Tackling Seasonality

Unsurprisingly, there has been a fair amount of politics dominating the tourism scene over the past few days, but it hasn't all been local politics. Consultants Grant Thornton have issued a report which has found that businesses in Spain are, after those in Ireland, the most concerned about the possibility that the UK might exit the European Union. The concern stems largely from the fact that of the 65 million tourists who come to Spain, 15 million of them are from the UK. It's not clear why the UK being in or out of the EU should make any real difference to tourism, but the uncertainty that an exit might provoke is probably at the heart of these concerns and, as ever, business does not like uncertainty.

Back here in Mallorca, the politics of a possible eco-tax was high on the agenda of a meeting of representatives of the hotel industry in Palma. It would be "detrimental" and especially to ambitions to tackle Mallorca's seasonality. This observation came from Bernat Vicens of Fergus Hotels who also had things to say about hoteliers' abilities to adapt what they have to offer to an out-of-season tourist client: he appeared to be unconvinced that they possessed such abilities or the self-analysis that might bring about some adaptation. Fergus is following in the footsteps of Cursach in seeking to introduce a different and better class of younger tourism to Magalluf, and Vicens, while admitting that Magalluf has its hooligan element, argued that the resort was not dangerous and that it had a bright future, thanks to investments like those by Fergus and Meliá. Meanwhile, there were reports from Magalluf about how bars are trying to attract more business by making happy hour offers of drink as much as you like for only five euros. The bars might be criticised for doing so, but then they are, after all, in competition with all-inclusives.

Others at the Palma meeting stressed the need for there to be greater imagination in hotel marketing in order to attract a winter tourist to Mallorca, while the leadership of Palma as an all-year destination was seen as a model through which it could spread winter tourism elsewhere, though the elsewhere was only as far as Playa de Palma and Calvia: at least it might be a spread though. The Palacio de Congresos was cited as an example of how off-season tourism could be increased, but the Palacio, yet again, was in the news for all the wrong reasons. Because of the need to revalue the hotel, the adjudication of the complex's management in favour of Barceló will now have to be revisited once a new administration is in situ at Palma City Council, but the whole future for the Palacio was once more brought into question by the Més spokesperson at the council who suggested that there should be a feasibility study, one which might lead to the Palacio's demolition. It seems extraordinary that there would even be mention of feasibility at this stage of the Palacio's development, but then such has been the less than ordinary history of the complex.

While there was uncertainty surrounding the Palacio, the International Congress and Convention Association was issuing its annual report into conference destinations. Spain remains third in terms of the total number of meetings behind the US and Germany, with Madrid and Barcelona in, respectively, third and fifth positions when it comes to cities. What is noticeable about this listing is that all the top-twenty cities are those which are served by significant levels of direct air traffic: Palma is in no position to compete in this regard.