Vogue, Vogue, Vogue

With some degree of coincidence following on from the piece about chill-out the other day comes a different form of chill-out - the chill-out area on the beach in Puerto Alcúdia. One is tempted to suggest, as the temperatures rise towards the 100 mark, that chill-out in the form of ice baths might be more meaningful than a part of the beach that is, well, not that much different to the rest. But vogue is everything, even if it takes some time to kick in. We've been chilling for years and now we can on the beach - after a fashion. Ho hum.

The chill-out area, heralded here several months ago, as part of a programme for the beach, the centrepoint with no centre being the WiFi zone, is a sort of sun-lounger plus enclave. Add a table with a mould for a glass, a bit of muzak and hey presto chill-out. Everything has become chill-out. It's as if you need a chill-out area to escape from all the chill-out. There is nothing wrong with the idea as such, just that it is hardly anything new, albeit that it may be in Alcúdia. Elsewhere it has long been an aspect of beach life that areas are sectioned off, usually attached to a beach-bar, in which one can enjoy a drink and a sunbathe without being struck on the head by a football. No one ever thought to call them anything, least of all chill-out areas; they were just, well, there. Vogue and branding is everything. Hey, we've got a chill-out area.

What most intrigued me when reading "The Bulletin's" report on this latest manifestation was not that the town hall's spokesperson came from the tourism department, which - one might think - would be the section of the council that would front-up on the development; it was the councillor for town planning and services. I'm not altogether surprised. I had a bit of a chat recently with the tourism department. I wondered if this blog had become required reading for them. WiFi zone, computers on beaches, chill-out areas - are there not more pressing priorities? The tourism offices may be somewhat remote, as I said in another piece recently, but this is partly because of resources; they want more staff and longer opening hours, the idea of tourism patrol teams was one they quite liked. But they won't get any of it because there's no budget; it goes on prestige developments that sound good in marketing terms but are largely floss. They may be remote but they are not without a pretty good idea as to the sort of things that are needed. One might also add other parts of the town hall. Someone was bemoaning the state of the pathways around The Mile and the lack of cleaning. It's all well and good having chilled out on the beach with your laptop getting covered in sand and oil only to walk back and tread in some dog shit. The streets need to be kept pristine if only to prevent all manner of disease being caught by the lunatics who insist on walking around barefoot.


To a different matter, which kind of leads on from the item of two days ago about hotels. Is this just more rumour or is this more substantial? Alcúdia's all-inclusives will cease in 2010. The source of this is a gestor, one of the professional ranks who, one might believe, has some idea as to what is going on. Maybe. But how can they cease? They can if their licences are revoked and the town hall really does feel that they've made a bit of a pig's ear of the all-inclusive situation. I'm not convinced. There are hotels that are all-inclusives where the directors would gladly drop AI tomorrow, but the market pressures to offer it plus the diktats of the tour operators make it very difficult. Would the Macs simply stop being all-inclusive in under 24 months time? Hard to conceive. But if there is substance to all this, it could be the shining light of a new summer at the end of a very dark tunnel that this one is becoming.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Andy Fairweather-Low - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5FG3Ty3jD4. Today's title - very easy.

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