Walk On The Wild Side

If you thought things might currently be a bit difficult in Mallorca, tourism-wise, spare a thought for Menorca where tourism has been spiralling downwards, and not just as a consequence of recent economic hard times. The island's tourism board has decided to suspend its activities for the foreseeable future, meaning that it will not engage in promotions until such time as there is a discernible recovery when it would apply for further funding from the regional government. While Menorca will still be a beneficiary of the generic Balearics promotions undertaken by the government, it will not, for the time being, have its own. This is an extraordinary state of affairs, one blamed, in part, on tour operators who seem to have turned their backs on the island, or so it is said.

The tourism board is in a Catch 22. It says that promotions will be renewed when there is a recovery but that it cannot fund promotions that might actually speed up the recovery. Furthermore, the board says that Menorca needs a modernisation of its tourism offer, which, one presumes, means upgrades of its hotel stock and resorts. Tellingly, the board also says that it acts not just as a promotional vehicle for tourism but as a "lynchpin" for the island as a whole, by which it means that tourism is fundamental to the island's economy. Even more so than Mallorca, Menorca is almost totally reliant on tourism, and it is a tourism, moreover, of pretty much one sort - summer, i.e. sun, sea and sand. The island does not have the sort of landscape that Mallorca has that might make it attractive to what little winter tourism is knocking about, while the airlines and, yes, the tour operators largely ignore the island out of season. But the season itself has become increasingly difficult, and one seriously has to ask what the future may hold for Menorca, sidelined even within the Balearics, let alone the rest of the Mediterranean.

This story was one of three shorts of interest in "The Bulletin" yesterday. The other two dealt with efforts by the municipalities of Manacor and Artà to extend their own tourism offers. Manacor, in which the best-known resorts are Porto Cristo and Calas de Mallorca, is planning on promoting more rural tourism, while Artà, which has little by way of tourism, is the recipient of funding to promote its environment to a tourist who might be attracted by walking and trekking in that natural environment. I am slightly confused, as the report speaks of half a million euros being advanced for promotion, but almost exactly a year ago (22 November, 2008: I Keep Quiet About It), I explained how the town was to get some seven million euros. Well, whatever, the plan now being spoken of is to concentrate on this nature tourism and not to create more hotel stock. The town, apparently, has adequate numbers of hotels as it is. And you might ask where they all are, as Artà's only real resort is the hardly-bustling Colonia Sant Pere.

With Manacor promoting its rural hotels and therefore its interior and Artà its walks and landscape, both towns are engaged in their own marketing but one that is a part of a general desire for tourism diversification. It's all very worthy, but does it, will it, amount to a great deal? In Artà, they are saying that they can promote all-year tourism with what they have. Maybe they can, but it does rather depend what size this is. Very small, I would think, and not just in winter.


Weather in November
For over a week or so, the weather has been extremely benign, indeed the temperatures on Mallorca have been 1.5 degrees above the average for the month thus far. There have been occasions when it has seemed particularly warm, though, as always, there have been some crazy exaggerations. 23, 24 has probably been tops, and certainly not 30 or more. Of official numbers, the average for Palma airport for the first half of the month has been 18.4.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Forget the title from yesterday, here's Natalie with "Torn". Lovely. And so is the song, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bPndxNNKfA. Today's title - if you know some of the lyrics to this, you will probably also find it odd that I once passed a children's roundabout at a resort in France where the version of this by Vanessa Paradis was being played. Mind you, it was in English.


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