The Division Bell: Town halls, hotels and local business

One day we learn that the number of hotel places in Mallorca devoted to all-inclusive is set to double in 2011. The next we find out that the hotel federation is calling on the Council of Mallorca to press upon town halls the need to make their tourist areas prettier.

The two things don't add up. On the principle that all-inclusive guests tend to stay in situ, then what is the point in beautifying the surroundings? And if the doubling of all-inclusive places for next year were to be repeated in subsequent years, there would be even less point, other than so that guests can peer out from their balconies at well-tended museum pieces or can be transported to and from the airport through resorts which resemble empty film sets badly in need of a producer or two.

But the federation has a point. A quick drive through Can Picafort confirms it. Winter doesn't find the place at its best of course, certainly not when it is undergoing its annual dig for victory, but even in summer it's not exactly a thing of beauty. And so it is elsewhere, even in Puerto Pollensa which is meant to be a thing of beauty. This didn't stop the demonstration in June, one inspired by what was and still is perceived as the neglect of the resort. Oddly enough, the local hoteliers shunned the demonstration. So much for solidarity either with other businesses or with the hoteliers of the island.

Can Picafort and Puerto Pollensa both emphasize what the federation is saying, or at least implying, as they are representative of a common enough complaint that emanates from the resorts and is directed at town halls some kilometres away. In Can Picafort, while Santa Margalida town hall devotes funds to redoing the town's La Beata garden, money has mainly to be begged from the regional government environment ministry to improve the narrow promenade. It's something, even if there's not much that can be done about what lies next to the prom, and I'm not referring to the beach.

The complaint is that town halls, closeted away in their old-town buildings, ignore their resorts in favour of the towns themselves. This may be more a perception than fact, but perception goes a long way, and in another town, Muro, there is little denying the fact that its resort receives barely any type of improvement or intervention from the town hall except for its own annual event - the how-much-can-we-fine the bloke with the sunbeds concession. The town itself has been the beneficiary of municipal and tourism ministry finance, as in they laid some new pavements on which all the tourists who don't go there can walk.

Alcúdia is an exception. It is surely no coincidence that the connection between the old town, and therefore the town hall building, and the port area is all but seamless. There is no distance factor. Both the old town within the walls and the port area were a mess some years ago, but not now. The transformation of both would seem to be evidence of what the hotel federation is asking for. There may still be the resort's gloriously unsophisticated Mile area, but the town hall has continued to do what it can, such as with recent spend on the beach to install new showers, an improved beach walkway, lighting and play areas.

If the hotel federation manages to bring the town and down-there in the resorts closer together, then fine, but it manages itself to remain at loggerheads with what else is down there - the restaurants, bars and other businesses. Doubling the number of all-inclusive places is unlikely to improve relations, soured earlier this year by the hotels saying that local businesses moan too much and do nothing themselves by way of improving their product or promoting resorts. And again they have a point, as in Magalluf.

One of the better, most recent initiatives in Mallorca has been the introduction of the Mallorca Rocks concerts at the eponymous hotel, owned by the Fiesta group. Not only was this a good idea, it was also successful this summer, so much so that the number of concerts is going to increase in 2011. Step forward the local tourist business association to complain and to worry that the idea of "themed" hotels might spread.

Yet here is something fresh, something to be welcomed. But not by all, it would seem. And so, as ever, you have bodies pulling in different directions, ringing a division bell of opposing, antagonistic views. Just as town halls seem unable to accept their responsibilities for their resorts, so you have the hotels and local business warring in disagreement, Puerto Pollensa's hoteliers loftily declining to support a protest and, moreover, the hotels themselves helping to add to the undermining of the Playa de Palma renewal by insisting that 3-star accommodation has to be maintained. And mention of Playa de Palma is apposite, because this was meant to be a beautification of a resort. Remind me, who are now calling on improvements to resorts? Oh yes, the hotels.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.