The Market That Isn't: Puerto Alcúdia

On 7 April ("When The Market Came To Puerto Alcúdia"), I concluded by suggesting that the then new weekly market in the port would need to have a reason for people to go to it instead of or as well as the old town's market. It was hard, back in April, to see what that reason might be. It is even harder now.

Interest in the market has dwindled that much that yesterday there were only four stalls. The square in which the market is held, Cas Vicari, isn't enormous, but four stalls are lost in its size. They looked sad, two fruit and veg stalls opposite each other in the centre, the flower stall that occupies one side of the square, and a fourth stall with a mixture of some veg and some olive oil; a stall that hadn't quite worked out what it was.

It would be wrong to say that there were no customers when I wandered past. There were a few, very few, people but whether they were buying, who knows. Without wishing to be unkind, just honest, the market has been a total and utter flop. The town hall should put it out of its misery. Whether it will is another matter. Two months after the market had opened, by which time the initial number of 26 stalls had already been halved, the town hall's councillor for markets, Carme Garcia, was saying that the market needed two years so that people could get into the habit of using it. The habit will be difficult to acquire if there aren't any stalls.

The problems with the market are many. It is in the wrong place, there is now a sign but it is still not well-known, it has its old-town competitor and it doesn't really know what its purpose is. It has been referred to as a vegetable market, but only so many stalls can make a go of selling fruit and veg (two and a half on yesterday's evidence). When it opened, however, there was a variety of stall - toys, bags and belts, clothes, pots and craft as well as the local produce. All of these have disappeared. The old-town market and markets in other towns attract far more people that make having a stall worthwhile.

The town hall said that not everything in the port should be located on the Paseo Marítimo, the promenade. Part of the reason for the market was to revitalise both socially and economically the port so that it was not just a tourist area. In this, it has been a complete failure.

Markets don't have to rely on tourists in oder to thrive, but to do so requires a prominent location, an extensive array of different stalls and a local population that has a need. Alcúdia's old-town market, even in winter, seems to satisfy these requirements. The port's doesn't. The old-town market is even more successful in summer (and much larger) precisely because of tourists. The town hall has got the port's market badly wrong because it has been unwilling to pay to rent space on the Paseo Marítimo. All the reasons it has offered for the market being where it is are just spin, and spin that is easy to see through. It should have been accepted from the outset that to be successful the market should have been capable of attracting good numbers of tourists.

However, tourists aren't necessarily attracted by fruit and veg. If this was all that the old town's market had to offer, then it wouldn't be a must-do for tourists who go for the atmosphere, the bustle, the great range of stuff on offer - some of it tat but certainly not all. Personally, I still believe the town hall should have gone the whole hog and had the market, in summer at any rate, right slap bang in the main tourism centre and not in the port. I suspect I know why they wouldn't do this, however. The stallholders in the old town would be up in arms. For the same reason, I suspect this is also why the port's market is what it is and where it is.

It is difficult to see the market surviving very much longer. It is all but dead on its feet as it is - the four feet of the four stalls. It's a shame. Markets fall into the category of a "good thing", but they are a good thing only if they have atmosphere and variety. The port's market has neither.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.