Making Waves: Resort re-imagination

The excitement down Magalluf way has, as you might have expected, been exciting the media. For once, Maga isn't finding a dubious place in the media sun because of drunkenness, violence, balcony-diving, PR "tiqueteros" and prostitution (choose as applicable).

More is emerging of Meliá Hotels International's grand vision for Magalluf. There is, for instance, going to be a "wave house", artificial surf created by submersible pumps. "Flowing water is a symbol for wealth and prosperity in Feng Shui". So says the waveloch.com website; Wave Loch has, since 1991, "been on a mission to wave the world". There is a wave house in San Diego, in Durban, in Santiago (Chile) and in Singapore. Just as Magalluf coming at the end of a list of locations for a fashion house - London, Paris, New York, Rome - would sound daft, so it sounds out of place with the current Wave Houses. Still, think of all that wealth and prosperity, and how long will it be before Magalluf ceases to be Magalluf and is completely renamed after the Meliá concept - the Sol Calvià Resort? It sounds altogether more impressive.

The idea that Magalluf might be renamed isn't as ridiculous as it might seem. By going along with Meliá's plan, the regional government and Calvià town hall have all but ceded responsibility for the resort. Or at least this is the impression one gets. Some years ago, I suggested that sponsorship deals for individual resorts, and renaming them with the sponsor's name, might not be a bad idea. It was a suggestion made in jest. Little did I know.

The government, bending over backwards to take the private-sector shilling - as well it might, as the private sector is the only sector that has a shilling - is now making it clear what President Bauzá meant by his version of "small government". It isn't small so much as non-existent, where tourism is concerned at any rate. Tourism minister Carlos Delgado has done the talking for Bauzá. There won't be more public money for the Playa de Palma redevelopment, he appears to have decided; enough has already been spent on fat salaries for members of the consortium who have succeeded in achieving pretty much nothing.

Another of the plans for Magalluf involves the beach. Meliá will in effect end up running it. There is the slight matter, however, of the Costas authority, that wing of national government which issues decrees on matters of a beach nature. Does the regional government know something we don't? Almost certainly it does. The Costas may well get its wings clipped. It might even be stripped of its wings completely along with its feathers and beak. Delgado has had less than good words for the Costas. Incompetent and slothful was how he described the authority back in July. Whatever the Costas' thoughts regarding the Magalluf plan might currently be, you can be reasonably sure that they will change once Delgado's friends in the Partido Popular return to power in November.

Calviá town hall, another party with an interest in the beach, presumably poses little problem. Delgado, former Calvià mayor, will surely have had words with his PP successor. There seems, therefore, little to prevent Meliá operating the beach and doing all the rest that it has in mind, except for the minor irritation of a need to change laws. We can safely assume, however, that this irritation will be dealt with in due course.

The Magalluf project, for all that is hugely praiseworthy, does raise questions as to how interventionist (or not) the government is likely to be in other matters to do with tourism. It is no bad thing if it takes a back seat and lets the private sector take the lead, but how realistic might it be for similar projects to be rolled out in other resorts? As I pointed out previously, Magalluf is ideal for Meliá because of the number of hotels it has and their convenient concentration near to each other. Not all resorts are like Magalluf though; far from it.

There is more to tourism, however, than just the resorts and the hotels. And more to what falls under the tourism ministry's remit. Take, for example, its responsibilities for arts festivals. Delgado has stated that grants will be limited in the future, if available at all. The ministry left Pollensa town hall high and dry by not providing all the emergency assistance for this year's music festival, as it seemed to have promised. Pollensa's festival is not the only one to feel the cold blast of cuts. If the private sector doesn't come to its aid and to the aid of other festivals, their future has to be in doubt.

The Magalluf plan represents way more than just the re-imagination of a resort. It represents a total shift away from public provision, and it is a shift that will become apparent in other spheres of Mallorca's tourism. Magalluf is a re-imagination and also a re-invention, one in which it is the hoteliers and the private sector which rule the roost and not the regional government. The whole picture of the island's tourism is about to be redrawn. There is excitement certainly, but there is going to also be uncertainty.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.