Nothing Changes: All-inclusives

I have a system which highlights the subject matter of every article I have written since 2006 about Mallorca. It won't come as any surprise to know that Mallorca itself is way in the lead when it comes to themes within this archive. Other than similarly general references to the Balearics, to certain towns (Alcúdia and Pollensa most obviously), to the Balearic Government and to tourism, all of which also command particularly high numbers, of specific topics, there, more or less at number one on the list, is the subject of all-inclusives. It beats even corruption and Catalan, though admittedly not by much. 

There are roughly 2000 articles in this archive. 3.6% of them have had to do with all-inclusives. Expressed as a percentage, this may not sound a lot, but some 70 or so articles over the years amount to a confirmation of the importance of the subject and also to the fact that there is probably very little more that either I or anyone could actually say on the subject. It has all been said many, many times, and if you were go back before 2006, it would have been said then as well.

It does come, therefore, not as a total surprise but as an exercise of far-too-late futility that tourist businesses in Alcúdia have decided to form a platform from which they intend to express their discontent with not just all-inclusives and their impact but also much of the regional government's new tourism law.

Such a platform is far too late by a good 15 years; more maybe. Expressions of concern as to the impact of all-inclusives date back to the 1990s, but expressions were all they were. It wasn't necessarily the case that there was a lack of foresight as to how the all-inclusive development might pan out, but it was the case that, lulled by the complacency that has dogged Mallorca's tourism and by the still easy money that was to be made, no strong objections were raised that might - one says might - have caused the history of all-inclusives to be rather different. If all-inclusives were to have been challenged, if they were to have been subject to strict controls, if they were to have been a priority for discussion with the all-powerful tour operators, the 1990s were when the challenge should have been made.

What does this Alcúdia platform intend doing? One thing is that it may demonstrate outside the tourism ministry in September. I'm sure Delgado will be sleeping uneasily at the prospect. Another thing is that it wishes to make this platform an island-wide movement, islands' wide probably. And then what?

It is not that I am not supportive of the Alcúdia businesses, not that I am not, as I have been for years, deeply concerned as to the effects of all-inclusives, but I have heard all of the protest talk, the forming of pressure groups talk, the this, that or the next action against all-inclusives that many times that it no longer has the capacity to make me believe that any effort will produce anything other than the normal bluster, hot air, anger, same-old arguments that all the other ones have. Indeed, where Alcúdia is concerned, there was talk this time last year of a protest in the form of a day of restaurant closure. There was never any chance of it happening, though when it was being spoken about was when I was aiding the BBC with a feature on all-inclusives (centred on Alcúdia and Can Picafort), and the BBC were sufficiently interested to know if anything came of it. Why? Because it would have been a dramatic form of protest. So dramatic that there was no possibility of it ever materialising. 

The all-inclusive polemic shifts only in the scale of the problem. Economic crisis has made the impact more acute and the availability of all-inclusive more apparent. To add to this, there are the changes in the tourism law which will allow hotels to include in their grounds more of which was only to be found outside them, thus potentially further harming tourist businesses. To cap it all, there is the IVA increase.

Many of these businesses will be headed by people who voted for the Partido Popular, but they did so knowing that Delgado was on a mission for change. They knew, or should have done, that there was precious little that he would or could do about all-inclusives, and the precious little that is contained in the tourism law is little indeed. They might not have envisaged the IVA increase, especially as a reduction had been promised, but whether they did or they didn't, they voted for a government that is doing nothing for them. Well, to be honest, they should have known better.

Maybe the tourism law's insistence on hotels having quality plans will have an effect and lead to some hotels having to abandon all-inclusive. But no one is surely relying on this as an outcome as, in the same way, they are not relying on the daft prohibition of food and drink being taken out of hotels making one iota of difference.

Doubtless I will write further articles about all-inclusives, but this one - number 71 in a series - only really adds to what is already known. 71 articles, enough material for a book. A book with a familiar story line, a familiar plot and a familiar ending. Nothing will change.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.