The Tourist's Revenge

The national tourism minister, José Manuel Soria, would like to see more developments similar to Eurovegas. He would like to see such developments in the Canary Islands in particular, something you might expect him to say; he is the former president of the islands.

Soria is in a difficult position. His association with the Canaries makes him susceptible to accusations of bias. But in calling for a Eurovegas-style creation in the Canaries, he is recognising the stasis that exists on the islands with regard to new development. The economic situation is not the sole reason for inactivity out in the Atlantic. A further one is attempting to find a sensible compromise between doing anything that would upset sustainable development on the Canaries, i.e. doing absolutely nothing, and unbridled permissiveness. So heightened have been environmental sensibilities in the Canaries that the director of the islands employment service was sacked after having had the audacity to suggest that, as unemployment was so high but that there was so much demand for tourism, consideration should be given to building more accommodation.

Though the Balearics are hardly enjoying a period of feverish development, the contrast here with the Canaries is striking. Opponents of developments can argue that the Balearic Government is hastening the arrival of the new environmental Armageddon, but in citing regional interests as a justification for activity in Magalluf, Canyamel and Sa Rapita (for starters), the government is prepared to throw off the shackles of what has amounted to a virtual self-imposed economic blockade, one created by the inertia-inducing troika of leftist political parties, the eco-warriors and the idealistic Luddite tendency of romantic Catalanist agrarian patrimony.

Soria, in outlining the national plan for tourism, has defended the need to diversify the tourist offer and has also defended the national government's reformed coasts law. Eurovegas is an example of this diversification, designed to reduce dependence on sun and beach tourism and on the summer season. The coasts law, far from being a speculator's charter for unchecked coastal vandalism, has been a largely sensible response to the unfairness of the 1988 act. Even national plans, though, can run up against regional barriers. These have well and truly been erected in the Canaries, but in the Balearics there is a will to pull some if not all of them down.

Where the national government and the Balearics regional government face difficulty is in confronting an attitude that is both parochial and anti-modernity. This is an attitude that isn't solely confined to the usual suspects on the left, it is also one of current officialdom. The head of the Balearics tax agency, in responding to the row over the tax for hire cars, has implied that Mallorca would be better off without these cars in order that Mallorcans could head off to the beaches in peace. It is a most extraordinary observation but it captures the essence of objections to new tourism development. Opposition to Sa Rapita-Es Trenc has been founded, to no small extent, on a desire to keep Es Trenc for the Mallorcans, and only the Mallorcans, a laudable enough wish but not when it flies in the face of the need for badly needed economic activity in a key industry - tourism - that has suffered from a lack of investment and has so seen its competitiveness eroded by newer destinations.

Gabriel Escarrer of Meliá Hotels has said that "the cost of doing nothing was too great". Yet doing nothing has been the preferred option. Until now. Meliá's prescription for Magalluf is an excellent example of urban tourist redevelopment, and more is the pity that there are not similar concentrations of a single hotel chain's establishments in other mature resorts that might easily permit other Magallufs.

The governments in Madrid and Palma have appreciated the need for greater liberalism in the tourism sector, but of the reasons for embarking on development, the emergence of new tourism markets, especially the Russian market, has been a major impulse behind much of this liberalism. The desire to capture this affluent and huge market is fair enough, but it speaks volumes for the way in which traditional tourism markets - British, German, Scandinavian - have been taken for granted for way too long. An attitude of complacent insularity combined with inertia and the wish for Mallorcans to go to the beaches in peace has meant the kind of stasis that the Canaries are experiencing. It has taken the Russian invasion to wake some people up, and with the Russians comes a new reality for tourism, one that attacks the former lethargy and complacent attitude. It is a new reality that is the tourist's revenge for having been taken for granted.


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