Nothing Is Real

With a degree of fanfare for the worthies of government, business and a few local people, the new "centro de interpretación" for the Son Real finca outside Can Picafort was formally opened a couple of nights ago. I trust all had an enjoyable time and partook of some fine hospitality; chances are it will be the first and only time they go. Like restaurant inaugurations, openings of public facilities attract the freeloader and the great and good, never for them to set foot in the place again.

Back in July (24 July, People Get Real), I queried the value of this new centre. Making Son Real sustainable, having a centre of some description; these are worthy and appropriate aims. But the number of visitors anticipated and the amount spent just don't add up. Well sorry, they do add up or are rather divisible, and the sums don't make a huge amount of sense as a calculation of visitor to actual cost.

The "new" Son Real will charge 5 euros top whack, with kids getting in at half price. As I commented back in July, I would guess that a great proportion of the visitors will be school children on trips, as is the case with Albufera. But even assuming that all the 20,000 anticipated visitors per annum were to actually put in an appearance (which would require something in the region of a three-fold increase on current numbers) and also assuming that they were to pay the full price, it will take 30 years to recoup the cost of the new development; it has cost 3 million euros.

How can this possibly be justified? Son Real, it is said, has "international significance", but for whom? Tourists? How many even know of its existence, or indeed how to get to it? Perhaps they're improving the information, but Son Real has hardly been something well signed or even publicised. And one presumes the charge is for the centre and museum as opposed to the actual finca. If so, you can cut that 20,000 by a proportion.

The real message being sent out by Son Real is one of egoistic sustainable tourism and development; the finca itself is managed by the centre for sustainable development. There is nothing inherently wrong in this, but what is wrong is the belief that the type of project undertaken at Son Real holds any great benefit for tourism. It doesn't. Or if it does, only at an inconsequential level. Son Real sits alongside the projected new Pollentia centre and arts and science museum in Alcúdia as an example of a qualitative exercise in minority interest. Fine buildings, fine centres add to the overall quality of life for everyone, tourist included, but there is a delusion that they will provide for an alternative form of tourism that will be anything other than a drop of culture in the Mediterranean.


POLLENSA AND ITS ACCOUNTS
One might have imagined that budgets for the current year would long ago have been approved, like last year for example. Not so in Pollensa where problems are never far from the town hall's agenda. According to the "Diario", the budgets will be "finalised" this coming Tuesday. Oh well, better late than never. And taking account, as it were, of the tardiness of their completion, the town hall is employing a company to put together next year's accounts somewhat earlier and also to oversee financial control of the council's accounts. As always, there is an opposition politico who begs to differ with the approach, but rather more fundamentally, the fact of employing an outside firm suggests that the town hall simply lack the competence to do what should be one of their main tasks.

I don't know how financial control of the town halls is performed here, but given the debts that many have and to say nothing of the periodic scandal that erupts, there is much to be said for a system of external control. In Pollensa's case, they may just have stumbled across the right solution for the wrong reason, though this still raises a question as to the existence or rigidity of some form of external audit. If an audit is not mandatory, it damn well ought to be.


REAL MALLORCA ... MORE CARRY ON
"Ultima Hora" has a line today. It describes the events surrounding the proposed takeover of Real Mallorca having a touch of the Marx Brothers; it also describes the events as a soap opera. Perhaps they should really be a Carry On. Carry On Prevaricating, or some such.

Yesterday was meant to have seen an agreement. Now it will be next week. Maybe. Meantime the coach of the team is asking desperately for some clarification of what's going on. The shadow of Freddy Shepherd still looms over the takeover, as does the more shadowy figure of an unnamed Russian magnate. Paul Davidson, for his part, remains confident, and "The Bulletin", front pages with "Real Deal" today. A more sober assessment is to be found in the pages of the Spanish press which sets out the current situation. The fact is that Davidson, who initially tabled an offer far higher than that of Shepherd, has moved to a lower price. When I drew a comparison with Mike Ashley the other day, one thing seems clear: he is performing a thorough process of due diligence, and quite rightly so. Ashley didn't, and that was just part of the reason for the mess he's in. Presumably the examination of the books has led to the lower offer. Meanwhile, Vicente Grande, the current owner, played by Kenneth Williams in the Carry On version, is getting it from all sides - "Infamy, infamy, they've all got it in for me".

If Davidson doesn't in the end take the club over, it won't be for lack of trying. But perhaps his initial offer was no more than an opening gambit to kill off the Shepherd bid. Now both parties are mired in the legal process, things have become that much more complicated. Maybe Mr. Grande underestimated Mr. Davidson. If so, he should have taken time to study Davidson's landmark triumph over the UK Financial Services Authority. This is a canny businessman who may yet succeed in his acquisition. And perhaps we will find out if he has this week, or perhaps we won't.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - The Walker Brothers (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJ8XLglx8HQ). Today's title - "... and nothing to get hung about."

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