Men And Women Of The Tourism Ministry

New Balearic vice-president and minister for tourism, Biel Barceló, has certainly not lost any time in making statements of intent. He is clearly going to be a highly proactive tourism minister, which might be construed as being both good and bad, but you can't knock him for having placed tourism firmly on the front pages. Of moves he has made, a potentially significant one is his appointment as director-general for tourism. This was the position that Jaime Martínez held in the last government before he was promoted to minister when Carlos Delgado resigned. It is a key role as it is the one which deals with the implementation of policy as much as with its drafting.

Barceló's choice is Pilar Carbonell. The owner of a chain of restaurants, she is the former president of the restaurants association within the broader framework of the Balearic business confederation. The significance of the appointment is clear - she isn't a hotelier - while this appointment comes soon after Inma de Benito was promoted to the presidency of the Mallorcan hoteliers' federation. Here are two high-powered women in whose hands a great deal of Mallorca's tourism destiny lies. It says a lot for equality.

Given their competing backgrounds, there might be potential for the two women to clash. I fancy this won't be the case. Rather, they will be more inclined to work towards accommodation, towards an improved deal for the non-hotel complementary offer with which Carbonell is intimately associated. It's a smart move by Barceló, an astute appointment, the guy is showing promise.

It is an appointment that has to be seen in the wider context of what Barceló has been saying over the past days regarding all-inclusives. Regulation would be designed to help the complementary sector, so Carbonell will be a firm supporter without adopting an antagonistic attitude towards the hoteliers. Indeed, there seems ever less reason why this might be necessary when it comes to all-inclusives. There is a distinct sense of a shift in this regard, with certain hotel chains, regardless of political change, having initiated moves to drop all-inclusive from their portfolios as and when contractual obligations with tour operators permit: Eix Hotels in the bay of Alcúdia is an example; Meliá in Magalluf have already done so.

Barceló hasn't as yet fleshed out what the regulation of all-inclusives would entail, but he has dropped enough hints to be able to understand that it would be regulation aimed at improvements to standards of quality. The previous administration, via its tourism law, alluded to similar improvements without identifying how these would be effected. Barceló now has the opportunity to make them absolutely clear. One simple way would be to remove the all-inclusive offer from any hotel with fewer than four stars. Another way would be to, finally, insist on levels of service that would eliminate the nonsense of, for example, lengthy queuing for inferior quality drinks and monotonous food. Hotels would have to guarantee staff:customer ratios which, at a stroke, would make it nigh on impossible for certain ones to operate all-inclusive. These might be options for Barceló, but he might also then need an army of inspectors to ensure compliance.

If Carbonell's appointment is a significant one that has grabbed headlines because she is a familiar figure in the Balearic tourism industry, just as significant is the introduction of Benjamí Villoslada. And who is he? The co-founder, along with Ricardo Galli from the university in Palma, of the Menéame social network. He is to be the director-general of technological development at the ministry. He is a technology expert. At last, at long last, Balearics and Mallorca could be on the verge of a social media and web-based revolution that has been too long delayed. It is an inspired appointment. Indeed, it is a coup to have attracted someone with such a background who won't necessarily be doing the job because he needs the money. Villoslada has been a fierce critic of the Partido Popular for a variety of reasons. He now has the chance to address the lamentable inaction of the tourism ministry under the PP with regard to the exploitation of social media and new technologies. Excellent news.