If It Could Happen In Greece ...

Following the euphoria of a party swept into a power on a raft of promises which may prove to be less feasible in their implementation than in their oratory, Greece is waking up to what the nitty-gritty of policies will actually be, and there is one area of policy on which a weather eye will be kept by many in Mallorca and other regions of Spain that are competitor tourist destinations.

Syriza's Alexis Tsipras has met with businesspeople to outline what the party's tourism policy is likely to entail, and there are some headlining elements which will resonate here, in particular those to do with all-inclusive hotels and airlines. On the latter, Syriza will look at the possibility of creating a national airline, by which one assumes that it would be a government-owned airline, and at stopping the privatisation of airports on the Greek islands. With protests against the AENA partial privatisation occurring in the Balearics, there will be interest in seeing if and how Syriza halts the privatisation process in Greece.

It is what Tsipras has had to say about all-inclusives which will probably attract greater attention. Syriza has said that it won't ban AI projects that already exist but that it would look to reduce the number of AI packages and prevent any further developments which are to offer AI in a country where an eighth of tourism revenue is derived from AI. Tsipras's observation that all-inclusive resorts exist "at the margin of local economies" will, for many in Mallorca, be indisputable. "Tourism is an issue for local communities which live and breathe it." Amen.

But AI or not AI, the Syriza line appears to be one that will block or inhibit new resort development (on a grand scale) of any type. Investors, if they haven't already, will be packing their bags and heading off in search of more amenable political regimes. And it is this, investment, which is a fault line in Syriza's policy. Were it to dry up in supporting a major industry such as tourism, then righting the Greek economy might remain a pipe-dream.

It has been suggested that the current flurry of hotel investment activity and licence applications in Mallorca has been inspired in part by fears of what a Podemos-influenced if not Podemos-led regional government might mean. Comparisons between Podemos and Syriza aren't as straightforward as some might think, as I have noted, but one would have to believe that there would be some similarity in thinking when it comes to tourism. Investment in Mallorca might, despite getting permissions in place, be affected were Podemos to become a major political influence after May.

Comparisons between Greece and Mallorca and indeed Greece and Spain in terms of tourism are also not straightforward. The Greek market is very much smaller than Spain's; the total number of tourists to Greece in 2014 amounted to roughly twice the number that Mallorca alone attracted. Given the substantially lower volume, it is just conceivable that policy changes wouldn't harm the country's tourism to the extent that numbers would fall, except that these would be policy changes that would also have an impact on tour operators, and it has been the case that, in certain parts of the globe, government attempts to outlaw or reduce AI have had to be re-thought because of tour operator influence and threats.

A further difference lies with the political organisation of Greece and Spain. Greece is a unitary state, meaning that the administrative regions of Greece do not have the devolved and autonomous powers that the regions of Spain do. These powers include tourism policies, so the Balearics (or any other region) could, in theory, ban AI, though such a ban would probably end up at the Supreme Court as it might be argued that it exceeded these powers and contravened regions' statutes of autonomy. It is these very statutes, however, that could be invoked in reverse were, hypothetically, the state to decree that there would be a halt to all new large-scale tourism development and also to AI. Much though it is argued that the regions enjoy too much power, the statutes of autonomy do act as a means of preventing abuses by central government; they could only be altered by a re-writing of the constitution.

I accept that this is all speculative, but while I find it inconceivable at present to think that Podemos might become the dominant influence in both national and regional (Balearics) government, it would be foolish to dismiss the possibility. And were such a possibility to be realised, then, assuming there were tourism policies similar to those that Syriza plans, the scale of AI might well be reduced. Which might sound like good news, but then one would have to ask about future investment: a question that the Greeks will now have to ask.

Cutting Down To Size: Tourism strategy

The rarity with which anyone in the tourism industry utters some common sense demands that, when it is uttered, attention should be paid. The president of the Mallorcan Hoteliers Federation, as reported in "The Bulletin" (15 December), has called for the elimination of obsolete tourism accommodation and for the avoidance of duplication in tourism promotion. The federation is drawing up a strategic plan in which both these aspects feature. Praise be that someone, anyone, might apply some strategic thinking to Mallorca's tourism.

Without spelling it out in so many words, the logic of the federation's wish to eliminate outdated hotels and to regenerate tourism areas is that there would be a reduction in the number of hotels. This might sound like turkeys proposing and then voting firmly in favour of Christmas, but the hotels are suffering from a lack of stuffing and from what there is, which is all onion and no sage. The wisdom of chasing numbers at the expense of profitability has been exposed as being as pointless as filling the Christmas plate with Brussels sprouts no one wants; the trimmings need to be cut and made more edible.

The words of the federation's president deserve to be slowly chewed over and digested. "The problem with the approach to the tourist industry ... is that hoteliers, backed by the regional government, (have) been too keen on getting large numbers to the islands without creating a proper pricing structure". There are too many hotels, there is too much supply and there are relatively too high a number of tourists that generate insufficient revenue.

It's a drum that I seem to have been banging for an age. Perhaps the penny is dropping along with the profitability that goes with a percentage of tourism which is worth very little or nothing at all. The case for a strategy based on lower numbers, on improved quality of hotel and on a higher-worth tourist seems overwhelming.

What this doesn't mean is an end to mass tourism. It would be folly were it to. What it does mean is an altogether sharper focus on tourism which is less like a social service and more one of excellent service for a more demanding tourist.

It is a strategy that is not without its problems. Eliminating obsolete hotel stock and not replacing it requires a means of compensation, which is why the hoteliers have previously called for legal means by which hotels can be pulled. Upgrading stock means more than just the limited provisions of the "decreto Nadal"; it means fewer bureaucratic hoops through which hotels have to jump in order to re-develop and also means integrated approaches to resort development of the sort that has collapsed in Playa de Palma.

It is a strategy that also requires the government to rid itself of its obsession with numbers. Who cares if Mallorca slips down the tourism numbers league table. The goal difference in terms of tourism value is far more important than what's shown in the points column, that of tourism volume. Inevitably though, fewer tourists mean fewer employees; that is a political obstacle.

Another is fewer passengers passing through the airport. Central government may have inadvertently hit upon a solution. By proposing the privatisation of airports, the central government has shifted the goalposts of co-management of Palma airport by the regional government which is now up in arms at the suggestion, so long has it sought its share of the management and of the revenue that would go with it. One of the determinants of this co-management was that defined levels of passenger traffic should be achieved. Privatisation would put an end to this need, as co-management would be kicked into touch. What it wouldn't do necessarily is put an end to the need for numbers passing through the airport; landing, handling charges and so on would remain paramount for private operators.

Despite the obstacles, the hoteliers federation is right, but whether its strategy can resolve the apparent incompatibility between the numbers and the right sort of tourism (which is the incompatibility as things stand), who can tell.

The federation is also right when it comes to duplication of tourism promotion. Why are both the government and the Council of Mallorca involved in this? The Council now has more responsibilities for administering tourism, so why not just hand it the whole tourism responsibility? There again, why was this administration responsibility transferred from regional government? What really is the point of the Council of Mallorca when it comes to tourism promotion or indeed anything?

That it takes the private sector in the form of the hoteliers to try and drive strategy is telling. The government has failed to do so. A succession of tourism ministers have failed. One of them, Ferrer, did at least speak of the need for "boldness" when he assumed office, but he had no opportunity to demonstrate what this meant, as he was out of office in under two months. Otherwise, the words of the tourism ministry have too often trotted out the mantra of "alternative" tourism (gastronomy, culture, blah, blah) to the point at which you despair of it ever getting to grips with the fundamentals of summer tourism. A strategy? Yep, it would be nice.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.