The Coffee Culture Club

"This cultural tourism stuff," I'm saying. "If there were to be a company that brought aspects of it together, created a package, Cultural Mallorca Tours or some such, it would work in winter, wouldn't it? Offer some genuine chance of tourists coming for this "alternative" stuff in the off-season? It's not happening at the moment, so why not?"
"It's a good idea, but ... There's always a but. Who would be your market? I'll tell you, the better-off, independent and independently-minded. They've got money, but to make it work, you have to charge high. Think of those things like wine tours of the Dordogne. What do they cost? About a thousand a time. Ok, this market may be able to afford it, but you know what they'd do, they'd take a look at the offer, the places where the "tour" would go, and think: 'I can do this myself. And for less'. That's the but, that's the problem. Well, just one. Then there are the costs of marketing and selling it. And for this, for the coaches or mini-buses and all that, you need numbers, you need volume. It would never make money otherwise."
"So, what you're saying is that all this cultural tourism can only ever be somehow passive, passive on behalf of the tourism authorities, as no operator would think it worthwhile."
"No, they wouldn't. Certainly not the big tour operators. Culture in Mallorca? Why? There's culture everywhere, and everywhere wants to sell it. Why here? It's not as if the history is that remarkable. I can tell you about places where it is, but not here. Look, ok, I admit, I'm no tourism expert ..."
"Maybe not, but maybe yes, maybe you, me and some others actually know more about all this than the tourism authorities. We look at it from the outside, we don't have that inward-looking mentality. Maybe we have an idea as to what people want."
"True. We're not politicians ..."
"They're not all politicians."
"But a lot are. They peddle this stuff because it's the right thing to do - politically. They want something other than the sun, sea and beach, because that's not great for the environment."
"But that's what people do want. I've said it time and time again. Said it the other day. Why do the Brits, the Irish, the Germans and the rest come to Mallorca? For the sun. And the authorities just confuse the issue by trying to promote something else, something else that's not going to work because no operator will make it work. There was that professor, applied economics, at the university, saying that sun, sea and beach is 'outmoded' ".
"Well, he's not totally wrong."
"Perhaps not. Ok, people's horizons may have broadened, but you still come back to what it is that they come to Mallorca for. And that's the sun."
"And entertainment."
"Ah yes, entertainment. Have you seen this thing about the Ibiza Rocks place opening up in Magaluf? Five or six big rock acts during the summer. Don't know which hotel they're taking over."
"I think I do. Yea, it's not a bad idea. It's what people want. That sort of music."
"Not the ball de bots and all that then?"
"No, certainly not that. Live music, international."
"They had Keane apparently. That's pretty serious stuff. But it's Magaluf. Always the south. Not in the north."
"No, because the north is family tourism. Wouldn't be the same."
"Hmm. No, it wouldn't. Fancy another coffee?"


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QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Princess (Stock Aitken and Waterman), http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucWT1tvS1Po.

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