MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 31 December 2013

No Frills Excursions


Morning high (7.45am): 6C
Forecast high: 16C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): Southwest 3 increasing 4 to 5

Crisp and clear and set fair for a sunny day, clouding over somewhat though for tonight's revelries. New Year's Day, remaining fine.

Evening update (18.15): Colder than had been forecast, a high of just 14.5C.

Heading For Rockier Rocks: Bauzá in 2014

What a difference a few days make. A look forward to what 2014 might bring has changed as a result of Carlos Delgado's resignation. Before the resignation one could have predicted a rocky but nonetheless unswerving year for President Bauzá. With the resignation the scenarios shift. They will still be rocky but they might be less rocky or rockier still.

I have suggested that Delgado's departure might mean that the Partido Popular is looked upon with less animosity. The cheers that went up when his resignation was announced had comparatively little to do with his day job as tourism minister. They were to do with Delgado the dogmatic defender of Castilian, the arch "españolista" in the Bauzá administration and the philosophical champion of anti-regionalism.

Bauzá must know that he has a problem with the government's stance on Catalan and with its indifference towards regionalism. With Delgado out of the way, he could take the opportunity to soften this stance and so reduce the animosity. There will be many in his party (and formerly in his party) who will be urging him to do so, not least those who were helpful to him in the past. The dislike for Delgado was what prompted certain grandees, now disaffected, to support Bauzá at the last leadership election.

These grandees might have been naïve, but they hadn't anticipated that the former mayor of Marratxí would turn into Delgado Mark II. One-time backers of Bauzá, Jaume Font and Antoni Pastor, pro-Catalan and pro-regionalism, have both fled the PP; the first voluntarily, the second because he was excommunicated. Of those who haven't fled, old-school sorts such as Pere Rotger, Cristofal Soler and Gabriel Cañellas who were of a PP regionalist bent, have looked on as previous moderation has given way to radicalism. Cañellas didn't say so directly in his recent address at the PP's annual awards, but it was clear what his metaphors meant. Jeroni Salom, the party's president, has been less than fulsome in his praise of Bauzá. Mayors have fallen out with Bauzá over language and even over the new casino - Isern in Palma at any rate. His opponents now begin to appear as though they are a small army preparing for battle.

There are concerns that Bauzá is damaged goods and that his candidacy for president in 2015 would be harmful to the PP. He remains odds-on to be the candidate, but the mutterings are growing louder. Change might be in the air, and with Delgado, the president's ideological soul mate, having taken himself off to find richer pastures outside politics, the Bauzáists (or should that be Delgadoists) are deprived of their guiding light and look increasingly vulnerable. Bauzá can go one of two ways. He can soften and enjoy a relatively smooth ride. Or he can be unmoved or harden and face potential revolution. It is unlikely to be the former. He can't backtrack on Catalan, teaching or the law of symbols. Were he to, then he would be damaged beyond the repair of lost credibility.

Bauzá can at least draw on the support of his government inner circle, but events during 2012 and 2013 have made his cabinet one which comprises lightweights who owe their positions to patronage. Whatever one thought of Delgado, he was a politician of some substance, and so were Pep Aguiló and Rafael Bosch, both sacked in May. Who can Bauzá now call upon? A political hack at tourism (one who, however, might stick to the task of tourism rather than be involved in running the government show); Mrs. Malaprop, Joana Camps, out of her depth at education; Marti Sansaloni, last man standing at the health ministry following two resignations, and heavily criticised over his insensitivity regarding the Alpha Pam affair; Antonio Gómez, originally minister to the president (a sort of without portfolio function) and now the vice-president, who recently attacked the one-time PP member, Antoni Pastor, calling him a turncoat and a "disgrace" to the Balearic Parliament. Bauzá was forced to reprimand him.

There is a general view that Bauzá has managed to lose people of substance and to surround himself with mediocrity. And it shouldn't be overlooked that he himself was totally new to the upper echelons of politics when he became president. There is an unnerving sense of a government bound together by a radical programme that causes division within local society and by gratitude to its leader but which lacks experience, wisdom and savvy. Rocky or rockier still? I'll opt for the latter.


Index for December 2013

Algaida and tourism development plans - 8 December 2013
Balearics identity - 3 December 2013
Carlos Delgado's resignation - 28 December 2013, 31 December 2013
Catalan Lands don't exist - 12 December 2013
Catalonia's referendum - 13 December 2013
Christmas songs - 17 December 2013
Citizen Safety Law - 1 December 2013
Corruption in Spain - 6 December 2013
Eurovegas - 15 December 2013
Funds for resort modernisation - 18 December 2013
GOB: forty years - 9 December 2013
Gotmar improvements - 26 December 2013
Holiday rentals - 11 December 2013
Jaime Martinez, tenth Balearics tourism minister - 29 December 2013
Law of Symbols - 20 December 2013
Mallorca/Spain quiz of the year - 25 December 2013, 27 December 2013
Marca España decline - 10 December 2013
Non-hotel sector organisation - 27 December 2013
Quotes of the year - 24 December 2013
Paramount theme park - 19 December 2013
Pardons asked for in corruption cases - 16 December 2013
Partido Popular Larus awards - 23 December 2013
PISA survey and Balearics educational performance - 4 December 2013
Ramon Llull and the national education ministry - 14 December 2013
Rural tourism - 22 December 2013
Spain's tourism promotion - 30 December 2013
Tax breaks for hotels opening all year - 7 December 2013
Thomson Scene brand - 5 December 2013
Tourism season benefited hoteliers only - 2 December 2013
Urban tourism - 21 December 2013

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 30 December 2013

No Frills Excursions


Morning high (8.15am): 7.5C
Forecast high: 14C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): Variable 2 to 3, West dominating during the morning. Swell to one metre.

A chilly, clear morning. A good deal of sun likely but staying on the chilly side. Forecast for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day is good and a bit warmer.

Evening update (19.15): A high of 16.9C, so rather better than had been forecast. 

The 5.5 Million Gamble: Spain's tourism promotion

When the 2.7 million euros for Balearics tourism promotion in 2014 is derided, as it is often is, a thought should be spared for promotion budgets elsewhere. I have previously noted the higher regional budgets, e.g. those of the Canaries and especially Catalonia, but what about the national budget, that at the command of the national tourism institute, Turespaña? You might be amazed to learn that it will be all of 5.5 million euros in 2014, only twice as much as the Balearics and lower than the Canaries. There again, you might be even more amazed to learn that it was only 1.1 million euros this year.

The figures don't do full justice because they don't include all the work done by  tourism offices and delegations in parts of the globe. There is more to what Turespaña does than merely promotional campaigns, but one can't help but feel that 5.5 million euros is a pretty miserly sum for a country with such a high dependence on tourism. Marta Blanco, the new director-general, will argue (and she already has) that it isn't miserly because it is five times the 2013 budget, but five point five million ...? It sounds like a promotional drop in the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian and any other ocean you might wish to mention.

Not, it must be said, that these oceans are particularly relevant, except for European countries with an Atlantic coastline, most obviously France and Great Britain. The 5.5 million is mostly going to be spent on mature tourism markets, says Sra. Blanco. So much, therefore, for all those emerging markets. Apparently it is a far more efficient use of resources to concentrate on established markets, which it probably is, but tourism in 2013 and 2104 does not live by established markets alone. Or shouldn't.

These established European markets will be regaled with promotion which focuses on urban tourism, cultural tourism, health tourism, shopping tourism, meetings tourism and, a newer theme, so it is said, rural tourism. My just having examined two of these - urban and rural - was coincidental but it was fortuitous, as things have turned out. There is an obvious form of tourism that isn't due to be focused on, that of sun and beach. Fair enough perhaps as it pretty much sells itself, but Spanish tourism should never neglect the bread and butter and the bucket and spade that got it to where it is, no more so than in Mallorca.

On rural tourism though, this has a sense of back-to-the-future promotion. Before the days of the Costas and the Mallorcan beaches being packed by northern Europeans in desperate search of post-austerity sun in the late 1950s and 1960s, rural tourism was a big thing. Or at least, the Franco regime attempted to make it a big thing. It eyed up what the French were doing and had hopes of a tourism that was and still is very much more diverse than Spanish tourism. With hindsight, it is perhaps a shame that the diversity and spread between countryside and coast which typifies French tourism was never attained in Spain. The coasts would look very different, had it been.

As my two recent articles noted, urban tourism is a growth market while rural tourism is in a bit of a trough. It seems counter-intuituive to therefore promote a type of tourism that has registered a 10% fall in general tourism terms, but this said, maybe rural tourism could do with some more effective promotion. Back in the day, i.e. before the peseta dropped and Franco's mob came to understand that tourists wanted to go to the seaside, a not untypical image was the "Castilian Landscape" of a rainbow tumbling into a wheat field. Perhaps it's unsurprising that it never took off. One trusts that current-day promotion might be better.

Where Mallorca is concerned, a Turespaña drive in urban and rural tourism might be beneficial and opportune, despite my misgivings about Palma as an urban tourism destination and about the contribution of rural tourism to the island. The new Balearics tourism minister, having helped with the clauses regarding the advancement of rural tourism in the 2012 bill, will doubtless be happy and will be sending felicitations to a fellow novice in Sra. Blanco.

The campaign for 2014 is the first which she will have overseen since her surprising appointment in September to succeed Manuel Butler. It was a surprise to many in the tourism industry who had never heard of her. A career politico with banking experience, like Martinez in the Balearics and Borrego at the national tourism ministry, one does have to wonder as to the personnel in charge of tourism both regionally and nationally. Still, she seems like a very nice lady, and I wish her well. But really ... 5.5 million euros? Is that all?

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 29 December 2013

No Frills Excursions


Morning high (8.15am): 11.5C
Forecast high: 14C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): North 3 to 4 backing Northwest during the morning. Swells to one metre.

Some rain overnight, a largely cloudy morning and a colder day in prospect. The forecast for New Year's Eve and New Year's Day is better: not especially warm but little chance of rain.

Evening update (19.00): Got sunnier after a greyish start. Chilly though, a high of 14.7C.

The Ten Tourism Ministers Of Mallorca

The coronation of the new Balearics tourism minister failed to acknowledge a landmark in the islands' tourism ministerial history. Jaime Martinez is the tenth tourism minister since tourism ministers started to be appointed in 1983.

To give the full list of ministers, they have been Jaume Cladera, Joan Flaquer (twice), José María González Ortea, Celesti Alomar, Francesc Buils, Miquel Nadal, Miquel Ferrer, Joana Barceló and of course Carlos Delgado. Of thirty years of the ministry, seventeen of these years saw only two ministers - Cladera for ten and Flaquer for seven. With Martinez now getting his feet under the ministerial desk, his appointment means that eight ministers have averaged just a fraction longer than a year and a half in office.

One does have to bear in mind of course that during the last administration there were no fewer than four ministers. Buils and Nadal both had to go and both have since been convicted. Ferrer lasted only a few weeks before his party, the old Unió Mallorquina, was booted out of the coalition. Barceló got the job solely because the president, Francesc Antich, was desperate to find someone, anyone, from his own PSOE party to take over. Four ministers over the course of a four-year administration between 2007 and 2011 help to explain the low average tenure of Balearics tourism ministers.

Delgado's resignation is indicative of instability in two respects. One is the cabinet of President Bauzá because of its resignations and reshuffle dismissals. The other is the job of tourism minister. A new minister can be expected after elections, but the ministry has now had six ministers in six years. Continuity, it might be said, has been in somewhat short supply. So also has been contentment among those in the tourism industry. The Balearics, for a region that pioneered mass tourism, has a pretty lamentable recent record when it comes to governing this tourism.

But what of these various ministers? The one who stands out is the first minister, Jaume Cladera. He had the job for the longest period and of all of them he has been the only one of whom it can be said that he was genuinely qualified. His background was tourism before he became vice-president of the Mallorca Tourist Board in 1979 and was a logical choice to be minister in the first regional government in 1983. Of others, Alomar had been the director of the old IBATUR promotion agency prior to becoming minister in 1999, but none could boast Cladera's industry background.

Starting pretty much from scratch, Cladera was bound to make some impact. And, by introducing the plan for tourism and for introducing all manner of legislation to do with tourism, he did make an impact. He commanded a deal of respect as well as being a symbol of stability for the industry.

It isn't a pre-requisite of ministerial office that a minister has to have a background specific to his portfolio, but it certainly helps if he or she does.  President Bauzá appeared to acknowledge as much when he appointed Gabriel Company, at the time an independent and not a member of the Partido Popular, to head the agriculture-environment-land mega-ministry. Company was a businessman with years of experience in agriculture, but in terms of economic importance agriculture is a long way behind tourism. Why, therefore, is there not a minister with specific industry knowledge? Someone like, say, a Jaume Cladera?

The new man Martinez has been knocking around the tourism ministry as well as Calvia town hall over the years. He knows about tourism, but this isn't the same as understanding tourism or, perhaps more importantly, understanding tourists. Part of the Calvia clique which Delgado, rather like a new football manager, took with him to the ministry, it can be said that Martinez has experience of administration in one of Spain's most important tourist towns. But does he have experience of tourists? What does he really know of the differing types of tourist, the differing nature of tourism in Calvia and therefore in Mallorca and the Balearics? Administration yes, but not necessarily experience of the right variety. An architect by profession, what have been his priorities? As with the Mallorcan property lawyer Isabel Borrego who is the national secretary of state for tourism, there is the fear that he views tourism as an exercise in real estate and bricks and mortar (and a certain type of bricks and mortar) rather than in hearts and minds.

Do we, though, expect too much from tourism ministers? There are certain issues which they can do precious little to influence - all-inclusives being one, save perhaps from legally established standards of service. There are others which they can influence; holiday rentals is one, were they of a mind to. But the expectation lies more with a sense of vision, and this is most unlikely to ever come from someone whose knowledge of tourism is administrative as opposed to strategic and hands-on. Martinez is really no different to most tourism ministers that the Balearics have had in this regard. The tenth minister, and the ninth not to have come from the industry.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 28 December 2013

No Frills Excursions


Morning high (8.15am): 12.5C
Forecast high: 17C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): Southwest 4 to 5 veering Northwest during the afternoon and easing North 3 by the evening.

Bit breezy. Should be sunny. The outlook for the next two days is for lower temperatures and sun.

Evening update (18.45): A high of 20.7C. So not bad.

He Killed Bambi: Carlos Delgado's resignation

So, farewell, Carlos, we shall miss your entertainment factor. We say goodbye to you, slayer of Bambi. You gave us a pantomime last year - "Cinderella And The Magic Orbs" - when as Prince Charming you told Cinderella that your hat was made from magic sea-grass orbs. Cinderella thought they were a deer's testicles. Silly girl. We say goodbye also to your finding a nice little job for your lady of Lourdes at your ministry (46,000 euros a year). What a pity you had to withdraw the job offer. She was so well qualified after all, your girlfriend, now Mrs. Delgado. We wonder what Lourdes made of the magic sea-orbs and how the photo of them came to be in the press. Did she speak to your former wife? We bid farewell also to your comparing the Guardia Civil investigators of alleged irregularities at Radio Calvia when you were mayor to a fascist, whoring, heavy-drinking, Atletico Madrid-supporting fictional comic detective. Is it true you had offered to resign at the end of June? Was that not when you were making this comparison?

We wish you safe journey also knowing that you gave the hoteliers all that they could have wished for, that you did nothing to help the non-hotel sector or the owners of private apartments for holiday rental, that you could only run to a tourism promotion budget of 2.7 million euros a year, that you turned the Balearics exhibition stand in Berlin into a laughing-stock, that you didn't concentrate only on tourism, that you were the power behind anti-Catalan policy, behind trilingual teaching policy, behind slagging off mayors who disagreed with this policy, behind getting nice Rafael Bosch removed as education minister. Or maybe some of this should only be allegedly.

Perhaps you don't deserve only opprobrium. There is so little money, and that tourism promotion budget had previously been wasted on the stupid. You were not wrong in this regard. Nor were you wrong in attempting to drive modernisation and renewal of hotels and resorts. Nor were you wrong in moving promotional efforts to greater use of new technologies. This use was in your tourism plan. It looked very impressive. You were not wrong, but we haven't seen any evidence. Nor have we seen any evidence of improvements to winter tourism. Do you remember these? True, the two-to-three years are not yet up, but the meagre spends on promotion were going to reap some benefit and your plan for winter tourism was the first ever such plan for winter tourism. Wasn't this what you told us?

Now you have gone, where are you going? Do you have a nice job in business somewhere? It must be good in order for you to leave politics and not just the tourism ministry. You had so much ambition. Two times you had tried to become leader and two times you had missed out. First to Rosa Estaras and then to your chum José Ramón Bauzá. Or is he your chum? Rival? It's hard to say, but many say that it was you, and not José Ramón, who was the driving-force in the party. What will he do now that you have gone?

And what can we expect of your successor? Jaime Martinez. "Square man". Isn't this the nickname he has? Something like this. He clearly enjoys a good lunch anyway. What will he do now that you have gone? You had at least been mayor of Calvia before you became minister. Calvia, town of Magalluf, Santa Ponsa, Peguera, Illetes, Palmanova. Town of so much tourism. More than any other town in Mallorca. More than mostly any town in Spain. Yes, you must have known about tourism. But what of Jaime? He was an architect. He worked with you at the town hall and then he became director-general at the ministry. Now he has your job. What will he have learned from you? What will he know of tourism other than drawing up architects' plans for hotel developments? Oh, possibly quite a lot. How you praised his efforts in putting together the tourism law, the one with so much for the hotels and so little for others.

Farewell, Carlos. Mallorca's politics will not be the same without you. The deer's balls, the girlfriend's job, the slur on the Guardia. And there was also your saying that the Costas Authority were useless (maybe we didn't completely disagree with you on this one) and the business with your personal trainer, his sister and the 800 grand. Whatever that was all about. With your going, we lose not just entertainment but also interest. You were never boring, put it that way. Maybe we also lose some honesty and consistency. Why were people so taken aback by your policies? You had spoken of them before the elections in 2011. We knew what you thought. We might not have agreed, but you said what you believed in and, for the most part, you did not veer from saying what you believed in.

And I have lost a prime character in the Mallorcan play. In the Mallorcan political pantomime. You have been my Prince Charming, my Hercules Grytpype-Thynne, my Carlos Slim. Or simply, Carlos. Your Christian name alone was enough. We knew who you were. We shall indeed miss you.

The Mallorca (And Spain) Quiz Of The Year - Answers

Here is the quiz posted on Christmas Day together with the answers. 

Majorca/Balearics
1. A theme park in Sineu was talked about. What was to have been its theme?
Dinosaurs.
2. Javier Salinas became the new what in January?
Bishop of Majorca.
3. A Mr. Gary Gale produced a map of the world in which the small town of Búger was the only place in Majorca to be identified. What was it a map of?
Rude place names.
4. A town hall was raided by the Guardia Civil, acting on complaints regarding the town's radio station. Which town?
Calvia.
5. A book was published about the Canamunt and Canavall. Who were they?
Two clans whose feud lasted for much of the seventeenth century and which was typified by violence and murder.
6. The 2009 Miss Balearics, Verónica Hernández, was appointed as secretary to whom?
President Bauzá.
7. The German tour operator Oböna opened the first what this year?
Naturist hotel in Majorca (in Colonia Sant Pere).
8. Who was told to stay away from the Minorcan and Ibizan stands at this year's Madrid Travel Fair?
The tourism minister Carlos Delgado.
9. Majorca was referred to as the "seventeenth state" and was said to be "toppling". The seventeenth state of where?
Germany. This was in the report into Majorca's "dark side of summer" by the newspaper Bild am Sonntag.
10. In June, the Balearic Government dropped plans for what sort of taxes?
Green taxes on large retail centres, some packaging and car hire.
11. "The Sunday Times" journalist Matt Rudd wrote an article entitled "Escape from All-catraz". What was he writing about?
An all-inclusive hotel in Can Picafort.
12. Where is there an arena called La Macarena? What is it and why has it not been used since 2008?
Felanitx.
It is the bullring and is considered to be unsafe.
13. Who, during a press briefing whilst visiting the King at Marivent Palace, referred to Majorca as the "island of Palma"?
Mariano Rajoy.
14. Which two towns were said to have been the hottest (temperature-wise) during August's heatwave?
Muro and Sa Pobla.
15. Despite economic crisis, the number of what type of business had increased by 15% in 2012?
Bars and restaurants.
16. Minorca has this year celebrated twenty years since UNESCO declared it to be what?
A biosphere reserve.
17. What type of tourism is said to attract a tourist who spends twice as much per day as regular tourists?
Golf.
18. An amnesty on 20,000 what is due to form part of a new law in the Balearics?
Illegal rural properties.
19. Under reforms of local government, the number of what are set to be reduced from 701 to 206 in Majorca?
Paid councillors.
20. An estimate of 28.6 million euros was placed on demolishing which uncompleted building?
Palma's Palacio de Congresos.
21. The German Frank Hanebuth was arrested in Majorca in July. He was the leader of a criminal organisation associated with an international club formed in California in 1948? Which?
Hells Angels.
22. Ryanair decided to charge passengers flying from Majorca eight euros for taking oversize what onto its planes?
Ensaimadas.
23. The right-wing union Manos Limpias denounced which mayor for, so it said, failing to pursue prosecution of crimes committed in which resort?
Manuel Onieva in Calvia. The resort was Magalluf.
24. Where did two dogs die having ingested poison at a beach allocated for dogs?
Puerto Pollensa.
25. The first law for what in the Balearics was approved in October?
Fishing.
26. What peaked at 1,926,681 on 9 August?
Total number of people on the Balearics.
27. 28.45% of people in the Balearics were unable to do what, according to a report issued in November?
Speak Catalan.
28. Work on a new luxury hotel complex started this autumn? Where?
Canyamel in Capdepera.

Spain
29. There are none in the Balearics but over 80 in Spain as a whole. They are "paradors". What are they?
State-run hotels, typically old mansions or castles.
30. Luis Bárcenas supposedly had ledgers which detailed illicit payments. What job did he used to have?
Treasurer of the Partido Popular.
31. Spain beat Denmark in January to become world champions at what?
Men's handball.
32. Which global business offered to help Spain with its tourism marketing for free?
Coca-Cola.
33. Artist Eugenio Merino committed an "offence that no modern civilisation can tolerate" (it was said). Who did he place in a cold-drinks fridge?
A re-created General Franco.
34. What comprised six volumes and 4,000 pages and was completed in 1739?
The first Spanish dictionary.
35. Who suggested a "relaxing cup of café con leche"? And on what occasion did she make the suggestion?
Ana Botella, the mayor of Madrid. She was speaking at the meeting to decide which city should host the 2020 Olympics.
36. Energy minister José Manuel Soria said he believed in domestic energy self-sufficiency but still proposed a tax on what?
Photovoltaic solar panels.
37. In Candeleda in the Spanish region of Castile and León an avenue was named after which former British prime minister?
John Major.
38. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates took a six per cent shareholding in which Spanish company?
FCC - Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas.
39. Manolo Escobar died in October. What song did he have a hit with in 1973?
Y Viva España.
40. What, from the start of next year, will not come in refillable containers in bars and restaurants?
Olive oil.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 27 December 2013

No Frills Excursions


Morning high (9.30am): 9C
Forecast high: 16C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): Northwest 4 to 5 backing Southwest.

Wind down, sun out, should be a fair day. The outlook is generally good with prospects going towards New Year's Eve.

Evening update (20.00): Air pushing up from the south has given a much warmer day than had been forecast. A high of 20.7C.

Who Shouts The Loudest: Balearics tourism industry

In October there was a significant development in the way that tourist businesses are organised. Different associations representing the non-hotel sector finally agreed to create a single body. These associations include those for restaurants, nightclubs, attractions, travel agencies, car rental and others.

The reasoning behind one body was obvious. It was to create a single voice to deal with the Balearic Government that could act as a counterbalance to the very strong and dominant single voice of the hoteliers. Though it has been said that the forming of this body was prompted by concerns about the increase in IVA by the national government, there were matters of local concern that were just as important. Many of them stemmed from the tourism law of 2012 and from the way in which the tourism market functions. All-inclusives, holiday rentals, hotels' secondary activities; these are just some of the issues which unite the non-hotel, complementary sector.

There not having been one body until now is a mystery. When one part of the tourism industry dominates as it does in the Balearics and has the ear of the government as closely as it does, then surely there should have been an alternative voice for the rest of the industry for years. One can attribute the absence of such a body to different reasons but perhaps the main one is that, because there are that many associations, finding common purpose among them all has been nigh on impossible.

The penny should have dropped a long time ago, though. The hoteliers have been in the ascendant for as long as there has been mass tourism. Obviously they have. Without them, there would have been no mass tourism and so wouldn't have been all the complementary elements. The hoteliers get a bad press, but it shouldn't be forgotten who it was who created mass tourism; it wasn't attractions or even restaurants.

This, though, interprets tourism in an imbalanced way. Something had to come first to get Mallorca to where it is, and the hotels were this something, but the complementary sector was equally as important. The tourism industry comprises many parts, all feeding off each other, complementing each other. But the very term complementary offer implies a secondary function; it complements the hotel sector. Without the hotels, there would be nothing to complement.

Nevertheless, for years this complementary status functioned well enough. Hotels did what hotels did. Restaurants and bars did what they did. But then, and one can place the point in time to be in the early to mid-1990s, the relationship began to change. Some twenty years on, the complementary sector only has itself to blame for what it did precious little to challenge: the arrival of the all-inclusive.

Complacency was undoubtedly a factor. All-inclusive was still only small scale. It would probably go away. It didn't. Organisation was another, and only now has it really come home to the complementary sector that its own organisation was flawed. There was the Balearics Confederation of Business Associations (CAEB) to represent it. But it also represented the hoteliers. Twenty years since becoming president of CAEB, Josep Oliver has stepped down. Business associations are reluctant to even nominate a successor. They have serious issues with CAEB because it has seemed pro-hotelier. They consider it to be useless.

If it is, then these business associations have surely allowed it to be. It is staggering that it has taken them so long to grasp the nettle and to attempt to place their interests at the top of the tourism industry agenda and not those of the hoteliers. It is staggering just how weak the pronouncements from some of these associations now sound. They can speak about the impact of all-inclusives as though these have only just been recognised. This impact may have been less obvious in the 1990s but by the turn of the century it had become obvious. Why weren't they raising merry hell about holiday rentals when the tourism law of 1999 was passed and not waiting until this year, and the reform of the national law on lettings, to begin to object strongly? The situation is fundamentally no different to what it was at the end of the last millennium.

Better late than never, one supposes, but what will this unified body achieve? One of the myriad associations on the island is Acotur, that which represents tourist businesses. In its most recent magazine it attacks the government for being too much on the side of the hoteliers and for reneging on an electoral promise to help the non-hotel sector. But then Acotur is just one voice among many. A unified body may achieve what it, Acotur, has wanted, but it will only do so if the government is confronted with a body with an assertive agenda. One recalls how the government buckled when the large retailers took it on over the green taxes. If business shouts loud enough, then the government will listen. Until now, though, it has been the hoteliers who have been doing the shouting. And with one voice.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 26 December 2013

No Frills Excursions


Morning high (9.00am): 11C
Forecast high: 13C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): West and Northwest 6 to 7 easing 5 to 6 by the afternoon.

Following the dip in temperature yesterday afternoon, a chilly morning with strong winds, there being alerts in place for the wind and for poor coastal conditions. Sunny though. The wind should ease by tomorrow and the rest of the week looks reasonable but with temperatures up and down.

Evening update (18.00): With chill winds gusting up to 80kph, a high of only 14.4C but still a bit higher than forecast. Mostly sunny though.

Improving Gotmar - After All These Years

The residents of the Puerto Pollensa urbanisation of Gotmar received an early Christmas present when Pollensa town hall announced five days before Christmas that it would start work on improvements to the urbanisation in the new year. These are improvements which have been a long time in the waiting.

The story of the urbanisation and the problems it has encountered go back to its development in the 1960s. As with other urbanisations, it was essentially a private initiative. There are numerous examples elsewhere of urbanisations created by private companies or individuals which had to wait many years before they were "received" by town halls, i.e. they officially became local authority responsibilities with all the attendant services these imply. In Gotmar's case it was to be some fifteen years after the development was started before it was "received" by the town hall.

Over thirty years, however, the urbanisation has not been paid the attention it should have been. Things really started to come to a head around six years ago when the town hall said that improvements to pavements, roads, drainage and street lighting would be undertaken but with the aid of money raised through a special charge on residents.

This charge, naturally enough, didn't sit well with property owners who had seen the urbanisation deteriorate because of apparent town hall neglect. Around this time, therefore, these owners started to exert their muscle. And one of the most vocal was Dr. Garry Bonsall, the founder and first president of the Gotmar Residents' Association.

Garry, who is no longer a permanent resident in Gotmar, is someone I know quite well. He was a thorough pain in the town hall's backside, especially that of the by then mayor Joan Cerdà. Pressure from the residents' association began to bear some fruit. The mayor conceded that there should be an architect's plan for Gotmar's rehabilitation but insisted that there wasn't the finance to effect it. The residents' association disagreed. It was the town hall's obligation.

The influence of this association cannot be underestimated. There had been a previous association but it was all but moribund. It was reconstituted and became a powerful voice, and one of those who helped it to become so was, surprisingly one might think, the current mayor Tomeu Cifre. It was he who suggested that the association should be the means of communication with the town hall and the means therefore of channelling complaints.

Residents' associations can, if set up properly, be influential, and so it proved with the Gotmar association. Now, some years after it began to take on and challenge the town hall, the urbanisation is to get the improvements that had been demanded years ago.

It should not be forgotten in all of this that it was Cifre who was instrumental in getting the association back up and running. It is he who has now approved financing of over one million euros; the special charge is not to be applied. There is perhaps an irony regarding Cifre's involvement. Regularly criticised for acting in a less than fully participatory fashion and in a less than accountable manner, the suggestion he made about the association was one in which participation and accountability were inherent.

On becoming mayor, there had been the prospect of Cifre meeting regularly with a sort of confederation of different residents' associations in Pollensa. This appears not to have happened, but this may not be because the mayor found he had other things to do but because of the associations themselves.

Recently, the role of residents' associations was spoken about in a wider context than just Pollensa, so across the Balearics. They have a role to play for several reasons. One is that they are a genuine form of citizen participation. Two is that town halls are obliged to listen to them. Three is that they give non-Spanish residents a place in local democracy which they might not otherwise take, or take particularly seriously. Though non-Spaniards can vote in local elections, rare are those who become actively involved in local politics. As groups - and they can comprise considerable numbers of voters - they can influence or threaten to influence the outcome of elections, so they do have to be listened to, but only if they are organised properly and act with common purpose. One suspects that this doesn't always happen.

As with any group, there is the potential for factions to form and for there to be separate agendas. The Gotmar association, when Garry was president, was evidence of how to try and avoid this. Efforts were made, which included bringing in a trainer, to get people to work towards specific objectives and a common purpose, thus overcoming differences which might stem from cultural differences or simply different agendas. But, and in Mallorca it is especially the case, the differences can arise for reasons unrelated to issues which residents might face. They can include the power of individual friendships linked to political parties which undermine a common purpose - the pervasiveness, therefore, of amiguismo and of self-interests.

Then there is the potential for one association to dominate a confederation. In Pollensa, the residents association in Puerto Pollensa is powerful insofar as it operates as a commercial entity. It runs the beach, for example. And it hasn't been immune from accusations of a rather cosy relationship with the town hall. If it operates to its own agenda, then why should it be that interested in what other associations want?

In Gotmar at least the association does seem to have got what it wanted, though whether this is as a result of some political expediency - local elections looming - is hard to say.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 25 December 2013

No Frills Excursions


Morning high (8.30am): 14.5C
Forecast high: 17C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): Southwest 6 to 7 easing 5 by the afternoon but increasing and veering West 7 by the evening.

Mild but grey with some rain around and a fair bit of wind. Alert in place for coasts, meaning wind and potentially dangerous seas. Not much hope of sun today, but brightening up tomorrow and giving a good spell of weather as we head towards the new year.

Evening update (20.45): A high of 16.5C on a windy and rainy day, the temperature falling from midday to the mid-13s.

The Mallorca (And Spain) Quiz Of The Year

This was done for the Majorca Daily Bulletin and appeared in the paper yesterday. So, here's the chance for others to see how much attention they have been paying this year. Most of the questions relate to articles on the blog over 2013. Answers will be posted on 27 December.  





Majorca/Balearics
1. A theme park in Sineu was talked about. What was to have been its theme?
2. Javier Salinas became the new what in January?
3. A Mr. Gary Gale produced a map of the world in which the small town of Búger was the only place in Majorca to be identified. What was it a map of?
4. A town hall was raided by the Guardia Civil, acting on complaints regarding the town's radio station. Which town?
5. A book was published about the Canamunt and Canavall. Who were they?
6. The 2009 Miss Balearics, Verónica Hernández, was appointed as secretary to whom?
7. The German tour operator Oböna opened the first what this year?
8. Who was told to stay away from the Minorcan and Ibizan stands at this year's Madrid Travel Fair?
9. Majorca was referred to as the "seventeenth state" and was said to be "toppling". The seventeenth state of where?
10. In June, the Balearic Government dropped plans for what sort of taxes?
11. "The Sunday Times" journalist Matt Rudd wrote an article entitled "Escape from All-catraz". What was he writing about?
12. Where is there an arena called La Macarena? What is it and why has it not been used since 2008?
13. Who, during a press briefing whilst visiting the King at Marivent Palace, referred to Majorca as the "island of Palma"?
14. Which two towns were said to have been the hottest (temperature-wise) during August's heatwave?
15. Despite economic crisis, the number of what type of business had increased by 15% in 2012?
16. Minorca has this year celebrated twenty years since UNESCO declared it to be what?
17. What type of tourism is said to attract a tourist who spends twice as much per day as regular tourists?
18. An amnesty on 20,000 what is due to form part of a new law in the Balearics?
19. Under reforms of local government, the number of what are set to be reduced from 701 to 206 in Majorca?
20. An estimate of 28.6 million euros was placed on demolishing which uncompleted building?
21. The German Frank Hanebuth was arrested in Majorca in July. He was the leader of a criminal organisation associated with an international club formed in California in 1948? Which?
22. Ryanair decided to charge passengers flying from Majorca eight euros for taking oversize what onto its planes?
23. The right-wing union Manos Limpias denounced which mayor for, so it said, failing to pursue prosecution of crimes committed in which resort?
24. Where did two dogs die having ingested poison at a beach allocated for dogs?
25. The first law for what in the Balearics was approved in October?
26. What peaked at 1,926,681 on 9 August?
27. 28.45% of people in the Balearics were unable to do what, according to a report issued in November?
28. Work on a new luxury hotel complex started this autumn? Where?

Spain
29. There are none in the Balearics but over 80 in Spain as a whole. They are "paradors". What are they?
30. Luis Bárcenas supposedly had ledgers which detailed illicit payments. What job did he used to have?
31. Spain beat Denmark in January to become world champions at what?
32. Which global business offered to help Spain with its tourism marketing for free?
33. Artist Eugenio Merino committed an "offence that no modern civilisation can tolerate" (it was said). Who did he place in a cold-drinks fridge?
34. What comprised six volumes and 4,000 pages and was completed in 1739?
35. Who suggested a "relaxing cup of café con leche"? And on what occasion did she make the suggestion?
36. Energy minister José Manuel Soria said he believed in domestic energy self-sufficiency but still proposed a tax on what?
37. In Candeleda in the Spanish region of Castile and León an avenue was named after which former British prime minister?
38. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates took a six per cent shareholding in which Spanish company?
39. Manolo Escobar died in October. What song did he have a hit with in 1973?
40. What, from the start of next year, will not come in refillable containers in bars and restaurants?

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 24 December 2013

No Frills Excursions


Morning high (9.15am): 14.5C
Forecast high: 17C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): Southwest 4 to 5 increasing 6 during the morning.

A breezy morning and the wind is going to pick up today and over Christmas and Boxing Days. Mainly sunny today but clouding up to bring rain tomorrow. Boxing  Day will be better.

Evening update (18.45): A high of 17.2C on a fairly windy day. Some sun, but the vloud making its way in for what is likely to be quite a rough Christmas Day.

They Said This: Some Mallorcan/Spanish quotes of 2013

"Spanish history and culture don't teach the philosophy of success by hard work and risk-taking but to have respect for those who have gained success through acting craftily and cunningly." American, Barcelona-based writer Jennifer Riggins.

"The government we have right now is a national-Catholic government which has turned this country into a pre-fascist, if not fascist country." Actor Willy Toledo talking about the Spanish Government.

"The Third Republic will soon be born in Spain." Retired Colonel Amadeo Martínez Inglés, aged 74, who was in court to face a charge that he had insulted the King.

"Luis, nothing is easy, but we will do what we can." "Stay strong." Text messages to former Partido Popular treasurer Luis Bárcenas from Mariano Rajoy sent in 2012 and reproduced in the press in July. Bárcenas' so-called B ledgers allegedly showed illegal payments to Rajoy and others.

"Nobody is going to change my ideas with bombs." Senén Pousa, Partido Popular mayor of Beade in Galicia after a bomb went off at the town hall. Pousa is an unashamed admirer of General Franco.

"Premeditated criminal activity." Judge José Castro referring to the Instituto Nóos formed by Diego Torres and the King's son-in-law, Iñaki Urdangarin.

"A heartless deputy in Parliament." Headline in the "Diario de Mallorca" for an article by Joan Riera about the death of the immigrant Alpha Pam. The deputy was the Balearics health minister Marti Sansaloni.

"The Guardia Civil's report is typical of Torrente." Balearics tourism minister Carlos Delgado comparing the Guardia's investigation of alleged irregularities at Calvia Town Hall regarding Radio Calvia when Delgado was mayor to a comic film detective, Jose Luis Torrente. This character is a fascist, a racist, a sexist, a Francoist, a heavy drinker ...

"Trilingualism requires time and the involvement of teachers." David Marsh, educational expert in multilingualism, commenting on the introduction of trilingual teaching in the Balearics.

"In many countries there are multilingual systems and they do not cause this Armageddon that has been suggested." Former Balearics education minister Rafael Bosch speaking two weeks before he was removed about the opposition to trilingual teaching.

"The tread on report." Balearics education minister Joana Maria Camps (the successor to Bosch) translating the acronym PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) into the Catalan verb "trepitjar", which means to tread on, during a session at the Balearic Parliament.

"Always distrust the carpenter who blames the hammer for a bad result." Ex-Balearics finance minister and vice-president Pep Aguiló tweeting about the handling of the economy a couple of months after having been dismissed.

"I have lived close to a Catalanist dictatorship." Partido Popular's Ana Aguiló, a deputy in the Balearic Parliament, expressing her displeasure with Catalan and the "prohibition" of Castellano in the Balearics.

"The president of the Balearic Islands, unlike ministers, holds only powers of representation and direction. Conversely, there are no executive or managerial powers." President José Ramón Bauzá explaining (?) his role in light of accusations that he did not declare business interests which might be considered incompatible with his position.

"It is unacceptable that these reports ignore the enormous effort made by businesses and the town hall to maintain the safety and welfare of tourists and instead present an absolutely crass and sensationalist image." Statement by Calvia Town Hall responding to the BBC documentary, "The Truth About Magalluf".

"Tourism is for the benefit of all sectors not just the hotel. This industry (tourism) has to benefit the most people possible." Antoni Pastor, the mayor of Manacor, criticising the Balearic Government's stance on holiday rentals.

"I was not in Mallorca. I was in an all-inclusive hotel indistinguishable from any other place in the Mediterranean." "Sunday Times" journalist Matt Rudd.

"The misfortune for Spanish tourism is that, generally speaking, it is mass tourism with low spending power." Economist Santiago Niño Becerra.

"Mallorca is Sicily without guns." A bon mot quoted in the German magazine "Stern" reporting on "The Dark Side of the Holiday Island".

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 23 December 2013

No Frills Excursions


Morning high (8.15am): 10C
Forecast high: 16C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): Variable 2 to 3 then Southwest during the morning, increasing 3 to 5 by the afternoon.

Misty morning, clearing to give sun. Fine tomorrow (Christmas Eve) but with the wind picking up and being a factor on Christmas Day as well when there will be rain.

Evening update (19.15): A high of 17C. Fair bit of sun today, clouded over later.

When The Seagulls Follow: Partido Popular factions

The larus is a genus of seagull. The scientific name for the Mediterranean gull is "Larus melanocephalus". The term is Greek and it means "black-headed". As such, and because of its root, it bears some similarity with the Greek word "melankholia", which passed into Old and then Modern English as initially "black bile" and eventually sadness or depression.

The "melanocephalus" does not feature in the title given to a set of awards. Larus sits on its own. The seagull genus. The bird which flaps around making an at-times God awful racket and being, also at times, an all-round nuisance. Larus is the title of annual awards handed out by the Balearics Partido Popular.

Why this title was chosen I couldn't tell you, but chosen it was in 2012 and so gave rise, if one was of a mind to make them, to any number of associations. Black-headed, melancholic, black bile, a racket, a nuisance. A seagull may look graceful as it hangs on the thermals above the shoreline, but as with many wonders of the natural world it has a spiteful and unpleasant side to it as well.

The Larus awards were presented for the first time at the end of last year. One recipient was Antoni Arabí, a former footballer who was born in Ibiza and who played for Espanyol for eight seasons. He became active in politics with the PP when he hung up his boots. Another award-winner was Joan Verger, a former president (PP) of the Council of Mallorca who died in May this year. A third recipient was the Banco de Alimentos de Mallorca. Earlier this month, this "bank" arranged for the collection of some 120 tons of food from leading supermarkets to be handed out to the needy.

The awards are designed to recognise the achievements of individuals or groups in political, cultural, social or sporting fields. The recipients are intended to be people or organisations affiliated to, friends of or sympathisers of the PP. Such qualification may or may not be rather loose. The Red Cross in the Balearics has received an award this year, a reflection, one would think, of general good works, as with the Banco de Alimentos, rather than any political affiliation.

But certain awards are quite clearly of a PP and a PP only nature. Ventura Rubí received a posthumous award this year. The one-time president of the PP in Sencelles, he was the promoter of the golf course in that town, one which had been blocked until there was a change of political regime in 2011. And another one-time president has picked up a Larus this year. He is Gabriel Cañellas, the first president of the Balearics who held the post from 1983 until he was forced to resign and step down in 1996, embroiled as he then was in the Sóller Tunnel affair.

Cañellas is an interesting figure. Effectively, he is the father of regional democracy, yet he fell from grace because of the tunnel corruption case. It was the first big corruption investigation in Mallorca. The case was eventually archived, but there are still those who insist that some of those indicted got off. Who can really say?

Seagulls invite aphorisms or metaphors. Or they did where Eric Cantona was concerned. Acceptance speeches in the name of a seagull award can also invite sayings which require interpretation. Cañellas offered not one but two. The first was a reminder not to kill that which was helped to be born. The second referred to carts and horses. What did he mean? They were oblique allusions to the people and to regionalism.

There was no mention in his speech of the economy or of the fuss about trilingual teaching or the banning of symbols. Cañellas eschewed full-frontalism in favour of the veiled broadside. Father of regional democracy, he is of a PP which was, from the start of this democracy, a supporter of regionalism. There are others from his time who are still powerful voices who believe in this regionalism too. President Bauzá doesn't. Or doesn't appear to.

The award has been seen as an attempt to mend bridges between factions, one of them represented by the Cañellas old school, and to appeal to PP opponents of Bauzá in parts of the Balearics. And in photos of the occasion, there is the president, beaming as Cañellas lectures the audience and makes, as has been suggested, a "masterly" speech. It is the beaming expression all too familiar to political descendants of former masters. It was one to always be found on the faces of Conservative Party figures whenever Margaret Thatcher appeared and spoke. It is an expression that is necessary, so as to avoid being purged and airbrushed, so as to show respect. But it is also fawning and even patronising. Place a thought bubble above Bauzá's head and what might he have been thinking behind the smile? "I hear what you say, but I'm not listening."?

The Larus stage was set, therefore, for a meeting of the old and new schools. Which one is better? Regionalism aside, Bauzá should be given some credit for the new. He has attempted to rid the party of its previously dubious behaviour, now so much in the public view thanks to Jaume Matas. Was the old school more in tune with the people though? With what is behind the truck and with what was born? It's a question only the PP can answer. Or the electorate. And meantime, the good works baton was handed to the Red Cross. From an evening of awards at Christmas time to days of soup kitchens over the festivities.

MALLORCA TODAY - Alfaro's goals make Christmas a happy one for Mallorca

Real Mallorca 2 : 0 Girona
Mallorca, pressing for a play-off position against struggling Girona, dominated proceedings against weak opposition. Alfaro, having gone close early on, continued his recent goalscoring form by putting Mallorca ahead after 35 minutes. He added a second from the penalty spot five minutes into the second period after Nunes was brought down in the box. Girona were producing very little threat until they too had a penalty with 20 minutes to go, well saved by Miño. Time for Israeli striker Hemed to come on as sub after months out with injury, as Mallorca remained in complete control and ran out comfortable winners. No game next week because of the Christmas break, Mallorca will make the long trip to the Canary Islands to play Las Palmas on 4 January.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 22 December 2013

No Frills Excursions


Morning high (8.30am): 13C
Forecast high: 16C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): Southeast 3 to 4 easing 2 to 3 and backing East by the afternoon.

Bright morning and a good day on the cards. The forecast for Christmas remains as was - rain on Christmas Day and then getting better on Boxing Day.

Evening update (18.45): Plenty of sun and a high of 18.5C.

Far From Ideal: The rural tourism idyll

Rural tourism is a part of Mallorca's tourism mix which provides an inland idyll but which is also idealistic. The island, along with the rest of the Balearics, doesn't, in national terms, do at all badly in terms of rural tourism performance. In June this year, as an example, the Balearics topped the national list with more overnight stays in rural tourism accommodation than any other region of the country. The total number of these stays was 92,963. In September, the number was higher - 112,605 - and this represented an increase of almost 30% over the same month in 2012.

Heartening though these statistics may appear, they should be put in context. Overnight stays in hotels in the Balearics for September amounted to 8,560,293. Rural tourism, therefore, equates to (or equated in September at any rate) 1.3% of hotel volume in tourist areas, i.e. the coastal resorts.

Add up the different types of non-hotel accommodation for September, and the overnight stays were 1,750,863. Rural tourism was a touch under 6.5% of this non-hotel tourism (in fact the figure does include rural hotels). The other non-hotel accommodation comprises camping, of which there is a negligible amount in Mallorca but some in Ibiza, and tourist apartments. (When reports refer to tourist apartments, it isn't entirely clear what these are, so it is wise not to necessarily treat them as consisting of the so-called illegal offer.)

However one looks at the numbers for rural tourism, and despite the healthy performance in the Balearics compared with other regions, this is a type of tourism which is on the margins of the tourism mix. And yet, it is a type of tourism - through agrotourism, converted country mansions as hotels etc. - which the Balearics tourism ministry holds out great hope for. It is why the ministry was therefore permissive in facilitating the creation of more rural tourism accommodation in the 2012 tourism law and why its colleagues elsewhere in government are proposing an amnesty on illegal rural properties (some 20,000) which could in certain instances be transformed as additional accommodation.

The ministry, in this same law, was at pains to establish in principle the need for quality standards (for all types of accommodation), but standards (or lack of them) may be an issue which explains why, across Spain as a whole, there is a low loyalty factor among holidaymakers who stay in rural accommodation. Only 25% of clients say they would return, and the Balearics do not head the list when it comes to repeat business (Extremadura and the Basque Country come out on top).

The loyalty factor aside, rural tourism is far more susceptible to wild fluctuations in demand than regular coastal tourism. In April this year, as a further example, there was a national decline of just over 50% in rural tourism stays compared with the previous April. The slightly earlier Easter may well have contributed to this, but even so, 50% is a far from insignificant fall. For the Balearics, there was still some good news as the islands were again number one, but with only 38% of places occupied.

Standards may not be a key issue. I fancy that rural tourism is a more discretionary type of tourism than coastal tourism. It is something which visitors give a try and not something which they intend repeating on a regular basis. While this is supposition, there are some more solid issues to take into account, and one of them is the nature of services on offer. For instance, how good, if at all, are wifi networks in rural areas? Wifi is an increasingly important ingredient for the traveller, but if communications infrastructure is lacking, then rural accommodation may find that clients prefer to give it a miss.

To wifi one can add the total package that is made available to the rural tourist, and it is this which could well represent the biggest challenge to rural tourism. Two years ago, an article in "Hosteltur" attacked the rural tourism sector for being "allergic to change" and for simply being boring. It is as though the rural setting is considered sufficient to attract guests, when it quite plainly isn't. Tourists, wherever they go, are more demanding than ever. And as noted yesterday, the report for the ITB Berlin travel fair revealed that, in contrast to the growth in urban tourism, the demand for rural and nature tourism has been falling. The ideal of the rural idyll, it might be said, doesn't match the dynamism and vitality of the city; one might be boring, while the other isn't.

In the Balearics at least, there is better performance than elsewhere, but it is performance which makes only a small contribution to the total tourism picture. It is probably worth pushing rural tourism more, but how much more? Is there genuinely the demand, while a not unimportant matter related to any growth in rural tourism is that of resources. A criticism of Balearics "quality" rural tourism is that it has a huge hunger for water, which is costly and inefficient when compared with densely populated, coastal, urban areas. 

Rural tourism sounds good in theory and it does have much to commend it but its importance is being exaggerated.

MALLORCA TODAY - Improvements to Gotmar to start in the new year

Pollensa town hall has announced that 1.2 million euros are to be spent on improvements to the Gotmar urbanisation in Puerto Pollensa. Undertaken in two phases, the first beginning in January, the work will include improvements to street lighting and paving.

See more: Diario de Mallorca

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 21 December 2013

No Frills Excursions


Morning high (8.30am): 14.5C
Forecast high: 17C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): Northeast 3 to 4. Rough seas improving and swells to two metres easing.

A very much better morning, the wind having dropped but there is still rain and will be during the day. Mild and staying so into next week, but getting a bit colder on Christmas Day when it will be wet.

Evening update (18.00): So much for a forecast for rain. It wasn't a bad day with a good deal of sun. A high of 16.9C.

Urban Myth: Palma as an urban tourism destination

IPK International is a tourism consulting group. In keeping with other consultancies, it publishes various reports. One of these is the "ITB World Travel Trends Report 2013/2014", which has been produced in advance of the ITB Berlin travel and tourism fair in March next year, and a key finding of the report has to do with urban tourism, which has grown four times more quickly than sun and beach tourism since 2009 - up by 47%, if you want to know.

At the turn of the millennium, the European Commission produced a report of its own on the same theme. Entitled "Towards Quality Urban Tourism", the report took 15 case studies of European cities in promoting a concept called integrated quality management for urban tourist destinations. This IQM concept was and is a familiar enough box of tools to anyone with some knowledge of the principles of quality management that have been knocking around corporations since the late 1970s.

One of the 15 case studies was Malaga. It was the one Spanish city included in the report. In May this year, there was yet another report, one produced by Exceltur, the Spanish alliance for touristic excellence. "UrbanTUR 2012" was a "monitor of touristic competitiveness of Spanish urban destinations". Malaga was ranked sixth out of the 20 destinations which were considered. In October, figures from the Spanish national statistics office revealed that in the first nine months of this year Malaga had been the Spanish city which had enjoyed the highest increase in the level of urban tourism - up by 6%.

Malaga isn't particularly special in how it has applied quality principles to its tourism. It, as with many other cities and indeed quite small towns in Spain, follows quality principles known as SICTED, an "integrated system of touristic quality in destination". Palma does as well, and so indeed do smaller places like Alcúdia. But Malaga had been, as noted in the European Commission's report of 2000, one of the first movers in establishing a comprehensive plan of action for its tourism. Though only sixth in the UrbanTUR rankings, it has some serious hitters ahead of it - Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Seville and San Sebastian. Behind it, though, are the likes of Santiago de Compostela, Granada and Bilbao.

Of the twenty cities in those UrbanTUR rankings, Palma wasn't one of them. It didn't qualify for inclusion because it was impossible to separate values derived from sun and beach tourism, i.e. that of Playa de Palma. The report's organisers are looking at developing a methodology which will enable values of Palma's urban tourism alone to be calculated, but for the meantime, in official rankings, Palma doesn't feature as an urban tourism destination.

Yet, Malaga has sun and beach tourism as well. So too does Barcelona. What is it, therefore, which permits their inclusion as an urban tourism destination and not Palma's? Perhaps it is because sun and beach is that much more important, relatively speaking, to Palma than to these other cities. Or perhaps it is a matter of perception - that of visitors and of the city's authorities.

Malaga, despite its having beaches, has far more of a reputation and therefore perception as a city than as a beach destination. Its tourism is, as a consequence, much more clearly of an urban nature and more focused on this. It has certain obvious claims to fame and selling points to attract the urban tourist; it is, for example, the birthplace of Picasso. Cities like Madrid, Santiago, Granada are all obviously urban tourist destinations and all have strong attractions. Barcelona, even with its beaches, is known as an urban destination, famed for Gaudi and all that.

Palma, on the other hand, is far less recognisable as an urban tourism destination. Playa de Palma is one reason why it isn't. Another, though, is that it doesn't have the strength of attraction of, say, a Barcelona or even a Malaga. If you disagree with this statement, then ask yourself a question: what is it about Palma that is in any way unique or that makes it stand out as an urban tourism destination?

Destination duality - that of urban and sun and beach - should, in theory, be an advantage. The best of both worlds can be had. But maybe it is in fact a drawback, because there is an unevenness between the two. One dominates the other. In Palma, which of the two dominates? In tourist perception terms and perhaps also in the perception of people of Palma itself, it is sun and beach.

The growth in urban tourism that the ITB report has referred to, helped by, among other things, an increase in the popularity of short city breaks and business and conference tourism, suggests that Palma is on the right lines in the way it is now being promoted as an all-year destination. But the city does face a big challenge. It is the one of perception, and as such, Palma's ambitions for non-sun and beach tourism are a metaphor for Mallorca as a whole. The perception of the island is one of sun and beach and not the rest. And as for this rest, the ITB report has something else to say: rural and nature tourism has slumped by 10%.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 20 December 2013

No Frills Excursions


Morning high (8.30am): 13C
Forecast high: 15C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): North and Northeast gale force 8 to 9, easing by the afternoon to 6 to 7. Extremely rough.

A tempestuous morning. Very high winds gusting to 90kph. Very rough seas and dangerous coastal conditions. Rain persisting through the day, the wind due to ease later but staying into tomorrow. The forecast into next week is for rain; Christmas Day looks like being a washout.

Evening update (18:15): Pretty awful day. The wind has eased a bit and should do more so overnight, but the rain is likely to continue. It has been heavy in some areas, though nothing out of the ordinary. The high has been 12.7C, so a little down on what it was this morning.

Highly Symbolic: Balearics Law of Symbols

How important is a flag? I guess the answer will vary according to one's sense of nationalism, but however much one honours the flag or doesn't and so however much one might feel nationalistic or not, there is little denying that it conveys nationalism. There is also undeniable potency in the flag. Combined with the anthem, it can reduce even the strongest Olympian to a gibbering wreck. Hung at half mast, it pays homage to the war dead and the notably dead. Paraded in streets, it shouts victory or opposition.

There has been research into the effects of exposure to a flag. Unsurprisingly, and even at subliminal levels of exposure, this leads to greater national identity or identity with some entity (politicial party perhaps) which utilises or exploits the flag. It is unsurprising simply because the more there is exposure, the greater the awareness of the flag and what it might represent.

The flag's origins were in battle as military standards. Or they were a means of identifying particular clans. These might have doubled as military standards but otherwise they were a device to extract fealty or loyalty and to exert supremacy, power, influence and ownership. The flag didn't really become a statement of nationalism until it was necessary for a nation to announce its dominance and even then, overt nationalism, as expressed by the flag, was something which didn't emerge until revolutionary upheaval in the late eighteenth century and nineteenth century. The Stars and Stripes and the Tricolore were arguably the first truly overt statements of nationalism via pieces of cloth with different colours.

Despite this relatively recent exploitation of the flag as nationalist symbol, historical revisionism enables the flag as potent national symbol to be placed much further back in time. One such flag is the senyera. Originally the flag of the old kings of Aragon, it has long been adopted either wholesale or in part by the component regions of what became the Crown of Aragon. Catalonia's flag is the senyera, while the flags for Mallorca and the Balearics (there being two different ones) both use the senyera. For the purposes of nationalist revisionism and so therefore for the potency of the senyera as national symbol, Catalonia is a case study all in its own right. Was it ever a nation? Some would argue that it was, while others would dismiss the suggestion.

There are also arguments regarding the generally held view that the flag was originally that of the kings of Aragon. Following the Catalonian line of historical revisionism (or even accuracy), it was in fact a flag of the Count of Barcelona towards the back end of the eleventh century and so at a time when there wasn't a Catalonia as such but a County of Barcelona.

Whatever the exact origin, there is no question that the senyera is a very old flag. It is one of the oldest of European flags that has survived to the present day. And however the arguments go, either pro- or anti-Catalonia, there is also no question that it was not a flag of Castile. It was a flag apart, albeit one that ended up being shared by a number of regions.

The flag, any flag that is, is a symbol, a symbol of nationalism. As far as the senyera is concerned, it has become a popular symbol in Mallorca. Indeed, its popularity has never been greater. Up until about two years ago, the senyera, while popular, was a latent symbol of centuries past, reflected in the modern-day island flags. Now, it is not latent. Quite the contrary.

It was the current regional government's attitudes and legislation which led to the senyera being rediscovered anew. It started to appear on public buildings, usually tied in a bow. These buildings included town halls and schools. It was a symbol of opposition, a symbol of rejection of the government's apparent indifference to regionalism and its antagonism towards Catalonia and all things Catalan, including the language.

The government has finally approved its Ley de Símbolos, the law of symbols. It is a law which doesn't only deal with the senyera, but it is how the senyera is being dealt with which is its main focus, because how the senyera was to be dealt with was the reason for the law ever having been proposed.

The law, therefore, bans the hanging of the senyera on public buildings. As such, opponents argue, it is a limit to freedom of expression and a return to the bad old days of Franco. One will wait and see if and how the law is flouted. And flouted, one imagines it will be.

Dredging up the Francoist past makes the law of symbols appear more than it really is. In truth, it is very petty. Stupid even. It is a law of symbols which is symbolic in revealing the difficulties which the government has in being able to accept criticism of its policies. The very acts of hanging out the senyera might also have been considered rather petty, but for those who have done so, these acts have not been.

But how far have these acts been representative of an expression of nationalism - Catalan nationalism? For some, they will have been, but for many others, they won't have been. They will have been merely acts of defiance and opposition. By banning the senyera, the government is achieving what it had hoped it could put an end to. The ban is stupid because it increases the potential for Catalan nationalism to take hold in Mallorca not reduce it. Exposure to the flag. Exposure to the symbol. Even if it cannot now appear on public buildings. Nationalist identity grows. It's a bad law.

Photo: From "Ultima Hora". A senyera bow at the secondary school in Marratxi.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 19 December 2013

No Frills Excursions


Morning high (8.30am): 14C
Forecast high: 16C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): Southwest 3 to 4 increasing 4 to 5.

Cloudy morning and rain due later with an alert in place for rain and then alerts for tomorrow for rain, wind and poor coastal conditions.

Evening update (19.30): Rain came in as expected. Not heavy but may be over the next few days. Wind due to really get up overnight. The forecast for Christmas Day is for more rain.

Of Paramount Importance: Theme parks

Paramount Pictures needs little introduction. From the early Marx Brothers output to the more modern-day likes of "Star Trek", Paramount has been one of Hollywood's most famous studios. It is, in marketing parlance, a highly recognisable brand and, as with other brands, its value can be exploited in ways other than the cinema and media.

The Walt Disney Company was probably the first studio to truly appreciate branding potential. And boy did it appreciate it. Arguably, Disney is now better known for its theme parks than for Mickey Mouse, and theme parks have become an important additional line of business for other studios. Universal is one. It used to own most of the shares in the PortAventura theme park in Salou but sold out in 2004. Now, there is another studio coming to Spain with a theme park - Paramount.

The move into resorts and theme parks is a recent venture by Paramount. Its first resort is being built in Dubai but it may be a close-run thing as to where the first one becomes operable. Paramount Murcia is scheduled to be completed some time in 2015, the same year as the Dubai project.

Alhama in the region of Murcia has a population of a little over 20,000 people. It is a town noted for nature parks and protected natural areas. Its economy is based primarily on agriculture and industry. There is a tourism economy, but this is confined to those natural areas. It is some way inland in a region that is not that well known for its sun and beach tourism. Murcia obviously has a coast but it doesn't have resorts of the type which are to be found in the Alicante province to its north and along the Costa Almeria and therefore Costa del Sol to its south.

When the Paramount project was first announced in 2010, concerns were raised that it was just some sort of publicity stunt that wouldn't see the light of day. Interestingly, despite the location and all that nature, there was surprisingly little opposition. Naturally it has caused some controversy, but the benefits seem to outweigh this. Leading unions have, for example, accepted that it would be a great opportunity for Murcia.

It was fair though for some scepticism to have been expressed. At the time of the initial announcement, the Gran Scala project in Aragon was still seen as a goer, but it was to soon collapse through a mixture of co-ordinated opposition and, more importantly, a lack of investors.

Investment for Paramount Murcia - Paramount Park and Lifestyle Center to give it its official name - hasn't yet been put in place totally. The promoters behind the park is a company called Premursa (Proyectos Emblemáticos Murcianos), which is made up by the institute of development in Murcia, the Murcia Tourist Region body and Santa Monica Financial Services. The whole project is expected to need investment of 450 million euros. Premursa expects to get this investment mainly from foreign sources. In the meantime, the first phase is to start now that Ferrovial, a company which is known of course for its airports, has been awarded a contract worth 52 million euros.

The schedule for completion in 2015 does therefore seem a little tight for what will be a project occupying 133 hectares that will combine Paramount theming with the lifestyle of casino, hotels, restaurants, shopping mall and culture and which will be notable for utilising advanced technologies, including 3D and 4D. And the schedule might be even more optimistic if all the investment doesn't pour in. The hope is that now that Spain is seemingly being seen as a good investment opportunity it will.

But there are concerns about theme park viability in general. The Murcia minister for tourism has sought to dispel these concerns, pointing to, for example, a 1.8% growth for Spanish theme parks in 2012 as well as to the unique features of Paramount Park. If it all comes off, the theme park is expected to create 23,000 jobs and attract some three million tourists per annum. And if it does indeed all come off, then it will be a theme park on the Spanish mainland of the type which Mallorca does not have.

Murcia makes a great deal of sense as a location because it is a region that is crying out for tourism investment. But just as regions which are deficient in tourism terms need investment so also do those which have been heavily invested in, such as Mallorca. Constant new investment is required in order to create new attractions and so keep up in the tourism competition race.

Theme parks, so we have been led to believe by the Balearics tourism ministry, are on the cards. If so, then where is the evidence? And even if there were evidence, 133 hectares in an area of nature parks as in Murcia? Forget it. It would never happen.

* Photo from the Premursa website.

MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 18 December 2013

No Frills Excursions


Morning high (8.30am): 11C
Forecast high: 17C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays): Southeast 2 to 3 becoming Variable during the afternoon and Southwest by the evening.

Pleasant enough morning. Calm and quite a bit of clear sky. Poor weather looks a though it is coming in from tomorrow afternoon with Friday expected to be particularly poor with high winds and rain and then some improvement over the weekend.

Evening update (18.00): A high of 19C. Pretty good day, but hold on to your hats from tomorrow.

The Missing Funds For Resort Modernisation

Resort modernisation was one of the key themes behind the Balearics tourism law of 2012. One of the measures included in the law was the payment of a tax equivalent to 5% of the value of reconstruction or rehabilitation of a hotel that underwent a change of use. This change of use referred to the establishment of tourist condo hotels or a complete alteration to residential apartments for sale. Such conversions, and in the build-up to the passing of the 2012 law they were one of the most publicised aspects, have thus far been few and far between. Yet the pre-law publicity hinted that they would be many and close between and, moreover, that many 5% levies would find their ways into the coffers of different town halls who would then be able (obliged) to use the money for infrastructure modernisation in the vicinity of the converted hotel.

It all seemed, therefore, like a fairly decent scheme. But as conversion has been only fractionally more than zilch, it now seems like less of a decent scheme. Why hasn't there been a dash to convert? Finance almost certainly, but was there ever the demand for condos (or cash available to buy them) and is there not already a surplus of apartments for sale in tourist areas? And why might someone wish to buy an apartment in a tourist area from a former hotel. Not as a holiday rental private apartment, surely?

Conversion fever being absent, additional funds for town halls are also absent and so modernisation of resorts or parts thereof is being starved of additional funds. Yet these funds are badly needed. There are old, all but obsolete hotels in Mallorca and there are old, all but obsolete parts of resorts as well. Forty or fifty years on from the great boom times, the coastal urban areas of the island are showing their age and looking tired.

The regional government is hugely dependent upon the private sector to assist with this resort modernisation. The funds it receives by way of project investment from Madrid are laughably small - some 70 odd million euros in 2014 - and those which it can afford to allocate are similarly paltry and determined by a lack of cash and an inability to raise credit, even if banks were willing to extend it.

The tourism ministry has announced a series of projects that will commence in 2014 and run into 2015. The funds available amount to a little over 12.5 million euros. The government may be able to find some more cash and may also be able to announce more than the 15 projects that it has, but 12.5 million does not go a long way when one considers the scale of modernisation that needs to be undertaken across the island.

What is interesting about this 12.5 million, though, is that it is a sort of special fund. It comes from the hoteliers. Not because they have been disposing largesse but because they were liable under an agreement drawn up in 2009 to hand over 4,000 euros for every hotel place that had to be "regularised". There were, or supposedly there were, a whole load of hotel places that were illegal.

The then tourism minister Miguel Nadal and the Council of Mallorca reckoned that there were 50,312 hotel places that required regularising, though they weren't In fact all hotel places. Roughly a half related to tourist apartments of the type which hoteliers operate. Whatever the type of accommodation, there was an apparently large discrepancy between what these 50,000 or so places should have generated and what the government at the time anticipated receiving - up to 70 million euros. There is now an even greater discrepancy. Since 2009, the total number of places that have been regularised is less than 10% of the 2009 figure, and the amount raised has totalled only a bit more than 18 million euros, 12.5 million of which is now earmarked for the 15 projects.

So whatever happened to the 50,000 places and what, therefore, ever happened to the funds that were going to be raised? Both seem like pretty legitimate questions, but neither have an obvious or satisfactory answer. Perhaps the tourism ministry got the figures wrong back in 2009. Who can say? The process of regularisation and so the period for which the government receives funds are due to end in 2015, so 50,000 places are most certainly not going to be regularised.

The shortfall on the 2009 estimate potentially gives a lie to the government's belief in the private sector contributing to modernisation and also to the rapidity with which this might be undertaken. Though modernisation was a tenet of the 2012 tourism law, the legislative framework for the regularisation, the raising of funds and yes, modernisation, was, remarkably enough, established under the 1999 tourism law. Which all goes to prove how slowly things can proceed and how, even once they do proceed, they do not proceed as might have been anticipated. Modernisation? It'll take years.