Hainan And Mallorca's High Noon

The World Travel & Tourism Council sounds as though it should be some quasi international governmental body. It isn't. It is private, the forum for business leaders in the travel and tourism industry. Part of its reason for being is to conduct tourism research, and I have a copy of an impressive research document it has produced, the foreword to which states that "WTTC stands ready to work with you to help you achieve your vision" and then goes on to offer congratulations on behalf of WTTC members.

What is this document about? It concerns the island of Hainan, the Asian Hawaii or even the Asian Mallorca. The WTTC stands ready to work with the Hainan Provincial Government, and it is to it that the Council offers its congratulations for achievements thus far. You bet it stands ready to work with the government.

At the start of the report, a host of members, vice-chairmen and executive committee members are listed. The chairman is Michael Frenzel of TUI. One of the executive committee members is Sebastián Escarrer of Meliá Hotels. Stakeholders, no doubt, in an island whose tourism growth potential is on a scale that Mallorca could only dream of and whose diversity is unlike anything Mallorca could offer. Hainan is the next big thing.

Hainan is an island in the South China Sea. It is roughly equivalent in size to Catalonia, so its scope is that much greater than Mallorca's. And what scope it is. Much as Mallorca likes to boast about culture, nature, beaches, sea, sport, this boast pales against what Hainan has to offer. A tropical island with exotic flora and fauna, lush forest and jungle, waterfalls, hot springs, even an extinct volcano, Hainan is set to be the jewel in the crown of China's burgeoning tourism industry. And so much of a jewel is it, that by 2021 it will be ranked in first position on all of the WTTC performance measures: contributions of tourism to GDP; contributions of tourism to employment; tourist spending; capital investment.

Hainan isn't a competitor to Mallorca. It is up against the likes of Bali, Phuket and Penang. Its market is international, with the Russians an important element, but it has a massive market on its doorstep, the Chinese. It could only assume the position it is going to over the next ten years because of the strength of the Chinese economy, which enables the finance that is being pumped into it and guarantees it a home-grown and ever more affluent and sophisticated market.

For an international hotel group such as Meliá, Hainan is a potential gold mine. The major Mallorcan hotels are to the fore in being represented in new developments like those in Hainan. There are not just the opportunities for business growth, there are also those for the export of know-how. The WTTC report observes that one weakness that Hainan has is the quality of staff. And training, a point Miguel Fluxà of Iberostar made at the 2011 ABTA convention in Palma, is something that these top Mallorcan hotel groups are very good at providing.

It is small wonder that the top hotels eye up destinations such as Hainan. The scope for growth in Mallorca is limited. It is not that there isn't investment, as Meliá are demonstrating in Magalluf, but there are so many constraints in Mallorca: the political and environmental climate; the ancient nature of resorts; and the sheer lack of money.

Though it isn't a competitor, the development of Hainan is reminiscent of that in destinations which are Mallorca's competitors. Egypt and Turkey emerged because of the high priority given to tourism and the fact that decision-making was right at the top of government. And as Hainan and other resorts become better known and so add to the general tourist experience already had in the newer Mediterranean destinations, so Mallorca looks more and more the victim of it having been the first mover in mass tourism. The tattiness that can be found in some (if not all) of the island's resorts will increasingly conflict with altered expectations on behalf of the tourist.

Concerns about the environmental impact of new complexes by Es Trenc and in Canyamel merely highlight the difficulties which Mallorca faces. However, these new complexes are conceived partly because transforming existing resorts to anything like the standards being set elsewhere runs up against similar concerns. The current government is being criticised for returning to the days of playing fast and loose with the environment (an over-exaggerated criticism in my opinion), but it does have a certain vision, one for which it should be getting more credit than it is. Of course there isn't the money to splash around like the Chinese have, but without some investment and without some new development, Mallorca will gradually slip and the tattiness will become ever tattier. And the Hainans will make it look tattier still.


QUIZ: "Twenty Twenty" was The Beach Boys. In the film "High Noon", who played Gary Cooper's love interest, as in wife, and who had a number one hit with a song with her name?


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