Morning high (7.01am): 12.9C
Forecast high: 20C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 11 November - Sun, cloud, 22C; 12 November - Sun, cloud, wind, 22C; 13 November - Cloud, wind, 21C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North 7. Waves to four metres.
Windy with a fair amount of cloud first thing. With any luck staying dry and with some sun during the day.
Evening update (21.00): High of 16C. Sunny enough, but not that warm.
Friday, November 10, 2017
The Being Of Sustainability
In terms of the existential, it might well be argued that William Shakespeare stole a march on Kierkegaard and Sartre. To be or not to be. The question is whether there has ever been a more existential question. While actors have adopted different interpretations of the soliloquy, others have merely pondered the meaning. And within the ranks of the latter, we now have the Balearic government, for it has called upon the services of the Prince of Denmark to enable us all to ponder the meaning of the sustainable tourism tax. To be or not be. This most definitely is the question. And the answer is "sustainable". "I choose to be sustainable," declares a voiceover actor, who is not Hamlet, for the actor is a she.
I was recently bemoaning the fact that the government had not published a full list of projects on which tourist tax revenue for 2017 will be spent. Well, it now has. And this list appears on a new website - sustainableislands.travel. Here we can find out exactly what the money is being spent on and how much. Moreover, we can discover the answer to Hamlet's question, for the government has very thoughtfully supplied a brief video that reveals all. To be or not to be. The choice of being sustainable is reinforced by images of cycling, diving and hiking and also by the announcement of "your vacations, your islands, your support".
The next question is - will this convince tourists who are sceptical about handing over what the website fails to inform us will not be two euros per day for five-star and four-star superior hotels as from next year? It will be four euros. Let's trust that someone remembers to update the website, as the rates quoted are the current ones. The omens aren't necessarily strong in suggesting that someone will remember. And why? Well, the website is a little shoddy. Thrown together, you might say. Little thought applied. There are the errors, such as projects spelt "projectes", training spelt "trainig", Agency (as in the Balearic Tax Agency) spelt "Ageny".
Then there are the projects (projectes) themselves and which "entity" is responsible for them. One of these entities is an institution listed as "Mallorca City Hall". Now, as far as I'm aware, and I fancy you can back me up on this, Mallorca isn't a city. There once was a city known as Palma de Mallorca, but the town hall of Palma de Mallorca decided that it would no longer be Palma de Mallorca. It is now simply Palma, deprived of Mallorca, its own individual island in the sun. The Mallorca City Hall is in fact Palma town hall. So why not say so? Or has the government renamed Palma and not told anyone? Is this renaming in fact a tourist tax revenue project? To be or not to be Palma or Mallorca, that is the question.
While sceptical tourist-tax-paying tourists might be prepared to overlook this (the tourists probably couldn't care less which entity is responsible), the projects themselves will not so much convince them as to the virtue of all this sustainable being as leave them utterly baffled. I give you, for example, the 91,735.50 euros to go on "collectors and terrestrial emissary of the EDAR of Andratx". An EDAR? What the fuck's an EDAR? Well, I know what an EDAR is (it's a water/sewage treatment plant), but will those being cajoled into supporting their vacations and their islands have any idea? And what, pray, is a terrestrial emissary? Is 90 odd grand to be spent on a land-based ambassador dispatched from the mysterious ancient Kingdom of the EDAR of Andratx?
Sorry, but what on Earth are they thinking? Nothing, as far as one can make out. It's all well and good listing these projects, but might it not help if there was some sort of description, a few photos? You know the sort of thing I mean; it's what you tend to find on a website. But clearly none of the tourist tax revenue is being spent on this dismal attempt at persuasion. All one has is the brief video that has borrowed from Shakespeare.
Later in the soliloquy, Hamlet muses: "The undiscovered country, from whose bourn no traveller returns, puzzles the will, and makes us rather bear those ills we have than fly to others that we know not of." To sort of rework this, are travellers, puzzled by what they read is how their tax money is being spent on, going to in any event bear the ills of their having been responsible for the need to "compensate the territorial and environmental impact of tourism" (quoted from the website), deliver their support to their vacations and their islands and not choose to fly to countries they do not know about?
To pay the tourist tax or not to pay the tourist tax. That is the question.
* The video clip has been around since summer 2016. Its impact, you might say, has been limited.
Thursday, November 09, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 9 November 2017
Morning high (8.03am): 10C
Forecast high: 18C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 10 November - Rain, sun, wind, 20C; 11 November - Sun, cloud, wind, 22C; 12 November - Sun, cloud, wind, 23C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North-Northeast 4 to 5. Swells of two metres.
Quite a lot of rain overnight. More expected. Little sun today. Snow line at 1100 metres.
Evening update (19.45): Well, that was a completely crap day. High of 12.5C. Rainfall up to 45 litres per square metre in parts.
Forecast high: 18C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 10 November - Rain, sun, wind, 20C; 11 November - Sun, cloud, wind, 22C; 12 November - Sun, cloud, wind, 23C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North-Northeast 4 to 5. Swells of two metres.
Quite a lot of rain overnight. More expected. Little sun today. Snow line at 1100 metres.
Evening update (19.45): Well, that was a completely crap day. High of 12.5C. Rainfall up to 45 litres per square metre in parts.
Elcano To Elcano: Marca España
Reference is often made to the "Marca España" and is usually made in the context of the country's tourism. But the Spain brand is much broader than just tourism. It is Spain as a whole, and the brand has been carefully, if not always wittingly, crafted over recent decades. The Marca España is, however, under threat. The good name of Spain is being dragged through the mud. Catalonia is to blame.
Insofar as anyone would have referred to a nation's brand, which of course they wouldn't have, the Spanish brand wasn't as historically strong as history suggests. The country most certainly had global presence. As of the end of the fifteenth century, it was the global power. It discovered America, albeit by accident as Columbus hadn't anticipated there being a massive great continent between Europe and Asia.
Spain vied for global power and a dominant ranking in terms of global presence with the English, the Portuguese, the French and the Dutch. But its heyday was obviously to pass. The years of the rivers of gold were to culminate in the rivers of blood and the humiliations of imperial loss. It was the Americans who drove the final nail into the coffin of the terminally infirm one-time power. At the turn of the twentieth century, therefore, Spain had ceased to be a power, though it retained its presence in South and Central America, courtesy of its imperial past and its cultural and linguistic exportation.
Despite this culture, and coincidental to its decline, Spain failed to stamp its presence as a place of high culture. When, for example, the young aristocrats of England would venture forth for their Grand Tour, they would not go south - certainly not as far as the Pyrenees. From Paris they would go east to Vienna, to Budapest. A southward detour was to Florence and Rome. Spain, with its eventual huge global presence for tourism, was not on the Grand Tour itinerary.
It was Otto von Bismarck who made the most cutting of observations about Spain: "I am firmly convinced that Spain is the strongest country of the world. Century after century trying to destroy herself and still no success." The truth about the Spanish global presence was that it was in spite of constant financial ineptitude, of regular military adventures and arguments, and of consistent internal conflicts. By the time that Bismarck died, the same year (1898) when Spain suffered its humiliation at the hands of the Americans, the Spanish brand was recognised for the way in which Bismarck had described it.
Through the twentieth century, the brand was hauled through the mud with depressing frequency. There was the 1909 Tragic Week, when Europe was aghast at the treatment of Barcelona rebels. The first dictator, Primo de Rivera, emerged in 1923. There was to be a second dictator. Yet for all this upheaval, Spain was acquiring a different reputation. There was a romantic perception of the country, which was to attract the likes of Ernest Hemingway. It was the start to what was to eventually follow. The influx of tourists, the death of Franco, the establishment of a firm economy and of democracy, an heroic king who defied rebellion, a charismatic president (González), the joining of the European club. By the mid-1980s the Marca España had taken hold.
Juan Sebastián Elcano was the Spaniard who completed the first circumnavigation of the globe after the Portuguese, Ferdinand Magellan, died. His is a name steeped in the glories of the emergent Spain of the early sixteenth century. And this name has been lent to the Real Instituto Elcano think tank. Its latest Global Presence Index has been published. This is a measurement of a number of variables - economic, military, science, culture, international cooperation, tourism. The global number one is the USA. Spain is twelfth, a position it maintains from the previous index. The Marca España, where the ranking is concerned, remains strong.
But look deeper and see the extent to which regions contribute or don't contribute. The Balearics, for all the tourism, is tenth. The islands provide 2.5% of Spain's global presence. The Canaries and Cantabria are among regions which contribute more. Heading the list is the Madrid region: 29.1% of this presence. Andalusia is third with 10.1%. In between, in second place with 19.6%, is Catalonia. Fifth is the Basque Country. The two stroppiest regions of Spain together make up more than a quarter of this presence.
For it to hold good, the Marca España needs Spain to hold good. It needs unity, harmony, consistency. The Spain of recent years has cultivated its brand by having at long last discovered these. Yes, it has had to contend with conflict - ETA for instance - but the Marca España has been able to hold its head proudly on the global stage. Catalonia threatens its unravelling. History, unfortunately, suggests that this is how it should be. Century after century trying to destroy herself.
Insofar as anyone would have referred to a nation's brand, which of course they wouldn't have, the Spanish brand wasn't as historically strong as history suggests. The country most certainly had global presence. As of the end of the fifteenth century, it was the global power. It discovered America, albeit by accident as Columbus hadn't anticipated there being a massive great continent between Europe and Asia.
Spain vied for global power and a dominant ranking in terms of global presence with the English, the Portuguese, the French and the Dutch. But its heyday was obviously to pass. The years of the rivers of gold were to culminate in the rivers of blood and the humiliations of imperial loss. It was the Americans who drove the final nail into the coffin of the terminally infirm one-time power. At the turn of the twentieth century, therefore, Spain had ceased to be a power, though it retained its presence in South and Central America, courtesy of its imperial past and its cultural and linguistic exportation.
Despite this culture, and coincidental to its decline, Spain failed to stamp its presence as a place of high culture. When, for example, the young aristocrats of England would venture forth for their Grand Tour, they would not go south - certainly not as far as the Pyrenees. From Paris they would go east to Vienna, to Budapest. A southward detour was to Florence and Rome. Spain, with its eventual huge global presence for tourism, was not on the Grand Tour itinerary.
It was Otto von Bismarck who made the most cutting of observations about Spain: "I am firmly convinced that Spain is the strongest country of the world. Century after century trying to destroy herself and still no success." The truth about the Spanish global presence was that it was in spite of constant financial ineptitude, of regular military adventures and arguments, and of consistent internal conflicts. By the time that Bismarck died, the same year (1898) when Spain suffered its humiliation at the hands of the Americans, the Spanish brand was recognised for the way in which Bismarck had described it.
Through the twentieth century, the brand was hauled through the mud with depressing frequency. There was the 1909 Tragic Week, when Europe was aghast at the treatment of Barcelona rebels. The first dictator, Primo de Rivera, emerged in 1923. There was to be a second dictator. Yet for all this upheaval, Spain was acquiring a different reputation. There was a romantic perception of the country, which was to attract the likes of Ernest Hemingway. It was the start to what was to eventually follow. The influx of tourists, the death of Franco, the establishment of a firm economy and of democracy, an heroic king who defied rebellion, a charismatic president (González), the joining of the European club. By the mid-1980s the Marca España had taken hold.
Juan Sebastián Elcano was the Spaniard who completed the first circumnavigation of the globe after the Portuguese, Ferdinand Magellan, died. His is a name steeped in the glories of the emergent Spain of the early sixteenth century. And this name has been lent to the Real Instituto Elcano think tank. Its latest Global Presence Index has been published. This is a measurement of a number of variables - economic, military, science, culture, international cooperation, tourism. The global number one is the USA. Spain is twelfth, a position it maintains from the previous index. The Marca España, where the ranking is concerned, remains strong.
But look deeper and see the extent to which regions contribute or don't contribute. The Balearics, for all the tourism, is tenth. The islands provide 2.5% of Spain's global presence. The Canaries and Cantabria are among regions which contribute more. Heading the list is the Madrid region: 29.1% of this presence. Andalusia is third with 10.1%. In between, in second place with 19.6%, is Catalonia. Fifth is the Basque Country. The two stroppiest regions of Spain together make up more than a quarter of this presence.
For it to hold good, the Marca España needs Spain to hold good. It needs unity, harmony, consistency. The Spain of recent years has cultivated its brand by having at long last discovered these. Yes, it has had to contend with conflict - ETA for instance - but the Marca España has been able to hold its head proudly on the global stage. Catalonia threatens its unravelling. History, unfortunately, suggests that this is how it should be. Century after century trying to destroy herself.
Wednesday, November 08, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 8 November 2017
Morning high (5.17am): 6.8C
Forecast high: 20C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 9 November - Cloud, sun, 18C; 10 November - Cloud, sun, wind, 20C; 11 November - Sun, cloud, 22C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): West-Northwest 3 to 5. Swells to two metres.
Cold morning. Due to be sunny today but deteriorating this evening with the possibility of a storm.
Evening update (20.00): High of 19.4C. Some grim clouds early on, but brightened up and wasn't too bad.
Forecast high: 20C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 9 November - Cloud, sun, 18C; 10 November - Cloud, sun, wind, 20C; 11 November - Sun, cloud, 22C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): West-Northwest 3 to 5. Swells to two metres.
Cold morning. Due to be sunny today but deteriorating this evening with the possibility of a storm.
Evening update (20.00): High of 19.4C. Some grim clouds early on, but brightened up and wasn't too bad.
Independence Indoctrination In Schools?
Over three years ago a teacher in Mallorca went on hunger strike. The reason for his taking this extreme action was as a protest against the educational policies of the Bauzá government. Foremost among those policies was the attack on the use of Catalan. The adoption of the policy of TIL trilingual teaching was a thinly disguised means of undermining Catalan, and one really didn't need to be a supporter of Catalan in schools or not in order to appreciate the policy for what it was. He was a teacher of the Catalan language and of Catalan literature. His defence of both was understandable.
At the time of the protests against TIL there was a political undercurrent in addition to specifically educational opposition or a concern about an assault on Catalan culture. That undercurrent was one of independence. The hunger-striking teacher was a supporter of the independence of the Catalan Lands.
The other day the president of the Empresaris de Catalunya, Josep Bou, was warning about an "export" of the Catalan sovereignty movement to the Balearics. The warning was unnecessary. The movement is already in the Balearics and it has been here for many years. From the time of their inception in the 1970s, the PSM Mallorcan Socialists (the principal component of Més) have advocated a form of national (Mallorcan) liberation and the coming-together of the Catalan Lands.
What Josep Bou was referring to was the independence cause in Catalonia and its transfer to the Balearics. In this regard he was also a bit late. Més, David Abril most obviously, have been advancing the cause of Balearic independence. A date has been set as to when it should come about: 2030. In the context of support for Catalonia, and thus the greater good of the Catalan Lands, Més in Menorca have "recognised" the independent republic of Catalonia.
Meanwhile, there has been a call for Més and for Podemos to break their links with PSOE in the Balearic government and parliament because of the support given to the Rajoy government by PSOE nationally. This call has come from the CUP, Candidatura de Unidad Popular, the hard-left Catalonia party which backs independence. The call was specifically from the CUP in Palma, and the CUP have close ties to the radical youth group Arran, the ones who staged the anti-tourism protest by the restaurant in Palma in July and did so within a broader framework of advocating the independence of the Catalan Lands.
This independence sentiment in the Balearics is far from being anything new, but what now appears to concern the likes of Josep Bou is that it is gathering momentum. There need, he says, to be arguments which rebut this movement.
While there is a political framework that is capable of fostering this sentiment, there are other institutional frameworks about which some anxiety is being expressed because of their potential for adding to it. One institutional framework in particular - education.
There was a recent press report about pupils at a secondary school - it was in Inca - being "obliged" to take part in a form of protest in favour of the Catalonia referendum and against the police violence which occurred on the day of the referendum. As one parent put it, "the kids were being indoctrinated and presented with slogans in favour of independence and against the Spanish state".
Following this, the public prosecution service with responsibilities for minors launched an investigation into possible enforced participation in protest actions which went beyond the normal educational sphere. PSOE in the Balearics, Més and Podemos then presented a joint motion to parliament rejecting the "attacks and accusations" of political indoctrination coming from parties towards the right of centre.
Chief among those making the accusations has been Xavier Pericay, the leader of Ciudadanos (C's) in the Balearics. The C's are vehemently opposed to Catalan independence (you might have noticed this) and were indeed originally founded in Catalonia as a party as much against independence as they were against corruption.
In a lengthy interview, Pericay has gone into detail in explaining his concerns, suggesting that indoctrination can occur at conscious and the subconscious levels in schools. He said that this indoctrination can come about through teacher "inertia". Teachers are themselves unaware of operating in a particular way and adopting a dogmatic view of the world. He added that there are "militant teachers" and "professional indoctrinators", noting that there are only a few of these, but took aim at the "imposition" of Catalan by nationalists, believing that this creates their form of "microcosm", the school as a means ultimately of indoctrination.
The defence of culture and of language is a noble cause. But where are the boundaries for this defence and how does society react to their being breached? Pericay can perhaps look at the polls for an answer. The C's are gaining, while Més are going backwards.
At the time of the protests against TIL there was a political undercurrent in addition to specifically educational opposition or a concern about an assault on Catalan culture. That undercurrent was one of independence. The hunger-striking teacher was a supporter of the independence of the Catalan Lands.
The other day the president of the Empresaris de Catalunya, Josep Bou, was warning about an "export" of the Catalan sovereignty movement to the Balearics. The warning was unnecessary. The movement is already in the Balearics and it has been here for many years. From the time of their inception in the 1970s, the PSM Mallorcan Socialists (the principal component of Més) have advocated a form of national (Mallorcan) liberation and the coming-together of the Catalan Lands.
What Josep Bou was referring to was the independence cause in Catalonia and its transfer to the Balearics. In this regard he was also a bit late. Més, David Abril most obviously, have been advancing the cause of Balearic independence. A date has been set as to when it should come about: 2030. In the context of support for Catalonia, and thus the greater good of the Catalan Lands, Més in Menorca have "recognised" the independent republic of Catalonia.
Meanwhile, there has been a call for Més and for Podemos to break their links with PSOE in the Balearic government and parliament because of the support given to the Rajoy government by PSOE nationally. This call has come from the CUP, Candidatura de Unidad Popular, the hard-left Catalonia party which backs independence. The call was specifically from the CUP in Palma, and the CUP have close ties to the radical youth group Arran, the ones who staged the anti-tourism protest by the restaurant in Palma in July and did so within a broader framework of advocating the independence of the Catalan Lands.
This independence sentiment in the Balearics is far from being anything new, but what now appears to concern the likes of Josep Bou is that it is gathering momentum. There need, he says, to be arguments which rebut this movement.
While there is a political framework that is capable of fostering this sentiment, there are other institutional frameworks about which some anxiety is being expressed because of their potential for adding to it. One institutional framework in particular - education.
There was a recent press report about pupils at a secondary school - it was in Inca - being "obliged" to take part in a form of protest in favour of the Catalonia referendum and against the police violence which occurred on the day of the referendum. As one parent put it, "the kids were being indoctrinated and presented with slogans in favour of independence and against the Spanish state".
Following this, the public prosecution service with responsibilities for minors launched an investigation into possible enforced participation in protest actions which went beyond the normal educational sphere. PSOE in the Balearics, Més and Podemos then presented a joint motion to parliament rejecting the "attacks and accusations" of political indoctrination coming from parties towards the right of centre.
Chief among those making the accusations has been Xavier Pericay, the leader of Ciudadanos (C's) in the Balearics. The C's are vehemently opposed to Catalan independence (you might have noticed this) and were indeed originally founded in Catalonia as a party as much against independence as they were against corruption.
In a lengthy interview, Pericay has gone into detail in explaining his concerns, suggesting that indoctrination can occur at conscious and the subconscious levels in schools. He said that this indoctrination can come about through teacher "inertia". Teachers are themselves unaware of operating in a particular way and adopting a dogmatic view of the world. He added that there are "militant teachers" and "professional indoctrinators", noting that there are only a few of these, but took aim at the "imposition" of Catalan by nationalists, believing that this creates their form of "microcosm", the school as a means ultimately of indoctrination.
The defence of culture and of language is a noble cause. But where are the boundaries for this defence and how does society react to their being breached? Pericay can perhaps look at the polls for an answer. The C's are gaining, while Més are going backwards.
Tuesday, November 07, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 7 November 2017
Morning high (7.13am): 9.4C
Forecast high: 18C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 8 November - Sun, cloud, 19C; 9 November - Cloud, sun, 18C; 10 November - Cloud, 18C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North 4 to 7 easing Northwest 4 around midday. Swells of two to three metres.
Damp old morning - there was more rain and some thunder later on yesterday evening - and a chilly morning. Expected, though, to be reasonably sunny today.
Evening update (21.00): High of 18.5C. Ok sort of day.
Forecast high: 18C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 8 November - Sun, cloud, 19C; 9 November - Cloud, sun, 18C; 10 November - Cloud, 18C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North 4 to 7 easing Northwest 4 around midday. Swells of two to three metres.
Damp old morning - there was more rain and some thunder later on yesterday evening - and a chilly morning. Expected, though, to be reasonably sunny today.
Evening update (21.00): High of 18.5C. Ok sort of day.
Changed Perspectives: Tourism Nostalgia
Nevertheless, the boom times are what the fair intends to share. The programme gives a flavour. Old black and white images reveal an era when taxis used to park on the road that is now the pedestrianised Passeig Anglada Camarasa and when people would take themselves off to beaches (the photos look like Formentor) where striped beach tents would be erected. The photos in fact conjure up a feeling of pre-boom, and are the people tourists, as in foreigners? Hard to tell.
Nostalgia for those days has never been stronger than it now is. The proliferation of images which exist on the internet has helped to fuel this nostalgia as well as a natural curiosity and interest in how things were. Those images can be perplexing. Perspectives that one takes for granted are deconstructed through the absence of the familiar. For Pollensa's neighbour, Alcudia, a photo appeared the other day on social media. In the background were the old power station and the pier that was to become the marina. But what were the buildings in the foreground? Where were they? Where are they? Without the landmarks one now knows - simple ones like road layouts and a roundabout - it was difficult to reconstruct the perspective.
In Pollensa, as with other coastal tourist parts of the island, there is a current-day perspective of the past that goes beyond mere nostalgia. It is the memory of how things were. There are those who can of course still remember. Pollensa was to be spared much of the barbarity of Balearisation, but it nonetheless underwent its own transformation and it continues to alter. There was no greater nostalgia than when they removed the ice-cream kiosk, a relic from decades past and a time of touristic innocence. Perhaps this nostalgia, captured on old images and to be displayed at the town hall this weekend, is in fact a conscious attempt at resurrection or at least of an indulging in a paradise lost. One should never maybe exclude an impulse for nostalgia as politics, written large on the banners lamenting massification.
This aside, I still fail to understand why the idea for a tourism museum in Mallorca has never taken off. It is now ten years ago that I wandered into a tent at the Alcudia Fair on which was emblazoned the legend "Museu del Turisme". It was seemingly a project of the Mallorca Tourist Board and the government. It never went anywhere. The omens, with hindsight, hadn't been good. It was a nice tent, shame about the content. There was nothing of any note inside.
Nowadays, thanks to the at times contrary perspectives offered by some of our politicians, one wonders if the history and development of tourism is something they wish to promote. But why not? They can talk - and do talk incessantly - about culture and heritage. They are prepared to devote tourists' money to the preservation of the island's industrial heritage, but the island has never had a more important industry than tourism. It is part of the heritage and of the culture. Why is it not more deserving of celebration and funding?
This tourism past is littered with eccentricities and oddities that expose the unexpected. I have a series of images of old pages from the Majorca Daily Bulletin which I stored when researching the paper's fifty years. One of these pages - either from 1963 or 1964 - contains a list of "holidaymakers in Majorca". It's bizarre enough to think that there might have been such a list, but what is especially peculiar about this is where these holidaymakers were from. Yes, there were people from Britain, but they were matched in their number by Americans. They had come from New York, from Baltimore, from Miami, from Philadelphia, from Los Angeles.
But there again, it wasn't so peculiar. Temple Fielding, who lived in Formentor, had been instrumental in opening Mallorca up to the American market. The American visitors were part of an almost forgotten tourism past in the early years of the boom. At the Pollensa Fair, it would be nice to think that they've remembered this. I somewhat doubt that they will have.
* Photo is from the programme for the Pollensa Fair, Ajuntament de Pollença.
Monday, November 06, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 6 November 2017
Morning high (7.01am): 11C
Forecast high: 18C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 7 November - Sun, cloud, wind, 18C; 8 November - Cloud, sun, 20C; 9 November - Cloud, sun, 19C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North 4 to 6. Swells to three metres.
Showers possible again today. Quite windy. Snow line at 1100 metres.
Evening update (19.30): Hail this morning, some rain at other times with brighter spells. High of 17.2C.
Forecast high: 18C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 7 November - Sun, cloud, wind, 18C; 8 November - Cloud, sun, 20C; 9 November - Cloud, sun, 19C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North 4 to 6. Swells to three metres.
Showers possible again today. Quite windy. Snow line at 1100 metres.
Evening update (19.30): Hail this morning, some rain at other times with brighter spells. High of 17.2C.
The Curious Case Of Catalonia In London
One imagines that Carles Puigdemont has other things to consider rather than the state of Catalonia's tourism. He won't, over the past few weeks, have been thinking what will happen when, for instance, Catalonia pitches up at London's World Travel Market (WTM). Others have been thinking about this. Who will be there?
Under the acting government of Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, tourism has been shifted from the Catalonia ministry for business and knowledge to the Spanish national ministry of energy, tourism and the digital agenda. The minister for Catalonia's tourism is therefore Álvaro Nadal. Will he be in London representing Catalonia's tourism and Spain's tourism, moving between the different stands and changing his hat as he does so? Catalonia has its own stand. For some years now, it has represented itself at shindigs like WTM. Have the officials from the Catalonia Tourism Agency been stood down and replaced by ones from Madrid? The situation is, to say the least, somewhat bizarre.
Catalonia attracts more tourists than any other region of Spain. Its tourism is therefore important to it as well as to Spain. Right at the moment it is doing a good impression of crashing and burning. Travel agencies in Spain were reporting earlier this week that sales for Catalonia have fallen by 15% over the past month. This decline isn't being attributed to the terrorist attack. That, remarkably, has had little lasting impact. The political situation is the cause.
With Spanish consumers one can understand this. There will be at least an element of deliberately shunning Catalonia: a travel boycott, if you like. For overseas visitors it is maybe less understandable. There's political instability, there have been the huge rallies, but it's not as though anyone's died. There were, however, those images of the police on 1 October.
The impact is far greater than with the terrorist incident. According to one source, since the referendum on 1 October, bookings for international flights to Catalonia have fallen by 22%. An estimate of up to 30% lost tourist spending for the final three months of the year has been given. The Exceltur alliance for tourism excellence suggests that Catalonia could lose 1,800 million euros over the next few months. Confecat, the hotels and restaurants confederation in Catalonia, is calling on the authorities to take immediate remedial measures. The question is - which authorities?
Then there is next year, which will be what WTM will be particularly concerned about. The way things are going, the Balearic Islands could suddenly find themselves competing closely for the number one slot in terms of tourist numbers. The Balearics won't be "borrowing" as many tourists from Turkey and wherever because of geopolitics in Muslim countries. The islands will be borrowing them instead from Catalonia. That's a prospect that should go down well with certain members of Més who are supportive both of limits to reduce tourist saturation and Catalan independence.
It will be intriguing to see how Catalonia plays at WTM. Nadal should do everything he can to try and mitigate the damage for the sake of the economy of both Catalonia and Spain. But with the situation as confused as it is at present, he may find himself confronted with an even more bizarre set of circumstances than will arise in London. The next big travel fair is Fitur in Madrid in January.
If the Balearics do indeed "borrow" tourists from Catalonia, it seems at present that they won't be UK tourists. Worryingly for both the Balearics and Catalonia is information from the GfK market research consultancy. According to its latest report on bookings for 2018, there has been up to a 10% drop in the sale of package holidays to the Balearics and also to parts of Catalonia. This is based on data which is now around a month old, but it may reflect a general trend for next year. Ibiza's sales are down ten per cent, Mallorca's by nine, with Menorca holding up better with a five per cent decline.
This decrease is being largely attributed to the tourist tax, though in the case of Catalonia, one suspects its tax is less of an issue than the political situation. On top of the tourist tax, there are higher prices and the outbreaks of so-called tourismphobia; all issues that Biel Barceló is to be faced with in London.
The GfK report indicates increases of up to 50% in bookings for destinations without tourist taxes. One of these is Greece, but if holidaymakers have indeed been choosing destinations for this reason, then they will be in for a shock in Greece, where a tourist tax of a similar scale to that of the Balearics is being introduced next year.
One concern for UK travellers coming to Mallorca - passport control queues - is at least being addressed. Among its investments in Palma airport, Aena is to install eighty passport scanners - forty in arrivals and forty in departures.
Under the acting government of Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría, tourism has been shifted from the Catalonia ministry for business and knowledge to the Spanish national ministry of energy, tourism and the digital agenda. The minister for Catalonia's tourism is therefore Álvaro Nadal. Will he be in London representing Catalonia's tourism and Spain's tourism, moving between the different stands and changing his hat as he does so? Catalonia has its own stand. For some years now, it has represented itself at shindigs like WTM. Have the officials from the Catalonia Tourism Agency been stood down and replaced by ones from Madrid? The situation is, to say the least, somewhat bizarre.
Catalonia attracts more tourists than any other region of Spain. Its tourism is therefore important to it as well as to Spain. Right at the moment it is doing a good impression of crashing and burning. Travel agencies in Spain were reporting earlier this week that sales for Catalonia have fallen by 15% over the past month. This decline isn't being attributed to the terrorist attack. That, remarkably, has had little lasting impact. The political situation is the cause.
With Spanish consumers one can understand this. There will be at least an element of deliberately shunning Catalonia: a travel boycott, if you like. For overseas visitors it is maybe less understandable. There's political instability, there have been the huge rallies, but it's not as though anyone's died. There were, however, those images of the police on 1 October.
The impact is far greater than with the terrorist incident. According to one source, since the referendum on 1 October, bookings for international flights to Catalonia have fallen by 22%. An estimate of up to 30% lost tourist spending for the final three months of the year has been given. The Exceltur alliance for tourism excellence suggests that Catalonia could lose 1,800 million euros over the next few months. Confecat, the hotels and restaurants confederation in Catalonia, is calling on the authorities to take immediate remedial measures. The question is - which authorities?
Then there is next year, which will be what WTM will be particularly concerned about. The way things are going, the Balearic Islands could suddenly find themselves competing closely for the number one slot in terms of tourist numbers. The Balearics won't be "borrowing" as many tourists from Turkey and wherever because of geopolitics in Muslim countries. The islands will be borrowing them instead from Catalonia. That's a prospect that should go down well with certain members of Més who are supportive both of limits to reduce tourist saturation and Catalan independence.
It will be intriguing to see how Catalonia plays at WTM. Nadal should do everything he can to try and mitigate the damage for the sake of the economy of both Catalonia and Spain. But with the situation as confused as it is at present, he may find himself confronted with an even more bizarre set of circumstances than will arise in London. The next big travel fair is Fitur in Madrid in January.
If the Balearics do indeed "borrow" tourists from Catalonia, it seems at present that they won't be UK tourists. Worryingly for both the Balearics and Catalonia is information from the GfK market research consultancy. According to its latest report on bookings for 2018, there has been up to a 10% drop in the sale of package holidays to the Balearics and also to parts of Catalonia. This is based on data which is now around a month old, but it may reflect a general trend for next year. Ibiza's sales are down ten per cent, Mallorca's by nine, with Menorca holding up better with a five per cent decline.
This decrease is being largely attributed to the tourist tax, though in the case of Catalonia, one suspects its tax is less of an issue than the political situation. On top of the tourist tax, there are higher prices and the outbreaks of so-called tourismphobia; all issues that Biel Barceló is to be faced with in London.
The GfK report indicates increases of up to 50% in bookings for destinations without tourist taxes. One of these is Greece, but if holidaymakers have indeed been choosing destinations for this reason, then they will be in for a shock in Greece, where a tourist tax of a similar scale to that of the Balearics is being introduced next year.
One concern for UK travellers coming to Mallorca - passport control queues - is at least being addressed. Among its investments in Palma airport, Aena is to install eighty passport scanners - forty in arrivals and forty in departures.
Sunday, November 05, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 5 November 2017
Morning high (6.22am): 15.2C
Forecast high: 21C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 6 November - Sun, rain, wind, 18C; 7 November - Sun, cloud, 18C; 8 November - Cloud, sun, 20C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North 4 to 5.
There was a storm yesterday evening; didn't last long. Rain expected at any time today, though doesn't look like there'll be any storm.
Evening update (19.15): Wasn't too bad during the morning, then the rain came plus the odd rumble of thunder. High of 21.3C.
Forecast high: 21C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 6 November - Sun, rain, wind, 18C; 7 November - Sun, cloud, 18C; 8 November - Cloud, sun, 20C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North 4 to 5.
There was a storm yesterday evening; didn't last long. Rain expected at any time today, though doesn't look like there'll be any storm.
Evening update (19.15): Wasn't too bad during the morning, then the rain came plus the odd rumble of thunder. High of 21.3C.
The Rubicon Crossed
It was January 49BC. Julius Caesar, who had been governor of the province of Spain, was now the the governor of a region that encompassed southern Gaul and Illyricum. With the period of his governorship ending, he was ordered back to Rome and to disband his army. He didn't. Instead he took the 13th legion across the Rubicon, an act that was considered to be insurrection and treason. As the army marched across the shallow river, he supposedly uttered the words "alea iacta est" - the die is cast.
When was the Rubicon crossed? Was it on 1 October when the referendum was held? Was it when independence was declared? Was it when they started sending people to prison? The story of the Rubicon has come to mean the point of no return. The die is cast. There is no going back. Carles Puigdemont spends his time in Brussels coffee houses and on foreign television. He will eventually come back, but is there any going back for him, for Catalonia, for Spain? Puigdemont, the Catalan Caesar, sought for insurrection and treason.
At the time when it looked as the chief of the Mossos, Josep Lluís Trapero, might be sent to prison, I remarked to someone that it would represent a crossing of the Rubicon. You don't start sending people to prison. Regardless of all that has happened and is happening, once that step is taken, moral authority begins to crumble. Legal authority may apply, but this is not the same as moral authority. Especially not in supposed western democratic societies.
And under whose authority? Do we praise the independence of the Spanish judiciary in pursuing prosecutions of a type unheard of since the failed coup of 1981? Can we compare the insurrection of Antonio Tejero Molina with that of Carles Puigdemont? Or has this independence been compromised, as has been suggested on previous occasions? Is there some justification in the characterisation of those incarcerated as political prisoners? Western democratic societies don't do or shouldn't do political prisoners.
José Miguel Monzón Navarro goes under the stage name of El Gran Wyoming. He fronts a show on La Sexta that looks at the day's news. He walked off set the other day, saying that he refused to continue with the programme. "I will not continue presenting it until Spain returns to sanity." Oriol Junqueras and others had been sent to jail. For El Gran Wyoming, the Rubicon had been crossed. He did, however, return a few minutes later.
His statement and action was nonetheless meaningful. Spain has been gripped by an insanity. It is the underlying madness which refuses to mature and to cast aside the past. It constantly hankers after its history. It is incapable of adjusting to democratic realities, even after forty and more years. I'm not defending Puigdemont, I'm not defending independence, but I am defending the cause of democratic maturity. Both sides are to blame for their juvenile behaviour.
But attaining this maturity, it seems increasingly clear, is inhibited by the very democratic fundamentals of the Spanish (and Catalan) political system. Puigdemont, the accidental president, a creation of his own belief in independence, might nevertheless chosen not to have crossed his own personal Rubicon. To what extent was he hounded towards a defiance of the Senate by the consequences of political alliance and the need for support from sources that veer in the direction of anarchy? To what degree was he pushed by the timeline from Artur Mas and his misjudged election that was held in an attempt to shore up declining popularity because of austerity policies and by his subsequent reach for the independence lifeline in order to save him?
We can all play the history game of centuries and decades past, but there were far more recent dynamics that unleashed the eventual insurrection. And these dynamics, reflected for example in the Balearics, have exposed proportional representation as a device for the tyranny of the minority. In the Balearics, Més in Menorca, with their all but fewer than 7,000 votes at the last election, recognised the independent republic of Catalonia. They are beyond contempt for their inflated sense of self-importance.
But this is how it is. And now that the Rubicon has been crossed, is the die cast for all time? Where is the going back? The metaphor with Caesar ends with the very act of crossing the river. Caesar marched on Rome. Puigdemont is marching nowhere other than to a likely prison cell, a further martyr to a process for which both he and Rajoy are ill-equipped. He got to the other side, only to stumble backwards, drowning in the shallowness of the springs of democracy.
When was the Rubicon crossed? Was it on 1 October when the referendum was held? Was it when independence was declared? Was it when they started sending people to prison? The story of the Rubicon has come to mean the point of no return. The die is cast. There is no going back. Carles Puigdemont spends his time in Brussels coffee houses and on foreign television. He will eventually come back, but is there any going back for him, for Catalonia, for Spain? Puigdemont, the Catalan Caesar, sought for insurrection and treason.
At the time when it looked as the chief of the Mossos, Josep Lluís Trapero, might be sent to prison, I remarked to someone that it would represent a crossing of the Rubicon. You don't start sending people to prison. Regardless of all that has happened and is happening, once that step is taken, moral authority begins to crumble. Legal authority may apply, but this is not the same as moral authority. Especially not in supposed western democratic societies.
And under whose authority? Do we praise the independence of the Spanish judiciary in pursuing prosecutions of a type unheard of since the failed coup of 1981? Can we compare the insurrection of Antonio Tejero Molina with that of Carles Puigdemont? Or has this independence been compromised, as has been suggested on previous occasions? Is there some justification in the characterisation of those incarcerated as political prisoners? Western democratic societies don't do or shouldn't do political prisoners.
José Miguel Monzón Navarro goes under the stage name of El Gran Wyoming. He fronts a show on La Sexta that looks at the day's news. He walked off set the other day, saying that he refused to continue with the programme. "I will not continue presenting it until Spain returns to sanity." Oriol Junqueras and others had been sent to jail. For El Gran Wyoming, the Rubicon had been crossed. He did, however, return a few minutes later.
His statement and action was nonetheless meaningful. Spain has been gripped by an insanity. It is the underlying madness which refuses to mature and to cast aside the past. It constantly hankers after its history. It is incapable of adjusting to democratic realities, even after forty and more years. I'm not defending Puigdemont, I'm not defending independence, but I am defending the cause of democratic maturity. Both sides are to blame for their juvenile behaviour.
But attaining this maturity, it seems increasingly clear, is inhibited by the very democratic fundamentals of the Spanish (and Catalan) political system. Puigdemont, the accidental president, a creation of his own belief in independence, might nevertheless chosen not to have crossed his own personal Rubicon. To what extent was he hounded towards a defiance of the Senate by the consequences of political alliance and the need for support from sources that veer in the direction of anarchy? To what degree was he pushed by the timeline from Artur Mas and his misjudged election that was held in an attempt to shore up declining popularity because of austerity policies and by his subsequent reach for the independence lifeline in order to save him?
We can all play the history game of centuries and decades past, but there were far more recent dynamics that unleashed the eventual insurrection. And these dynamics, reflected for example in the Balearics, have exposed proportional representation as a device for the tyranny of the minority. In the Balearics, Més in Menorca, with their all but fewer than 7,000 votes at the last election, recognised the independent republic of Catalonia. They are beyond contempt for their inflated sense of self-importance.
But this is how it is. And now that the Rubicon has been crossed, is the die cast for all time? Where is the going back? The metaphor with Caesar ends with the very act of crossing the river. Caesar marched on Rome. Puigdemont is marching nowhere other than to a likely prison cell, a further martyr to a process for which both he and Rajoy are ill-equipped. He got to the other side, only to stumble backwards, drowning in the shallowness of the springs of democracy.
Saturday, November 04, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 4 November 2017
Morning high (6.22am): 16.5C
Forecast high: 25C; UV: 3
Three-day forecast: 5 November - Rain, sun, 26C; 6 November - Sun, rain, wind, 19C; 7 November - Sun, cloud, 18C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Southeast 2 to 4 veering Southwest during the afternoon.
Mild morning. Due to be ok until late afternoon when rain and storm can be expected, lasting into tomorrow.
Evening update (19.15): Wasn't bad, high of 25.8C, thunder now rumbling.
Forecast high: 25C; UV: 3
Three-day forecast: 5 November - Rain, sun, 26C; 6 November - Sun, rain, wind, 19C; 7 November - Sun, cloud, 18C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Southeast 2 to 4 veering Southwest during the afternoon.
Mild morning. Due to be ok until late afternoon when rain and storm can be expected, lasting into tomorrow.
Evening update (19.15): Wasn't bad, high of 25.8C, thunder now rumbling.
The Canaries: The Brand That Won
We're coming to that time of year when they start handing out awards. In the case of the Asociación Española de Anunciantes - Spanish Association of Advertisers - they've already dished them out.
The Spanish word "eficacia" can be a touch problematic. It can mean both efficiency and effectiveness. As anyone with any managerial and business experience will know, there is a difference between the two. There can be efficiency in doing things well and in an organised fashion, but the effectiveness doesn't necessarily always follow - the results, and good results at that. Let's just say, for the purpose of the association's awards, that "eficacia" is the happy combination of the two.
The awards bear the title of "Eficacia en Comunicación Comercial". They are the highest professional recognition of advertising achievement in Spain. They are the only awards that focus on the results of advertising communication. Efficient ways meet effective ends.
The gold award for "most innovative strategy" went to a tourism brand - Islas Canarias, the Canary Islands. It picked up other awards - another gold for #StopBlueMonday and a bronze for "La sonrisa del sol", the smile of the sun. Since 2015, the Canary Islands' brand has amassed more awards than any other Spanish tourist brand: over thirty national and international prizes. In the Canaries they clearly know a thing or two about efficiency and effectiveness.
A year ago I highlighted the official website for Canary Islands tourism. Hellocanaryislands, I concluded, was a superb website. Its innovation was matched by its simplicity. Contained within it was an adventure in an almost Disney style. It appealed to children and to adults. The adventure told the story of wonders to be discovered on the various islands. And it did this, moreover, in multiple languages. Not three or four, but fifteen.
Promotur, which is the tourism agency in the Canaries, has been credited by the advertisers association with having developed a tourism brand that is superior to all others. What it doesn't do is carry out one single campaign. A key reason for having gained the award is that over the course of a year there are 250 individual promotional actions, using the same fifteen languages as on the website. The effectiveness lies in the detail - the micro-segmentation of content, targeted at specific market segments. Through innovation and creativity, Promotur is delivering a brand concept which stands out from all the other advertising noise.
While the mechanics of the advertising clearly impressed the 170 or so judges, there is the fact of this brand concept. The Canaries as a single entity are in a sense easier to brand than, say, the Balearics. At a most basic level, just think about it for a moment. The chances are that you refer to the Canaries rather than specific islands, whereas you would be most unlikely to refer to the Balearics. Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and the others have their individual identities and images, yet it is proving and has proved possible to apply a unity. And this unity manifests itself in another way. Messages from the advertising will vary according to the time of year, but the climate in the Canaries offers a consistency to support these messages. The brand is thus seamless.
The contrast with the Balearics is great. The abandonment of attempting to convey a Balearic brand is being further advanced by the transferring of promotional responsibilities to the islands. The need for this was recognised by the previous government. The Balearics are not the Canaries. There simply isn't the same attachment in terms of consumer perception. It's Mallorca which matters, or Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera.
In the Canaries they are enhancing an already enviable brand of all-year tourism by micro-managing the tourism market with messages and images to add ever greater strength to the brand from revealing the diversity that exists on those islands. In the Balearics they are deconstructing a brand through a distancing from what has always sustained the brand, be it individual island or the Balearics as a collective. This deconstruction is based on a brand proposition of shaky attributes, those of a winter that conflicts squarely with the solid foundations of sun and beach.
This is being done, moreover, without coming close to criteria that the advertisers association appreciates about the Canaries. The brand thinking in the Balearics might be chaotic, but it's not as if there is (theoretically) any absence of technological knowhow. Biel Barceló has been celebrating the ParcBit fifteenth anniversary, the technology park once destined to be a centre of tourism technology excellence. So where is it? And where also is the social media "guru", appointed by Barceló as director-general of technology at the ministry of tourism, innovation and research? He's a mystery figure, of whom we know little and even less in terms of results.
The Balearics, we can conclude, will not be invited to the association's 2018 awards.
The Spanish word "eficacia" can be a touch problematic. It can mean both efficiency and effectiveness. As anyone with any managerial and business experience will know, there is a difference between the two. There can be efficiency in doing things well and in an organised fashion, but the effectiveness doesn't necessarily always follow - the results, and good results at that. Let's just say, for the purpose of the association's awards, that "eficacia" is the happy combination of the two.
The awards bear the title of "Eficacia en Comunicación Comercial". They are the highest professional recognition of advertising achievement in Spain. They are the only awards that focus on the results of advertising communication. Efficient ways meet effective ends.
The gold award for "most innovative strategy" went to a tourism brand - Islas Canarias, the Canary Islands. It picked up other awards - another gold for #StopBlueMonday and a bronze for "La sonrisa del sol", the smile of the sun. Since 2015, the Canary Islands' brand has amassed more awards than any other Spanish tourist brand: over thirty national and international prizes. In the Canaries they clearly know a thing or two about efficiency and effectiveness.
A year ago I highlighted the official website for Canary Islands tourism. Hellocanaryislands, I concluded, was a superb website. Its innovation was matched by its simplicity. Contained within it was an adventure in an almost Disney style. It appealed to children and to adults. The adventure told the story of wonders to be discovered on the various islands. And it did this, moreover, in multiple languages. Not three or four, but fifteen.
Promotur, which is the tourism agency in the Canaries, has been credited by the advertisers association with having developed a tourism brand that is superior to all others. What it doesn't do is carry out one single campaign. A key reason for having gained the award is that over the course of a year there are 250 individual promotional actions, using the same fifteen languages as on the website. The effectiveness lies in the detail - the micro-segmentation of content, targeted at specific market segments. Through innovation and creativity, Promotur is delivering a brand concept which stands out from all the other advertising noise.
While the mechanics of the advertising clearly impressed the 170 or so judges, there is the fact of this brand concept. The Canaries as a single entity are in a sense easier to brand than, say, the Balearics. At a most basic level, just think about it for a moment. The chances are that you refer to the Canaries rather than specific islands, whereas you would be most unlikely to refer to the Balearics. Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Lanzarote and the others have their individual identities and images, yet it is proving and has proved possible to apply a unity. And this unity manifests itself in another way. Messages from the advertising will vary according to the time of year, but the climate in the Canaries offers a consistency to support these messages. The brand is thus seamless.
The contrast with the Balearics is great. The abandonment of attempting to convey a Balearic brand is being further advanced by the transferring of promotional responsibilities to the islands. The need for this was recognised by the previous government. The Balearics are not the Canaries. There simply isn't the same attachment in terms of consumer perception. It's Mallorca which matters, or Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera.
In the Canaries they are enhancing an already enviable brand of all-year tourism by micro-managing the tourism market with messages and images to add ever greater strength to the brand from revealing the diversity that exists on those islands. In the Balearics they are deconstructing a brand through a distancing from what has always sustained the brand, be it individual island or the Balearics as a collective. This deconstruction is based on a brand proposition of shaky attributes, those of a winter that conflicts squarely with the solid foundations of sun and beach.
This is being done, moreover, without coming close to criteria that the advertisers association appreciates about the Canaries. The brand thinking in the Balearics might be chaotic, but it's not as if there is (theoretically) any absence of technological knowhow. Biel Barceló has been celebrating the ParcBit fifteenth anniversary, the technology park once destined to be a centre of tourism technology excellence. So where is it? And where also is the social media "guru", appointed by Barceló as director-general of technology at the ministry of tourism, innovation and research? He's a mystery figure, of whom we know little and even less in terms of results.
The Balearics, we can conclude, will not be invited to the association's 2018 awards.
Friday, November 03, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 3 November 2017
Morning high (7.30am): 11.1C
Forecast high: 24C; UV: 3
Three-day forecast: 4 November - Cloud, 26C; 5 November - Cloud, 20C; 6 November - Cloud, sun, 18C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Southeast 3.
Good enough to come today. Tomorrow sees a slide to more autumnal conditions.
Evening update (19.45): High of 25.8C.
Forecast high: 24C; UV: 3
Three-day forecast: 4 November - Cloud, 26C; 5 November - Cloud, 20C; 6 November - Cloud, sun, 18C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Southeast 3.
Good enough to come today. Tomorrow sees a slide to more autumnal conditions.
Evening update (19.45): High of 25.8C.
Transferring (Winter) Tourism Promotion Powers
They've been having a bit of a ding-dong over tourism promotion, to which you might well ask what tourism promotion. Well there is some, which is why they're off to the World Travel Market next week. Travel fairs are the chief beneficiaries of what promotional spend there is, but even this will dry up when the island councils fully adopt promotional responsibilities and what remains of the Balearic Tourism Agency becomes the agency for managing the tourist tax.
In terms of jobs for the boys (girls), it's hard to imagine a more worthy body: managing funds and projects that are in theory managed by others. This revamped agency already has its own budget - 85.4 million euros for 2018. Where are the other 35 million or so from expected tourist tax revenue next year? Best not to ask. But this agency will have more cash at its disposal than the tourism (and innovation and research) ministry will have. Its budget is identical to that of the SFM rail operator. Nice money and work if you can get it, and you can if you're the current government.
The row over tourism promotion was about money. The PP and PSOE traded millions (comparatively small numbers of millions) across the parliamentary arena in arguing which one had a better plan for transferring responsibilities to the councils and funding their promotion. The amounts mattered less than some of the detail of this transfer. President Armengol, in attacking what the PP had once pencilled in for the Council of Mallorca under its plans to transfer responsibilities, suggested that the amount was so low that the Council had refused the offer. That, however, was not how it was.
As with the regional government, the Council from 2011 to 2015 was under the control of the PP. Maria Salom was the president. One of the first things she did was to scrap the tourism foundation at the Council, its body for tourism promotion. Austerity and therefore cutbacks were one thing; duplication was another. When the government started talking about the transfer of responsibilities, Salom made it clear that she didn't want them back for precisely the same reasons why she had got shot of them in the first place.
This is now all going to change. The Council of Mallorca will receive an endowment of 4.4 million euros to crack on with promotion next year, assisted by the ranks of senior officials that it will be employing to do so. And what will the Council be doing with this money? The details one doesn't know. The principle one does. Winter tourism. Whoever would have guessed?
The current government has crafted some sort of myth about its focus on low-season, winter tourism. Wrapped up in all the nonsense about diverting tourists away from summer sun and beach and the additional narrative of saturation, it has used the simple measure of a slogan to make it appear as if it is doing something that previous governments haven't.
"Better in Winter" is the latest generation of what has been considered ever since the first Balearic government and first tourism minister came on the scene 34 years ago. You can of course go back earlier than 1983, but the first minister, Jaume Cladera, had a cunning plan. And what did it entail? If one mentions the likes of cycling, you will understand that not a lot has changed. To come more to up to date, though, it was the PP tourism minister Carlos Delgado who in 2011 took a damn great knife to the tourism promotion budget and, moreover, came up with a strategy to spend what little budget there was to be on winter tourism promotion.
One of the final throws of the promotional dice by the Antich 2007-2011 government was to chuck 22 million euros at promotion. Delgado was having none of that. The budget slumped to around 3.5 million and it hasn't fundamentally changed ever since. Delgado's view, in addition to having been guided by austerity, was that summer as good as looked after itself. He was considering promotion from a different perspective to Biel Barceló's "saturationist" one, but the principle was basically the same.
"Better in Winter" is therefore a sloganised piece of government PR in order to create some distance from what that the PP had been doing. And this slogan is being handed over to the councils which, remarkably enough, will between them have more promotional money than the government has had.
The combined total for the four councils will be in the region of eight million. It is money, you can rest assured, that will never once more go near a Rafa Nadal TV advert or anything of similar marketing frippery. Each island will, by means of responsibility transfer osmosis, be that much better in winter. Meanwhile, and just out of interest, Andalusia have recently announced that they're spending 28 million on promotion.
In terms of jobs for the boys (girls), it's hard to imagine a more worthy body: managing funds and projects that are in theory managed by others. This revamped agency already has its own budget - 85.4 million euros for 2018. Where are the other 35 million or so from expected tourist tax revenue next year? Best not to ask. But this agency will have more cash at its disposal than the tourism (and innovation and research) ministry will have. Its budget is identical to that of the SFM rail operator. Nice money and work if you can get it, and you can if you're the current government.
The row over tourism promotion was about money. The PP and PSOE traded millions (comparatively small numbers of millions) across the parliamentary arena in arguing which one had a better plan for transferring responsibilities to the councils and funding their promotion. The amounts mattered less than some of the detail of this transfer. President Armengol, in attacking what the PP had once pencilled in for the Council of Mallorca under its plans to transfer responsibilities, suggested that the amount was so low that the Council had refused the offer. That, however, was not how it was.
As with the regional government, the Council from 2011 to 2015 was under the control of the PP. Maria Salom was the president. One of the first things she did was to scrap the tourism foundation at the Council, its body for tourism promotion. Austerity and therefore cutbacks were one thing; duplication was another. When the government started talking about the transfer of responsibilities, Salom made it clear that she didn't want them back for precisely the same reasons why she had got shot of them in the first place.
This is now all going to change. The Council of Mallorca will receive an endowment of 4.4 million euros to crack on with promotion next year, assisted by the ranks of senior officials that it will be employing to do so. And what will the Council be doing with this money? The details one doesn't know. The principle one does. Winter tourism. Whoever would have guessed?
The current government has crafted some sort of myth about its focus on low-season, winter tourism. Wrapped up in all the nonsense about diverting tourists away from summer sun and beach and the additional narrative of saturation, it has used the simple measure of a slogan to make it appear as if it is doing something that previous governments haven't.
"Better in Winter" is the latest generation of what has been considered ever since the first Balearic government and first tourism minister came on the scene 34 years ago. You can of course go back earlier than 1983, but the first minister, Jaume Cladera, had a cunning plan. And what did it entail? If one mentions the likes of cycling, you will understand that not a lot has changed. To come more to up to date, though, it was the PP tourism minister Carlos Delgado who in 2011 took a damn great knife to the tourism promotion budget and, moreover, came up with a strategy to spend what little budget there was to be on winter tourism promotion.
One of the final throws of the promotional dice by the Antich 2007-2011 government was to chuck 22 million euros at promotion. Delgado was having none of that. The budget slumped to around 3.5 million and it hasn't fundamentally changed ever since. Delgado's view, in addition to having been guided by austerity, was that summer as good as looked after itself. He was considering promotion from a different perspective to Biel Barceló's "saturationist" one, but the principle was basically the same.
"Better in Winter" is therefore a sloganised piece of government PR in order to create some distance from what that the PP had been doing. And this slogan is being handed over to the councils which, remarkably enough, will between them have more promotional money than the government has had.
The combined total for the four councils will be in the region of eight million. It is money, you can rest assured, that will never once more go near a Rafa Nadal TV advert or anything of similar marketing frippery. Each island will, by means of responsibility transfer osmosis, be that much better in winter. Meanwhile, and just out of interest, Andalusia have recently announced that they're spending 28 million on promotion.
Thursday, November 02, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 2 November 2017
Morning high (6.53am): 10.1C
Forecast high: 24C; UV: 3
Three-day forecast: 3 November - Sun, cloud, 25C; 4 November - Cloud, 26C; 5 November - Cloud, 21C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): South 2 to 3.
More fine weather for the last day of Allhallowtide.
Evening update (19.15): High of 25.7C.
Forecast high: 24C; UV: 3
Three-day forecast: 3 November - Sun, cloud, 25C; 4 November - Cloud, 26C; 5 November - Cloud, 21C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): South 2 to 3.
More fine weather for the last day of Allhallowtide.
Evening update (19.15): High of 25.7C.
The Spanish Problem Of Rentals
"We have an obligation to put order into the tourist offer, the sector and coexistence. These concepts are very clear in, for example, municipality's urban plans."
This quote, translated pretty much literally, disguises - thanks to Spanish usage - the target for this "order". The tourist offer means accommodation, and specifically rented accommodation. The sector is the business of this accommodation. The coexistence is the balance between tourists and residents. The words were spoken not by a Balearic politician but by the director-general for tourism in Extremadura, a region hardly noted for its mass tourism and one without any "sun and beach". There's plenty of sun, very hot sun at that, but Extremadura's tourism is predicated on beach alternatives - the reason why it doesn't have mass tourism.
Francisco Martín Simón, the director-general, explains that the obligation extends to fighting unfair competition that undermines businesses which pay taxes and create jobs. In the region of Castile and León, likewise without any beach tourism, his counterpart speaks of tackling the problem through inspection, agreements with town halls, information and a "register of transgressors". She, Blanca Arévalo, was participating in a conference on interior tourism along with other regional representatives. The messages were basically the same in fighting illegal accommodation.
In Extremadura there are said to be 608 illegal holiday rentals. This is for a region which covers almost 42,000 square kilometres. Mallorca's land size is less than one tenth of this - 3,640 square kilometres. The total land area of the Balearics only barely manages to be above one tenth (it's just under 5,000 square kilometres). The islands' official resident population is almost identical to that of Extremadura.
In terms of tourism, one isn't by any stretch of the imagination comparing like with like. But in population terms one is. The density of population in the Balearics is massive even without tourists adding to it. The 608 illegal rentals in Extremadura are a drop in the Balearic Sea by comparison. You could count that many just by spending an afternoon walking around parts of resorts in Mallorca.
The exact number for Mallorca and the Balearics is hard to know, given the conflicting figures that are issued; or at least were before the rentals' legislation began to have a real impact. Earlier this year, though, the number of properties in the Balearics on Airbnb was 22,000. On HomeAway it was 24,000. Many of these will probably have been duplicates and certainly not all will have been illegal, but even Aptur, the association for holiday rentals, was recognising the scale - more than 40,000 apartments being rented out in an illegal manner, it reported in May this year. Extremadura is roughly ten times the size of the Balearics; the number of illegal rentals in the Balearics wasn't ten times the number in Extremadura, it was heading towards one hundred times as many.
In Castile and León, more than twice the size of Extremadura and with a regular population just over 100% greater, they haven't been able to come up with an exact figure of illegal rentals, but an estimate offered in May this year suggested some 2,000: one for every 1,200 people in the region. In the Balearics the ratio was around one for every 27. The regional government there has introduced fines of up to 90,000 euros, and that is the maximum for individuals, more than twice the Balearic maximum.
Andalusia was also represented at the conference. It does of course have very significant sun-and-beach tourism. It also has a vast interior. The approach in that region has been to enable legal registration. More than 20,000 properties were registered within the first ten months of the law coming into force in 2016. It is reckoned that there were at least 80,000 illegal properties, but even having introduced a relatively permissive regime (not totally unlike Catalonia), the number isn't going down markedly. In Andalusia, where the maximum fine can be as high as 150,000 euros, they want the state to step in, convinced that only national law, and a harmonised one at that, can really get to the bottom of the matter.
Whatever one thinks about the Balearic legislation, the fact is that the Balearics most certainly isn't alone in addressing the rentals' question. Whatever the motive for adopting legislation - to deal with tax fraud, the underground economy, unfair competition, pressures on housing, "saturation" and coexistence - the regions of Spain are all confronted with the issues. When one makes a comparison between two extremes (tourism in the Balearics and Extremadura), one can see how just much pressure there is in the Balearics. But Extremadura, as with Castile and León, Andalusia and other regions, share one undeniable factor in common - the Airbnb effect.
The Balearic government, rightly or wrongly, is castigated for its legislation, but the government, like other regions, is legislating against symptoms. It isn't the cause.
This quote, translated pretty much literally, disguises - thanks to Spanish usage - the target for this "order". The tourist offer means accommodation, and specifically rented accommodation. The sector is the business of this accommodation. The coexistence is the balance between tourists and residents. The words were spoken not by a Balearic politician but by the director-general for tourism in Extremadura, a region hardly noted for its mass tourism and one without any "sun and beach". There's plenty of sun, very hot sun at that, but Extremadura's tourism is predicated on beach alternatives - the reason why it doesn't have mass tourism.
Francisco Martín Simón, the director-general, explains that the obligation extends to fighting unfair competition that undermines businesses which pay taxes and create jobs. In the region of Castile and León, likewise without any beach tourism, his counterpart speaks of tackling the problem through inspection, agreements with town halls, information and a "register of transgressors". She, Blanca Arévalo, was participating in a conference on interior tourism along with other regional representatives. The messages were basically the same in fighting illegal accommodation.
In Extremadura there are said to be 608 illegal holiday rentals. This is for a region which covers almost 42,000 square kilometres. Mallorca's land size is less than one tenth of this - 3,640 square kilometres. The total land area of the Balearics only barely manages to be above one tenth (it's just under 5,000 square kilometres). The islands' official resident population is almost identical to that of Extremadura.
In terms of tourism, one isn't by any stretch of the imagination comparing like with like. But in population terms one is. The density of population in the Balearics is massive even without tourists adding to it. The 608 illegal rentals in Extremadura are a drop in the Balearic Sea by comparison. You could count that many just by spending an afternoon walking around parts of resorts in Mallorca.
The exact number for Mallorca and the Balearics is hard to know, given the conflicting figures that are issued; or at least were before the rentals' legislation began to have a real impact. Earlier this year, though, the number of properties in the Balearics on Airbnb was 22,000. On HomeAway it was 24,000. Many of these will probably have been duplicates and certainly not all will have been illegal, but even Aptur, the association for holiday rentals, was recognising the scale - more than 40,000 apartments being rented out in an illegal manner, it reported in May this year. Extremadura is roughly ten times the size of the Balearics; the number of illegal rentals in the Balearics wasn't ten times the number in Extremadura, it was heading towards one hundred times as many.
In Castile and León, more than twice the size of Extremadura and with a regular population just over 100% greater, they haven't been able to come up with an exact figure of illegal rentals, but an estimate offered in May this year suggested some 2,000: one for every 1,200 people in the region. In the Balearics the ratio was around one for every 27. The regional government there has introduced fines of up to 90,000 euros, and that is the maximum for individuals, more than twice the Balearic maximum.
Andalusia was also represented at the conference. It does of course have very significant sun-and-beach tourism. It also has a vast interior. The approach in that region has been to enable legal registration. More than 20,000 properties were registered within the first ten months of the law coming into force in 2016. It is reckoned that there were at least 80,000 illegal properties, but even having introduced a relatively permissive regime (not totally unlike Catalonia), the number isn't going down markedly. In Andalusia, where the maximum fine can be as high as 150,000 euros, they want the state to step in, convinced that only national law, and a harmonised one at that, can really get to the bottom of the matter.
Whatever one thinks about the Balearic legislation, the fact is that the Balearics most certainly isn't alone in addressing the rentals' question. Whatever the motive for adopting legislation - to deal with tax fraud, the underground economy, unfair competition, pressures on housing, "saturation" and coexistence - the regions of Spain are all confronted with the issues. When one makes a comparison between two extremes (tourism in the Balearics and Extremadura), one can see how just much pressure there is in the Balearics. But Extremadura, as with Castile and León, Andalusia and other regions, share one undeniable factor in common - the Airbnb effect.
The Balearic government, rightly or wrongly, is castigated for its legislation, but the government, like other regions, is legislating against symptoms. It isn't the cause.
Wednesday, November 01, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 1 November 2017
Morning high (6.30am): 12.3C
Forecast high: 22C; UV: 3
Three-day forecast: 2 November - Sun, cloud, 24C; 3 November - Sun, cloud, 25C; 4 November - Cloud, 23C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 1 to 2.
Happy All Saints. A fine start to November, due to stay fine up to the weekend when there may be some rain. On Monday next week, the first snow right on the top of the Puig Major may fall.
Evening update (20.00): High of 22.6C.
Forecast high: 22C; UV: 3
Three-day forecast: 2 November - Sun, cloud, 24C; 3 November - Sun, cloud, 25C; 4 November - Cloud, 23C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 1 to 2.
Happy All Saints. A fine start to November, due to stay fine up to the weekend when there may be some rain. On Monday next week, the first snow right on the top of the Puig Major may fall.
Evening update (20.00): High of 22.6C.
Taking Refuge In The Ecotax
It was one of those embarrassing occurrences. It was August and talk of saturation, principally courtesy of Airbnb, was incessant. The rentals' legislation had, though, finally been brought into force. Airbnb would be brought into line.
The Council of Mallorca may not have been the body which introduced the legislation, but as we know it is fundamental to its implementation. Its political make-up mirrors that of the government. For the Council as well as the government, Airbnb is thus akin to the devil's work. So, when the Council discovered that Can Boi was being advertised on Airbnb, you can imagine that the Council corridors were full of fury that went beyond a mere breach of advertising rules.
Can Boi, if you are unaware, is one of the Council's Tramuntana refuges. These are essentially like hostels and they are typically pretty basic. Situated in Deià, Can Boi is on the GR221 dry-stone route. As with other refuges along the route, it isn't particularly well patronised in high summer. Publicising itself might therefore be considered to make some business sense. Well, it can publicise itself, but not on Airbnb.
While the Council owns these refuges, a couple are operated - as is the case with Can Boi - by a concessionaire. There are certain rules that need to be observed in the contracts, and the Airbnb incident points to limitations imposed on running them in a true business sense. And Heaven knows, when the Pont Romà refuge in Pollensa was being put up for "privatisation", there was a right old ballyhoo from local businesses which reckoned this would represent unfair competition, though for the life of me I couldn't understand how - a maximum of 38 people with prices pegged at low rates, it made little difference whether the Council or someone else was in charge.
The Council had pursued this limited move towards privatisation on account of the vast debt that the refuges had run up - at least 600,000 euros back in 2011. Five years ago when I considered the role of the refuges on the dry-stone route, I concluded that there should be more of them. Notwithstanding the costs of running them, I came to this conclusion purely because the refuges appeal to a particular type of minority tourism. Five years ago one assessed such an issue in straightforward tourism terms. Five years on and there is a political expedient which supersedes purely tourism considerations.
The Council and the regional government would of course deny this. As part of the "Better in Winter" campaign, the more refuges the merrier. Yes, the refuges are for tourists, but these tourists are now politicised because of the politics of tourism policies. Refuges are thus "a good thing", with no questions asked.
Once upon a time, as in 2011, the Council was shelling out upwards of three million euros in investing in its refuges. There is now an alternative source of investment - the tourist tax. Consequently, there are to be new refuges on the Galatzó finca in Calvia and in Betlem (Arta). One wouldn't be surprised if others were to pop up, thanks to the tourist tax.
The Council is not the sole provider of refuges. The Ibanat agency, part of the environment ministry, has its own - thirteen of them. Seven of these are also in the Tramuntana. The others are, for example, in the Llevant Nature Park, and the Betlem refuge is on the Es Canons finca, which is to become part of an expanded park, courtesy of 4.7 million euros of tax revenue.
In principle, this may all sound reasonable enough, but how many refuges are needed? The number of guests is generally on the rise, but to give an idea of use, in 2012 there were just over 18,000 for the entire year in the five (as were) Council refuges in the Tramuntana; there are now eight of them.
In addition to the investment, there are the running costs. The annual cost of maintenance for the five refuges in 2012 was over one million euros. There are now more of them, with others about to be added. But nowhere, it seems, is anyone actually querying the necessity of increasing the number. The government's got the money, so the government will spend on refuges because they conform to a political vision of tourism that remains predicated on a shaky foundation - all those extra tourists in winter. And in any event, do these extra tourists, even hikers, necessarily want to stay in a refuge? Wouldn't encouraging them to stay in hotels in fact make greater economic sense?
Four years ago the Council was seeking ways of boosting occupancy of the refuges in summer. Now, because of tourism policies, one fancies that it won't be, further drawing into question the viability of an expanded network. And the refuges, even if they wanted more summer business, most certainly cannot resort to using Airbnb.
The Council of Mallorca may not have been the body which introduced the legislation, but as we know it is fundamental to its implementation. Its political make-up mirrors that of the government. For the Council as well as the government, Airbnb is thus akin to the devil's work. So, when the Council discovered that Can Boi was being advertised on Airbnb, you can imagine that the Council corridors were full of fury that went beyond a mere breach of advertising rules.
Can Boi, if you are unaware, is one of the Council's Tramuntana refuges. These are essentially like hostels and they are typically pretty basic. Situated in Deià, Can Boi is on the GR221 dry-stone route. As with other refuges along the route, it isn't particularly well patronised in high summer. Publicising itself might therefore be considered to make some business sense. Well, it can publicise itself, but not on Airbnb.
While the Council owns these refuges, a couple are operated - as is the case with Can Boi - by a concessionaire. There are certain rules that need to be observed in the contracts, and the Airbnb incident points to limitations imposed on running them in a true business sense. And Heaven knows, when the Pont Romà refuge in Pollensa was being put up for "privatisation", there was a right old ballyhoo from local businesses which reckoned this would represent unfair competition, though for the life of me I couldn't understand how - a maximum of 38 people with prices pegged at low rates, it made little difference whether the Council or someone else was in charge.
The Council had pursued this limited move towards privatisation on account of the vast debt that the refuges had run up - at least 600,000 euros back in 2011. Five years ago when I considered the role of the refuges on the dry-stone route, I concluded that there should be more of them. Notwithstanding the costs of running them, I came to this conclusion purely because the refuges appeal to a particular type of minority tourism. Five years ago one assessed such an issue in straightforward tourism terms. Five years on and there is a political expedient which supersedes purely tourism considerations.
The Council and the regional government would of course deny this. As part of the "Better in Winter" campaign, the more refuges the merrier. Yes, the refuges are for tourists, but these tourists are now politicised because of the politics of tourism policies. Refuges are thus "a good thing", with no questions asked.
Once upon a time, as in 2011, the Council was shelling out upwards of three million euros in investing in its refuges. There is now an alternative source of investment - the tourist tax. Consequently, there are to be new refuges on the Galatzó finca in Calvia and in Betlem (Arta). One wouldn't be surprised if others were to pop up, thanks to the tourist tax.
The Council is not the sole provider of refuges. The Ibanat agency, part of the environment ministry, has its own - thirteen of them. Seven of these are also in the Tramuntana. The others are, for example, in the Llevant Nature Park, and the Betlem refuge is on the Es Canons finca, which is to become part of an expanded park, courtesy of 4.7 million euros of tax revenue.
In principle, this may all sound reasonable enough, but how many refuges are needed? The number of guests is generally on the rise, but to give an idea of use, in 2012 there were just over 18,000 for the entire year in the five (as were) Council refuges in the Tramuntana; there are now eight of them.
In addition to the investment, there are the running costs. The annual cost of maintenance for the five refuges in 2012 was over one million euros. There are now more of them, with others about to be added. But nowhere, it seems, is anyone actually querying the necessity of increasing the number. The government's got the money, so the government will spend on refuges because they conform to a political vision of tourism that remains predicated on a shaky foundation - all those extra tourists in winter. And in any event, do these extra tourists, even hikers, necessarily want to stay in a refuge? Wouldn't encouraging them to stay in hotels in fact make greater economic sense?
Four years ago the Council was seeking ways of boosting occupancy of the refuges in summer. Now, because of tourism policies, one fancies that it won't be, further drawing into question the viability of an expanded network. And the refuges, even if they wanted more summer business, most certainly cannot resort to using Airbnb.
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