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%.