A Mallorcan Winter Climate Of Distrust

Benidorm and comparisons with Mallorca have found their way into the pages of the Bulletin over the past few days. Firstly, there were Ian Morrison's photos (3 January) showing an empty Magalluf and a busy Benidorm in December. Secondly, there was the letter by Elizabeth Dobson (5 January) which contrasted levels of customer care in Mallorca with those in Benidorm.

From the photos, one could see that while Benidorm is open for business in winter, Magalluf (for which one can also read Mallorca as a whole) is closed. Why is this? It isn't the weather, or only marginally if it is. Benidorm is fractionally further south than Magalluf, but the comparative latitudes make little or no difference to temperatures. The weather can be iffy in both places. Or it can be glorious as it was on Friday when I was in Magalluf and when there were few people around and fewer still bars open in which one could have a coffee.

Because the weather offers no clue as to why Benidorm and not Magalluf (Mallorca), other clues need to be found. And there is one very big clue. People.

We are fed some nonsense about the size of the British expatriate population on Mallorca. A 50,000 figure for the Balearics would suggest that there must be some 40,000 Brits residents on Mallorca. The figure is plain wrong. It is around 16,000. In the Alicante province, of which Benidorm is a part, the official number of UK residents (as of a couple of years ago) is just short of 130,000. The land area of Alicante is 37% greater than Mallorca. Even if one were to factor this in, the British expat population of the island would climb to only 22,000.

One really needs to look no further than this wide difference in populations to understand why, as an example, Ryanair can, over a week in January, fly daily to Alicante from Stansted but can't to Palma.

It isn't only the comparative British populations that have an impact. According to benidormallyearround.com (and yes, it is all year round), Benidorm attracts tourists from the likes of Madrid over the festive season. The number who drive to the resort explains, so the website says, the lack of parking that is available. And note that they drive. They don't need to fly.

It would be too simple and indeed simplistic to use population statistics as the sole explanation as to why Benidorm and not Magalluf, but when airlines have a greater potential pool of demand to supply then they will supply, and from this supply other things follow, like those visiting the expatriates, tourists availing themselves of flights and hotels and bars staying open.

Then there is the contrast in customer care. Ms. Dobson's letter was, to say the least, heartfelt. It also had more than the superficiality of the pure anecdote about it in castigating Mallorcan attitudes and levels of care and in comparing them unfavourably with the mainland and Benidorm in particular. Doubtless there will be those who rush to the anecdote to either challenge her conclusions or support them, but anecdotes and personal experiences amount to only so much.

It is possible to measure how people feel about customer care, and recent tourist satisfaction surveys have shown falls in the level of satisfaction where some aspects of Mallorca are concerned. Generally, though, they don't dig into how people feel they are treated, and it is this that Ms. Dobson was referring to.

Whatever one personally thinks about Ms. Dobson's criticisms, there is one source - a Mallorcan one - that tends to lend support to the argument that tourists (and foreigners in general) are treated less than well. Guy de Forestier's "Beloved Majorcans" has been one of the very attempts to get inside the Mallorcan character, and the book refers variously to a "climate of distrust", always being "on the defensive, extremely prudent, wary and reserved" and "the unsociable nature of the Majorcan".

The letter does offer some harsh comments, ones that cut to the bone: the honeypot having dried up; the island being beautiful on the outside but not being beautiful on the inside. This latter one is a damning observation.

To put the letter into the context of the contrast between Benidorm and Magalluf in winter, perhaps there is, therefore, a reason other than populations. It is all a question of attitude. In Mallorca, tourists are tolerated in summer because of what they can bring in filling the honeypot. But if this tolerance is indeed reluctant, one based on de Forestier's distrust, then not needing or not wishing to extend the tolerance beyond the summer would begin to explain a lot.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.