Spending Nothing On Advertising

Which public sector tourism promotion agencies do you suppose featured in the top thirty spenders on advertising in Spain in 2014? Do you think the Balearics Tourism Agency might be one of them? Palma 365 perhaps? Or maybe even one of the island councils or town halls. The answer is of course that none of them feature. There is not one single public body in Mallorca or the Balearics which makes this top thirty, defined as having spent 500,000 euros or more on television, radio, press, internet, direct mail and mobile advertising.

This list is headed, by some considerable distance, by Viajes El Corte Inglés (32.4 million euros). Other travel agencies and tour operators get a look in, but of the public sector agencies, the highest ranking was Andalusia's (eighth with a spend of 2.2 million euros). Behind it came Mexico (tenth), New York (twelfth), Andorra (thirteenth), Galicia (fifteenth) with the Canaries, Castile-La Mancha, Malta, Madrid, Extremadura, Valencia and Portugal all listed.

It is no surprise that the Balearics tourism ministry's agency doesn't appear on the list as it doesn't spend anything on advertising; its promotional spend (such as it is) is dedicated almost exclusively to travel fairs. Yet somehow, even another low-spending regional agency, Valencia's, manages to part with half a million euros in seeking to attract national tourists.

But then, perhaps there is no need for such spend. With national tourists returning to Mallorca, thanks mainly to improved economic circumstances, then why bother? And this seems to be the prevailing attitude. Is it an appropriate attitude, or does Mallorca, conspicuous by its absence from advertising in established media, suffer in the long run? If it were conspicuous by its presence in less established media (social networks), then perhaps one might understand the attitude, but it doesn't engage in social media promotion either.

National demand in the first quarter was up by 10%, according to statistics, and these statistics, with which we are regularly bombarded, are to become the responsibility of the National Statistics Institute (INE). Currently, surveys of tourist spend and arrivals are actually the responsibility of Turespaña, the national tourism agency, and the intention to make this change was announced three years ago when the tourism secretary of state, Mallorca's Isabel Borrego, intimated that they might become more meaningful. The chances are that it will just mean that there are more of them.