MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 15 November 2013

No Frills Excursions


Morning high (8.15am): 10C
Forecast high: 16C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): North 6 to 7 easing and veering Northeast 4 to 5 by the afternoon.

Rain and wind. In a word, awful. Staying awful for the foreseeable future.

Evening update (17.45): Terrible day. Snow in the mountains, rain at sea level and plenty of it. A high of 12.7C and a daytime low of 7.5C.

The Day Of The Millennial: Future tourism

Baby boomers, Generation X, now Millennials, marketing and social researchers love to categorise generations. They have certain attitudes, aspirations, lifestyles and values (both moral and financial). They become niches but in fact giant niches of global proportions, entire movements in terms of how they think and behave.

David Burstein is 24. He is the author of "Fast Future: How the Millennial Generation is Shaping Our World". Note his age. He is a Millennial. He is part of a generation which is giving a completely new meaning to the club of 18-30. The Millennials.

Mark Zuckerberg, a co-founder of Facebook, was born in 1984. He is at the upper-age limit, therefore, of the Millennial generation, and he, along with some who aren't Millennials, e.g. those who founded Twitter, has been a major influence in shaping the Millennial generation and so in shaping "our world". The Millennials are taking over. They will take over. They will be the most important generation, more so than the baby boomers. Millennial thinking will change the world forever.

Burstein, in a presentation for TEDxNYU (Technology, Entertainment, Design at New York University), compared the arrival of the Millennial generation and the primarily technological elements that are influencing it with the breakthrough at the start of the last century, one that saw the development of the automobile, the airplane and the harnessing of electricity help to bring about a greater democratisation of society and cultural change. The Millennial generation represents a time of fundamental shift, similar to that at the start of the last century, not just in terms of the use of technology and the pace of technological change but also in terms of what Burstein calls "social software"; how people interact and how this shift is affecting businesses and political systems as well as society. 

Certain characteristics of the Millennials are well understood. It is the generation which has totally embraced web and mobile technologies. It is totally connected online and through the smartphone. It shares, it apps, it is driven by technologies and innovations, such as that which Mark Zuckerberg unleashed on the world. But as with any generation, its characteristics are only really understood if practicalities are understood, and one of these is the impact on tourism.

It almost goes without saying that technology is important to the Millennial tourist. For this reason, and as part of what is now an ongoing debate within the Mallorcan and Spanish tourism industry, offers such as free wifi become essential and no longer a nice little extra. Both before and during their travels, Millennials make extensive use of social media. It is what his or her peer group says and posts and recommends which influences and guides his or her decisions. No player in the tourist industry can any longer afford to ignore social media, but unfortunately many still do or pay it too little attention.

Burstein has offered various thoughts as to how the Millennial tourist behaves. He or she looks to travel for the experience. He or she isn't necessarily attracted by ostentatious luxury. He or she customises the holiday, thus making the package less relevant. And to Burstein's thoughts can be added those from consultants (BCG - Boston Consulting Group) who say that the Millennial tends to book travel on a more last-minute basis than other generations and that, in five to ten years time, the Millennial will have become the dominant demographic in terms of travel spending.

This is all of course a tremendous generalisation, and there is one ingredient which appears to be missing: what happens when the Millennials start having families, and how will this affect their travel and holidaying behaviour? But I'm not inclined to dismiss Burstein's or BCG's ideas. Quite the contrary. As a student of Mallorca's tourism history, I can see a parallel with what Burstein says of the quantum leap at the start of the last century with what happened to Mallorca's tourism. It started, in that a framework was established to exploit and to understand what at that time was not understandable and highly uncertain. It took a long time for potential to be realised but Mallorca, in 1905, was right at the forefront of looking to the future.

If there is indeed to be a fundamental shift, then it is advisable that everyone gets their heads around what it might mean. Seeing the future, especially one that will develop as rapidly as it will because of technological advances, is far from easy. But, as with my vision of the Mallorcan "super all-inclusive", connected by technology which branches out of the current confines of a hotel complex and forms a mini-resort in its own right, it is time for there to be a serious debate as to the shape of Mallorca's tourism over the next twenty years.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 14 November 2013

No Frills Excursions


Morning high (7.45am): 17.5C
Forecast high: 20C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): North and Northeast 5 to 6, 7 at intervals easing by the afternoon 3 to 4. Rough conditions improving but with swells of up to three metres.

Mild but grey morning. Rain likely. Temperatures falling by tomorrow with rain falling as snow down to 800 metres. The outlook is poor into next week.

Evening update (18.30): A high of 19.2C. Some rain around but nothing much. Mostly grey with occasional sun. Tomorrow - kitchen sink time. Rain, wind, rough seas.

The Impressive Value Of Golf Tourism

The International Golf Travel Market has been held this week in Salou. Described as the premier event for the golf travel industry, this travel fair has attracted some 500 exhibitors, a few of them from Mallorca, i.e. some golf courses, the Balearics Tourism Agency, the Balearics Association of Golf Courses and Palma Urban Golf.

There has been a flurry of golf tourism promotional effort just recently. The tourism agency took itself off to Vienna at the end of September to attend a golf forum and immediately afterwards, tour operators and others from Ireland were in Mallorca for their annual get-together at which the agency regaled them with golfing information. Included among the Irish contingent was the European Director of Aer Lingus.

Spain as a whole is the most popular golfing destination in Europe, and of the regions of Spain, the Costa del Sol attracts, by some distance, the most golf tourists. The Costa Brava is in second place, the Canary Islands are in third, leaving the Balearics ...?

Golf has enjoyed a generally upward curve in demand. In Palma, specifically, there has been an annual increase of around 4% in golf tourism. Through the first decade of this century, the number of golf tourists to the Balearics rose steadily if not dramatically; from slightly fewer than 100,000 in 2002 to almost 115,000 by 2008. While recognised as one of the principal golf destinations in Spain, the Balearics golf tourism market is relatively small, which isn't all that surprising when one considers that Andalusia, and so the Costa del Sol, has approximately four times as many courses.

Despite the market's size, the value of golf tourism has been understood as long as there have been plans for its exploitation. The golf tourist does typically spend more than the regular tourist, around 171 euros per day, which is not far off twice the amount which is typically attributed to the regular tourist. And this spend, when compared with the national golfing leader, Andalusia, is really quite revealing. There, the daily spend is more in line with that of the regular tourist, less than one hundred euros per day. But by contrast with the Balearics, where the average length of stay by a golf tourist is five days, in Andalusia it is almost a fortnight.

A simple explanation of these comparative numbers is that the golf tourist in Andalusia spreads his or her spend out, but is this too simplistic? Do the comparative numbers not suggest that the Balearics, rather than just looking to increase the overall number of golf tourists, need to try and get them to stay longer? With a spend of almost double the norm, then a doubling in the average length of stay would have a far from insignificant benefit.

Ah but, is this spend not mainly made on green fees and is it not the case that these fees are regularly criticised for being too high in the Balearics? There is some truth to the argument that fees are high by comparison with other destinations, but there is less truth about where the golf tourist's money is spent.

The Chamber of Commerce, in an outstanding piece of research into emerging tourism trends in the Balearics, showed that only 18% of average daily spend went on golf courses. More was in fact spent on restaurants and bars, while between them, shopping and excursions amounted to a spend of 23.5%. What this suggests is that the golf tourist doesn't just come for the golf. This might sound obvious but one wonders if it is well understood and so translates into how Mallorca is marketed as a golfing destination with way more to offer than golf alone. And there is much to be said for such a more rounded approach to golf tourism marketing. One disadvantage Mallorca has, and there's no getting away from it, is the weather. In golfing circles, and one only needs look at forums to understand this, Mallorca and the Balearics are known for not offering weather as good as that to be had in, for example, the Costa del Sol. 

The European market for golf tourism is growing. Russia, as with other forms of tourism, is an example of a new market. But the established markets are sizable. The UK, in terms of registered golfers, is by far the biggest, but which country has the sixth highest number of registered golfers? Ireland. The presence of the chap from Aer Lingus in Mallorca recently might have been useful. How many flights to Palma are there from Ireland in winter? Any?

The International Golf Travel Market, with its 500 exhibitors, showed the extent of competition in the golf tourism market. The Balearics have to work damn hard against this competition, but, and it's a familiar enough story, if the flights aren't there, then it's difficult. 

Photo of Alcanada Golf, taken from the club's website: http://www.golf-alcanada.com/

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 13 November 2013

No Frills Excursions


Morning high (8.15am): 17.5C
Forecast high: 21C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): North and Northeast 6.

A mix of blue sky and cloud, remaining fine but quite windy. Things really deteriorate from tomorrow with rain, wind and snow between 800 and 1000 metres, the poor weather lasting through the weekend.

Evening update (18.00): A high of 21.5C. Winds have been occasionally strong, gusting to 60kph but the skies have been mainly sunny. Little sun tomorrow though as the bad weather comes in.

Still The Palace Of Follies?: Palma's Palacio de Congresos

Palma town hall last week approved a loan of 42 million euros to go towards work on the Palacio de Congresos and its adjoining hotel. What initially might have sounded like positive news regarding the Palacio for once turned out to be less than positive; the 42 million is not for further work which might complete the damn thing, it is to pay the constructors Acciona for what they have already done. The payment to Acciona and schedules of payments to other suppliers which are now envisaged, thanks to the central government in Madrid having given the green light to Palma to take out the loan, do though raise hopes that work on the Palacio might restart in the not too distant future and actually be completed some time in 2015, work having been suspended in July last year because of lack of funds.

Despite renewed optimism for the future of the convention centre, there remain doubts as to the whole project's viability. Funding is one issue, another is who might end up managing either or both the Palacio and the hotel. It was because the viability was brought into question that Palma town hall looked into what it might cost to demolish the structure - 28.6 million euros, so it was reported in February.

Demolition would be an extreme measure, and it can almost certainly be dismissed. But assuming funds can be raised to allow completion, the town hall is still no nearer finding a company to operate the site. Yet another tender process is underway, with Hilton, which has expressed an interest, likely to make a further offer, but the tendering has thus far been shambolic. Either no interest has been shown or interest that has been shown comes with a price tag below what the town hall has been putting on the Palacio.

One Mallorcan company which has bid is Meliá, but when its offer in July last year was turned down (it had been the only bidder), work on the Palacio promptly stopped. Meliá's submission was declared void, primarily, it would seem, because a bond of eight million euros wasn't paid which would have secured the contract. The town hall, via the company it has to oversee the Palacio, determined that tender conditions had not been met, but it was revealing that Meliá might have been reluctant to have parted with a sizable amount and also that it was the only bidder, and this despite there having been a reduction in the bond.

Though Meliá had looked as though it might have stepped in and given the boost to allow work to continue, the company was presumably playing hardball, and this might not have been altogether surprising. The reluctance on behalf of Mallorcan companies to get involved before the Palacio and hotel are actually finished was stated by the president of the Mallorcan hoteliers federation at the end of last month. He said that the Palacio was in a "bad location". In other words, its siting makes it too expensive and does not guarantee sufficient profitability. The president, Aurelio Vázquez, explained that "hotel chains know which projects are profitable and those which are not". Now that Hilton, not a Mallorcan company, knows what the Mallorcan hoteliers think of the project, might it now think again?

Vázquez's statement came a couple of weeks after the spokesperson for the Més grouping at the town hall, Antoni Verger, had declared that the Palacio was a "ruin". He made the same point as Vázquez - that no local business was willing to commit itself - and pointed also to the fact that the value placed on the sale of the hotel alone was below the investment that will ultimately have been put into it.

Against this background, there has at least been some good news for Palma town hall. Representatives of TUI and its subsidiary operation, Hotelbeds, have been talking up the part that the Palacio can play in eating away at tourism seasonality. TUI is in for some 100 grand as a sponsor of Palma's 365 Foundation, so it has an interest in seeing that a project which might actually realise tourism 365 days a year (or close to 365) goes ahead. It has said that it will promote Palma via Hotelbeds and other websites and at travel fairs.

But even if the Palacio is seen as being key to the success of Palma 365, then TUI's people have made it clear that it has no intention of becoming involved in the actual business of the convention centre. Indeed, why should it? As such, it is making a similar point to that made by Aurelio Vázquez, which is that once (if) the Palacio and hotel are finished, then, and only then, will businesses get involved. And it is going to take some 40 million euros more to ensure that the project is finished; 40 million euros that will have to be found from a public purse.

* Photo: the semi-built Palacio de Congresos from "Ultima Hora".

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 12 November 2013

No Frills Excursions


Morning high (8.00am): 16C
Forecast high: 21C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): North and Northeast 7 to 8 easing 4 to 5.

Clear skies and windy, and it has been very windy overnight with wind speeds up to almost 80kph at times. Sun for most of today but the wind will remain a factor with an alert still in place for rough coastal conditions. The outlook for later in the week is, in a word, yuck. Rain and getting quite chilly.

Evening update (17.45): Not a bad day. Nice and sunny but still quite breezy. A high of 20.7C. The change in weather, due from Thursday, may bring snow down to a level of 800 metres.

Time To Turn Off The TV?: IB3

In Valencia at the end of last week, several thousand people demonstrated against a regional government announcement that the government-funded RTVV (Radio Televisión Valenciana) was to close. The decision to shut the broadcaster down was one taken, according to the government, because of a need to choose between it and spend on health and education. Those calling for the decision to be reconsidered argue the closure constitutes an attack on democracy and on the Valencian economy; apart from those at the broadcaster who will lose their jobs, over 100 media and production companies employing some 3,000 people may well be forced to close as well.


In the Balearics, there were protests two years ago when the decision was taken to close TV Mallorca. There were similar objections to those now being made in Valencia. Among them were claims that Mallorca's audiovisual industry would be hit hard and that some 2,000 employees could find themselves at risk of losing their jobs. The final transmission was in December 2011 and a year later a further decision by the Council of Mallorca, which had been the body that had closed TV Mallorca, was greeted as representing a potentially fatal blow to the local AV industry; this was the decision to close the Mallorca Film Commission.

The AV industry also criticised cuts to budgets at IB3, the other Mallorca government-funded broadcaster. When these cuts were added to the closure of TV Mallorca and of the film commission, they together amounted to a major threat to an industry which, in no small part, has been at the forefront of a drive towards a stronger technology-based economy on the island.

While lack of funding has been used as the justification for closure, there has also been a heavy dose of politics. TV Mallorca, a company created by the then Unió Mallorquina-led Council of Mallorca, received backing from organisations such as GOB, the environmental group, and the OCB, the promoters of Catalan culture, when the by now Partido Popular-led Council took its decision to close the station. IB3, in the meantime, has become a broadcaster firmly under the control of the PP. The likes of GOB, so it has been alleged, are all but barred, while there was criticism of IB3's lack of coverage of the massive demonstration against the regional government's trilingual teaching policy.

Against a background of an inference that IB3 is being used as a government mouthpiece, there now comes a revelation as to quite how much IB3 has been costing. Since it was launched by the Jaume Matas PP government in 2005, it is said to have cost 650 million euros. Though its budget has been cut over the past four years, in 2012 it still received funding of almost 45 million euros (roughly speaking, public funds amount to 95% of its operating revenue). Based on the cost per head of population, IB3 is the second most expensive regional broadcaster in Spain.

The 2012 budget did, however, have to be supplemented. Had it not been, IB3 might have been forced to shut down. And it would appear that ever since its launch, the initial annual budgets have always been supplemented, occasionally in an astronomical fashion. Meantime, the total of 650 million euros has contributed to sustaining a broadcaster which attracts slightly less than 6% of audience share. By comparison, for example, TV3 in Catalonia has a 13.6% audience share, one pulled from a vastly greater population. Valencia's Channel 9 (RTVV) has a lower share, but it also has a larger population to draw on.

Local broadcasting should, in theory, be a "good thing". It is a very good thing if the funds it receives from government and taxpayers then translate into new businesses, more jobs and technological innovation. It is also a very good thing if it advances local culture and is a force for social good. But it is not a very good thing if it is viewed by comparatively small audiences, costs a fortune and becomes a political tool. If IB3 were to close tomorrow, few people, other than those whose jobs depend on it, would do much weeping.

IB3 has also been dogged with suspicions. Those to do with some of that funding. Little more than three years into its existence, the police had started to snoop around, asking questions about payments for studio sets which were some 20% higher than tenders from companies which had missed out.

The regional government, aware of the protests in Valencia, has said that it has no intention of following Valencia's lead in closing IB3. There again, if it is serving a useful purpose for the government, then why would it? And why would it privatise IB3, as has been suggested, if privatisation meant broadcaster independence? But then who would want to buy it? 6% audience share? No thanks.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 11 November 2013

No Frills Excursions


Morning high (8.00am): 15.5C
Forecast high: 21C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): North 5 to 6 increasing 7 at times early on. Very rough.

Quite bright and should be bright enough through the day, but wind will be a factor, alerts in place for wind and for rough coastal conditions. Staying windy through the week with temperatures due to fall by the end of the week, bringing the first scattering of snow on the highest peaks.

Evening update (18.30): The wind hasn't been as much of a factor as had been forecast, but alerts are still in place. A high of 20.2C. Forecast is now, by the weekend, for highs in the low teens. Getting chilly.

A New Image For A New PSOE?

The next national election in Spain must be held by 13 January 2016. Two years to go, the PSOE socialist party spent this past weekend laying the groundwork for an election but managed to emerge from its conference in Madrid with many questions unanswered. At the top of the list is who might be leading the party into the next election.

Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, the loser in 2011, who continues to guide his party with a benign, uncle-like presence, has not ruled out running again for leadership at the party's primaries. He can currently count on the backing of former PSOE prime ministers, Zapatero and González, both of them hauled out in Madrid, González more symbolically so, as it was he, when elected party leader way back in 1974, who represented the ideological shift with PSOE's old socialism; there was a new labour movement in Europe long before New Labour. The Madrid conference has been a talking shop for how PSOE can now make itself new, new PSOE, a PSOE Mark III for the twenty-first century. And Rubalcaba has hinted that he will be the man to take the party to a new promised land.

What this PSOE Mark III might end up looking like is anyone's guess. Will it be a bright, shiny, dynamic new model for a new age or a rusty recycled model of one-time socialist principles, a camel of compromise manufactured by committee? There was talk in Madrid of getting back in touch with the people on the streets, which could mean anything but which, for any political party, should actually be a priority. There was further talk of regaining the party's origins, and if this were the case then PSOE would collapse in a heap of quasi-communism. I suspect that this was not what was meant.

Rubalcaba has begun to put some flesh on the bones of what might be the next manifesto. Tax reforms would be on the agenda and would include scrapping income tax for the unemployed (who do actually pay income tax - two per cent of benefit payments) and for families earning less than 16,000 euros a year. Rubalcaba also wants constitutional reform, something that would potentially open up an enormous can of worms and would also be hard to achieve without the support of the Partido Popular. As one element of such reform might centre on the Catalonia question, i.e. greater autonomy for Catalonia and other regions, a move to a genuinely federal state or even independence, the reform would probably be dead in the water and would probably not even have widespread PSOE support; PSOE has typically been as opposed to threats of the break-up of Spain as the PP has been. But such reform may in the meantime have been overtaken by events, if Catalonia does press ahead with its independence referendum.

A new image for PSOE, one to be presented to the electorate in two years time, will not just depend on policies. Can a new image truly be presented by a leader who has lost an election and can it be carved when PSOE, as with the PP and with the political class in general, is so despised and mistrusted? The inherent corruption of the political system, brought about by an absence of transparency especially regarding funding, has been exposed ever more thanks to the Bárcenas affair. This may be an affair that the PP has to contend with but it has served to highlight the secrecy that surrounds both main political parties.

Spain, since the establishment of democracy, has had a handful of prime ministers. Of these, and in terms of their public face, Rajoy has been the worst by some considerable distance; a monotonous, monochrome premier of mind-numbing dullness. Of others, Zapatero was likable enough, while Aznar was essentially a technocrat with one hand on his accountancy bible and the other on his bottle of hair dye. González shines out among them. When he was elected in 1982, there really was a new image.

For PSOE, and the same can be said for the PP, it needs a new face for whatever new image it creates. Rubalcaba would struggle to take PSOE to victory and he would have an even greater battle in attempting to do so if the real economy does actually show signs of improvement and if, as may happen, Rajoy cuts IVA and income tax (the rises were only meant to have been temporary). Rubalcaba was also a minister in the Zapatero government. A key issue for the electorate will be, new image or no new image, whether it could trust PSOE with the economy again.

But a new face could work wonders for PSOE. Might that new face be a woman's? Carme Chacón's perhaps? Or has her failure to beat Rubalcaba in the past ruled her out? It would be intriguing were there to be female leader and so possibly a female prime minister, but the male order may have its own champion. Watch out for Eduardo Madina, the secretary-general of the socialist group in Congress. Zapatero did once suggest that he would one day like to see Madina as leader. When he said this, Madina was only 33. Two days before the cut-off date for the next election he will be 40. New image, new face, new PSOE Mark III. Is Madina the coming man?

* Photos from Wikipedia.

MALLORCA TODAY - Late penalty denies Mallorca win over Ponferradina

Real Mallorca 2 : 2 Ponferradina
At home to a team in a similar league position, Mallorca looked to bounce back after a couple of disappointing results, and they showed a good deal of intent, Alfaro putting them into the lead after just five minutes and Moreno hitting a post a few minutes later. An equaliser by Fofo on twenty minutes was greeted ten minutes later by Victor adding a second for Mallorca. Both teams were having to contend with a strong wind but the action was still an improvement on last week's dull fare against Lugo, even if the second half was producing less notable action than the first until, eight minutes before the end, hand ball by Thomas gave Ponferradina a penalty, which Yuri put away. Frantic attacking by Mallorca in the dying minutes could not retrieve the win and so the team's inconsistency and mid-table position continue. Next up, away next Sunday in La Coruña against second-placed Deportivo.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 10 November 2013

No Frills Excursions


Morning high (7.45am): 17.5C
Forecast high: 23C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): West and Northwest 5 to 6 easing and veering by the evening Northeast 4 to 5.

Some cloud but should be a reasonable day, though rain may come in this evening. Likely to be quite windy and even more so tomorrow and into the coming week, the forecast being mixed and for lower temperatures.

Evening update (18.15): A mix of sun and cloud and keen winds all day. A high of 22.4C.

Playing The System: Illegal rural property

If a daily count of the most frequently used words in a collection of Spanish newspapers were to be undertaken, my guess would be that the word "ilegal" would be high up the list. Illegal is pretty much a fact of life here. So much so that it isn't always obvious what is legal and so much so that the very word "ilegal" has all but lost the potential to shock or surprise, so common is the incidence of things which are supposedly illegal.

The proliferation of illegality arises in part from a propensity among a not inconsiderable section of the local population to believe that illegality doesn't actually apply to them or to believe that it may apply but will eventually somehow be deemed legal. And occasionally, it is right for members of this section of the local population to believe that the illegal will suddenly become legal. If a regional government so decrees it, what had been outside the law is brought inside the law, and is inclined to be done so if it means that there's some money in it.

The beneficiaries of legalising the one-time illegal tend not to be ordinary Joe Soaps (or José Jabones). Rather, they are usually the less ordinary José Jugadores, the players of a system which can often appear to reward the less-than-scrupulous who, because of what they might have (money, power, connections and generally a combination of these), can be right in assuming that somewhere along the line they will get away with something.

The regional government has been drafting a land law - Ley de Suelo. This drafting has been taking an eternity and the time that it has been taking is in itself revealing. Whereas the government can draft, present and approve certain laws quite quickly if it so wishes, there are others which require much more time and more dotting of i's and crossing of t's. All very normal, you would think. Some laws are more complex, and land is far from not being complex, but compare the more than a year that has passed since the drafting was started with the rapidity of, say, the law on introducing trilingual teaching. Was this not complex? No it wasn't; not if the government ignored much of the complexity. And nor was it complex if the government, having passed the law, found to its horror that part of it was in fact illegal, and so hastily convened a meeting of the cabinet and, without any consultation with parliament, simply made legal the illegal. See, it can be as easy as that.

The teaching law did not, however, have any clear vested interests to take account of, other than those of the government itself. The land law is a very different matter. There are all those José Jugadores to think about for a kick off. And so the upshot of the drafting and the amending is that this new law will declare an amnesty on at least 20,000 properties that have been built illegally on so-called rustic land, i.e. rural land for which there was no building permission.

The very fact that someone brazenly goes and builds on land where they shouldn't be building says much for the mentality of the José Jugadores. And for their belief in legislation ultimately being written to remove the illegality. All that will probably be required to make things tickety-boo will be the handing over of around ten grand in folding notes to a relevant town hall. That's where the money comes into the story and is why the town halls have themselves been quite keen for the law to be passed. And it won't just be whole rural mansions or grand houses that will now be legalised (and they normally are grand houses; the José Jugadores don't do pokey places). So also will be farm buildings, such as barns, that had been adapted as accommodation; again completely without permission.

Personally, I find an alternative to legalisation - that of demolition - to be distasteful, but there are times when perpetrators of the distasteful get their rightful come-uppance and their properties are indeed bulldozed. This happened to the disgraced and incarcerated former mayor of Andratx, Eugenio Hidalgo. As his crime was to have been involved in schemes to allow illegal building, then he got what he deserved, and so did his house. But though normally it seems somehow wrong to resort to demolition, one does have to bear in mind the process whereby the property was ever illegally built. It's the process of playing the system by those, more often than not, who are in a position to benefit from changes to the system which, and do not rule this out, they might actually also be in a position to influence.

It's distasteful to demolish but it is equally distasteful to have built in the first place, and to add to the bad taste, there is another law which one has to consider when it comes to these grand houses in rural locations. The tourism law. It paved the way for a whole new range of rural tourism accommodation to be permitted. And which properties might now become such accommodation? No prizes for guessing. So, here is further evidence of the way in which tourism law has been created in collaboration with the way in which property law is drafted. The result is a tourism law which does of course penalise owners of perfectly legally built properties but which are deemed illegal for tourism purposes while at the same time giving an opportunity to owners of property that was illegally built. One rule for one ...

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 9 November 2013

No Frills Excursions


Morning high (7.15am): 16.5C
Forecast high: 20C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): Northeast 5 easing by the evening to Variable 2 and increasing West 4 later. Occasionally rough with some rain.

Mild morning but plenty of heavy cloud with some rain in areas. Improving later. The alert for poor coastal conditions is in place, though inland winds will ease but increase tomorrow when there will be far more sun.

Evening update (18.30): Some pretty serious rain for a time this morning. Mainly dry thereafter but mostly dull. A high of 17.7C.

Muro vs. Pollensa: Light vs. dark

The remarkable weather that Mallorca has been enjoying just recently can lull one into a false sense of climate security. Oh, that it always was as remarkable. Oh, that it was as remarkable as it has been throughout the winter months. Unfortunately, it isn't. And with the real arrival of a Mallorcan autumn (not the earlier variety, circa 21 September), it is not untypical for the weather to be less than remarkable and for it to be a non-descript, cloudy-can't-make-its-mind-up, grey turns to blue and then back again sort of unremarkableness. It is the sort of weather that is normally the backdrop for the November fairs, ones to which few tourists venture because few tourists have ventured to Mallorca.

Were they to, however, then might they be enticed to visit one of these fairs? Probably they would be. But they need to be inspired, to be persuaded, to be invited in a glowing way. And not only tourists. Anyone.

Muro and Pollensa have their fairs this weekend. Two towns some twenty kilometres apart celebrate their fairs in different ways but both share something in common, an agricultural and rural heritage. Most Mallorcan fairs are celebrations of this heritage and they have mostly all looked to make their fairs more appealing to the current day. Muro has added a veneer of musical and gastronomic sophistication to its pumpkinfest. Pollensa, having solicited opinions which were deposited in suggestion boxes at last year's fair, has created a space at the craft fair for young designers.

Both fairs are, therefore, moving with the times. They have to in order to avoid being exercises in repetition year in, year out. Pollensa recognised this last year, which was why it asked for suggestions. It was a good initiative; people should be asked for suggestions and not just for fairs.

A further matter for which suggestions might be sought is the type of publicity material that is used to promote the fair and also the timeliness of this publicity. Pollensa has managed to outdo even its own normal slowness this year by failing to get its programme available to the public until Wednesday, the day before the fair's first event. Pretty impressive. Muro, on the other hand, had its publicity out some ten days before the fair kicked off. Very impressive, and I mean very impressive here in a complimentary fashion rather than in the sarcastic impressive manner reserved for Pollensa's snail-like approach.

Timeliness aside, the two towns have adopted very different approaches to the images of their fairs. At a time of year when the skies might be a shade of grey, Muro has sought to break through the clouds and let the sun shine in and let the colours glow. Pollensa has stuck firmly to a greyer shade of pale. More than this, it has adorned its poster with some bits of old scrap metal and ancient tools lifted from a museum.

Pollensa does have form when it comes to issuing publicity for the fair which is either bizarre or marked with items which have been taken from an instruction manual or from a collectors' catalogue of antique workers' implements. Take its 2006 effort, in the days before crisis when money could be spent willy-nilly and when its publicity brochure came in a plastic holder and contained a design that could have been attached to a willy. Was it a sex toy, a plumber's aid or the arm from a doll? Who knew?

More austere times have meant that the plastic covers have to be dispensed with, and so the fair settles for this year's hammer, saws and chisels. The poster's design, such as it is, comes replete with old typewriter typography. This is definitely "en vogue" at present, and though its retro style might seem in keeping with the photos of the tools, all it does is to emphasise an old image which is really not in keeping with the fair's moving forward that the town hall has sought. The whole thing lacks life and vibrancy. It lacks appeal.

Muro, by contrast, has opted for vivid colours. The typography is jokey art-deco while at the same time quite sophisticated, so matching the moves that the fair has made. But it is the vitality of the array of oranges, reds and browns together with the obligatory pumpkin set against a blue sky which gives the poster so much appeal. It also bucks a trend towards monochrome minimalism, an often unwelcome design trend for Mallorca which neglects the colours of the island.

Put these two designs side by side, and which one would entice the neutral visitor more? It's an unequal match. Muro, nine out of ten; Pollensa, must try harder.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 8 November 2013

No Frills Excursions


Morning high (7.45am): 17C
Forecast high: 24C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): Southwest 3 to 4, occasionally 5 easing West 3 by the afternoon.

A fine, sunny morning. Sun most of the day, clouding up this evening with rain likely overnight and into Saturday. The weekend's forecast is for an improvement on Sunday but temperatures down to a more usual 20 or 21.

Evening update (17.45): A high of 26.5C today. Rather windy at times and tomorrow, in addition to rain, there is an alert for poor coastal conditions, which means wind and rough seas.

The Lunatics Now Have Permission To Enter The Asylum

Over two months ago, I wrote an article ("The Sun Never Shines On Solar Energy") which, for anyone who has solar panels at their residence in Mallorca or any part of Spain, should have set serious alarm bells ringing. They should have been rung and they should be ringing even more loudly now. The Spanish Government is in the process of instituting legislation which renders domestic solar panels and energy all but redundant. It is legislation which means that investment that householders have made in green energy will have been for almost nothing. It is legislation, furthermore, which could end up costing anyone who does not comply with this legislation fines of up to 60 million euros. You have not misread this. 60 million euros.

Why is there not the most almighty outcry about this legislation? Even by the standards of other legislative vandalism and of failures to rectify previous legislative errors, that which is contained in the new law for the electricity sector is the most absurd yet and envisages the levying of fines for non-compliance which are not simply punitive but totally outrageous, so much so that they would of course be impossible to collect, even were they to actually be levied.

To remind you what this legislation entails, all solar panels have to be registered. No longer will it be possible for householders to "sell" excess capacity to the grid, as has been the case and, moreover, panels will have to be connected to the grid, which will enable - wait for it - a tax to be levied on their use. If the panels are not registered and not connected, then the fines can kick in.

The legislation all but signals the end of the hope that householders could be self-sufficient in their energy production and consumption. It is legislation brought about by the government's energy tariff deficit and by the muscle applied by the large electricity suppliers who could see their oligopoly status being undermined. The government has caved in to the industry, has given it what it wants and taken away from the consumer what he or she wants and also taken away from the environment and green energy what it wants. It is an absolute disgrace.

And it gets worse. Included in the bill is a provision whereby inspectors will be able to enter properties to check that connections are as they now must be. They won't need a court order, only if the householder refuses entrance and then has to wait the return of the inspectors along with the police. Already, there are grave doubts being expressed as to the legality of enabling inspectors to act in such a way.

The bedlam that has been created by successive governments' energy policies is now at its most manic. The householder, who could have claimed asylum from invasion by an inspectorate (and not even the police), will find he has no sanctuary. The lunatics in government long took over their own asylum and now they are giving permission for other asylum to be violated. I say again, it is an absolute disgrace.

But why should we be surprised? Why should we think that governments wouldn't bow down to the demands of specific industries. In the Balearics, we have a regional government which has prostrated itself in front of the hotel industry and given it all it wishes, while at the same time having no answer to the question as to how all tourists can be accommodated only in hotels or other permitted accommodation. It has acted without logic, without appreciation of what its legislation will produce. It has acted irrationally, as it has also acted irrationally with its implementation of trilingual teaching.

This is also a regional government which has acted in a discriminatory fashion. Faced with threats from another business sector, the retailers, it found an excuse for not applying its in-any-event idiotic green taxes. It bowed down to the retailers while at the same time failing to scrap the one green tax that has been introduced. The one that has meant, in certain instances, water bills doubling since the start of this year. For households with high water use and with solar panels, life has become that much tougher. And for those households which do have solar panels, they had better get wise as to this new legislation and pretty damn quick. Otherwise, they could find themselves presented with a fine in the several millions.

What will the tax on the solar panels amount to? Good question. But one report has suggested it will be that high that it will be profitable for only a few households to bother with producing their own solar energy.

The sun may have been shining nicely in Mallorca for the past few days, but for all the good it does for green energy, it may as well not bother shining. Ludicrous.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 7 November 2013

No Frills Excursions


Morning high (8.00am): 17C
Forecast high: 25C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): Southwest 3 to 4; Variable 2 to 3 at intervals during the middle of the day.

Misty morning but once the mist lifts another pretty warm day in prospect. The good weather will come to a halt on Saturday, which is looking like it will be very wet and a good deal cooler.

Evening update (17.30): A high of 27.9C, another quite remarkable day. Staying fine tomorrow but on Saturday things will go wrong.

Walking In A Winter Wonted Land

In Colonia Sant Jordi the hoteliers and Ses Salines town hall are undertaking an initiative to promote natural and cultural tourism as part of a drive to reduce the effects of seasonality. They are producing a book which features various walks for looking at flora and fauna and for birdwatching as well as a cycling route. Yep, they're producing a book.

In Calas de Mallorca the promotional effort there goes under a web portal title of the "window on nature". In Puerto Pollensa they may or may not promote birdwatching routes as a way of enticing the winter tourist.

Birdwatching, walking, nature, cycling. How familiar these all are. And to these, one can add other old chestnuts, such as meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) tourism and even a spot of messing-around-on-water nautical tourism in the off-season (though mainly not when the season is off). Calvia town hall, in a burst of activity, has been putting forward its ideas "of MICE and sailing men" and indeed for something known as a "European winter". All good stuff no doubt and all good stuff that hasn't been heard many times before, except, that is, a European winter, whatever this might be.

Go back over the years and you will find similar initiatives. Alcúdia has certainly had its. Walking, cycling, some good nosh, you know the sort of thing I mean by now. And knowing the sort of thing is of course part of the problem. Everyone has similar ideas and everyone seeks to promote similar things. Where's the difference? The answer is that there isn't any.

Take a look around at what other parts of Spain are doing and you will find much of the same. Even Tenerife, winter sun destination that it is, has its walking, culture, nature and all the rest. Sad to report for Mallorca that Tenerife manages to beat Mallorca both in winter sun terms and its natural environment. It has a serious mountain not a piddling one which is no higher than Ben Nevis; it is the volcanic Mount Teide, the tallest summit on Spanish territory.

Mallorca's summer, sun-and-beach tourism is not, in truth, something which demands massive marketing effort. Because Mallorca and sun-and-beach are all but synonymous and because this association has existed for as long as it has, and in such a reliable way, then the island more or less promotes itself. There may not be a great deal of difference, if any, with the sun or the beach in Mallorca compared with all manner of other places, but this doesn't fundamentally matter. All that does matter is the knowledge that there is sun and there is beach. There isn't a need to address tourist perceptions, because their perceptions (of the sun and the beach) are clear enough, except where there may need to be some persuasion to rid tourists of any negative perceptions that are unrelated to the core Mallorcan sun-and-beach brand.

Winter in Mallorca is the complete opposite. Mallorca isn't synonymous with anything in winter; not, that is, in a way which makes it any different to various other destinations. And within Mallorca the various resorts and towns are also not synonymous with anything in winter. If they want to be, then they have to come up with something which sets them apart, and it is an absence of a unique selling point which makes it difficult to do so and which means that they all end up touting essentially the same products.

And it is this range of products which is part of the problem when it comes to the tourism agency or town halls embarking on some marketing initiative designed to combat seasonality and to promote winter in Mallorca. They all opt to present products. When do they ever opt instead to engage in marketing which seeks to alter perceptions and to persuade? When do they ever try and get into the minds of potential winter tourists?

Because there isn't an array of mega theme parks or what have you in Mallorca, the winter tourism offer will always rely on a predictable range of products. It may be a very nice book that has been produced in Colonia Sant Jordi, but is this really going to have much of an impact? One would doubt it.

Good luck to the individual town halls and resorts for making efforts to promote themselves out of season, but what this results in is a fragmented marketing effort of essentially indistinguishable products which are merely presented to the market on a sort of take it or leave it basis. Mallorca in winter has to be marketed as one entity, and a strong identity has to be created, one that is separate to the summer identity and that marks Mallorca out from other winter destinations. Just serving up the same old products is never going to work.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 6 November 2013

No Frills Excursions


Morning high (8.00am): 22C
Forecast high: 25C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): Northwest 4 to 4 easing to 3 during the morning and backing Southwest 3 by the evening.

Following a warm night, a warm morning. Sun all day expected with temperatures a good four or so degrees higher than is typical for this time of the year.

Evening update (18.00): An exceptional day. A high of 28.5C. The bad news is Saturday. All change.