve not as the definitive word but as the starting-point. There should be far greater systematic surveying of visitors: resort by resort.

Ghosts Of Tourism Past: Adapt to survive

You know those little tubs of butter you get, the ones that might typically be served with a full or less-than-full English and which are, if only just out of the fridge, rock hard and cause your toast to crumble as you desperately struggle to spread their solid but very mini mass. Do you know how much they cost? Not to you as a punter but to a bar owner? It would probably depend upon supplier and probably also on any "arrangements" that exist, but the regular cost is eight centimos. Only a few years ago, seven or eight years ago perhaps, the cost was less. The little tubs then cost two centimos.

Fortunately, not all costs have risen as dramatically as the little tubs of butter have. But the increase in their cost acts as a reminder of the saying that if you look after the pennies, the pounds will look after themselves. For the bar owner, the added six centimos over the past few years, multiplied by the number of little tubs that have found themselves on the ends of knives of customers trying hard to extract their content, will amount to a pretty penny or several.

The increased cost will be factored in and either absorbed or added to the price of the breakfast, and if it is the latter, then the mumblings begin. Things aren't as cheap as they used to be. The bar owner, however, has to look after the pennies (or the centimos). Were he not to, then the pounds (or the euros) would not look after themselves.

Strangely enough, things aren't as cheap as they used to be, but things not being as cheap as they once were or as cheap as some might wish them to be is of course one of the regularly voiced reasons for why there is a malaise that afflicts Mallorca's tourism.

Despite the headlining good news, or apparent good news, that comes from the summer's high occupancy rates and high air passenger numbers, there is a refusal to believe the good news, and one reason for not believing it is that tourists don't spend as they did because everything is so expensive, a perception that does really require defining, as being expensive (or cheap) is all relative.

The only thing that needs to be known is that everything did indeed used to be cheaper. Had everything not been cheap, then there would not now be the tourism that Mallorca has. It was tourism founded on low cost, on dirt cheapness. It allowed there to be what there is today.

Looking to the past is instructive in explaining how we get to a position in the present, but the constant reflection on the past gets us only so far. The standard complaints about how Mallorca's tourism model operates today have been with us for years; these complaints being prices, low spend, shorter summer seasons, lack of winter tourism, all-inclusives. Yet somehow the past suggests that they are all relatively new phenomena, when none of them are. The past conjures up some golden age, the vision of which has to be tempered by, among other things, the fact that total tourism was significantly lower. (It should be noted, for example, that between 1993 and 2008 the total number of tourists arriving in Mallorca rose by 85%.)

There are occasions when I feel as though I am winter-tourismed-out, all-inclusived-out, lower-spent-out. Just on all-inclusives, and as an example, over seven years ago (in July 2006), I concluded an article on all-inclusives by saying: "The AI has changed the nature of the market. It is for the market to make an adjustment to it. Ultimately, if the AI and other factors (such as lower spend) cause a fall in demand, then the supply (of out-of-hotel facilities) has to alter. If this means less, then so be it. This is a harsh appraisal, but I think it is a realistic one."

The image of a tourism past keeps getting in the way. It is one in which there were no all-inclusives (and there weren't - not as we know them - until the '90s) and in which everywhere was supposedly packed, but with very many fewer tourists than today. Tourism's present is not like its past and nor will its future be like its past. Though obstacles to remedies are great, there may be remedies to alleviate the absence of current winter tourism, one which, in sheer numbers, has been greater this century than in the mythical golden age. But otherwise tourism present and tourism future has to forget the past and to adapt. The day before I was told about the cost of the little tubs of butter, I spoke with a partner in a tourist business which has had a highly successful summer. The reasons why? Many, but key are marketing, service and listening to the customer and changing accordingly.

MALLORCA TODAY - Cost to stay in Mallorca's refuges and hostels to rise

The cost of staying in the various small hostels dotted around Mallorca is to rise. These are the refuges operated by IBANAT, the Balearics nature agency, and do not include the Tramuntana dry-stone route refuges. They include, for example, shelters in the Llevant mountains on the east side of the island, one in Coll Baix (Alcúdia) as well as in the Tramuntana. A night's stay will typically increase from four to six euros per day. 

See more: Diario de Mallorca

MALLORCA TODAY - Electricity prices going up again

Thanks to a Supreme Court ruling in favour of electricity providers Endesa and Iberdrola, a freezing of electricity prices, as applied to the TUR (which translates literally as the tariff of last resort and is one that a majority of households have), has in effect been judged unlawful (it was the government that insisted on it). This means invoices for the last quarter of last year will have to be recalculated and will result in a 6% rise in the price of electricity.

See more: Diario de Mallorca

MALLORCA TODAY - Inflation falls in the Balearics

There has been a fall of 2.1% in the annual inflation rate in the Balearics and a specific fall of 0.6% in January. Over the past year the greatest price rises have been for transport and entertainment and the greatest falls have been for telecommunications and medicines.

MALLORCA TODAY - Prices announced for Mallorca's Real Madrid match

Real Mallorca's home game against Real Madrid, which will take place on Saturday, 14 January, will cost the same as last season's match. Cheapest seats will be 60 euros and the most expensive 130. For children the prices will range from 20 to 40 euros. Tickets will go on sale from 3 January.

Is The Customer Satisfied?

The Balearics received 11% more international visitors in the first seven months of this year than last. Let joy be unconfined. Put out the bunting.

5.75 million people up to the end of July, but have they been happy? Loads of people doesn't automatically mean loads of satisfied people or indeed loadsamoney. At the same time as the statistics of joy are being sung about arrivals into the airports and ports, the latest tourism satisfaction survey compiled by the research organisation Gadeso offers a less upbeat tempo.

The overall index of satisfaction where Mallorca is concerned is down. Only fractionally, but down nevertheless. Of the four key measures of satisfaction, only the quality of the environment shows a slight upward trend. Satisfaction with public services is unchanged from 2010, while satisfaction with both accommodation and the so-called complementary offer (bars, restaurants etc.) is down.

A caveat in all this is that the results are based on a mere 400 interviews, and these 400 have been conducted across the Balearics. There have been more in Mallorca than anywhere else, but the number still isn't great, and there is no indication as to the backgrounds of those interviewed. So, is the survey of any use?

Its value does rather depend upon whether you believe that results from a limited survey can be extrapolated into painting an accurate picture of attitudes more generally. Tourists are a highly diverse bunch with a highly diverse set of expectations, and when a survey asks for making a ranking between one and ten, the decision of the person being surveyed can be fairly arbitrary.

What you get, at best, is an indication. No more. You can choose to use the results as evidence or not. If, however, you are inclined to take them as evidence, then certain findings do rather jump out at you. One in particular. That of the satisfaction with the price-quality ratio of the bars and restaurants. It has the lowest rating of any factor in the survey - 3.4 - which is the same as last year and down from 4.0 since 2009. It is the one factor that Gadeso describes as "deficient".

If one interprets this as meaning that prices are too high and quality is too low, then the bars and restaurants of Mallorca are not performing well. One suspects the ratio is, in the minds of those surveyed, skewed more by price than it is by quality; that the assessment is an assessment of price as opposed to what actually appears on a plate. Why might one suspect this? Because prices are known. Quality is intangible. Providing a ratio between the known and the unknown will place a greater emphasis on what is known. Simple.

Consequently, can we assume that prices are too high? Anecdotally they are said to be. But what are the benchmarks? One also suspects that a benchmark is an historical recollection of what things cost in the good old days or is a completely unrealistic expectation that because Mallorca is "foreign" it should automatically be cheap. Prices vary so markedly that is almost impossible to come to a conclusion. How, for instance, does one reconcile the fact that in Puerto Pollensa you can pay three euros for a coffee and a bacon sandwich in one establishment, then go to another and pay 4.50 for the coffee alone? Yes, the quality element kicks in, but if you go solely on price then a reconciliation cannot be made, other than the fact that one place is cheap and the other isn't.

The singling out of price, be it by anecdote or by survey result, is a headline maker because price is arguably the most important issue to the tourist. Indeed the Gadeso survey reinforces this, but in doing so it raises an apparent contradiction. Since 2009 price as a motivation for tourists choosing Mallorca has shot up by over 12 percentage points. 61.8% of those surveyed said it was the main motivation. So, how does this square with the finding regarding the price-quality ratio?

Perhaps it is a reflection of what tourists expect of Mallorca and is also a reflection, as noted by the survey, of low-cost travel. It may also represent expectations of first-time visitors, those who opted for Mallorca this year because of problems elsewhere in the Mediterranean region. The percentage of those who had previously been to Mallorca is down quite significantly, while the percentage of those saying they would return is also down.

Surveys are notorious for enabling whatever interpretation you want to put on them, but the message from this one is that price is the overriding factor in coming to Mallorca in the first place, and that price, once on the island, is not quite as was expected.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Paying For Sand: Prices on beaches

How much are you paying for a sunbed? It's one of those questions, on a par with what's the weather like in (add as applicable), that is on the list of the Mallorcan visitor's enquiries.

I confess to not knowing a great deal about the cost of sunbeds. I have never, ever hired one. They are a part of beach life that has passed me by, and I pass them by on the way to finding a piece of soft sand. But the sunbed is important for many. The beach should be comfortable and not be a place where no end of patting the sand down can seem to eliminate the annoying ridge that's sticking into your back.

My knowledge of the subject has, however, increased thanks to the fact that sunbeds have been very much a theme of this Mallorcan summer. They have either not been provided (Puerto Pollensa for a time) or too many have been provided (Can Picafort, before the mayor ordered the removal of excessive numbers).

And I can now thank the local Chamber of Commerce for adding to the body of the sunbed knowledge. It's put out a report and is asking for a harmonisation in pricing in the different resorts, differences in which can be as great as five euros for a bed and a shade combination. The average price is 7.6 euros.

The cost of sunbeds has increased markedly since the turn of the century. One reason for this has been an increase in the tax charged by town halls. It's a simple equation: the higher the tax, the higher the price.

The beach operators, however, have other costs to take into account, such as those for the sunbeds and parasols themselves, which are often meant to comply with certain specifications. For example, some of the parasols in Pollensa have not been of the required reed material, which has added to what has become an annual controversy in respect of beach provision.

With the tax that has to be paid and all the other costs, it is perhaps unsurprising that you got a situation such as that in Can Picafort where the operator was exceeding the number of sunbeds by some 550. It's all about profitability, after all. Nevertheless, Can Picafort is one resort where the cost is said to be reasonable.

The differing costs to the operators and the differing prices they charge mean that the overall annual benefits to operators also vary. The report suggests that in Felanitx (by which I guess it means Portocolom) the return is just under five hundred euros a unit, way higher than in Manacor (92 euros).

Sunbeds aren't the only elements of beach life that come with a price. Some come with a pretty significant one. Well, would you pay 50 euros for 20 minutes on a jetski? Maybe you would. Less expensive though and also more sedate are pedaloes. Average going rate 11.7 euros, says the report. But it can be nine euros or it can be 15 (Alcúdia). What you win on lower sunbed prices in Alcúdia, you lose on a pedalo.

And what about the beach bars? The "chiringuitos" and "balnearios". They too are subject to varying taxes according to resort, and so charge accordingly.

Last year, before the season had even properly started, I was being told about the fact that the beach bar prices were too high. An example was given in respect of Swedish tourists to Alcúdia who now found a "pint" in a beach bar to be roughly the equivalent of that back in Sweden, a country hardly known for its cheap alcohol.

But when the chiringuitos are being taxed in the way they are, the prices start to become understandable. They have to pay the town halls, the inland revenue and the concessionaire who actually runs the beach bars.

The town halls make a mint out of their beaches. If they have a number of them and/or they have large beaches with high occupancy by tourists, then they are quids in. One of the largest beaches is that in Alcúdia, and the town hall here rakes in the most of any town hall from its beaches, more so than Palma: nearly three and a half million euros. Even Pollensa, with smaller beaches, can outstrip even Calvia when it comes to its revenue: around a million less than Alcúdia.

There's money to be made from sand. But you know, the beach should be simple. Take a towel and lie on the sand, forget about the pedalo, pack your own drinks and snacks. And then there soon wouldn't be money to be made.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Close To You: Tourist supermarkets

When I was at university, there was a Spar on campus. I hesitate to use the word supermarket to describe it, because supermarket and student in the same sentence, back then, meant little more than tins of corned beef and those sausages they shoved in with baked beans.

Nowadays, there are probably Tesco Metros on British campuses, pandering to a student class that places purple-sprouting broccoli and gourmet fresh pastas above getting bladdered in the union bar or being served up with the sort of animal droppings my university's refectories specialised in.

Sophistication may have grown these past thirty years, but the Spar is still with us. In Mallorca, as elsewhere in Spain and on the Continent, Spars have become good Europeans. They are EuroSpars.

The Spar always was European, in that it was originally Dutch and still is. Though the logo of a fir reflects the Dutch word for the tree ("spar"), the word can also mean save, as in saving money.

It is here, the saving money angle, that the original Spar philosophy of everyone regularly profiting has tended to become a tad one-sided. In favour of the Spar operator. The Spanish slogan for EuroSpar has been, may still be, for all I know, "always close to you". It sounds soothing enough, in a Karen and Richard Carpenter way, and is probably necessary in order to soothe a customer startled by a price tag.

It is not just EuroSpars that are close to you. The tourist supermarket of whatever name appears to be taking over as the main representative on the streets of Mallorca's resorts. The restaurants are disappearing and are being replaced by emporia with stands of flip-flops and Bells whisky piled high.

The tourist supermarket, like the Chinese bazaar, is very much on the march. In Alcúdia, a large, now ex-restaurant has been supermarketed, bang opposite another that has been there for some years. Why do you need two of them in such proximity, especially as there would appear to be at least partial common ownership? Perhaps it's all the McDonald's strategy of street saturation.

Or perhaps it's ... . No, actually I don't know what it is. I can't think of any good reason why so many of these supermarkets are in fact necessary. Some, but not so many.

The trend towards tourists eating in may have something to do with it; where food shopping is concerned at any rate. But any savings on eating out are eroded by the prices that can be paid. You can hand over up to twice what you might expect to pay in an Eroski, a Mercadona and others; more perhaps.

Unless it is a matter of convenience or sometimes necessity, it is hard to understand the attraction of the tourist supermarket, though there is a further factor. Bone idleness, to which you can add heat. In ninety degrees, the nearest supermarket, even at higher prices, becomes distinctly attractive, compared to schlepping a kilometre or so with bags of spuds, bottles of Coke and a five-litre container of water.

It's unfair to damn all tourist supermarkets, as there are those which, in addition to convenience, do some things well - better ranges of alcohol than mainstream supermarkets, the occasional deli, their own cafés, bakeries, home deliveries, plus friendly and attentive service. I can name a few, if you wish, and so it is unfair to tarnish them all. But there are those whose practices can be questionable, if not illegal.

Before the pound dived, there was one which used to advertise booze - in huge front-of-store displays - at prices quoted in pounds that appeared to be significantly lower than the real price in euros which was shown in small print. In others, newspapers can attract price stickers, above their proper prices. Paracetamol is sold at an inflated price when it shouldn't even be sold at all. Names can be misleading. How about an Aldi which most certainly isn't?

One of the problems for Spar is that, although its Euro shops may be perfectly ok, its name has entered the vocabulary in the same way as Hoover has to mean a vacuum-cleaner. The name is synonymous with the tourist supermarket. Whether Spar or not, whether any good or not, the supermarket is Spar-ed. But does it still sell corned beef?


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

MALLORCA TODAY - Gas up, electricity stays the same

Central government has approved its quarterly revisions of prices for energy. Electricity, with some changes to the actual formula for arriving at its price to consumers, will stay the same, but gas is to go up by 4.1% for natural gas and 6.1% for butane.

The Price Barometer: Mallorca under pressure?

I can hear the sound of pencils being sharpened, of keyboards being thumped indignantly, of conclusions being drawn and of calls for "they" (the ever-anonymous "authorities") to do something.

Prices. Give me strength. The UK Post Office has issued its annual worldwide holiday costs barometer, the needle edging ever higher until the barometer bursts with the rising pressure of a correspondent letting off steam with a shout of Mallorca's so expensive.

Mallorca, according to the Post Office's survey, stands at number 14 in a list of 36 destinations. There are two ways of looking at this. Mallorca is either the fourteenth cheapest place in the world or it is the twenty-third most expensive. The damning evidence, if you want to call it this, is that Portugal and Spain top the list of the cheapest destinations. How can Mallorca be more expensive than Spain? Must be because it's a rip-off. So will go the conclusions. Presumably, similar hackles are being raised in Tenerife which comes in at number nineteen on the list. Perhaps there is something to do with islands. And what might that be?

Let's get some perspective. With the exception of Bulgaria (number four), other non-Iberian competitors to Mallorca are, if one accepts the Post Office's findings, about as expensive or about as cheap - Croatia and Cyprus fractionally cheaper, Greece and Turkey fractionally more expensive.

The other perspective that is necessary is to understand how this survey is compiled. The trouble is that the Post Office doesn't say. If you go to its website, you will find the full results, but nothing about the methodology, save for the basket of goods that form the basis of the comparison. And one other thing. As a footnote, it says that prices are supplied by tourist offices with certain exceptions. Information for Mallorca comes from a villa agency. Why? I honestly couldn't say.

Unless you know the precise way in which this survey is conducted, you can make all manner of assumptions. The villa agency in question is a highly reputable operation. It specialises in luxury villas. Of its thirteen properties in Mallorca, eleven are in Pollensa. Let's just assume for one moment that information on prices is taken locally - in Pollensa town. It is not hard to imagine that these might be a tad higher than they are in, say, Puerto Alcúdia or Magalluf.

Mallorca languishes twelve places below Spain in this survey. But what is meant by Spain? Make another assumption. Benidorm. Anyone can tell you that Benidorm has a reputation for being cheap. Naff cheap, inexpensive cheap. Potentially, therefore, you have a polarity in terms of market; the economy variety of Benidorm and the luxury end of Pollensa. Chalk and cheese. One of the greatest disparities between Mallorca and Spain, says the survey, is the cost of a three-course meal with wine for two, a twelve euro difference. So what? It's eminently possible, just as it's eminently possible to pay the lower Spanish amount in Mallorca.

Everything depends, just as President Zapatero's famous 80 cent coffee depended. Another item from the survey is the cost of factor-15 sun cream. It's way higher in Mallorca than in Spain, by almost seven euros. And? Is this the same brand, the same supermarket chain? Perhaps it is, in which case there is a legitimate question to be asked as to why it costs that much more. But perhaps it isn't. You don't know, because the survey doesn't tell you. Nor do you know what size the bottle of sun cream is. There is a factor 15 sitting in my bathroom. It still has its price sticker. 3.99 euros. From the German Müller store in Alcúdia. Is this evidence of something being cheaper than the 4.42 euros on the mainland of Spain? No, it is evidence of one product at one store in one location costing one particular price. See, it all depends.

Price comparison surveys of this type need to be treated with scepticism, taken with a pinch of salt that probably costs more in Mallorca than on the mainland. They can be indicative of prices, but the surveys themselves vary. One from last year (Skyscanner's) made Cyprus the cheapest holiday destination in Europe. Yet it is thirteenth in the Post Office's worldwide survey, one place above Mallorca. Another, that from Thomas Cook, placed the Balearics seventh - behind Egypt, Turkey and the Canaries. But these are all more expensive, according to the Post Office.

Rigorously scientific these surveys tend not to be. They are unverified snapshots, they provide a talking-point, but that's about it. And there is often another reason for their being produced. The Post Office sells currency, a point it makes on its survey.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Is The Price Right? Yes and no

What was I saying yesterday? The year has barely started and the recurring theme of prices, their alleged excessiveness and their control is already being aired. As every year. And as ever, the discussion is littered with anecdotal evidence that can be cited to support an argument of excessive prices. My personal favourite remains the one about the cost of a packet of paracetamol. Five euros at a supermarket, lamented a tourist letter-writer. An example of rip-off Mallorca. Yes, it was a rip-off, but more importantly the supermarket had no right to be selling the drug; the example was the right symptom but the wrong diagnosis.

For all the talk of high prices, the Balearics' consumer price index is one of the lowest among the regions of Spain. The most recent data related to price increases, those for November, show that the Balearics' increase was in the lower range. Statistical information, though, does not give the whole picture, certainly not when anecdotes can be dragged out to contradict it. For the most part, the debate is biased towards individual experiences of price, be it for a meal, a coffee, this or that product which are then used as a basis for a call for someone to do something; this something often being the demand for price control.

Price regulation does exist to an extent. In the case of tobacco, for example, it is not only prices that are subject to control; so also is the distribution chain. It is an example of price regulation that might be said to work. It doesn't create a shortage of supply or any obvious black market, two disadvantages of price control in the form of a price cap. Generally, as with the control of all medication through chemists alone, the market mechanism functions to the benefit of the consumer, eliminating any need for a more liberalised market.

Could a price-control approach be applied more widely? To the bar and restaurant sector, for instance? It's hard to see how. Unlike the sale of tobacco through the licensed tobacconists, bars and restaurants are too diverse. Even items such as a coffee are far from being homogeneous. There are too many types of coffee, too many types of bar in too many different locations with too many different circumstances.

Price controls can bring with them certain downsides. One is a loss of quality, assuming the cap is set too low (and set too high would make a nonsense of the attempt at control). Another is the sheer complexity and cost of enforcement. Yet another is that controls run counter to the principle of the free market which, by and large, Mallorca and Spain abide by. And the free-market element has an historical political factor. Current-day market liberalism is the culmination of dismantling any vestiges of what once existed under Franco - that of price control and centralised, statist regulation of most economic activity.

The market dictates, which is how it should be. That a coffee or a plate of steak and chips might seem expensive (or cheap) is the consequence. When President Zapatero, quizzed about the price of a coffee on Spanish television, gave his reply of 80 centimos, he also offered the caveat of "it depends". And it does depend. Depends on the market and on the bar or restaurant owner being allowed to fix his own prices. If he gets them wrong, that's his problem. No one else's.

It is not for government to intervene where it has no right to intervene, and one thing that the local government can do little about is the in-built disadvantage of Mallorca in terms of its isolation and its limited resources, land most obviously. Nevertheless, it is here that government should be more involved.

The costs of this isolation cannot be underestimated. The director of the small to medium-sized businesses organisation (PIMEM) has said that transport alone adds some 30% to the cost of production in Mallorca. And transport cost applies both to businesses importing as well as exporting. For the local producers, they also have to factor in the cost of land.

The vice-president of the local chamber of commerce has called for an end to the speculative acquisition of industrial and commercial land that has pushed the average cost per metre to buy a plot and establish a factory to roughly six times as much as it would be in, for example, Aragon on the mainland or over a third more than in somewhere even more isolated, the Canaries.

A further pressure on cost comes from what PIMEM's director has described as the "minimal installations for goods transportation at competitive prices and the lack of competition between shipping companies". This, combined with other factors, goes a long way to explaining why there is a lack of competitiveness in Mallorca, which has seen its industrial base decline by nearly 30% since 2005 (far greater a decline than in any other part of Spain). It also goes towards explaining why certain prices in Mallorca, because of the island's geographical competitive disadvantage, are what they are.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

For Another Euro More: Prices that take you for a ride

You may or may not appreciate what a grind it can be, hacking around hotels and other places - on a daily basis - distributing copies of HOT! Especially when it is as warm as it is now. Not that I complain. That's how it is. And it can also be highly illuminating. Stop and talk to the receptionists about how things are. Many an insight is to be gained from a few moments snatched with hotel personnel.

But when it is hot, one has to either take oneself off to a bar for some liquid or - on the hoof - get some from a shop. And so it was, at the peak of yesterday's afternoon temperature, I went into a tourist supermarket. Water, no. It's always overpriced in these places, and it's not what you really need, which is either fruit juice or a sports drink - water's fine, but you've got to get your vitamins, minerals and salts as well. So I choose a sports drink. There is a sticker on the cool cabinet - across the row of drinks from which I take an orange half litre. 1.95. The "botellas" (bottles) are 1.95. Ok, bit over the top, but I can live with it. What I can't live with is when I go to the checkout and the girl says 2.95. No it's not, says I (and this is all in Spanish). It's 1.95. That's what the sticker says. I pick up the bottle and point out the 500ml - half litre, and then I head over to the cabinet, and she comes with me. She removes the sticker. Rumbled.

The supermarket has encountered someone who isn't a tourist, who speaks Spanish, who's damned if he's going to pay a euro more than what is clearly stated - or was, before the sticker was peeled off. I pay 1.95. The girl and her companion look somewhat pissed off. It's not really their problem; they only work there. But they have to deal with it. Deal with a little example of attempting to rip-off.

When we get all the Mallorca's expensive anecdotes, some are related to the cost of items in tourist supermarkets. I have some sympathy. They try it on. And it gives a bad impression. Like, for example, this nonsense with upping the price of newspapers - a twenty cents here, a thirty cents there. It's wrong. Its legality is also a moot point. But the deal is that the supermarket, or whatever, assumes you'll be prepared to swallow the added tariff because it's convenient to do so. Oh, that the practice were confined only to the less-than-official outlets. Because it isn't. I was going to buy a copy of "The Observer" last Sunday from a "tabacs" (which double as official outlets for newspapers). Not when I saw the sticker with the added cents. They're having a laugh. One of these days I will look to buy a paper with its inflated price and insist on paying the price quoted - in print - on the paper. Again, it won't be the problem of the shop assistant, and he or she shouldn't be placed in the position of having to be confronted by a stroppy non-tourist, such as myself. But it's poor. It niggles. Niggles tourists and niggles me. They should stop trying to make fools out of people, which is why I do - sometimes - have every sympathy with those who complain about prices.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Ten Per Cent: The role of discounts

Money off, money off!

The question is, is price the most important thing? To read all the gripes and anecdotes, you would think that it is. There is no doubting the fact that the holidaymaker is a whole load more price-sensitive than may have once been the case, but is price the most important thing?

There are certain alleged truisms from the management/business world that not everyone is inclined to believe. One is that workers are not motivated by money; another is that businesses should never "sell" on price. Depending on your point of view, you will think these to indeed be true or bollocks. The real answers are, as always, far from black and white.

Which leads us to money off. To discounts.

Via Facebook, one of the local tourist office people asked me if I had thought about discount coupons in HOT!, and then went on to mention the bag of popcorn that's doing the rounds, together with some cards for discounts at some restaurants. The answer to the question was, well, no. If a business wants to offer a discount, it's up to them. The wider question is how effective is the discount approach?

On the face of it, you would think it was a no-brainer. 10% off, in flood the tourists. But it's not as simple as that. If, for example, you get a whole load of places in an area making the same or similar offers, then where's the difference? A business feels almost compelled to match the offer, even reluctantly. If the result is a load of repeat business, then ok, but that's really the issue. It may be attractive to the holidaymaker, but how good is it for the business?

The argument against discounting is that it elevates price to the top of the marketing mix tree. Price becomes the selling point, and this runs counter to pretty much all marketing theory. But what you are unlikely to find in all that theory is any study of discounts in a temporary market - which is what a tourism market is. Unless you take into account those visitors who return year on year. You don't build a business, long term, on discounts. You may do so through price, as part of the overall package, but this assumes that the prices are right in the first place. A customer doesn't become loyal on the basis of a discount; he is loyal only to the discount, not to the bar or restaurant.

A Mallorcan restaurant owner was umming and ahh-ing about a discount. In the end, he decided against because he was worried that other Mallorcans would come in and take advantage - never underestimate the Mallorcan desire to pay as little as possible. Even without some local free-ish-loading, the point is that he would stand to lose 10% that he might have got anyway. Which does also assume his package is right - in terms of the food, service and the price.

I'm not convinced about the discount as an incentive, partly because the tourism market is too diverse to be sure. At the low end, a restaurant with relatively high prices is unlikely to attract business even with a discount. At the high end, why would you offer a discount? At the low end, a place with lowish prices might get additional trade and experience an erosion in margin, with no guarantee that the customer would spend more than they might otherwise have done, or will come back, especially if the place next door is doing likewise.

It's an interesting subject though, and one - where the temporary market is concerned - that is deserving of investigation. Sounds like something else I'm going have to do. But if anyone has any thoughts on the effectiveness, or otherwise, of discounting in tourist resorts, it would be good to hear from you.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Yet Another Cup Of Coffee: The déjà vu of price

Go back a couple of months to the second of April and I said sorry. Said that I was going to stop. That there would be no more. Until the next time.

This is the next time.

In "The Last Supper" (2 April) I referred to "anecdotal simplism". It was in respect of prices, specifically the price of a coffee. "The Bulletin" had commented on a small coffee costing one euro, ninety. So it did again. Yesterday. There was an admission that the point had been made before, and so there should have been. The example was the same, the line of argument the same; that there should be price controls, mainly it would appear (this time round), for coffees in Palma. You can, if you want, go further back, to 30 August last year. Same price control argument. You can go back much further than August last year; it's a line that has been trotted out for some years. Editorial déjà vu.

I just don't get it. I don't get the argument for the simple reason that there is no chance of a price control being implemented (and the tourism minister in April said that there was nothing she could do about the prices). It is an issue for individual businesses. I don't get it for the additional reason that I don't get why it has been dragged out once more.

There are all sorts of examples one can pull out regarding inflated prices, just as there are all sorts of examples of the opposite, of prices being kept low or simply being low. A while back I mentioned a conversation during which I was told how the Swedish are finding beer prices higher than once was the case. But this was specific to beach bars. You simply cannot just cite examples here and there and claim that you have proven a case.

It is this, especially this, that I don't get: "The Bulletin", any paper, should strive for some balance. Quoting the example of an expensive cortado in Palma is far from this. All it does is to inspire the moans of others who will cite their own selected examples. And all this does is to create an uneven impression. Last year, another paper - "The Diario" - spoke to tourists and came up with a rather different conclusion: that prices weren't all that bad. What it did was to go and talk to people; it was acting with a degree of balance. I'm afraid that "The Bulletin" doesn't do this; just hauls out the odd example and calls for what is not feasible - price controls.

I said that I would stop it. I wish others would.


An event for your diary. If, that is, you like your club music in the sun - all day long. On June 27 there will be an "Ibiza Summer Festival" at Hidropark in Puerto Alcúdia. Sounds pretty good, kicking off at 10:30 in the morning. Information posted on the WHAT'S ON BLOG - http://www.wotzupnorth.blogspot.com


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.