Coveting Thy Neighbour's Tourist Market

The Christian theme park, "Tierra Santa", has been hawked around Mallorcan towns like the lost tribes of Israel going vainly in search of some room at an inn. Capdepera and Ses Salines have both been fancied runners to house the theme park, Alcúdia and Calvià are among other towns that have been spoken to, and now the park may well have its final resting place - Inca.

This is not the first time that a theme park has been talked about in Inca. The park between Llucmajor and Campos about which there was considerable publicity towards the end of last year - and about which not a peep has been heard since - was originally planned for Inca (or Calvia) some ten years ago. Inca may now finally get its theme park, though the impression being given is that the town hall administration is cool on the idea.

When the possibility of Inca being the location was first mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Inca's mayor, Rafel Torres, insisted that the only contact had been an informal one. Now that the theme park is starting to seem like more than just a possibility, the mayor has made clear that there will be conditions - jobs would have to be for people of the town only, and businesses inside the theme park could not be in competition with any in the town.

The regional government says that the plan to site the park on rustic land at the foot of the Puig de Santa Magdalena would "probably" be in compliance with provisions in the new tourism law that allow for construction on such land. 21 hectares would become theme-parked, and the environmentalists are, as you might imagine, distinctly unimpressed; the Salva Mallorca platform has set up an online petition to campaign against the theme park.

There are plenty of hoops to go through before Tierra Santa becomes a reality, but if it does become reality, what would it mean? Apart from 800 jobs (all for Inca people, the mayor hopes) and 30 million euros of investment, the promoters say that the environmentalists shouldn't worry. The park would be "ecological", it wouldn't be "cement" and it could be dismantled. It would be inclusive in terms of religion, though clearly there would be a concentration on one particular religion. Quite what is made of the whole idea in local ecclesiastical circles, I'm not sure, though the promoters say that it has the approval of the Bishopric of Mallorca and of the Vatican.

The park would consist of a re-creation of Jerusalem at the time of Christ, of figures and actors representing that era, of exhibitions to show customs, traditions and the origins of spirituality, of music and dance shows, of ancient Arabic, Jewish and Armenian gastronomy as well as of restaurants more in keeping with contemporary times; it might be the latter which cause some conflict with businesses outside the theme park.

But most important is what the park would generate in terms of tourism. The promoters claim that there will be more than 60,000 new tourists each month, and note that they say "each month". If it were to, then it would go some way to boosting winter tourism, but would it?

The projected number of tourists needs to be put into context. Palma Aquarium, the most visited attraction on Mallorca, registered its highest number of visitors in August this year - 78,000. The Aquarium, however, has made quite clear the difficulties that it and other attractions have out of season and that earlier months of the summer season were relatively slow.

The Christian theme park would be a totally different attraction, but unless it were to create a whole new tourism market (one coming to Mallorca because of the theme park), it would still be in direct competition with other attractions. It would have to work extremely hard at its marketing to meet its 60,000 per month. And hard it might well be. Attractions rely heavily on their relationships with tour and excursions operators and travel agencies. One wonders if a Mallorca Holy Land might be a tough sell when up against the likes of the Aquarium, Marineland and others; might it be simply a bit weird for the general tourist public?

Then there is the location. Would Inca be a disadvantage? Stuck in the middle of the island, it might seem to hold an advantage, but the main tourist population is in the south and it has any number of attractions right on its doorstep that don't require travelling any real distance. 

There is one other consideration. For various reasons, would a Mallorca Holy Land send out the right message? I'm not sure that it would.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.