Don't Go Near The Balearics Stand

Who would be King Felipe and Queen Letizia when you innocently get caught up in a political spat? Following the gathering of the great and good at the Fitur travel/tourism fair in Madrid, the media enjoy offering various Fitur perspectives - expectations for the coming season as revealed at the fair, general tendencies in the tourism industry, this type of thing. And there are also perspectives on who did what or who didn't do what, which is where the royals come in. Felipe and Letizia, regular holidaymakers in Mallorca, didn't drop by the Balearics stand at Fitur. This had never happened before: the Balearics pavilion is always graced with the presence of royalty. Cue, talk of some type of conspiracy.

As it turns out, there was another stand which the royals didn't go to, that for the Canary Islands. Two and two have been put together and the sum of four is that the royals had received orders from the ministry for industry, energy and tourism, José Manuel Soria, for them to not go to either of the stands. Orders!? A minister ordering the royals? Far-fetched though this might seem, a breaking with royal tradition had to be explained somehow. Hence, the Soria theory. And why would he be issuing "orders" to the royals? Because he wanted to punish both the Balearics and the Canaries owing to their opposition to oil prospecting. Remember that Soria does head a vast ministry with occasionally competing interests, such as oil and energy on the one hand and tourism where the waters are crystal clear and the horizons should never be sullied with the sights of oil platforms on the other.

In the Balearic parliament they were engaging in their own post-Fitur debrief (aka slanging match). Spokespeople from Més were convinced that there was no other explanation for the royals' apparent snub of the Balearics stand than the lousy relations between President Bauzá and Soria (indeed it had been reported that Bauzá was "furious" about the alleged veto of the Balearics stand). Clashes over oil prospecting aside, it was being suggested a year or so ago that Bauzá was after Soria's job, and they have studiously managed to avoid being photographed together ever since or even having to meet, as was the case at the large Berlin travel fair in March last year. Both managed to succumb at the same time to a dose of the flu which prevented their travelling.

Does it really matter if the royals give the stand a miss once in a while? Does it even mean a great deal for them to go to the stand? It probably does matter, especially for Balearics' promotion to the domestic tourist market, which is more likely to see photographic evidence of the visit than the international one. These little things might seem just that - little - but they do all add up. Moreover, it needs stressing that the Balearics and the Canaries combine with Catalonia in contributing 60% of all Spain's tourism. This is something which is deserving of royal acknowledgement and should indeed be deserving of political praise, but at present there is a tourism minister, Soria, who has fallen out with the Balearics and with his home islands of the Canaries, while there is a region - Catalonia - about which we are fully aware of governmental tensions. It isn't a terribly healthy state of tourism affairs.

Given that soundings off the Canaries, if not the Balearics as yet, have led Repsol to decide to discontinue exploration - the oil and gas is of insufficient quality to warrant actual drilling - it seems churlish that Soria might still harbour a grudge against the Canaries, one strong enough to issue instructions to the King as regards which stands he should visit or shouldn't. But then, who knows how far petty political vendettas might extend? Certainly not as far as the Canaries' largest hotel chain, Lopesan, which did receive the royals at its stand. And it was the large hotel chains in Mallorca to which Més also turned its parliamentary attention. These large groups dictate government policy on tourism, it was claimed, and so there needs to be a new "tourism model" for the islands. It is hard to disagree with the claim regarding hotelier power, but as for a new model of tourism, was this Més seeking to claim bragging rights on a change in direction after the next election?

They are lining up on the left of centre to be the initiators of such a change, whatever this might be. Should the large hoteliers be concerned? Not really, given the amount they invest in other parts of the globe. By Fitur 2016, will any change have been effected? Doubtful. But by 2017, you never know, Podemos might have scrapped the monarchy. Then no one could argue about which stands are being visited or not.