The Golden Age Of Winter Tourism

Round and round and round we go in ever-decreasing circles of repetition. The main season is coming towards its end, and so it is time for the new season to begin, that of the wailing and gnashing of teeth regarding the winter season. Or rather, what winter season?

The repetition has already begun, partly thanks to Pedro Iriondo, the head of the Fomento del Turismo (the Mallorca Tourist Board). Bars, restaurants, shops closed in winter; how can anyone be expected to sell winter tourism if they are all closed?

Sr. Iriondo is someone of a bygone era who, on assuming the presidency of the board, reminisced about a time when everyone in Mallorca was happy, there were parties on the beach and, not that he said this, it cost less than a quid to get absolutely blotto.

Ah yes, this bygone era, when the beaches and hotels were packed to the gunwales in summer and when winter tourists also flocked to the island. There is just one problem with this. The bit about winter tourism. There never was a Golden Age of winter tourism in Mallorca. It is a total myth.

Hardened veterans will insist that the Age did exist and will say, endlessly and repetitiously, that it can be re-created by, amongst other things, opening a few more shops up and keeping some hotels open. However, you can't re-create something that wasn't there.

In 2003 the Chamber of Commerce and the Economy Circle of Mallorca (a group of leading businesspeople) produced a report entitled: "The current situation of and perspectives on tourism in the Balearic Islands". It was partly an historical document and partly one that looked forward.

In it, there was a table which showed the percentage of tourists (to the Balearics) who came in the main season (defined as April to October). In 1981 this percentage was 90%. It had gone down to 85% in 1991 and back up again to 88% by 2001. From other information, it had crept back to 90% in 2008.

If the Golden Age of winter tourism ever existed, therefore, it was in the eighties, but in relative terms the level of out-of-season tourism rose only slightly. While there may well have been and were parts of Mallorca which did reasonably well in winter in the eighties, there are factors to take into account. One is that the whole debate about winter tourism, among the British, is seen through British eyes. This is a not unimportant factor.

During the eighties, the overall level of British tourism rose staggeringly (by 250% between 1981 and 1988). This followed a period of significant decline in British tourism on the back of economic difficulties in the seventies. The growth in eighties tourism was also helped by an extremely favourable exchange rate.

Dealing in percentages doesn't give the whole story. The actual numbers do. In the mid-eighties, the number of tourists per year to the Balearics was around 5 million. The number of winter tourists, peaking at 15% of the total, could never have been greater than 750,000. If this was the Golden Age of winter tourism, then what do we have now? Well, in 2008, for example, over 11 million tourists came to the Balearics, a million or more of them in winter. The Golden Age is now, not then.

How can this be, you ask. Well, partly it's the British perspective again. In 2003 the Chamber of Commerce referred to air connections from Germany in respect of winter tourism. It made no mention of those from the UK and would be even less likely to now. It has been German tourism that has been largely responsible for Mallorca's winter tourism. Which is bad news in a way, as Air Berlin is planning to cut some of its routes this winter. Its boss in Spain and Portugal, Álvaro Middelmann, blames hotels for not opening, obsolete and overpriced bars and restaurants and even the airport authority AENA for its inadequate service.

Mallorca's winter tourism is not something to be re-created but to be created. There are plenty of ideas as to how, and they can be dealt with another time. But we might hope that the Balearics Tourism Agency, augmented by the inclusion of all manner of interested parties, including the Mallorca Tourist Board and airlines, can, for once, get to grips with winter tourism. Not that you should bank on it. In thirty years time the same debate will still be had, and commentators will look back at a Golden Age of winter tourism - in the first decade of the twenty-first century.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.