The lobster season lasts for four months; it has something in common with the tourist season, as is now being claimed. Following the cuttlefish harvest of early spring, from May until August lobster becomes the prized catch for the fishermen of northern Mallorca who operate out of the four main fishing ports - Pollensa, Alcúdia, Can Picafort and Cala Ratjada.
The season has been pretty good, but there are ripples of discontent on the waters between northern Mallorca and Menorca, the location of the lobster catch. They all have to do with money. In "The Diario" yesterday it was reported that fishermen's income from lobster is back to the level it was three years ago, as low as 30 euros a kilo, while their costs - fuel most obviously - have risen. By comparison, fishermen in Menorca receive 50 euros per kilo. It is nothing to do with differing quality; it is, after all, the same lobster.
The problem lies with the regulation and organisation of the markets on the islands. From Alcúdia comes the observation that whilst there is an association for the fishermen's catch, it doesn't seem to function that well. Moreover, there appears to be a missed opportunity in terms of exporting to the mainland; the Mediterranean lobster, so it is said, is appreciated more than that which comes from the Atlantic.
Lobster is delicious, but it is not to everyone's taste. Or rather, the method of cooking is not liked by everyone. Get over that, and it is a treat. But a question is, where can you actually eat it and where is best to eat it? One of the oddities of local restaurants is the sheer absence of what one might classify as genuine fish restaurants. There is plenty of fish on the menu, and lobster in some cases, but I'm struggling to think of anywhere that proclaims its truly fish credentials. Bogavante in Puerto Alcúdia was one such place ("bogavante" and "langosta" both mean lobster, but different types), but it is no longer. The Miramar remains, and it boasts about its "caldereta", lobster soup if you like. Someone (half Mallorcan) who I know well once suggested I went with a group to Menorca, partly for the lobster. Why go there? I asked. You can get lobster locally. "No," came the reply. There is nowhere that does good lobster. Not even the Miramar, he reckoned.
Lobster is lobster, I would have thought. Stick it in a pan of boiling water, wait a bit and then scoff it down with a side serving of garlic mayonnaise. There's not a lot to it. Ah but the lobster in Menorca is better, I was informed. How can it be? It's the same lobster, and it presumably costs more in Menorca, if the fishermen are getting 50 euros a kilo. Yes, but the caldereta is better. Indeed, Menorca is the place to get caldereta. I'll take his word for it. I have never actually been to Menorca, to eat lobster or for any other reason.
But the mystery as to the lack of fish restaurants remains. Or maybe it's just a reflection of the need to cover all bases that restaurants choose not to specialise only in fish. And were there, then they would probably engage in lobster wars. "Real" lobster here; "authentic" lobster there. But the fishermen of Puerto Alcúdia would still only be getting 20 euros less than their Menorcan counterparts.
QUIZ:
Making a now irregular appearance. What lobster connection does the title have?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Monday, July 05, 2010
Sunday, July 04, 2010
Waving Flags
So there I was, thinking that maybe I'd do something about it being the fourth of July, as in making the observation that there aren't so many Americans hereabouts, save the incoherent, Riki Lash, the scuba-Mallorca-ing, Mick and Jessie, and the Hollywooding, Michael Douglas. I was thinking about something for independence day, something about flags being waved perhaps, something about national pride, and then ... along came the Germans.
Suddenly, German flags have started to appear where German flags had previously not been. Outside Spanish bars, for example. How bizarre, except as a flag of economic convenience. Flags were waving and flying from cars along the main road through Alcúdia and Playa de Muro yesterday. Horns were blowing. Deutschland was über alles; Germans were over all, especially the Argentinians. Then Nobby (Linekers) phones. All kicking off down in the port. Shame, I've gone in the opposite direction. Shame, might have been nice to have seen the plod cordoning off the road around the Alcúdia Garden while Argentinians and Germans piled into each other. 200, 300 mass brawling, suggests Nobby. What great sport in the name of sport. Flags waving and punches flying. But take note. Argentinians and Germans. Nary a hint of trouble when Germany beat England. Just a load of very drunk people, too embarrassed to do anything about it, other than to want to attack a plasma screen and get at the ref.
In the port the other day, I happened to look up at flats. All the flags were hanging. From the balconies. Brazil, Spain and Germany and Argentina. Two have probably been taken down now. You wonder, though, what might happen when the flags fly when Germany meet Spain or if Germany meet the Dutch. If there is one nation that has more reason to dislike the Germans than the British, then it is the Dutch. All historical, and all nonsense, but there you go.
As for the Americans. Well, no American flags have flown during the World Cup and you are unlikely to see one. But how Mallorca would love it were you to. When they talk about seeking out new markets, there's a pretty old one that has never been tapped. Palma airport needs to have transatlantic flights, then a greater state of Mallorcan independence might follow.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Suddenly, German flags have started to appear where German flags had previously not been. Outside Spanish bars, for example. How bizarre, except as a flag of economic convenience. Flags were waving and flying from cars along the main road through Alcúdia and Playa de Muro yesterday. Horns were blowing. Deutschland was über alles; Germans were over all, especially the Argentinians. Then Nobby (Linekers) phones. All kicking off down in the port. Shame, I've gone in the opposite direction. Shame, might have been nice to have seen the plod cordoning off the road around the Alcúdia Garden while Argentinians and Germans piled into each other. 200, 300 mass brawling, suggests Nobby. What great sport in the name of sport. Flags waving and punches flying. But take note. Argentinians and Germans. Nary a hint of trouble when Germany beat England. Just a load of very drunk people, too embarrassed to do anything about it, other than to want to attack a plasma screen and get at the ref.
In the port the other day, I happened to look up at flats. All the flags were hanging. From the balconies. Brazil, Spain and Germany and Argentina. Two have probably been taken down now. You wonder, though, what might happen when the flags fly when Germany meet Spain or if Germany meet the Dutch. If there is one nation that has more reason to dislike the Germans than the British, then it is the Dutch. All historical, and all nonsense, but there you go.
As for the Americans. Well, no American flags have flown during the World Cup and you are unlikely to see one. But how Mallorca would love it were you to. When they talk about seeking out new markets, there's a pretty old one that has never been tapped. Palma airport needs to have transatlantic flights, then a greater state of Mallorcan independence might follow.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Saturday, July 03, 2010
Tiddly-Om-Pom-Pom
Strolling along the prom, the brass bands playing tiddly-om-pom-pom.
Funnily enough, you do get brass bands, sort of, on the proms. During fiestas the local music bands are dragged out - lots of brass, lots of bugles and banging of drums. They're not quite the prom of British summers past, but they'll do.
Proms. As in promenades and not the last night thereof. Elsewhere, on Holiday Truths to be precise, someone was asking about proms. Alcúdia and Puerto Pollensa were mentioned.
First things first. Why is that people rarely refer to Puerto Alcúdia? It's always just Alcúdia. They are, strictly speaking, two different places. Hardly anyone ever refers to Puerto Pollensa as Pollensa, correctly making the distinction. I suppose it's all down to the distance factor, or the absence of distance where Alcúdia and its port are concerned.
But to return to proms, someone replied that while Alcúdia has a flat prom (aren't all proms flat?), it is more "Englished" by comparison with Puerto Pollensa. Whether the Englished referred to the prom or to the whole of Alcúdia was not clear, but let's just consider this English angle, which I will expand to be British.
If you take the proms alone, those of Puertos Alcúdia and Pollensa, can either be described as British (or Englished)? Go on, can they? Between the two of them I can think of only very few establishments that are British or quasi-British. Oceano in Puerto Alcúdia, but slip an "o" on the end of ocean and you get something un-British. No Frills in Puerto Pollensa possibly, but that's half-Mallorcan, while Seamus is from Donegal; not a lot of Britishness there, except in terms of British Isles.
No, there is little or nothing British/Englished about either prom.
Broaden the concept to embrace the whole of the resorts, and what does one then get? In the ports of Alcúdia and Pollensa, there are similar numbers of British bars. There are similar numbers of British supermarkets - one per port. Only as you head off Mile way, does the Britishness really start to kick in. But hang on a minute. Granted there are a whole load of Brit tourists, granted there are a number of Brit bars, but there are an awful lot of non-Brits. Alcúdia is extraordinarily cosmopolitan; its tourism profile is that diverse that most of Europe is represented. The same cannot be said for Puerto Pollensa. What can be said is, for example, that "Bild" once famously warned its German readership from going anywhere near Puerto Pollensa because it was a "well-known English holiday citadel" (4 June 2008, "Hans Plays With Lotte"). It didn't say anything about Alcúdia, or even Puerto Alcúdia. Puerto Pollensa is so British, it has acquired the flavour of an Eastbourne. There should be more brass bands on the prom, prom, prom in Puerto P.
Ok, I know what was meant, and at least the weak old Alcúdia is like Blackpool line wasn't hauled out again. But let's compare like for like, which means comparing port with port. There's very little difference, except for the fact that Puerto Pollensa is vastly more British - one can't say "Englished" because of all the Jocks - but more British it most certainly is.
On the HOT! Facebook, there is a youtube of Bad Manners doing "I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside" (something of a coincidence as the group is playing the ReggaeSkaFest in Alcúdia today), but here is a different performance. From 1939, Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes sings "I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside". Take it away, Baz:
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Funnily enough, you do get brass bands, sort of, on the proms. During fiestas the local music bands are dragged out - lots of brass, lots of bugles and banging of drums. They're not quite the prom of British summers past, but they'll do.
Proms. As in promenades and not the last night thereof. Elsewhere, on Holiday Truths to be precise, someone was asking about proms. Alcúdia and Puerto Pollensa were mentioned.
First things first. Why is that people rarely refer to Puerto Alcúdia? It's always just Alcúdia. They are, strictly speaking, two different places. Hardly anyone ever refers to Puerto Pollensa as Pollensa, correctly making the distinction. I suppose it's all down to the distance factor, or the absence of distance where Alcúdia and its port are concerned.
But to return to proms, someone replied that while Alcúdia has a flat prom (aren't all proms flat?), it is more "Englished" by comparison with Puerto Pollensa. Whether the Englished referred to the prom or to the whole of Alcúdia was not clear, but let's just consider this English angle, which I will expand to be British.
If you take the proms alone, those of Puertos Alcúdia and Pollensa, can either be described as British (or Englished)? Go on, can they? Between the two of them I can think of only very few establishments that are British or quasi-British. Oceano in Puerto Alcúdia, but slip an "o" on the end of ocean and you get something un-British. No Frills in Puerto Pollensa possibly, but that's half-Mallorcan, while Seamus is from Donegal; not a lot of Britishness there, except in terms of British Isles.
No, there is little or nothing British/Englished about either prom.
Broaden the concept to embrace the whole of the resorts, and what does one then get? In the ports of Alcúdia and Pollensa, there are similar numbers of British bars. There are similar numbers of British supermarkets - one per port. Only as you head off Mile way, does the Britishness really start to kick in. But hang on a minute. Granted there are a whole load of Brit tourists, granted there are a number of Brit bars, but there are an awful lot of non-Brits. Alcúdia is extraordinarily cosmopolitan; its tourism profile is that diverse that most of Europe is represented. The same cannot be said for Puerto Pollensa. What can be said is, for example, that "Bild" once famously warned its German readership from going anywhere near Puerto Pollensa because it was a "well-known English holiday citadel" (4 June 2008, "Hans Plays With Lotte"). It didn't say anything about Alcúdia, or even Puerto Alcúdia. Puerto Pollensa is so British, it has acquired the flavour of an Eastbourne. There should be more brass bands on the prom, prom, prom in Puerto P.
Ok, I know what was meant, and at least the weak old Alcúdia is like Blackpool line wasn't hauled out again. But let's compare like for like, which means comparing port with port. There's very little difference, except for the fact that Puerto Pollensa is vastly more British - one can't say "Englished" because of all the Jocks - but more British it most certainly is.
On the HOT! Facebook, there is a youtube of Bad Manners doing "I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside" (something of a coincidence as the group is playing the ReggaeSkaFest in Alcúdia today), but here is a different performance. From 1939, Basil Rathbone as Sherlock Holmes sings "I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside". Take it away, Baz:
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, July 02, 2010
The Beach Is The Only Place To Be
There are probably those who live away from Mallorca who think enviously of those who do live on the island and of their heading off to the beach on a daily basis. It is a rather false impression.
While there are those who do make the beach a daily ritual, and those for whom the whole day at the beach is the ritual, there are plenty for whom the beach is a rare event and some for whom it is an alien place. And not just those who live away from the coast.
When some who first come to Mallorca, as in a permanent way and even if they are meant to be working or running a business, it can be easy to fall into the trap of feeling that life is just one long holiday. Legion are stories of those whose business went belly-up because they were toasting their bellies on the beach while packing away a cold Saint Mick or several - day after day. Life may be a beach in Mallorca, but it is also a bitch, if the beach becomes all-consuming.
Look around in some bars, restaurants and other establishments, and you may well see some pasty faces. How can this be, you might think. All that sun, and little by way of a suntan. The other day, the delightful Swedish girl at the Laberinto maze said that I didn't have much of a tan. "I haven't been to the beach yet this year," I replied. It's not as if it's far away. More or less just around the corner.
Well, I did go - yesterday. For about an hour. Old blogotees among you might recall my reminiscing about a previous career as a beach bum and about beach life as it once was. You can never take the beach out of the boy, but is the man who is tired of the beach, tired of life? No. Just gets restless. And it's not holiday, after all.
Perhaps that's it. Go to the beach, and there are loads of people on holiday. And you're not. It seems like a bit of a fraud, something to be a bit guilty of. There again, the beach, as the heat really kicks in, as it now is, is the only place to be in the afternoons - for a while at any rate. But as a place to get some freshness. The beach becomes functional as opposed to romantic; it's like having an air-conditioned room that you can take yourself off to when the atmosphere, only some metres inland, becomes stifling.
Perhaps also it's the case that familiarity breeds familiarity. The same old beach. I need to re-connect with the beach, re-discover the beach, which may well mean not going to the same beach. Yesterday was quite alarming. I recognised some who are there every year, some who I know. A German family, for example. It's quite disconcerting to note the way that the children have grown. But they're still the same, as they were last year, two years ago, the year before that.
That is almost certainly it. So many beaches and so little time to go to them. But like all the other attractions of Mallorca, the natural ones, that is, the tendency is to just slip into the familiar and the easy. And there is another impulse to break the familiarity trap. Not going to the beach is as much of a crime as going to it every day, all day. In my book, anyway. I had this awful feeling a couple of days ago. Summer's been here for some time, and I'd not been to the beach. I got that line from the Style Council - "the long hot summer's just passing me by". That would never do. I'd thought so much about it, that I dreamt about it. October was here and the beach had gone.
No, you don't spend your days on the beach, but to not go to the beach ... Why be here?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
While there are those who do make the beach a daily ritual, and those for whom the whole day at the beach is the ritual, there are plenty for whom the beach is a rare event and some for whom it is an alien place. And not just those who live away from the coast.
When some who first come to Mallorca, as in a permanent way and even if they are meant to be working or running a business, it can be easy to fall into the trap of feeling that life is just one long holiday. Legion are stories of those whose business went belly-up because they were toasting their bellies on the beach while packing away a cold Saint Mick or several - day after day. Life may be a beach in Mallorca, but it is also a bitch, if the beach becomes all-consuming.
Look around in some bars, restaurants and other establishments, and you may well see some pasty faces. How can this be, you might think. All that sun, and little by way of a suntan. The other day, the delightful Swedish girl at the Laberinto maze said that I didn't have much of a tan. "I haven't been to the beach yet this year," I replied. It's not as if it's far away. More or less just around the corner.
Well, I did go - yesterday. For about an hour. Old blogotees among you might recall my reminiscing about a previous career as a beach bum and about beach life as it once was. You can never take the beach out of the boy, but is the man who is tired of the beach, tired of life? No. Just gets restless. And it's not holiday, after all.
Perhaps that's it. Go to the beach, and there are loads of people on holiday. And you're not. It seems like a bit of a fraud, something to be a bit guilty of. There again, the beach, as the heat really kicks in, as it now is, is the only place to be in the afternoons - for a while at any rate. But as a place to get some freshness. The beach becomes functional as opposed to romantic; it's like having an air-conditioned room that you can take yourself off to when the atmosphere, only some metres inland, becomes stifling.
Perhaps also it's the case that familiarity breeds familiarity. The same old beach. I need to re-connect with the beach, re-discover the beach, which may well mean not going to the same beach. Yesterday was quite alarming. I recognised some who are there every year, some who I know. A German family, for example. It's quite disconcerting to note the way that the children have grown. But they're still the same, as they were last year, two years ago, the year before that.
That is almost certainly it. So many beaches and so little time to go to them. But like all the other attractions of Mallorca, the natural ones, that is, the tendency is to just slip into the familiar and the easy. And there is another impulse to break the familiarity trap. Not going to the beach is as much of a crime as going to it every day, all day. In my book, anyway. I had this awful feeling a couple of days ago. Summer's been here for some time, and I'd not been to the beach. I got that line from the Style Council - "the long hot summer's just passing me by". That would never do. I'd thought so much about it, that I dreamt about it. October was here and the beach had gone.
No, you don't spend your days on the beach, but to not go to the beach ... Why be here?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, July 01, 2010
The Corruption Fiesta Season: Operación Pasarela
The fiesta season is in full swing. It is reassuring that elements of Mallorca's traditions, like the fiestas, are in such rude health, despite everything. There is another tradition that is doing well and which has not succumbed to the slumber of the summer. Political corruption. Like fiesta merry-go-rounds or carousels, the investigations are jolly rides with a certain mystery - the murky world of political life, Mallorcan style.
A new tradition that we can now appreciate is that the corruption investigations centre on the Balearics' tourism ministry. The latest ones in this tradition are monikered "Operación Pasarela", the gangway operation. The pirates of Puerto Alcúdia's Sant Pere fiesta night party are being turned into the Pirates of "Pena"zance and being made to walk the gangway plank of the anti-corruption navy. (Pena refers to a judicial sentence, by the way.)
Whereas the previous - and ongoing - investigation involving the tourism ministry (the vulture case) has to do with goings-on at the old Inestur, the latest is looking at IBATUR, the tourism promotional agency, and at something known as the Fundación Balears Sostenible. All three of these organisations have now been wrapped up into an overarching tourism agency: not before time, and a re-organisation driven by cost-cutting and not by corruption - or maybe someone knew something. Of the three, Inestur and the Fundación were both created during the administration of Jaume Matas, under investigation - as I'm sure you remember - for all manner of carry-on.
The Fundación was established in 2004, primarily to help promote the "tarjeta verde", the green card of discounts with an environmental angle, and a glorious flop. Why the Fundación, like Inestur, was ever created or was necessary, one has to ask. Both are and were pointless, given IBATUR's existence and that of various other organisations. The awful conclusion that might be derived from the investigations is that there was another purpose to their creation - allegedly.
While the Unió Mallorquina party has been heavily implicated in the vulture investigation of Inestur, this latest one looks straight at the Partido Popular, Matas's party. The two parties do occupy similar political ground and are not unknown to partner up. Like other corruption investigations, this one also implicates marketing companies. There is a common theme to these investigations - these media or marketing outfits - along with accusations of false accounting and lining political parties' pockets: the corruption plod are wondering if money was diverted to political campaigning by Matas, a similar line of enquiry to the vulture case where the UM are concerned.
The currently implicated marketing companies also had much to do with the Mallorca Classic golf tournament, one that was buried into a bunker a couple of years ago, thanks to a withdrawal of government financing, by a government that post-dated the Matas administration. At the time, the government's pull-out attracted criticism and queries. In light of the Pasarela investigation, rather like the highly questionable institute (Inestur) and Fundación, what now does one make of this withdrawal of financing? The impression given, by all this, is that, just perhaps, someone in the political class knew something. Maybe and, as always, allegedly.
We might have thought that the fiesta season and the arrival of real, hot summer would herald the silly season of little happening. We would have been wrong. The less than silly season of corruption is still with us.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
A new tradition that we can now appreciate is that the corruption investigations centre on the Balearics' tourism ministry. The latest ones in this tradition are monikered "Operación Pasarela", the gangway operation. The pirates of Puerto Alcúdia's Sant Pere fiesta night party are being turned into the Pirates of "Pena"zance and being made to walk the gangway plank of the anti-corruption navy. (Pena refers to a judicial sentence, by the way.)
Whereas the previous - and ongoing - investigation involving the tourism ministry (the vulture case) has to do with goings-on at the old Inestur, the latest is looking at IBATUR, the tourism promotional agency, and at something known as the Fundación Balears Sostenible. All three of these organisations have now been wrapped up into an overarching tourism agency: not before time, and a re-organisation driven by cost-cutting and not by corruption - or maybe someone knew something. Of the three, Inestur and the Fundación were both created during the administration of Jaume Matas, under investigation - as I'm sure you remember - for all manner of carry-on.
The Fundación was established in 2004, primarily to help promote the "tarjeta verde", the green card of discounts with an environmental angle, and a glorious flop. Why the Fundación, like Inestur, was ever created or was necessary, one has to ask. Both are and were pointless, given IBATUR's existence and that of various other organisations. The awful conclusion that might be derived from the investigations is that there was another purpose to their creation - allegedly.
While the Unió Mallorquina party has been heavily implicated in the vulture investigation of Inestur, this latest one looks straight at the Partido Popular, Matas's party. The two parties do occupy similar political ground and are not unknown to partner up. Like other corruption investigations, this one also implicates marketing companies. There is a common theme to these investigations - these media or marketing outfits - along with accusations of false accounting and lining political parties' pockets: the corruption plod are wondering if money was diverted to political campaigning by Matas, a similar line of enquiry to the vulture case where the UM are concerned.
The currently implicated marketing companies also had much to do with the Mallorca Classic golf tournament, one that was buried into a bunker a couple of years ago, thanks to a withdrawal of government financing, by a government that post-dated the Matas administration. At the time, the government's pull-out attracted criticism and queries. In light of the Pasarela investigation, rather like the highly questionable institute (Inestur) and Fundación, what now does one make of this withdrawal of financing? The impression given, by all this, is that, just perhaps, someone in the political class knew something. Maybe and, as always, allegedly.
We might have thought that the fiesta season and the arrival of real, hot summer would herald the silly season of little happening. We would have been wrong. The less than silly season of corruption is still with us.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
The Great Steak Wars: Really real in Playa de Muro
"Real steak." Not real as in a Spanish football club, but real as in "real" - genuine, authentic, English. When is real steak unreal, do you suppose? When it's not steak probably. The "real" moniker makes something of a change to those alternatives, especially authentic. Authentic (typical) Mallorcan cuisine, authentic Indian cuisine, authentic, authentic. I wish a restaurant would promote itself as being unauthentic. I might go then.
There is a real steak war emerging. A real steak war as in both the steak being real and there really being a steak war as opposed to a pretend one; well, sort of. The real steak war is also being fought out over real historical claims. Since 19--, apply your own numbers. The steak war is in Las Gaviotas, the area of Playa de Muro that no one really calls Las Gaviotas, if they happen to be a tourist, as equally no tourist really calls it Playa de Muro because they think, or are told, that it is Alcúdia, which it isn't.
The restaurant S'Albufera has a chalkboard sign outside, declaring the reality of its steak and the years of really having been a steak house. 30 years, it would seem. Why has the restaurant made this move? It is, it would appear, an escalation of the war against a newcomer to the steak battlefield. Where would we be without them? The Dakota restaurants.
Almost next door to S'Albufera and its thirty years of steaking claims is a new Dakota, but not only a tex-mex Dakota. This is a steak house Dakota. A large sign says so. Steak House in big letters with some steak, some flames and a grill just to make sure everyone gets the message. Everywhere a steak house and everywhere a picture of some flaming grill. Flaming on fire and not flaming as a euphemism for "damn". The flames of the damned though, as the great steak war hots up.
Steak houses have taken over. They are the new, well, tex-mex, except they're not new, just that everyone seems to want to be a steak house and everyone is promoting steak credentials. It had never really occurred to me that S'Albufera was a real steak house, as it's always been plain S'Albufera. But when the war is joined, so some realism is chalked onto a blackboard. And when it comes to the Dakotas, the longevity is, how can one put it, rather open to interpretation. Unlike S'Albufera which had also not previously boasted about its generation-plus existence. Or maybe it had; just that no one had noticed.
Do people really want all this steak? Real or not. Maybe they do. There are steak houses, kids newly on blocks, that are doing a roaring and flaming steak trade, albeit mingled in with kebabs and whatever else fills out the menu. Steak house, like pizzeria, has become something of a catch-all. Restaurant We Do Everything. And it's real.
We should really have a competition. Where is the most real steak? Which is the most real steak house? I can't honestly help as I rarely eat steak - rare or well done. A friend once said that Los Tamarindos in Puerto Alcúdia did the best steak he had ever eaten. I confess it wasn't bad. The solomillo at Satyricon in Alcúdia was magnificent, but that's hardly somewhere you might classify as a steak house. Boy in Playa de Muro's steak and meat come in the size of a cow, deliciously marinaded, but it calls itself a grill, as does Los Tamarindos. No steak house for either of these places, but they are, just as much as those which say they are real steak houses or steak houses with no statement as to being real or otherwise.
You cannot avoid steak. Whole herds of beef cow cut, sliced, flavoured, spitting, roasting, grilling. And all of it real. Unless it happens not to be.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Index for June 2010
Alcúdia, friendly - 16 June 2010
All-inclusive in Puerto Pollensa - 27 June 2010
All-inclusives and tour operators - 28 June 2010
Anxiety in Alcúdia - 19 June 2010
Balearic Government adjustment measures - 2 June 2010, 4 June 2010
Bellevue closure rumour - 9 June 2010, 10 June 2010
Cala San Vicente - 26 June 2010
Can Picafort: ducks and night party - 11 June 2010
Car rental - 23 June 2010
Council of Mallorca - 12 June 2010
Discounts - 18 June 2010
General public-sector strike - 6 June 2010
Grupo Marsans sold - 10 June 2010
Hotel occupancy - 8 June 2010, 10 June 2010
Miss Drag Mallorca - 13 June 2010
Noise, music and bars - 1 June 2010, 7 June 2010
Police, local government financing & - 15 June 2010
Prices in Mallorca - 6 June 2010
Puerto Pollensa protest - 2 June 2010, 3 June 2010
Russian tourism - 9 June 2010
Sant Pere fiesta Puerto Alcúdia 2010 brochure - 22 June 2010
Sis Pins ownership - 3 June 2010
Smoking ban law - 22 June 2010
Steak houses - 30 June 2010
Tourism Agency for the Balearic Islands - 8 June 2010
Tourist information offices: too helpful? - 25 June 2010
Tourist satisfaction - 21 June 2010
Towers of Alcúdia Bay - 5 June 2010
Well-being promotion, active - 20 June 2010
World Cup - 17 June 2010, 24 June 2010, 28 June 2010, 29 June 2010
Youth drinking - 14 June 2010
There is a real steak war emerging. A real steak war as in both the steak being real and there really being a steak war as opposed to a pretend one; well, sort of. The real steak war is also being fought out over real historical claims. Since 19--, apply your own numbers. The steak war is in Las Gaviotas, the area of Playa de Muro that no one really calls Las Gaviotas, if they happen to be a tourist, as equally no tourist really calls it Playa de Muro because they think, or are told, that it is Alcúdia, which it isn't.
The restaurant S'Albufera has a chalkboard sign outside, declaring the reality of its steak and the years of really having been a steak house. 30 years, it would seem. Why has the restaurant made this move? It is, it would appear, an escalation of the war against a newcomer to the steak battlefield. Where would we be without them? The Dakota restaurants.
Almost next door to S'Albufera and its thirty years of steaking claims is a new Dakota, but not only a tex-mex Dakota. This is a steak house Dakota. A large sign says so. Steak House in big letters with some steak, some flames and a grill just to make sure everyone gets the message. Everywhere a steak house and everywhere a picture of some flaming grill. Flaming on fire and not flaming as a euphemism for "damn". The flames of the damned though, as the great steak war hots up.
Steak houses have taken over. They are the new, well, tex-mex, except they're not new, just that everyone seems to want to be a steak house and everyone is promoting steak credentials. It had never really occurred to me that S'Albufera was a real steak house, as it's always been plain S'Albufera. But when the war is joined, so some realism is chalked onto a blackboard. And when it comes to the Dakotas, the longevity is, how can one put it, rather open to interpretation. Unlike S'Albufera which had also not previously boasted about its generation-plus existence. Or maybe it had; just that no one had noticed.
Do people really want all this steak? Real or not. Maybe they do. There are steak houses, kids newly on blocks, that are doing a roaring and flaming steak trade, albeit mingled in with kebabs and whatever else fills out the menu. Steak house, like pizzeria, has become something of a catch-all. Restaurant We Do Everything. And it's real.
We should really have a competition. Where is the most real steak? Which is the most real steak house? I can't honestly help as I rarely eat steak - rare or well done. A friend once said that Los Tamarindos in Puerto Alcúdia did the best steak he had ever eaten. I confess it wasn't bad. The solomillo at Satyricon in Alcúdia was magnificent, but that's hardly somewhere you might classify as a steak house. Boy in Playa de Muro's steak and meat come in the size of a cow, deliciously marinaded, but it calls itself a grill, as does Los Tamarindos. No steak house for either of these places, but they are, just as much as those which say they are real steak houses or steak houses with no statement as to being real or otherwise.
You cannot avoid steak. Whole herds of beef cow cut, sliced, flavoured, spitting, roasting, grilling. And all of it real. Unless it happens not to be.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Index for June 2010
Alcúdia, friendly - 16 June 2010
All-inclusive in Puerto Pollensa - 27 June 2010
All-inclusives and tour operators - 28 June 2010
Anxiety in Alcúdia - 19 June 2010
Balearic Government adjustment measures - 2 June 2010, 4 June 2010
Bellevue closure rumour - 9 June 2010, 10 June 2010
Cala San Vicente - 26 June 2010
Can Picafort: ducks and night party - 11 June 2010
Car rental - 23 June 2010
Council of Mallorca - 12 June 2010
Discounts - 18 June 2010
General public-sector strike - 6 June 2010
Grupo Marsans sold - 10 June 2010
Hotel occupancy - 8 June 2010, 10 June 2010
Miss Drag Mallorca - 13 June 2010
Noise, music and bars - 1 June 2010, 7 June 2010
Police, local government financing & - 15 June 2010
Prices in Mallorca - 6 June 2010
Puerto Pollensa protest - 2 June 2010, 3 June 2010
Russian tourism - 9 June 2010
Sant Pere fiesta Puerto Alcúdia 2010 brochure - 22 June 2010
Sis Pins ownership - 3 June 2010
Smoking ban law - 22 June 2010
Steak houses - 30 June 2010
Tourism Agency for the Balearic Islands - 8 June 2010
Tourist information offices: too helpful? - 25 June 2010
Tourist satisfaction - 21 June 2010
Towers of Alcúdia Bay - 5 June 2010
Well-being promotion, active - 20 June 2010
World Cup - 17 June 2010, 24 June 2010, 28 June 2010, 29 June 2010
Youth drinking - 14 June 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Somewhere That Is Forever England: And rather better than the football
The St George flags have been taken down. Like a period of official mourning, the flags have not just been lowered, they have been interred, along with the dead body of English football.
Everyone and his dog and mistress has had his or her say. So why shouldn't I be any different? England's misfortune may not directly have anything to do with the little part of Mallorca that is forever Albion, but it is still England, our England - transplanted in the Mediterranean, where the arrests mounted and the odd pisshead went on the prowl for some retribution. How little one has to be proud of.
Everyone and his dog and mistress has his or her theory as to the reasons for England going belly-up - on a grand scale, the size of many a belly wobbling with many a Saint Mick in the sun of Mallorca. Perhaps we should toss in the alignment of the planets, as Ted Dexter once madly referred to when a different England team was succumbing horribly.
After England were dumped out of the last World Cup, Graham Taylor, not someone necessarily associated with Pele's "beautiful game", said that England would never win a tournament while the players lacked the technique and nous to compete with others - Portugal then, Germany now. He was merely echoing what has been said for some 50 or more years. If you go back to the 1950s, England were soundly thrashed not once but twice by the Hungarians. Players who participated in those drubbings included famous names of English football - Matthews, Mortensen, Finney, Wright. The team was still wedded to the WM system, one invented by Arsenal in the 1920s. The navel-gazing that followed the conceding of 13 goals in two matches focused on the system and on technique. Both were badly lacking. There is nothing new under a Mallorcan or a South African sun, and as we have come to appreciate over the years, 1966 was an aberration, an apparent injustice, for which the Germans now have goal-line redemption.
During that last World Cup, I happened to stumble across a soccer game on Spanish television that wasn't from the World Cup. It was a tournament being played in Mallorca. The play was vibrant, with movement, pace and passing. Everything was pretty much to feet; it was a joy to watch. The players were 12 years old. It was a tournament featuring junior German and Spanish teams, playing on a scaled-down pitch, not a full-size one.
Germany, for years a dominant force in world football, had slumped so much that at the 2000 European championship they were even worse than Keegan's England. They had a re-think, a proper re-think. The structure of the game in Germany is such that most Bundesliga sides play in a similar fashion, and the reason lies in the co-ordinated efforts of the Bundesliga and the German football association, together with a programme that has provided thousands more coaches than exist in England. It has also provided Joachim Löw who was the coaching brains behind Jürgen Klinsmann before he got the top job himself.
That class of 2006 and its Spanish counterpart was representative of a coaching style that is only now starting to be realised in England. The FA reckons its under-17s are outstanding. Perhaps so, but unlike with the Bundesliga, how many will get the opportunity to shine in the Premier League? Again, it all has to do with the structure of the sport.
To hear Chris Waddle on Five Live after the match was to listen to someone who was angry beyond anything one has ever heard from a "pundit". Waddle may not have been much of a manager, but he was a hell of a player. He was widely attributed as having been the driving force behind getting Bobby Robson to change England's style in 1990, one that perhaps should have won the tournament with a side blessed with greater talent (Lineker, Beardsley, Gascoigne, Shilton) than the so-called golden generation. Waddle was apoplectic, laying into the FA, into technique, into coaching and systems.
Waddle also played abroad, thus broadening his mind. And broad minds are not what one thinks of with the likes of Potato Head. Waddle's fellow mullet wearer and partner in Diamond Lights crime, Glenn Hoddle, was another expat in France. Hoddle, had he not been as batty as Ted Dexter (battier in fact), might just have proven to be the England manager who changed things for the better. He was an advocate of the joined-up system that the Germans now have and which is a contemporary version of what propelled the Dutch national side (and Ajax) from international obscurity in the 1970s.
Instead of Hoddle, we got Keegan. Passion, which we are now said to lack. But also clueless, as he pretty much confessed to. And then Eriksson and Capello, mercenaries with short-horizon missions. Neither should be blamed for trying to turn apparently golden dross into real gold. If the FA (or the Premier League if, God forbid, it took over the national side) wants another foreign coach, it should open its coffers to Wenger, one who might have the gumption and organisational ability to create a "project", alongside visionaries such as Trevor Brooking, that goes beyond just the next qualifying rounds. But then Howard Wilkinson, despite his reputation one of the very few other visionaries, tried something along these lines in the late '90s, partly to counteract what he saw as the potential drawbacks of the Premier League. It came to nothing.
The what-ifs, the Terry incidents, Capello and his various failings, player tiredness, Rio Ferdinand's injury; the list of reasons is endless. Some of them may well have played a part, but the fault lies at a much more basic level, and it is a fault that has been known about for years. Yet little has been done to address it. From Italy, also humiliated in this World Cup, there is talk of a need to examine the structure of the game there. You wouldn't bet against the Italians doing something about the failure in 2010. Whether England do, who knows.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Everyone and his dog and mistress has had his or her say. So why shouldn't I be any different? England's misfortune may not directly have anything to do with the little part of Mallorca that is forever Albion, but it is still England, our England - transplanted in the Mediterranean, where the arrests mounted and the odd pisshead went on the prowl for some retribution. How little one has to be proud of.
Everyone and his dog and mistress has his or her theory as to the reasons for England going belly-up - on a grand scale, the size of many a belly wobbling with many a Saint Mick in the sun of Mallorca. Perhaps we should toss in the alignment of the planets, as Ted Dexter once madly referred to when a different England team was succumbing horribly.
After England were dumped out of the last World Cup, Graham Taylor, not someone necessarily associated with Pele's "beautiful game", said that England would never win a tournament while the players lacked the technique and nous to compete with others - Portugal then, Germany now. He was merely echoing what has been said for some 50 or more years. If you go back to the 1950s, England were soundly thrashed not once but twice by the Hungarians. Players who participated in those drubbings included famous names of English football - Matthews, Mortensen, Finney, Wright. The team was still wedded to the WM system, one invented by Arsenal in the 1920s. The navel-gazing that followed the conceding of 13 goals in two matches focused on the system and on technique. Both were badly lacking. There is nothing new under a Mallorcan or a South African sun, and as we have come to appreciate over the years, 1966 was an aberration, an apparent injustice, for which the Germans now have goal-line redemption.
During that last World Cup, I happened to stumble across a soccer game on Spanish television that wasn't from the World Cup. It was a tournament being played in Mallorca. The play was vibrant, with movement, pace and passing. Everything was pretty much to feet; it was a joy to watch. The players were 12 years old. It was a tournament featuring junior German and Spanish teams, playing on a scaled-down pitch, not a full-size one.
Germany, for years a dominant force in world football, had slumped so much that at the 2000 European championship they were even worse than Keegan's England. They had a re-think, a proper re-think. The structure of the game in Germany is such that most Bundesliga sides play in a similar fashion, and the reason lies in the co-ordinated efforts of the Bundesliga and the German football association, together with a programme that has provided thousands more coaches than exist in England. It has also provided Joachim Löw who was the coaching brains behind Jürgen Klinsmann before he got the top job himself.
That class of 2006 and its Spanish counterpart was representative of a coaching style that is only now starting to be realised in England. The FA reckons its under-17s are outstanding. Perhaps so, but unlike with the Bundesliga, how many will get the opportunity to shine in the Premier League? Again, it all has to do with the structure of the sport.
To hear Chris Waddle on Five Live after the match was to listen to someone who was angry beyond anything one has ever heard from a "pundit". Waddle may not have been much of a manager, but he was a hell of a player. He was widely attributed as having been the driving force behind getting Bobby Robson to change England's style in 1990, one that perhaps should have won the tournament with a side blessed with greater talent (Lineker, Beardsley, Gascoigne, Shilton) than the so-called golden generation. Waddle was apoplectic, laying into the FA, into technique, into coaching and systems.
Waddle also played abroad, thus broadening his mind. And broad minds are not what one thinks of with the likes of Potato Head. Waddle's fellow mullet wearer and partner in Diamond Lights crime, Glenn Hoddle, was another expat in France. Hoddle, had he not been as batty as Ted Dexter (battier in fact), might just have proven to be the England manager who changed things for the better. He was an advocate of the joined-up system that the Germans now have and which is a contemporary version of what propelled the Dutch national side (and Ajax) from international obscurity in the 1970s.
Instead of Hoddle, we got Keegan. Passion, which we are now said to lack. But also clueless, as he pretty much confessed to. And then Eriksson and Capello, mercenaries with short-horizon missions. Neither should be blamed for trying to turn apparently golden dross into real gold. If the FA (or the Premier League if, God forbid, it took over the national side) wants another foreign coach, it should open its coffers to Wenger, one who might have the gumption and organisational ability to create a "project", alongside visionaries such as Trevor Brooking, that goes beyond just the next qualifying rounds. But then Howard Wilkinson, despite his reputation one of the very few other visionaries, tried something along these lines in the late '90s, partly to counteract what he saw as the potential drawbacks of the Premier League. It came to nothing.
The what-ifs, the Terry incidents, Capello and his various failings, player tiredness, Rio Ferdinand's injury; the list of reasons is endless. Some of them may well have played a part, but the fault lies at a much more basic level, and it is a fault that has been known about for years. Yet little has been done to address it. From Italy, also humiliated in this World Cup, there is talk of a need to examine the structure of the game there. You wouldn't bet against the Italians doing something about the failure in 2010. Whether England do, who knows.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Monday, June 28, 2010
Smoke And Mirrors: Why friendliness is spurious
Alcúdia friendly, so it was said on 16 June. It's not the only resort in Mallorca that is friendly and not the only resort where tourists can expect excellent hospitality. "The Diario", as it did when interviewing tourists in Alcúdia, following tour operators' arguments that greater friendliness needed to be shown to visitors, has gone on another walkabout - to different places across the island. Again the impetus was what tour operators were saying about service and that all-important friendliness, or the lack of them. And what they have again discovered is a situation quite removed from what the tour operators have been alleging.
While one has to get into perspective a few sources being cited in a couple of articles, the paper's findings - including the fact that tourists come back year after year - does make one wonder quite what has been behind the tour operators' suggestions as to a lack of friendliness or poor service. Maybe, just maybe, they're using them as a smoke-screen.
There was an interesting letter in "The Bulletin" yesterday. The points it raised were well-made, and it came from someone who was behind a movement in Calvia to correct the problems faced by bars and others. Among the points was the fact that tour operators are saying that were bars and restaurants to stay open - in winter - and support hotels that get their prices right, then they would arrange packages. Yet they also say that Mallorca needs more all-inclusive, as the market wants it.
Forget the winter tourism element, the point about all-inclusive says it all. Bars and restaurants staying open while all-inclusive gets cranked up are mutually exclusive. The tour operators' line of thinking is thoroughly illogical - and they surely know it to be so. Which is why they may be raising that smoke-screen of friendliness and service; it's a red herring.
It is the tour operators that have caused the problems with Mallorca's tourism, just as - for the most part - they also brought about the success. True though it may be that bars and restaurants had it easy, thanks to the benevolence of hotels and yes the tour operators, but as the letter-writer points out these bars and restaurants were needed, encouraged. Not now they aren't. Saying that bars and restaurants should stay open, while simultaneously taking away their business because of a growth in all-inclusive is a fatuous and idiotic argument.
England's humiliation
It was embarrassing. It was quieter than Slovenia. Of course it was. And now the bars will be lamenting the defeat. No great troupes of Rooneys and Gerrards. No great sales of foamy. Sadly I feel I may have been prescient when I said on 17 June that "England will prove to be rubbish, and Germany will win it."
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
While one has to get into perspective a few sources being cited in a couple of articles, the paper's findings - including the fact that tourists come back year after year - does make one wonder quite what has been behind the tour operators' suggestions as to a lack of friendliness or poor service. Maybe, just maybe, they're using them as a smoke-screen.
There was an interesting letter in "The Bulletin" yesterday. The points it raised were well-made, and it came from someone who was behind a movement in Calvia to correct the problems faced by bars and others. Among the points was the fact that tour operators are saying that were bars and restaurants to stay open - in winter - and support hotels that get their prices right, then they would arrange packages. Yet they also say that Mallorca needs more all-inclusive, as the market wants it.
Forget the winter tourism element, the point about all-inclusive says it all. Bars and restaurants staying open while all-inclusive gets cranked up are mutually exclusive. The tour operators' line of thinking is thoroughly illogical - and they surely know it to be so. Which is why they may be raising that smoke-screen of friendliness and service; it's a red herring.
It is the tour operators that have caused the problems with Mallorca's tourism, just as - for the most part - they also brought about the success. True though it may be that bars and restaurants had it easy, thanks to the benevolence of hotels and yes the tour operators, but as the letter-writer points out these bars and restaurants were needed, encouraged. Not now they aren't. Saying that bars and restaurants should stay open, while simultaneously taking away their business because of a growth in all-inclusive is a fatuous and idiotic argument.
England's humiliation
It was embarrassing. It was quieter than Slovenia. Of course it was. And now the bars will be lamenting the defeat. No great troupes of Rooneys and Gerrards. No great sales of foamy. Sadly I feel I may have been prescient when I said on 17 June that "England will prove to be rubbish, and Germany will win it."
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, June 27, 2010
I Did It Moll Way: All-inclusive in Puerto Pollensa
Now here, you might think, would be something that would send tremors coursing through the shaky old bones of the Puerto Pollensa indignant. Tagged on to the end of reports about Mayor Cerdà forming a "table", around which other indignants and he can sit and talk about dog shit, is this little old mention, as in the one from "Ultima Hora" - "the possible repercussions of all-inclusive in the Moll (port)". Has there not yet been a call for a great protest to storm the fortresses of hotel chains? People should be careful what they wish for. When the revolutionaries took to the streets on 2 June, one complaint was that no new hotels had been built down Moll way. Maybe there will be. Club Mac comes to Puerto Pollensa. God forbid. Tattoos and karaoke follow. Even more than now in the already dumbed-down PP. The perverse streak in me says "bring it on", but that is utterly ludicrous, as is the entire discussion as to hotel development - Moll way.
They don't need to sit around a table and discuss the repercussions. They can stand up, anywhere they like, and shout them out loud. Any fool could tell them.
Puerto Pollensa has been spared the ravages of the all-inclusive war that have razed much of Alcúdia, Playa de Muro and Can Picafort. But it is probably only a question of time. What tour operators want, they normally get, and they are doubtless eyeing up Moll way as the next big all the Saint Mick and pizza you can get through location. Or there might, instead, be the superior class style AI, the one with real drinks and without Johnny Vegas. But AI's AI, however you want to spin it. Don't think, by the way, that the town hall can do anything to stop the march of AI. It can't. Tour operators. Tourism ministry. Hoteliers. These are what you need to be aware of; forget the town hall, except when they're taking in the taxes.
All-inclusive in Puerto Pollensa, from what one can make out, is currently confined to Club Sol. Partial AI, maybe. AI that falls short of the full-on AI. Maybe it is full-on. You have to actually be a guest to know for sure. And that is how it is with AI. You don't quite know. Many a hotel is engaging in some quasi-AI arrangement or other, designed to make the punter part with some in-hotel dosh. Yet it is absurd. The full-on all-inclusive not only doesn't want to be all-inclusive, it also doesn't want the punters anywhere near the free drink, or around the pool - if it can help it. Get 'em out; that's the motif. Unlike the half-board or other non-AI hotels. They do everything they can to keep the punter strapped to the poolside bar or watching the World Cup (and the chances to watch the footy are limited in AI's - why do you think that is).
All-inclusive in Puerto Pollensa? Repercussions of AI in Puerto Pollensa? It doesn't bear thinking about, but it is easy to think about. Rather than the revolutionaries taking to clean the beach - as they're meant to be in the next "protest", and which will do even more to alert the hadn't-ever-noticed-the-shit tourist than the march in early June - they should be shouting out loud about those repercussions. Trouble is that they may have brought them upon themselves. Go figure.
* Just in case you don't get the title - the pronunciation of "moll" is "moy"; think rural English.
QUIZ:
Yesterday: The Kane Gang, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB5FWs5XPtg
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
They don't need to sit around a table and discuss the repercussions. They can stand up, anywhere they like, and shout them out loud. Any fool could tell them.
Puerto Pollensa has been spared the ravages of the all-inclusive war that have razed much of Alcúdia, Playa de Muro and Can Picafort. But it is probably only a question of time. What tour operators want, they normally get, and they are doubtless eyeing up Moll way as the next big all the Saint Mick and pizza you can get through location. Or there might, instead, be the superior class style AI, the one with real drinks and without Johnny Vegas. But AI's AI, however you want to spin it. Don't think, by the way, that the town hall can do anything to stop the march of AI. It can't. Tour operators. Tourism ministry. Hoteliers. These are what you need to be aware of; forget the town hall, except when they're taking in the taxes.
All-inclusive in Puerto Pollensa, from what one can make out, is currently confined to Club Sol. Partial AI, maybe. AI that falls short of the full-on AI. Maybe it is full-on. You have to actually be a guest to know for sure. And that is how it is with AI. You don't quite know. Many a hotel is engaging in some quasi-AI arrangement or other, designed to make the punter part with some in-hotel dosh. Yet it is absurd. The full-on all-inclusive not only doesn't want to be all-inclusive, it also doesn't want the punters anywhere near the free drink, or around the pool - if it can help it. Get 'em out; that's the motif. Unlike the half-board or other non-AI hotels. They do everything they can to keep the punter strapped to the poolside bar or watching the World Cup (and the chances to watch the footy are limited in AI's - why do you think that is).
All-inclusive in Puerto Pollensa? Repercussions of AI in Puerto Pollensa? It doesn't bear thinking about, but it is easy to think about. Rather than the revolutionaries taking to clean the beach - as they're meant to be in the next "protest", and which will do even more to alert the hadn't-ever-noticed-the-shit tourist than the march in early June - they should be shouting out loud about those repercussions. Trouble is that they may have brought them upon themselves. Go figure.
* Just in case you don't get the title - the pronunciation of "moll" is "moy"; think rural English.
QUIZ:
Yesterday: The Kane Gang, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RB5FWs5XPtg
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Closest Thing To Heaven: No more - Cala San Vicente
On 11 June last year (It Doesn't Add Up), I wrote a piece about Cala San Vicente. It started with a quote from someone who was staying at La Moraleja, the charming, high-class hotel as you come into the Cala. "It's paradise." "Well, there's nowhere quite like it." "Is there?"
Amidst all the pining for the close to the pinewalk Sis Pins in Puerto Pollensa before it reopened, it was easy to overlook the fact that there was another, grander hotel that was closed. Easy to overlook because it's in the Cala, as indeed it sometimes seems easy to overlook the Cala, full stop. La Moraleja. Paradise it may be. Nowhere else like it, very possibly. But it's not there, as in it's not open. The gates are firmly closed and locked. It's very sad. And it makes three, the number of hotels now not open in the Cala. The Mayol has been shut for ... for how long; can't remember. The Simar is into its second year of closure. And now the Moraleja.
It seems almost an annual thing for me to have to bemoan the fate that has befallen Cala San Vicente. It is such an awful shame. One restaurant owner said yesterday that there is "mucha cree-sis" in CSV. The truth is that there was mucha cree-sis before the cree-sis took hold. The place has been going down the pan for years. But why? Ok, apart from the fact that there's nothing much to do there, other than relax, lie on Molins cove beach, snorkel, have a drink or a meal, it is still, just about, a little piece of heaven. And it's not that no one's interested. Curiously, when I was in the Alcúdia tourist office the other day, not one but two sets of people went to the desk to ask for information as to how to get there. From Alcúdia. People want to go there, and so they should. But the bus schedule isn't great. You really need a car or take a taxi. The Cala is end-of-the-line Pollensa tourism, backwaters Pollensa.
Several years ago, a colossal error was made. It was when the Don Pedro went all-inclusive. It could be argued that a place out of the way, like the Cala, is more suited to all-inclusive than bustling resorts with everything immediately to hand. But it wasn't suited, because it changed the nature of the small resort and also began to undermine the businesses there. Elitist this may sound, but the appeal of the Cala was its very sleepiness and its quaint, quasi-colonial exclusivity, one that La Moraleja has, or had, in abundance. Its appeal was also to be found in the semi-mystical reverence in which the place is held by Mallorcans, the consequence of a reputation, part-Bohemian, part-intellectual as an oasis for artists and free thinkers.
It still has an air of exclusivity, granted, for example. by the eponymous Cala San Vicente hotel, and the refinement of the Molins hotel. But the fault, the fault-line if you like, in Cala San Vicente is that it wasn't somehow ring-fenced and preserved in its own time warp of days of the Raj in back-of-beyond Pollensa. And that it wasn't spared the development that has taken away some of its character.
The building of the apartments by Molins cove was the last straw for some and became the subject of a rallying cry from the environmentalists. The apartments, I think, look ok, so long as you approve of the trend towards somewhat anonymous and formulaic neutral-coloured blockettes of apartments. No, in themselves they are far from offensive; just that they really aren't in the right place.
The nostalgia of the Cala, for me, remains the vision looking down to Molins cove and to Bar Mallorca and to what was once a dustbowl behind it. When the resort still had a shambolic appearance, one of a grand old dame, shuffling around under a wide-brimmed straw hat, taking a gin on the verandah or a sangria and fish supper in one of the still unpretentious restaurants, it had its barmy exclusivity. It's gone I'm afraid, and it ain't coming back. But one might hope that the Moraleja will return. If anyone still cares.
QUIZ:
Yep, it's back: "Closest Thing To Heaven". Who?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, June 25, 2010
Too Much Information: Customer service at tourist offices
My original business mentor was my first boss, as in the owner of the first company I worked for after university. He was a hard task master, but he was one of a handful of exceptional people who I worked for or with. He wrote the definitive, early tome on the application of work study to office tasks.
One of the problems of applying an essentially scientific approach to office work (in its widest sense, to mean customer encounters as well) is how you factor in that service element. I'm not sure that anyone has ever really come up with a good solution.
Why do I mention this? Yesterday I was at the tourist information office in Alcúdia. I have long been impressed with the time, attention and care that are given by staff at information offices, but it is the first of these - time - that I wonder about. I was in the queue, sort of. Was I in a hurry? I was asked. No, no. I had only come to ask whether they wanted a further delivery of HOT! I could wait. And so I did.
The couple in front of me - Catalan speakers - asked for a guide to Alcúdia. This they were given. They didn't ask for anything else. But what they got was a lengthy explanation as to all manner of aspects of Alcúdia. You could see that they were wanting to edge away, but the information kept on coming. The queue was getting longer.
When they finally left, I was left wearing a perplexed expression. Why had this encounter taken so long? I'm sure they were grateful, or were they? Those behind in the queue might not have been so grateful.
This is far from a criticism. On the contrary, the attention was exemplary. When one hears criticisms of attitudes to tourists in Mallorca, you couldn't fault it, as rarely can you fault the attention of the tourist offices. But I couldn't help thinking of days going through the work study textbooks.
An answer, you might think, would be to automate some of the information giving. Or to simply have sheets of information, in different languages, that can be picked up. But both have drawbacks. Not everyone wants to use a terminal. Not everyone realises that there are sheets to pick up. Not everyone doesn't want direct personal service. Which is, I guess, the crux of the issue. Then there is also the tourist offices' own "scientific" need - that of registering the number of enquirers and from which country they come. What they ever do with this statistics gathering, I don't know. If not very much, then you wonder why. That old boss of mine once told me, in no uncertain terms, to stop wasting time on gathering information that was of no practical use. But maybe it is put to practical use.
There was, I felt, a sense of being too helpful. Again not a bad thing. Of course not. But being too helpful, in spending a significant amount of time in one encounter does, and you could see it, place the officer under certain stress. From being very or too helpful, it is not such a big step to becoming less helpful because you are under too much strain, caused by the degree of attention given.
The other factor though is the level of resourcing. Alcúdia is under-staffed. And they know it. There just isn't the budget. It's a similar story elsewhere. Playa de Muro for example. One officer, super helpful and super giving of information. Lots of it. But she needs the occasional day off. Result? Office closed. Only Pollensa seems to have sufficient numbers of staff, though you wonder for how much longer given the need to cut costs*.
Service is vital, and the tourist offices are in the front line. What they do is generally excellent, but maybe a rather more pragmatic approach is needed. The staff are placed under a good deal of pressure, and sometimes perhaps heap it upon themselves. Time and motion have long been dirty words in a service environment, but some sensitive application might not go amiss - for everyone's benefit.
* And talking of cutting costs in Pollensa, this year's admittedly always minor Sant Pere fiesta in Puerto Pollensa has been combined with the Fira de la Mar that had previously occurred in September and which was, in terms of timing, a pretty daft event as one could, with some degree of certainty, predict that there would be the mid-September deluge to rain on its parade - which is exactly what happened last year. Information on the WHAT'S ON BLOG - http://www.wotzupnorth.blogspot.com - but it's not in anything like the same league as the Puerto Alcúdia Sant Pere.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
One of the problems of applying an essentially scientific approach to office work (in its widest sense, to mean customer encounters as well) is how you factor in that service element. I'm not sure that anyone has ever really come up with a good solution.
Why do I mention this? Yesterday I was at the tourist information office in Alcúdia. I have long been impressed with the time, attention and care that are given by staff at information offices, but it is the first of these - time - that I wonder about. I was in the queue, sort of. Was I in a hurry? I was asked. No, no. I had only come to ask whether they wanted a further delivery of HOT! I could wait. And so I did.
The couple in front of me - Catalan speakers - asked for a guide to Alcúdia. This they were given. They didn't ask for anything else. But what they got was a lengthy explanation as to all manner of aspects of Alcúdia. You could see that they were wanting to edge away, but the information kept on coming. The queue was getting longer.
When they finally left, I was left wearing a perplexed expression. Why had this encounter taken so long? I'm sure they were grateful, or were they? Those behind in the queue might not have been so grateful.
This is far from a criticism. On the contrary, the attention was exemplary. When one hears criticisms of attitudes to tourists in Mallorca, you couldn't fault it, as rarely can you fault the attention of the tourist offices. But I couldn't help thinking of days going through the work study textbooks.
An answer, you might think, would be to automate some of the information giving. Or to simply have sheets of information, in different languages, that can be picked up. But both have drawbacks. Not everyone wants to use a terminal. Not everyone realises that there are sheets to pick up. Not everyone doesn't want direct personal service. Which is, I guess, the crux of the issue. Then there is also the tourist offices' own "scientific" need - that of registering the number of enquirers and from which country they come. What they ever do with this statistics gathering, I don't know. If not very much, then you wonder why. That old boss of mine once told me, in no uncertain terms, to stop wasting time on gathering information that was of no practical use. But maybe it is put to practical use.
There was, I felt, a sense of being too helpful. Again not a bad thing. Of course not. But being too helpful, in spending a significant amount of time in one encounter does, and you could see it, place the officer under certain stress. From being very or too helpful, it is not such a big step to becoming less helpful because you are under too much strain, caused by the degree of attention given.
The other factor though is the level of resourcing. Alcúdia is under-staffed. And they know it. There just isn't the budget. It's a similar story elsewhere. Playa de Muro for example. One officer, super helpful and super giving of information. Lots of it. But she needs the occasional day off. Result? Office closed. Only Pollensa seems to have sufficient numbers of staff, though you wonder for how much longer given the need to cut costs*.
Service is vital, and the tourist offices are in the front line. What they do is generally excellent, but maybe a rather more pragmatic approach is needed. The staff are placed under a good deal of pressure, and sometimes perhaps heap it upon themselves. Time and motion have long been dirty words in a service environment, but some sensitive application might not go amiss - for everyone's benefit.
* And talking of cutting costs in Pollensa, this year's admittedly always minor Sant Pere fiesta in Puerto Pollensa has been combined with the Fira de la Mar that had previously occurred in September and which was, in terms of timing, a pretty daft event as one could, with some degree of certainty, predict that there would be the mid-September deluge to rain on its parade - which is exactly what happened last year. Information on the WHAT'S ON BLOG - http://www.wotzupnorth.blogspot.com - but it's not in anything like the same league as the Puerto Alcúdia Sant Pere.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Oh What An Atmosphere: Football on holiday
Football on holiday. There is this thing that baffles me slightly. Chanting support for our boys. In bars. Outside bars. Does it somehow permeate the plasma and filter across global satellite communication systems to be relayed above the noise of the vuvuzelas in a South African stadium? Probably not.
"England till I die." At the clinic next to Foxes, the lady in charge was getting anxious. The noise was such that she couldn't hear someone on the phone. So she said. "England till I die," and someone on the end of the phone gagging his or her last. Maybe she should be grateful that the clinic is not next door to a Spanish bar, though possibly she was unnerved by the raucousness of those feared English footy fans - and their ancient reputation. A police car passed, just as a Rooney was launching himself into a one-man Peter Kay conga. "Are you on your way to Yellow, sir?" The police might have asked. "Yellow?" He was English, after all, and a Rooney, to boot. The clinic Oberführerfrau, arms sternly crossed, watched as the police car kept going and watched as it came back and kept going.
Rooneys, Gerrards, the odd (very odd) Crouch, the occasional, nostalgic Beckham, an absence of Heskeys. England versus Slovenia. I felt possibly under-dressed in a sky-blue Man City reminiscent Karl Hogan. Not a red or white for me. "I am the only Slovenian in Alcúdia," said I in my best Slovenian accent. I used the gag, if you could call it such, once. Unlike the gag from the Rooneys and Gerrards. "Well held," every time James caught the ball. Ho-de-ho-ho.
Then there are the pints. Hundreds, thousands. Has anyone ever measured the peaks of pint purchase as a game progresses? A graph with game time on one axis and pints on the other, superimposed by another - pints purchased in the immediate aftermath of an England goal. Someone should. I will, if I'm given the grant to do so.
Around The Mile. A party on the Goodfellas terrace, or what looked like a party. Some mascoty beings, wrapped in St George, a white with red cross sun shade over a baby buggy. The passage way by Linekers packed like Wembley Way. Wayne with a mini-Gazza blond look, lacking only a lob, a goal and a dentist's chair. And a multitude of Rooneys; a potato field of Rooneys.
Football on holiday. Football on holiday in the afternoon sun in Puerto Alcúdia. "Oh what an atmosphere."
And it was only Slovenia. And it was brilliant.
* Some photos on the HOT Alcudia Pollensa Facebook page.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
"England till I die." At the clinic next to Foxes, the lady in charge was getting anxious. The noise was such that she couldn't hear someone on the phone. So she said. "England till I die," and someone on the end of the phone gagging his or her last. Maybe she should be grateful that the clinic is not next door to a Spanish bar, though possibly she was unnerved by the raucousness of those feared English footy fans - and their ancient reputation. A police car passed, just as a Rooney was launching himself into a one-man Peter Kay conga. "Are you on your way to Yellow, sir?" The police might have asked. "Yellow?" He was English, after all, and a Rooney, to boot. The clinic Oberführerfrau, arms sternly crossed, watched as the police car kept going and watched as it came back and kept going.
Rooneys, Gerrards, the odd (very odd) Crouch, the occasional, nostalgic Beckham, an absence of Heskeys. England versus Slovenia. I felt possibly under-dressed in a sky-blue Man City reminiscent Karl Hogan. Not a red or white for me. "I am the only Slovenian in Alcúdia," said I in my best Slovenian accent. I used the gag, if you could call it such, once. Unlike the gag from the Rooneys and Gerrards. "Well held," every time James caught the ball. Ho-de-ho-ho.
Then there are the pints. Hundreds, thousands. Has anyone ever measured the peaks of pint purchase as a game progresses? A graph with game time on one axis and pints on the other, superimposed by another - pints purchased in the immediate aftermath of an England goal. Someone should. I will, if I'm given the grant to do so.
Around The Mile. A party on the Goodfellas terrace, or what looked like a party. Some mascoty beings, wrapped in St George, a white with red cross sun shade over a baby buggy. The passage way by Linekers packed like Wembley Way. Wayne with a mini-Gazza blond look, lacking only a lob, a goal and a dentist's chair. And a multitude of Rooneys; a potato field of Rooneys.
Football on holiday. Football on holiday in the afternoon sun in Puerto Alcúdia. "Oh what an atmosphere."
And it was only Slovenia. And it was brilliant.
* Some photos on the HOT Alcudia Pollensa Facebook page.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Conflicting Evidence: Car rental in Mallorca
The car-rental situation continues to cause the occasional apoplexy and disgusted of Tunbridge Wells letters to you know what. And if one is minded to be selective in terms of what one reads, then one can argue the case both ways - that there is a problem or there isn't. Take yesterday. In "Ultima Hora" there was a piece which quoted the views of one agency - Goldcar. This said that 30,000 tourists, mainly German, would not be coming to Mallorca because of a lack of supply of cars, and that they would be going elsewhere, where presumably they can get a car.
A point about this is that the circumstances which might be causing a shortage of cars in Mallorca are the same in other countries - recession and lack of credit. The apparent car scarcity is not unique to the island. But then there was another article, one from "The Diario", which painted a somewhat different picture. Far from there being a shortage of cars, the problem it was portraying was a shortage of customers. Perhaps those 30,000 Germans, or whoever they are, have indeed not chosen Mallorca. If so, they have left agencies with excess stock on their hands. According to this second article, some 40% of the total rent-a-car fleet in Mallorca is garaged up because of insufficient demand, and that only in the very high season (end July and August) is there likely to be anything approaching full supply.
So how does one reconcile these two conflicting points? The answer is that one doesn't. Or one probably plumps for the Ultima Hora version, if it lends support to one's claims of shortages and excessive prices. And on prices, the Diario goes on to say that, at present, typical daily rates are between 25 and 30 euros for a small car and between 40 and 45 for a medium-sized vehicle, and that these will rise to around 45-50 and 60, respectively, when demand really kicks in during high season. If so, then these prices are hardly in the category of some of the more outlandish claims that have been made about the cost of car hire, including of course the what one has to presume was a typo when "The Bulletin" quoted Harry Goodman as paying 7000 euros for a week's hire; even at 700 that would probably be for something pretty grand (7 April: She Bangs: Car-hire prices).
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
A point about this is that the circumstances which might be causing a shortage of cars in Mallorca are the same in other countries - recession and lack of credit. The apparent car scarcity is not unique to the island. But then there was another article, one from "The Diario", which painted a somewhat different picture. Far from there being a shortage of cars, the problem it was portraying was a shortage of customers. Perhaps those 30,000 Germans, or whoever they are, have indeed not chosen Mallorca. If so, they have left agencies with excess stock on their hands. According to this second article, some 40% of the total rent-a-car fleet in Mallorca is garaged up because of insufficient demand, and that only in the very high season (end July and August) is there likely to be anything approaching full supply.
So how does one reconcile these two conflicting points? The answer is that one doesn't. Or one probably plumps for the Ultima Hora version, if it lends support to one's claims of shortages and excessive prices. And on prices, the Diario goes on to say that, at present, typical daily rates are between 25 and 30 euros for a small car and between 40 and 45 for a medium-sized vehicle, and that these will rise to around 45-50 and 60, respectively, when demand really kicks in during high season. If so, then these prices are hardly in the category of some of the more outlandish claims that have been made about the cost of car hire, including of course the what one has to presume was a typo when "The Bulletin" quoted Harry Goodman as paying 7000 euros for a week's hire; even at 700 that would probably be for something pretty grand (7 April: She Bangs: Car-hire prices).
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Smoking Law Passed
The Spanish Congress has today passed unanimously the law that will ban smoking in public places, such as bars and restaurants. The ban is due to be introduced on 1 January 2011. Local pressure in Mallorca had attempted to get a re-think, arguing that there will be a 12% loss of customers in bars and restaurants and a 25% loss in night bars and also arguing that recession is not the time to be introducing such a ban.
Something's A Bit Fishy: Alcúdia and San Pedro
The San Pedro (Sant Pere / Saint Peter) fiestas kick off in Puerto Alcúdia tomorrow. The programme has a familiar feel to it - giants dancing, humans towering, demons running, San Pedro an-imaging and a-floating. The less familiar will be a "pirates" night party and Michael Jackson, or someone like him. It is, though, the very familiarity that makes one wonder as to the "brochure" that has been produced. Not for the first time, I have to question the expense of this promotion. I had questioned it B.C., but A.C. or D.C. if you prefer (after or during crisis), it should be questioned even more.
A fish. That's the brochure. Pages sprung together in the shape of a fish. Inevitably, it's only in Catalan. There may only be 15 pages of it, but the process of cutting it into the shape of a fish doesn't do a lot to limit costs. (I'm presuming it's been done with a custom die-cutter, and anything with the word "custom" when it comes to printing brings with it a premium.)
The result may well be different, but what's the point of it? If you are local, and especially local Mallorcan, who lives in Alcúdia or Puerto Alcúdia, you know full well when San Pedro occurs; you also know pretty much, with some exceptions, what the programme will comprise. Much of it is the same every year; same "events", same time, same day, same place. If you are local, but non-Catalan-speaking local, then the fish doesn't really address itself to you. If you are not local, but a visitor who hasn't a clue about Catalan, then you are deep-fried and battered into incomprehension. Always assuming you ever see a fish, which is unlikely.
At the tourist office in the port, they had a fish yesterday. One fish. Not several. Not a whole load. One. What they also had, and have had for about a week is a couple of A4 sheets in English, giving the programme. I should know because I did it for them. The tourist offices across Alcúdia and Pollensa and in Playa de Muro and Can Picafort also have these English sheets. The fish only appeared in the flesh, so to speak, yesterday.
I struggle to understand the impulse, especially during a period when belts are meant to be being tightened, to go to the trouble and expense of a fish. It's clever, of course it is. It's also well done. But this is not the point. And if you think that they haven't actually printed many, given that the tourist office had but one fish, then think again. A waiter at a nearby restaurant said there were a whole load of fish tossed into the entrance of his block of flats. Aimed at locals, but not visitors, one has to conclude. Perhaps if the tourist office had two fish, it could feed, via some miracle, the information appetite of a multitude of five thousand tourists. There again, I'm not sure if Saint Peter was involved in that particular gig.
Meanwhile in Muro, the bullfight on Sunday having been rained off, there is talk of hurriedly having to do a replacement poster for the re-arranged bull-off this coming Sunday. Bullfight posters, as much as the fight itself, have a symbolic power, but might they not just stick something over the existing one giving the new time. Not that they would need to, because anyone who plans on going will surely know anyway. Daft.
If you want to see the fish, you can download it here: http://www.ajalcudia.net/documents/santpere010.pdf. The English version is available on http://www.wotzupnorth.blogspot.com
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Monday, June 21, 2010
All A Bit Academic: Tourist satisfaction in Mallorca
Mallorca claims second spot in tourist satisfaction with sun and beach destinations. Only the Caribbean beats it. This is one of the findings from research by Jaume Garau at the University of the Balearic Islands in Palma. "The Diario" has gone quite big on reporting this research - both the things that satisfy tourists and those which dissatisfy.
On the face of it, coming second to the Caribbean and ahead of places like Turkey, Greece, France, the Canaries sounds like good news - and it probably is. But having come up with this finding, what will anyone do with the results?
The research itself is published in the "Annals of Tourism Research", though the comparative findings (between different destinations) are not included in the paper to be found there. They must be published separately. The comparison seems to have been made by asking interviewees at Palma airport to rate destinations they had been to in recent years (including Mallorca).
There are conclusions which might be thought to have practical consequences. While the island's sun and beach tourism gets approval from a German-British-Spanish research population, there is less satisfaction with other things, such as local cuisine, culture and historical places and nightlife. But a question that follows is to what extent does satisfaction imply interest. One could say that what Garau has revealed is precisely what many, including myself, have long argued, and that is that it is the core brand of the Balearics and Mallorca - sun and beach - which is of greater importance to the tourist than other aspects, like gastronomy or culture.
While the main findings have been reported in one article, another looks at what dissatisfies tourists. And this is potentially quite revealing, and especially for the distinction it draws between Mallorca tourism "veterans" and those new to the island or islands. Among the old-hands, it is the apparent deterioration in the physical landscape - too much construction, too much noise, too much traffic etc. - that is the cause of dissatisfaction. For the newbies, it is prices. The veterans, however, seem to have little problem with these. Significantly perhaps, the research was actually conducted in 2006, i.e. B.C. - before crisis. It would, in a hypothetical world, be interesting were the same population of tourism veterans to be asked their views now as to prices. But even without this, the research has at least applied some academic rigour to the contentious issue of prices, one that is normally only dealt with via anecdote.
What the researchers are at pains to point out is that unlike surveys which seek measures of satisfaction alone, theirs has included measures of dissatisfaction as well. It is these, they argue, that need to be taken into account in determining a tourist's intention to return. They also argue that dissatisfaction is not the opposite of satisfaction (bet you didn't know this) in referring to the fact that interviewees who express satisfaction can also express dissatisfaction about the same thing.
The problem with this research, as is typically the case with academia, is that its purpose is not necessarily meant to be practical. The overriding objective is to establish the excellence of the research, the methodology and the need to do more research. Extracting the practical is possible, but it isn't easy, and for this reason, though the research is probably quite important, one wonders if anyone much, outside of academia, will really take much notice.
* Joaquín Alegre and Jaume Garau, "Tourist Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction", Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 37 No. 1 2010, Elsevier.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
On the face of it, coming second to the Caribbean and ahead of places like Turkey, Greece, France, the Canaries sounds like good news - and it probably is. But having come up with this finding, what will anyone do with the results?
The research itself is published in the "Annals of Tourism Research", though the comparative findings (between different destinations) are not included in the paper to be found there. They must be published separately. The comparison seems to have been made by asking interviewees at Palma airport to rate destinations they had been to in recent years (including Mallorca).
There are conclusions which might be thought to have practical consequences. While the island's sun and beach tourism gets approval from a German-British-Spanish research population, there is less satisfaction with other things, such as local cuisine, culture and historical places and nightlife. But a question that follows is to what extent does satisfaction imply interest. One could say that what Garau has revealed is precisely what many, including myself, have long argued, and that is that it is the core brand of the Balearics and Mallorca - sun and beach - which is of greater importance to the tourist than other aspects, like gastronomy or culture.
While the main findings have been reported in one article, another looks at what dissatisfies tourists. And this is potentially quite revealing, and especially for the distinction it draws between Mallorca tourism "veterans" and those new to the island or islands. Among the old-hands, it is the apparent deterioration in the physical landscape - too much construction, too much noise, too much traffic etc. - that is the cause of dissatisfaction. For the newbies, it is prices. The veterans, however, seem to have little problem with these. Significantly perhaps, the research was actually conducted in 2006, i.e. B.C. - before crisis. It would, in a hypothetical world, be interesting were the same population of tourism veterans to be asked their views now as to prices. But even without this, the research has at least applied some academic rigour to the contentious issue of prices, one that is normally only dealt with via anecdote.
What the researchers are at pains to point out is that unlike surveys which seek measures of satisfaction alone, theirs has included measures of dissatisfaction as well. It is these, they argue, that need to be taken into account in determining a tourist's intention to return. They also argue that dissatisfaction is not the opposite of satisfaction (bet you didn't know this) in referring to the fact that interviewees who express satisfaction can also express dissatisfaction about the same thing.
The problem with this research, as is typically the case with academia, is that its purpose is not necessarily meant to be practical. The overriding objective is to establish the excellence of the research, the methodology and the need to do more research. Extracting the practical is possible, but it isn't easy, and for this reason, though the research is probably quite important, one wonders if anyone much, outside of academia, will really take much notice.
* Joaquín Alegre and Jaume Garau, "Tourist Satisfaction and Dissatisfaction", Annals of Tourism Research, Vol. 37 No. 1 2010, Elsevier.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
All Being Well: Bienestar Activo on the bay of Alcúdia
The central and regional governments and the three combined municipalities of Alcúdia, Muro and Santa Margalida are due to chip in a third each of a 4.5 million euro budget over four years that will go towards making the northern tourism zone of Mallorca one of "bienestar activo" (active well-being). It is an "ambitious plan", says Alcúdia's mayor Llompart. Ambitious possibly, but what on earth is it?
This is a strategic plan conjured up by the three town halls and the local hotel associations to add some dynamism to tourism, especially that in the off-season. The budget is to be spent on planning, organisation and management; on resources and tourist services; on improving competitiveness and on marketing. Good. Still not clear what it is though.
The answer lies with trekking, Nordic walking and cycling. Stifle a yawn in the back row there. Not exactly anything new. Cycling we know all about; Alcúdia and Can Picafort have had their own Nordic walking "routes" for some while; trekking is an old past-time. To these can be added canoeing, which is meant to be taking place on the Lago Esperanza.
The hotel associations on the bay of Alcúdia have been keen to promote the sporting nature of the area and did so recently when the tourism minister was in town. But one had the impression that they were implying something rather more dynamic. Do existing tourist "attractions" fall into this category? It's hard to get excited.
There is, unfortunately, something rather lame about the spin behind this, for instance that devoted to the benefits to businesses other than hotels. Cyclists will go to bars or restaurants or have a massage, it is said. Well, yes, some will go to bars and restaurants; as they already do. Not that everyone locally would say that cyclists bring in much by way of income to bars (a sometimes false impression, it should be said). As for the odd massage, well that should really get the local economy buzzing.
The "bienestar activo" initiative may well be worthy, even if it is a repackaging of what already exists. But we have been here before with initiatives. Muro town hall made much of a revamping of its "promotion". Has it had much of an impact? Then there was that "estación naútica" concept that was meant to brand Alcúdia as a quality watersports centre. Never heard anything more about that.
Diversifying the tourism offer is laudable, but this is not new diversification. Relying on the natural environment or current infrastructure, which trekking, cycling, Nordic walking and canoeing all do, means that it is possible to try and make more out of very little investment. Seems fair enough. But maybe this is the problem. It is cheap to promote what is already there, even at 4.5 million, and is therefore easy to avoid attempting something rather more dramatic. What seems to be missing, in the reports at any rate, is any indication as to how many more tourists this will all bring in; how many more hotels might actually be open in the off-season.
And there is something else that seems to be missing. Among all this sporting "diversification" there is no mention of one particular sport. Golf. Why not? Maybe it's not considered to be part of well-being.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
This is a strategic plan conjured up by the three town halls and the local hotel associations to add some dynamism to tourism, especially that in the off-season. The budget is to be spent on planning, organisation and management; on resources and tourist services; on improving competitiveness and on marketing. Good. Still not clear what it is though.
The answer lies with trekking, Nordic walking and cycling. Stifle a yawn in the back row there. Not exactly anything new. Cycling we know all about; Alcúdia and Can Picafort have had their own Nordic walking "routes" for some while; trekking is an old past-time. To these can be added canoeing, which is meant to be taking place on the Lago Esperanza.
The hotel associations on the bay of Alcúdia have been keen to promote the sporting nature of the area and did so recently when the tourism minister was in town. But one had the impression that they were implying something rather more dynamic. Do existing tourist "attractions" fall into this category? It's hard to get excited.
There is, unfortunately, something rather lame about the spin behind this, for instance that devoted to the benefits to businesses other than hotels. Cyclists will go to bars or restaurants or have a massage, it is said. Well, yes, some will go to bars and restaurants; as they already do. Not that everyone locally would say that cyclists bring in much by way of income to bars (a sometimes false impression, it should be said). As for the odd massage, well that should really get the local economy buzzing.
The "bienestar activo" initiative may well be worthy, even if it is a repackaging of what already exists. But we have been here before with initiatives. Muro town hall made much of a revamping of its "promotion". Has it had much of an impact? Then there was that "estación naútica" concept that was meant to brand Alcúdia as a quality watersports centre. Never heard anything more about that.
Diversifying the tourism offer is laudable, but this is not new diversification. Relying on the natural environment or current infrastructure, which trekking, cycling, Nordic walking and canoeing all do, means that it is possible to try and make more out of very little investment. Seems fair enough. But maybe this is the problem. It is cheap to promote what is already there, even at 4.5 million, and is therefore easy to avoid attempting something rather more dramatic. What seems to be missing, in the reports at any rate, is any indication as to how many more tourists this will all bring in; how many more hotels might actually be open in the off-season.
And there is something else that seems to be missing. Among all this sporting "diversification" there is no mention of one particular sport. Golf. Why not? Maybe it's not considered to be part of well-being.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Saturday, June 19, 2010
A Case Of The Jitters
Sunwing, the all-Scandinavian hotel and apartment complex, is not far off being full. So I was told yesterday. With its location, right on the beach and an easy walk to both the port of Alcúdia and The Mile, you would hope that it - of all places - would be doing well. But the all-Scandinavian element probably tells more of a story.
Despite those comments a while ago about the Swedish finding the price of a beer in beach bars somewhat excessive and also about them defecting to other destinations, such as Thailand, the reality seems rather different, as it has been for perhaps three or four years. It has been the Scandinavians that have been keeping Alcúdia going. Hug a blond or a blonde. Even non-euro nations, like Norway and Sweden, and unlike the UK, don't seem to have turned their backs on Mallorca and Alcúdia. The less good news might be if Sunwing goes down the all-inclusive track.
Contrast the apparent tranquility by the beach with events elsewhere - in more Brit-market land. There was a bit of an incident yesterday, one involving a leaflet, and one I'm not about to go into. Suffice it to say, it also involved a hotel with a British market. The hotel didn't like a leaflet for a British bar. Its prerogative. But there are ways of doing things, other than getting in a bit of a tiz.
It was only when one heard of other apparent developments that one could possibly put this into a wider context of anxiety. Another hotel is, so it is being said, to not be graced by a leading UK tour operator next year; this may be destined to be another part of Alcúdia that is forever Scandinavian. And then there is Bellevue. The word is that it will close early and undergo some redevelopment for next year. As ever, I would like to see some hard evidence, but that is the word.
On top of this, there was confirmation of something that has been doing the rounds on PuertoPollensa.com's forum (and Trip Advisor) regarding a website known as puertopollensa4all.com. The confirmation came not from a holidaymaker but an operator locally. People are being royally scammed.
This was of a totally different order to the jitters that seemed to be around, but it just added to a sense of anxiety. Yesterday was not a great day, because there was a strain, a feeling of all not being right with the world. But there was always meeting up with Sheila and Alan again, who were partaking of some liberal measures at Gavins. Which was far more like it. Perhaps we should all just relax a bit more.
Cheers, meanwhile, seem to have found some proper flags - fat lot of good it has done though. Oh woe is England. Told you it was not a great day.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Despite those comments a while ago about the Swedish finding the price of a beer in beach bars somewhat excessive and also about them defecting to other destinations, such as Thailand, the reality seems rather different, as it has been for perhaps three or four years. It has been the Scandinavians that have been keeping Alcúdia going. Hug a blond or a blonde. Even non-euro nations, like Norway and Sweden, and unlike the UK, don't seem to have turned their backs on Mallorca and Alcúdia. The less good news might be if Sunwing goes down the all-inclusive track.
Contrast the apparent tranquility by the beach with events elsewhere - in more Brit-market land. There was a bit of an incident yesterday, one involving a leaflet, and one I'm not about to go into. Suffice it to say, it also involved a hotel with a British market. The hotel didn't like a leaflet for a British bar. Its prerogative. But there are ways of doing things, other than getting in a bit of a tiz.
It was only when one heard of other apparent developments that one could possibly put this into a wider context of anxiety. Another hotel is, so it is being said, to not be graced by a leading UK tour operator next year; this may be destined to be another part of Alcúdia that is forever Scandinavian. And then there is Bellevue. The word is that it will close early and undergo some redevelopment for next year. As ever, I would like to see some hard evidence, but that is the word.
On top of this, there was confirmation of something that has been doing the rounds on PuertoPollensa.com's forum (and Trip Advisor) regarding a website known as puertopollensa4all.com. The confirmation came not from a holidaymaker but an operator locally. People are being royally scammed.
This was of a totally different order to the jitters that seemed to be around, but it just added to a sense of anxiety. Yesterday was not a great day, because there was a strain, a feeling of all not being right with the world. But there was always meeting up with Sheila and Alan again, who were partaking of some liberal measures at Gavins. Which was far more like it. Perhaps we should all just relax a bit more.
Cheers, meanwhile, seem to have found some proper flags - fat lot of good it has done though. Oh woe is England. Told you it was not a great day.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, June 18, 2010
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.
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.
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Kicking Off (Or Not): Why World Cups are dull
Oh dear. How the mighty fall. There will doubtless be some (expats) who have delighted in Spain's defeat. I have never felt badly towards the Spanish team, though even I found myself willing the clock down against the Alpine dullards. Why is that, do you suppose? During the Euros, in the absence of England, it was easy to get behind the Spanish team, but then they went and blew it - blew the fact that they have been as useless, more useless, than England over the years. Winning something changed everything. But Spain will progress, despite a thought that has been nagging me that, like France in 2002, the team will just blow up. It might be remembered, though, that El Diego and Argentina lost their opening game in 1990, but still made the final.
Ah yes, 1990. In the days when World Cups still meant something. In that game, against Cameroon, you still had all what used to make World Cups great. Genuine, on-field violence. Why is this World Cup dull? Why have all World Cups since 1990 been dull? Because in 1994, FIFA decreed that the Americans had to have a tournament without physical contact, save for Leonardo's elbow. What you got was Bebeto's infuriating baby-rocking. Cutesy celebrations for an Americanised and sanitised era of football. Oh for the days of Argentina in 1978 and a Peruvian goalkeeper who just so happened to be Argentinian and who just so happened to let in six goals - against Argentina. Oh for the days of 1986 and a Uruguayan kicking my some time döppelganger Gordon Strachan up in the air after two minutes - and getting sent off. Oh for the days of 1962 and David Coleman's self-righteous indignation at the "disgrace" of Italy and Chile. The days of 1966 and Nobby Stiles attempting to put an end to detente by mugging France's midfield, and the Argentinians - always the Argentinians - provoking Alf to his "animals". One looked down the list of the first-round matches in the hope of some which years ago would have sparked a world war, but which have passed with nary an ankle tap. "After you, Luigi. No, after you, Roque." Italy versus Paraguay. Thirty years ago or so, and it would have been mayhem. Not now. More's the pity. That's why World Cups are dull.
Among the locals of course, there is World Cup "fever", as the press like to refer to it. This mainly manifests itself in terms of noise pollution via car horns, and then the sound of whole cars being written off as Switzerland spoil the party. But there are not so many Spanish flags attached to a Seat aerial or trailing behind a moto, spluttering and farting along the main roads. There are more German flags to be seen. And of course English. St George's cross and Union flags. Then there are some strange flags. Like the ones that Cheers have put on the Cheers buggy and outside the bar. It's red with a white cross. Not white with a red cross, but red with a white cross. The vertical line is straight down the middle. Where does this flag come from? The closest, with any World Cup connotation, seems to be the Danish flag, but its vertical line is offset to the left. Danes there are, but they are not around in the same numbers as the English. And Cheers is, after all, meant to be a British (English) bar. I reckon that someone ordered some St George's flags and got the colours round the wrong way.
Unlike the local Spanish I can't really get worked up about it all. World Cups are no longer what they were and what they should be - utterly unjust and a thigh-high tackle away from actual bodily harm. Mind you, this one might be like others - England will prove to be rubbish, and Germany will win it.
David Coleman. Fabulous. The Battle of Santiago, 1962:
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Ah yes, 1990. In the days when World Cups still meant something. In that game, against Cameroon, you still had all what used to make World Cups great. Genuine, on-field violence. Why is this World Cup dull? Why have all World Cups since 1990 been dull? Because in 1994, FIFA decreed that the Americans had to have a tournament without physical contact, save for Leonardo's elbow. What you got was Bebeto's infuriating baby-rocking. Cutesy celebrations for an Americanised and sanitised era of football. Oh for the days of Argentina in 1978 and a Peruvian goalkeeper who just so happened to be Argentinian and who just so happened to let in six goals - against Argentina. Oh for the days of 1986 and a Uruguayan kicking my some time döppelganger Gordon Strachan up in the air after two minutes - and getting sent off. Oh for the days of 1962 and David Coleman's self-righteous indignation at the "disgrace" of Italy and Chile. The days of 1966 and Nobby Stiles attempting to put an end to detente by mugging France's midfield, and the Argentinians - always the Argentinians - provoking Alf to his "animals". One looked down the list of the first-round matches in the hope of some which years ago would have sparked a world war, but which have passed with nary an ankle tap. "After you, Luigi. No, after you, Roque." Italy versus Paraguay. Thirty years ago or so, and it would have been mayhem. Not now. More's the pity. That's why World Cups are dull.
Among the locals of course, there is World Cup "fever", as the press like to refer to it. This mainly manifests itself in terms of noise pollution via car horns, and then the sound of whole cars being written off as Switzerland spoil the party. But there are not so many Spanish flags attached to a Seat aerial or trailing behind a moto, spluttering and farting along the main roads. There are more German flags to be seen. And of course English. St George's cross and Union flags. Then there are some strange flags. Like the ones that Cheers have put on the Cheers buggy and outside the bar. It's red with a white cross. Not white with a red cross, but red with a white cross. The vertical line is straight down the middle. Where does this flag come from? The closest, with any World Cup connotation, seems to be the Danish flag, but its vertical line is offset to the left. Danes there are, but they are not around in the same numbers as the English. And Cheers is, after all, meant to be a British (English) bar. I reckon that someone ordered some St George's flags and got the colours round the wrong way.
Unlike the local Spanish I can't really get worked up about it all. World Cups are no longer what they were and what they should be - utterly unjust and a thigh-high tackle away from actual bodily harm. Mind you, this one might be like others - England will prove to be rubbish, and Germany will win it.
David Coleman. Fabulous. The Battle of Santiago, 1962:
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
