The Right Words: Tourism sustainability

The Committee of the Regions is one of those European bodies about which very little is heard and about which very little is known. It has 344 members, 24 each from the four largest European countries - Germany, the UK, France and Italy - and varying numbers from other countries depending on their size. Spain has 21, and one of them is the Balearics.

The Committee has been staging one of its periodic get-togethers in Brussels. A theme of its gathering has been "making a difference", as in how Europe's regions can make a difference. And as part of the collective pursuit to learn how a difference can be made, the regions of Europe have been regaled with Balearic words of wisdom. President Bauzá has been in town.

Brushing aside, one presumes, any concerns he may have at the announcement that the public prosecutor has decided to investigate complaints that he has been engaged in the trafficking of influence (not the sort of way of making a difference the Committee would have in mind, you would have to think), José Ramón lectured the regions on the way that the Balearics are proving to be a pioneer for a new model of tourism.

A new model it may be but it is a model that is far from new in terms of its platitudes. Other regions of Europe will doubtless be familiar with them as they are the stock in trade of tourism politics regardless of country, region or islands.

What difference is the Balearics making? Tourism policy requires a new impulse to make tourism a competitive, modern, sustainable and responsible industry. These are the president's words. They come straight out of the manual of tourism platitudes known as "sustainable tourism". Politicians such as Bauzá are given a short and concise lexicon which they must learn and then regurgitate over and over in the belief that, if the same words are said often enough, people will start believing them.

There were, as part of the president's great oration, some aspects that should have required quizzing but which probably received none. For instance, as an example of the "responsible tourist model" that the Balearics are pursuing, the Rocamar hotel in Port Sóller is to be demolished. How does this qualify as being part of a responsible tourist model? The place has been abandoned for God knows how many years and it has taken them all these years to finally decide to knock the damn thing down, helped by the fact that the regional government has finally found nearly a million euros that will go to the father of the head of inspection at the tourism ministry who had lent this amount to the hotel's owner in 2005.

The plan to do something with the Rocamar predates the current government by almost a decade. The first Antich administration was going to acquire it with money from the eco-tax, but it cost too much. Part of the deal was to knock it down (and the Don Pedro in Cala San Vicente) and create a new tourist complex in Sa Ràpita in the south of the island. There is of course going to be a new tourist complex in Sa Ràpita in any event, slap bang next to Es Trenc beach, a project that has caused considerable opposition. But presumably this project is all part of the responsible tourist model that the current government has embarked upon.

The sustainable side of tourism policy, said the president, includes the conservation of posidonia sea grass meadows. I wonder if he mentioned the expansion of Son Serra de Marina's marina, widely criticised because of its potential to destroy posidonia. Or if he mentioned the growth in cruise ships and the threats they offer to posidonia. Probably not. One of the problems when it comes to regurgitating the lexicon is that "competitive, modern, sustainable and responsible" don't always amount to the same thing. He might have mentioned the floating moorings to be created in Pollensa bay, ostensibly to protect posidonia from anchors but also a nice little earner that might never be realised because boat owners will simply give the bay a wide berth in future. There's competitive for you.

Yes, there may have been some questions that the president should have been subjected to but wasn't, but he would have been in good hands in being guided in the use of the correct lexicon. The president of the Committee is also the president of Murcia and a fellow PP member. Ramón Luis Valcárcel has been on the political scene far longer than the novice Bauzá. And you don't get to become president of the Committee of the Regions without knowing the right words.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.