Over And Over Again: Too many hotel beds

Over-regulation and over-supply. Over and over we go. And so do Mallorca's hotels.

At the conference into tourism law and rights that was held last week, the hoteliers pleaded for less regulation while also admitting that they were part of the problem of Mallorca's tourism industry because they create too many places.

It seems an extraordinary admission, but it was one backed by the national secretary-general for tourism, the Mallorcan Joan Mesquida. The hotels spoke of the need for "legal formulae" to enable both investment in the hotel sector and the departure from the market of establishments with no business future. A cynical, but probably accurate view, is that the latter - the departure - has to do with finding a convenient way of re-classifying the real estate for different usage.

The admission isn't so extraordinary, however, when you take into consideration the age of some hotel stock (and the cost of renovating it), the drive towards higher standards led by the regional government, tour operators and indeed customers, the lower margins caused by the over-supply in alliance with other destination competition, and the unprofitability of a goodly percentage of tourists.

The over-supply hypothesis is not simply a case of hotels generating superior profits, it is one that goes to the heart of a strategic vision of Mallorca's tourism that successive governments have spoken about but have singularly failed to come up with. One reason for this failure is because it requires facing up to something which few politicians wish to - reduced numbers of tourists.

There are all manner of reasons why politicians wouldn't wish this. Employment is one. Unfortunately, however, there is employment in Mallorca which exists solely for the purpose of serving an element of the tourist market that does not pay for it. Over-supply? There most certainly is. And it is made up of that percentage which contributes zilch.

For years there has been a desire in Mallorca for higher "quality" tourism. It is a term that I detest, mainly because of the pejorative that it implies: tourists without money are of no value. Detest it I may do, on the grounds of egalitarianism that anyone, regardless of income or socioeconomics, is free to come and vomit into an all-inclusive pool, but I am of course being ruled by the heart. Tourism is, or should be, about the head.

The "head" of tourism strategy has ruled, but it has been the wrong head. The numbers game is all that has mattered. The hoteliers have finally fingered the culprit of the cause of some of Mallorca's tourism malaise, but they are doing so in an entirely disingenuous fashion. They do this because they like to believe, and make governments similarly believe, that they are the only game in town.

Let's take a town, shall we? Puerto Pollensa. This is a town, a resort, in which there has been considerable talk of the need for more hotels. The notion seems utterly contrary, given what is now being said. But it isn't because of the strategy of tourism based on hotel accommodation.

Puerto Pollensa doesn't have that many hotels, and only one that might be considered "big". It is a resort that is quite different to many, such as its neighbours Alcúdia and Can Picafort. Considerable snobbery emanates from Puerto Pollensa, but not without good reason. It isn't like other resorts because its profile is also unlike others: its tourism market is geared towards residential tourism as much, if not more, than hotels. It is a profile, therefore, which is more inclined to spend money than that of resorts with an over-supply of hotels.

But such a profile runs up against the hotel dogma and the hotel lobby, one that would rather the holiday-let market was cast adrift in the bay of Pollensa and elsewhere on the island. The hoteliers then display more disingenuousness by criticising what they call a "lack of homogeneity" as being one impediment to tourism. In other words, they would rather that everything was the same. The same, presumably, on their terms.

Over-supply there is, for sure, and in resorts which - and the hoteliers are wrong - do conform to homogeneity, resorts for which there has been little or no strategic vision in terms of their image, their inherent qualities and differences. This has been the failure. Puerto Pollensa isn't like this. It has its own image and there is no over-supply. But perhaps there is an under-supply of the type of accommodation the hoteliers would resent. Or would they? They're not stupid. And that brings us back to the departure from the market. What do you do with old hotels that are no longer any use?

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.