Message In A Bottle

You never know but maybe the message is getting through. Miquel Nadal, the Balearic Government's tourism minister, in the context of less than brilliant levels of bookings by the crucial Spanish and British tourism markets, has admitted that the islands' tourism has a "great dependency" on the sun and beach variety of tourism. This admission may seem obvious, but it needs to be stated and re-stated. The current economic situation has only helped to reinforce the fact that this admission needs to be constantly re-stated.

The problem is, and has been, that the tourism authorities, in general, have taken their collective eye off the ball - the one bouncing on the beach and blowing in the gentle breeze as grains of sand fly off. So much effort appears to have been diverted to the minority tourism niches that they have forgotten that what makes Mallorca's tourism tick is sun, sea and sangria. If you don't have the mass tourism that comes primarily just to lap up the heat, and that can equate - to a certain degree - to cheap and cheerful, then you don't have a tourist industry; well, not one that sustains an entire economy. At times, one has felt that there has been a pretentiousness and a delusion as to so-called alternative forms of tourism. While these have a part to play, they are not the core tourism product; they never have been and they never will be. The message for Mallorca is, or should be, very simple. Come and have fun in the sun. Don't be deterred by believing you have to come and undertake a course in culture. That is not what Mallorca holiday is. But it is what the tourism authorities have placed a growing emphasis on, at the expense, one feels, of the main product. It has taken the current "crisis" to refocus minds, or at least one hopes that it has. It is mass tourism that provides employment and sustains businesses, both the direct tourist businesses such as bars and hotels, and the indirect - the ancillary services that support these direct businesses. Niche markets, by definition, are not mass markets. They cannot support the island's economic model to anything like a sufficient level. It should not have needed an economic shock to bring the message home, but perhaps it's as well that it has happened. So when Sr. Nadal takes his summer break and is lounging on a quiet Mallorcan beach and a bottle is washed up on the shore, with a bit of luck the bit of paper will say: "keep it simple".


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Tracy Chapman (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl6yilkU1LI). Today's title - no clues needed.

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