Packaging Culture: Why Mallorca misses out

Will culture ever become the main reason for tourists visiting Mallorca? The chances are extremely remote. Yet a professor of tourism at Girona University, José Antonio Donaire, reckons that one day it might be. Or at least, he reckons that culture will be the prime motivation for tourists from certain sectors of the tourism market heading to certain destinations. This caveat is important. Parts of Spain have much to offer the tourist going in search of culture. Mallorca and the Balearics, on the other hand ... ?

Turespaña, the national tourism agency, is currently looking at ways of increasing cultural tourism. One of the reasons for doing so is to tackle the vagaries of seasonality; Mallorca is by no means the only part of Spain that suffers from a lack of winter tourism. A second reason is that there has been an acknowledgement that, despite a rich culture and innumerable cultural sites, Spain as a destination for cultural tourism has been poorly positioned in terms of its international marketing, which is incredible given all the talk that emanates from different bodies regarding culture; there has been a huge gap between the talk and meaningful action. Which leads us on neatly to Mallorca.

In 2010, the Fundación Caja Madrid issued a report which put figures on the value of cultural tourism by Spanish tourists in the different regions of Spain. Way out in the lead was Andalucía (452 million euros) with Catalonia in second place (319 million). Rank bottom was Murcia (36 million). And second to bottom? You've guessed it. The Balearics (48 million). Even the Canaries fared better - to the tune of 20 million euros.

A survey of the same year that looked at different aspects of spending on culture was slightly more positive in placing the Balearics as the fifth worst performing region in terms of attracting overseas tourists who came for the express purpose of engaging in cultural pursuits. Three places higher but the percentage of cultural tourists in relation to all tourists to the Balearics was just under 2%, and the number had fallen from the previous year. From a base of under 2%, there is a hell of a way to go for culture to ever be a dominating reason for tourists to come to Mallorca.

Also back in 2010, a company offering an excursion of historic and cultural sites on Menorca said that it was in two minds whether to bother again. Over five months in 2009 it had managed to attract a total of 2,000 excursionists. The principal reason for the lack of take-up was, the company admitted, the far greater attraction of "sun, sea and sand". And for Menorca, read also Mallorca. Both islands' key brand attribute is sun, sea and sand, despite what some people might think and say to the contrary. When this brand attribute is as clearly identifiable and strong as it is, changing perceptions to embrace culture and therefore promote it is a huge task.

Of course, there are plenty of tourists who will take in something of a cultural nature even if they mainly come for the beach. Turespaña points out that the majority of visitors signal their intention to do so, but there is a problem in knowing what exactly is meant by culture. As an example, ABTA conducted a survey almost four years ago which suggested that culture was the third most important element of the British holidaymaker's visit to Mallorca. It made a great song and dance about publicising the fact. Unfortunately, when you went behind the press releases and actually looked at the survey, a quite different picture emerged. What had happened was that several elements (such as food) had been combined to give the result. A specific ranking for "the culture" had been given by only 5% of respondents, not the 18% that was being spoken about.

Mallorca is at a disadvantage when it comes to cultural tourism because it is so readily recognisable with something that is culture's virtual antithesis - sun and beach. One suspects that Turespaña's emphasis will be on parts of Spain that have stronger claims on cultural tourism, such as the old cities of Andalucía, but whichever its priority destinations will be, the agency is looking at how culture can be better packaged. And this is the nub of the issue.

Mallorca has culture, but compared with the money-for-old-rope ease of packaging the sun and beach holiday, culture is a very different beast. To be effective, the cost of marketing cultural package tours would be high, but the returns would be questionable. To be anything other than a minor aspect of Mallorca's tourism, culture would need the kind of volume tour operators could provide, but the tour operators have other holidays and other destinations they can sell and sell more easily.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.