Streets Of Your Town

As promised, more on the tourist offices being out of touch. Perhaps I should define what I mean here. By out of touch, the tourism people don't know what the tourist really experiences or thinks. It's not altogether surprising. The main contacts between the tourist and the tourism department take place in the tourist office, a place of information gathering by the tourist rather than one of investigation or information probing by the tourist authorities. Apart from this, there is no real contact. Well as though some of the people in the tourist offices may speak different languages, these offices are not necessarily conducive to some lengthy discussion regarding what the tourist really thinks about a place or what he is concerned about. In Puerto Pollensa, I have seen a questionnaire knocking around, but how much this is acted upon I don't know. Surveys can often act as cosmetic exercises.

But to come to Alcúdia. I have spoken with the town hall, in the form of the tourism department, about things like the scratch-card operations, about the state of the bridges and canals and about drugs. Let's take the latter. It came as something of a surprise that the lucky-lucky men are a front-line conduit for the sale of Class-A and other drugs. Yet, anyone who knows, knows that drugs are available from them, and have been for the last ten years; perhaps longer. Puerto Pollensa is not much different. The tourist officials do not know what goes on on the streets of their towns; well in Alcúdia anyway. Moreover, there is no monitoring system of what is said, for instance about Alcúdia. That letter to "The Bulletin" about the scratch-card operations. How did the town hall get to know about it? How do you think?

There is a mass of information about what tourists think about a place, be it Alcúdia, Pollensa, wherever. A mass of it on the internet, and yet there is no systematic observation of this by the tourist offices. Partly perhaps it's a language issue, but only partly. They can find native speakers easily enough if they have the will. You may ask, well why should they go looking for this information. For one very good reason. That is their business - tourists. To overlook the information diminishes the public relations aspect of their work. Commercial businesses some years ago established complaints management systems; complaints are one of the best sources of finding out what a consumer really thinks. And acting upon them is one of the best ways of creating good PR. Even without a formal complaints (or praise) management system, the tourist offices should be delving into all those forums and sites in which people discuss anything from mosquitoes to hotels to scratch cards to the price of a beer. This all matters, or it should do.

One fancies that the town halls might be a bit taken aback were they to see what is said about their resorts; they would also be pleased by much of it as well. But the ease with which people can post pretty much what they like about a resort should be something for which there is, at least, a monitoring capability. Most review sites are remote; they don't have a particular interest in any resort in whatever country. They exist for sounding-off and compliment in not necessarily equal measure. And so much information, much of it mis-information, flies around the internet unchallenged and unknown to the tourist authorities. One almost wonders if they haven't deferred to the websites, but only when there is local representation, such as with myself or with Martin at the estimable puertopollensa.com, might they get some on-the-ground feedback.

There is a distance between the town and the resort and the tourist. The hotel often takes the surrogate role of the town, and for this reason the hotel has a responsibility to the town in which it is located; it is the resort's representative, or it should be. But more often than not, it is not. The hotel is a business, first and foremost; its local community responsibility, and it's the same for the tour operators, may not be the first thing on its agenda, if at all.

I have a suggestion. In Alcúdia, they are willing to spend money on what are little more than prestige services - the beach WiFi zone is one. Useful it may be, but there are different ways in which the tourist can be served. Different cost category granted but cost nonetheless; take some of this money that goes on the prestigious and some of the money that is wasted on things like the Can Ramis debacle, and create an on-street tourism patrol. On foot, not on scooters. Walking. Teams of two, clearly identifiable, along the Mile, around the port, on the beach. Tourism help and assistance teams. Preferably, these teams would be people who know ... know what is going on. Not police but with easy communications to the police. Not there to shop people or bars or those whose sound limiters might be a bit wonky, but to assist the tourist and be the visible sign of the resort - on the streets. In part, this idea comes from my own experience with those who see the t-shirt (for the website) and stop and ask.

Public relations, close contact to the tourist and therefore to the consumer, for that is what the tourist is - he is a consumer of the resort. He deserves more.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - By hook or by crook; it was "The Prisoner". Today's title - one of this blog's favourites; Australian from the late '80s.

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