No One Ever Said This Was Gonna Be Easy - Ferrer Is Tourism Minister

As mentioned yesterday, Miquel Ferrer is to be the new tourism minister. He replaces Miquel Nadal. Always a Miquel. Miquel, row the tourism boat ashore but not onto the rocks - with any luck. Hopefully, for the new Mick in town, the coalition won't indeed fall apart, as he may end up without a job; he is relinquishing the mayoral post in Alcúdia. President Antich believes that Ferrer is the right Mick for the job, as he has been mayor of one of the more important tourism centres in Mallorca. Perhaps. Whether that is a real qualification for the job might be open to some debate. And to what extent Ferrer has been behind tourism development in Alcúdia is also open to question.

What has been the record recently? The establishment of the combined sepia and boat fairs in spring? Yes, a good move, but it was inspired as much by traders in the port as by the town hall. The tourism day in September? Nice idea, but not hugely relevant to the tourism season as a whole. The upgrades to the beach? The WiFi zone has, except inside the hotels linked to it, not been a success and is not well-promoted. The chill-out zone came and went. The growth in all-inclusives? There is little the town hall can truly do to stop it, but it has been a feature of Ferrer's tenure. The pursuit of alternative tourism? The Nordic walking area in the north of the town, yes, but only something of minority interest. The Estación Náutica concept? Nothing really to do with Ferrer, as it was driven by the Spanish Government's Turespaña promotional body, and town hall contacts tell me that they don't know exactly what's happening with it.

Rather more positively, there have been the improvements to the area by the Vanity Golf hotel. There has been more aggressive marketing of Alcúdia, e.g. via a tourism website that does actually offer something, unlike Pollensa's, yet the tourist information offices are not as good as they might be and the department, as a whole, lacks resources and funding. Perhaps Ferrer's greatest achievement lies not so much with tourism but with the overall management of the town hall. Alcúdia is the only town hall in the northern area that works anything like properly, and it is in surplus, assuming one believes the figures, and the opposition of course don't.

There were others who might, on the face of it, have been more qualified for the post, such as Joan Sastre, the director-general of tourism promotion, but Ferrer's appointment is probably a political one as much as it is practical. His party, the Unió Mallorquina (UM), advanced his case, once the former-but-one minister, Buils, was rejected by Antich. Ferrer is something of a leading light in the UM. He was a challenger to Miquel Nadal when Nadal ascended to the UM throne in succession to mother Munar who made it quite clear that Nadal was her preferred choice. Look where that has got either of them - in court. That Ferrer has now taken over from Nadal at tourism might well give him cause for a touch of schadenfreude, but he's unlikely to express it. His greatest strength has arguably been the fact that he keeps his mouth shut. His discretion during the recent corruption crisis that has afflicted his party has stood him in good stead. This, in itself, may bode well in a senior governmental role where diplomacy within a coalition setting should be a virtue.

However, there are misgivings, not least whether Ferrer has the presence to be an effective tourism minister. He will be diligent, but will he be dynamic? It's a step-up for a local politician - and he is a native of Alcúdia - to the international business world of TUI, Thomas Cook, Air Berlin and glad-handing at trade fairs and other events. Ferrer does not cut the same dash as Nadal, a politician hewn from the more worldly political environment of Palma. Even he, Nadal, found it impossible to extract a greater budget for tourism. Will Ferrer be more assertive? Doubtful.

Nevertheless, one can but hope. It should be a source of some pride for "alcudiencs" that their mayor has been given the task of tourism minister, but he does of course face any number of challenges. In yesterday's "Bulletin", the editorial bemoans - yet again - the state of winter tourism, yet again calls for extended shop hours and offers such as food and wine tours and yet again calls for "imagination". The challenge of winter tourism, for Ferrer, is to try and convince many that they are barking up the wrong tree. Want food and wine tours? Ok, go and organise them, and see where it gets you. The dialogue I presented recently in respect of cultural tourism (27 November: The Coffee Culture Club) applies just as equally to this form of niche tourism. The greatest challenge is the bread and butter of summer. We wish him well. No one ever said this was going to be easy.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Eric Idle in Monty Python's "Church Police" ("There's a dead bishop on the landing ..."). Today's title - What was this? Mark E. Smith, The Fall, but with which band?

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