Is Religion Mallorca's Alternative Tourism?

What has happened with the proposal for a Christian theme park (last heard of somewhere near Inca)? It may well have been quietly forgotten, which would be unsurprising as it is/was a bit odd to say the least. This said, the religious element, where tourism is concerned, is not in the least bit odd.

Religious tourism is the oldest form of tourism. It is not, in its original manifestations, what we would call tourism nowadays, but pilgrimages were a type of tourism. They still are, and nowhere in Spain receives more pilgrims than Santiago de Compostela. Pilgrims, though, are only one facet of religious tourism. Indeed, it is not necessary for a tourist to be a pilgrim or in any way religious in order to take part in and to enjoy religious tourism. The very word "religious" may turn many visitors off, but religious tourism embraces several different elements. Spirituality is or can be one, but there are others - history, culture, architecture, music, literature, folklore, ethnology and the weird niche known as "dark" tourism (cemeteries, atrocities and other such stuff).

On 28 March 1515 Teresa of Ávila was born. She became Saint Teresa of Jesus. She is considered an important figure in the history of the Catholic Church and in Spanish history. A national commission may be established in order to draw up events to commemorate the 500th anniversary of her birth in 2015. Meantime, the tourism minister for the region of Castile and León has already announced a tourism "product" related to Saint Teresa and one that will include collaboration with four other regions of Spain.

On 24 November 1713 Miguel Joseph Serra was born in the Mallorcan town of Petra. He became Father Junipero Serra, an important figure in Mallorcan history and in the history of California. 2013 has been Serra's "year". The climax of this year, one guesses, will be on or around the twenty-fourth of next month. One guesses, but what has really been made of the 300th anniversary of the birth of this significant person?

While the Ávila celebration would clearly be much grander in scope and would focus on a very much better known religious figure, a fear might be that a tourism product would be mainly or only religious. Similarly, one fears, it is only the religion and the missionary efforts of Father Junipero that have dominated thinking regarding his anniversary.

Increasingly, I have come to question the notion of niching tourism products which are alternatives to the Mallorcan mainstream of sun and beach. The marketing mantra is that of niching, but a problem with niching is that it establishes a limit in terms of scope and appeal. Some niches do reasonably well by concentrating on a single product. Cycling is a case in point, but far from all cyclists are interested only in cycling. There are examples of businesses in Mallorca which promote essentially niche products, including cycling, but which offer a far wider experience. And they are right to do so.

Religious tourism as a niche is not or should not be solely about religion. If it is, then it comes with an in-built limit. To take Father Junipero, it may come as a shock to some Mallorcans to know how little his name means anything outside Mallorca and California, but had there been a genuine tourism "product" built around his anniversary and to be maintained going forward, then he would be but only part of a vastly bigger product. Mallorca's religious history is far from unimportant but it is a history whose appeal lies with the island's fabulous cathedral, churches, sanctuaries and hermitages. And these fabulous buildings are to be found everywhere, in every town on the island, in every town with a different landscape and a different story to tell, in every town with varying other interests, be they wildlife, gastronomy, wine, agriculture and fiestas and fairs.

The celebration of Saint Teresa would envisage a "route" that stretches as far as Seville. It will be a most interesting route, but it will be a long route and one that may neglect more secular interests. Mallorca as a religious tourism destination has one huge advantage over such a route. It is small, compact. And within this small and compact island there is masses of religion to be seen and enjoyed alongside everything else on the island. It would not be called religious tourism because the term would be a turn-off for too many. It would be The Mallorca Experience, the collective experience of all the different niches and one that is set apart from sun and beach because in winter Mallorca cannot compete on sun and beach.

Niching has its place, of course it does, but perhaps it has dominated thinking too much. It has become marketing religion, but real religion, marketed as a collective Mallorcan whole, could form an answer to prayers to address the drought and famine of winter tourism.

A Christmas Carol: Mallorca's tourism funding

Father Christmas, in the form of the national tourism secretary, Joan Mesquida, has filled the stocking of the Tiny Tim, impoverished tourism coffers of Mallorca and the islands. The Scrooges of central government have been visited by the ghost of tourism past and been reminded as to how things once were and by the ghost of tourism future to show how things might be, were they not to mend their miserly ways.

Well, something like this anyway. The new compassion will see President Cratchit and his starving regional family tucking into a turkey of 54 million euros of tourism money in 2011. For now, they can eat well on the plump bird, but will it turn out to be a turkey of a different variety? What's the money to be spent on?

The breast will go towards the Playa de Palma and Palacio de Congresos projects and towards something called the "Plataforma Digital Turística"; the legs (around 20 million euros) will go on promoting "alternative" tourism, i.e. that designed to cope with the problems caused by seasonality. One gets an awful sinking feeling and an awful vision of Marley's ghost taunting President Cratchit that this might not be the tourism future he would hope for.

Playa de Palma and its failings we know about. The Palacio de Congresos, notwithstanding Mesquida's Christmas bonus, is short of at least 30 million euros to enable the project to advance. The money will be welcome, but will it guarantee that the project is completed any time soon?

Then there is this "Plataforma". This was heralded with much fanfare during the ITB fair in Berlin in March. The trumpets were blown, but the marching band was nowhere to be seen or heard. Where was the money to pay for it? Microsoft had agreed to write the score, but Bill Gates' largesse and philanthropy do not extend to governmental projects being undertaken for nothing. There is no such thing as a free launch of a new technology initiative.

What is the "Plataforma" exactly? Peio Oiz of Microsoft has said that it isn't a website so much as a "unique store" or interconnected digital warehouse if you like, the main advantage of which will be to bring together technology systems of tour operators, travel agencies, hotels, the complementary sector (restaurants and so on) and others. It will bring pretty much everything to do with tourism together in one place, but as a system for business efficiency as opposed to one that actively promotes to the wider tourism world.

What it really means in practice, however, remains to be seen. We should find out by April next year. Thereafter, we might also discover what sort of benefits it brings. It is, though, further evidence of the type of thing Mallorca does well, which is the development of technologies for tourism purposes. The investment seems sound enough.

Finally, there is the 20 million for "alternative tourism". Not for the first time, you do have to wonder as to where responsibilities lie. Only a couple of days before the announcement of the 54 million euros windfall, the Council of Mallorca was saying that the Mallorca Tourism Foundation would be spending 3.6 million euros next year on its promotion.

You lose track of who does what and indeed of what promotional bodies there are. The Foundation will, though, be concentrating on what it calls "product clubs" - film, conventions, golf, hiking, cycling, yachting, culture and emerging markets. This does at least seem to chime with the 20 million euros that are being earmarked from central government's funds. But, as has been asked before, why are there different agencies doing essentially the same things?

The best you can say is that they do at least sing from the same hymn sheet, but perhaps this is also indicative of a problem that besets tourism decision-making. It is group thought, predicated on these "product clubs", some of which seem tenuous in terms of benefits they might actually deliver. But it is unchallenged groupthink. It is taken as gospel, and the choirs sing the same hymn over and over to little effect.

The Christmas present is not one to be rejected and placed on eBay, but before we start mistaking it too much as the cheer of the ghost of Christmas present, it should be noted that nowhere is there any mention of the bread and butter of mainstream summer tourism and its promotion. The money from central government will come in handy, but let's not forget that the tourism ministry is in debt. What the funding for promotion in 2011 is to be is not clear.

Sadly, one also has to be sceptical about many of the announcements that are made about tourism. Go back to the fair in Berlin in March and the tourism minister, Joana Barceló, was adding to the news about the "Plataforma" by saying that there was to be a "total union" of all those in the tourist sector, a kind of grand meeting to address competitiveness. It was going to take place in September. So where the Dickens was it?


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Walk Is Cheap

Capdepera is the municipality on the north-eastern tip of Mallorca. Its coastal resort is Cala Ratjada. It is mainly a German destination, the resort itself a peculiar stretch between two sea fronts, the main beach small and crowded, one to which one can see hordes of lilo carriers heading in summer, taking a long-ish walk from the centre of Cala Ratjada. The town has announced some "initiatives" designed to attract more tourism. And these are? Cycling, audio guides for the mediaeval castle and a Nordic walking track. These, together with promotional materials, will cost somewhat less than a hundred thousand euros.

Fine, you might think, but just look at that list again and at the budget. Cycling. Nordic walking. Me-too tourism facilities in other words. Take Nordic walking. Alcúdia has a route, Can Picafort has a route and now Capdepera is to have one. Nordic walking falls into the category of "alternative" tourism, an alternative aimed at extending the tourism offer and season.

Given the German dominance of Cala Ratjada, a Nordic walking offer makes some sense, but, as with the other resorts in the north, it is an addition to the tourism mix that will make only minimal impact. More than that, it is cheap. And it is this - the lack of cost - that is the most germane point in seeking more German tourists. For a relatively small spend, the town hall and the tourism ministry can announce that "something is being done", can be seen to be taking some action. It is, therefore, largely a PR exercise, not one aimed at more tourism but one aimed at trying to convince that effort is being put into extending the season.

Tourism minister Ferrer, in presenting these initiatives, spoke of the need to "create new attractions" to "re-invent" the island as a tourism destination and to "extract the value" that exists on the island in terms of its natural landscape and heritage. Well he would say that, as his predecessors and other tourism authority spokespeople will have done. It is spin, a formulaic pronouncement lifted from the brief manual that is phrases to use when talking about things other than sun and beach tourism.

The worry is not that there is to be a Nordic walking track, not that there is to be more cycling in Capdepera, not that there are to be audio guides to the castle which is promoted as having a "fascinating history", one bound up in battles against pirates. The worry is the spend and the me-too nature of the offers. If less than a hundred grand could be converted into half a million more tourists per year, then you would take your hat off to the brilliance of the thinking. But it won't. Nowhere, moreover, is any evidence offered as to how many new tourists might be created or how many existing tourists might be willing to not trade in Mallorca for another destination. It's not surprising, because the tourism authorities don't know. What they do know is that Nordic walking and the rest is something alternative on the cheap. This is one of the failures of Mallorca's so-called alternative tourism. There is not much by way of investment. Not much directed at grander schemes that might mean serious numbers of tourists. Not much, in fact nothing, by way of some out-of-the box thinking for creating genuine alternatives or even additions to the main summer tourism. One of the failures? No, the failure.

QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Kiss, "100,000 Years", http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_a-NYivv6o.

(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)

The Knowledge

“You know who I had in the back of my cab …”

Ah yes, the London cabbie. Knowledge of the roads and knowledge of any subject you care to mention or indeed don’t care to mention – the knowledge will be imparted regardless. I once knew a London cabbie well. Could talk the backside off the proverbial donkey. He even appeared on “The Price Is Right”. But this is totally tangential.

No self-respecting London cabbie would turn down a free lunch, or a free trip to Thailand. And so when the Thai tourist board comes knocking on the cab window brandishing tickets to Bangkok, he is hardly likely to refuse. This is – more or less – what has been happening. As part of its marketing, the Thais (and the city of Melbourne in Australia), have co-opted London cabbies. A trip to soak up the atmosphere (and anything else that might be soaked up) and of course to also fill the cabbie with knowledge. Always knowledge.

This is not a simple case of an ad on the side of the cab. No, the interior is given the once-over, with brochures available. And, as importantly, there is the cabbie. Stuck at some lights, Capital Radio in the background, and the conversation – even if you didn’t want it to – turns to holidays. Where better and who better to assist in the next holiday choice than in the captive environment of a cab and in the captive arms (so to speak) of the cab driver?

Personally, I am not so sure a London cabbie could sell me anything, let alone a holiday, but the Thais and the Australians clearly think they’re onto something. Maybe they are. Who next? Hairdressers? They take degree courses in discussing holidays.

Daft it might sound, but different it is, and it suggests an attempt to look for new and innovative forms of marketing for tourism. I am not proposing that one should jump in a cab at King’s Cross and be given a sales pitch for Mallorca or one of the resorts, but some different approaches may well be worth exploring and especially where the “alternative” Mallorcan tourism is concerned. While I remain sceptical as to confusing the market with a Mallorcan message that conflicts with how the vast majority perceive Mallorca – sun, sea etc. – if that message is to be conveyed, let’s look at alternative means of doing so.

In Germany, there are often television programmes that feature Mallorca. The island is almost one of the Bundesländer. A typical programme, dire though it might be, would have some female singer in evening wear standing on some Mallorcan rocks, accompanied by a trumpeter on some other rocks. It’s rubbish, but at least you see some of the island. The programmes are, in essence, product placement on an island level.

We are becoming virtual tourists. We want to see and experience the tourism destination. This can be gained at present via the internet, but not on a well-produced scale. To see and experience the island and its different facets, those that the alternative tourism wishes to promote; this is the challenge. The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that the Balearic Government should have gone to the producers of the film about Jaime 1, shoved a large number of folding euros into their pockets, boosted their budget and insisted it was all filmed on location in Mallorca. What better for the alternative tourism than a bit of history and loads of landscape?

At Christmas, I bought a DVD of Paco de Lucia in concert and gave it to someone in the UK. It was fabulous. Paco, you may recall, is the face of Mallorca at the moment. He is hardly karaoke and the Sea Club boys and girls belting out “Let Me Entertain You”. He is classical, jazz, flamenco – cultural if you like, alternative definitely, in terms of tourist image. What if they were to break the Pollensa town hall’s bank once and for all and get Paco to play the Pollensa music festival? What if they were to make a superb film of Paco and of the area, interspersing it with certain cultural and historical bits and pieces, with the landscape and the traditions? What if they were to market the DVD like crazy and to get it onto TV, just like the Germans have their programmes – except this would be bloody good. It would be so bloody good and of such quality, the alternative tourists would flock in their droves. And they wouldn’t need a London cabbie to tell them either.


QUIZ
Yesterday – Gloria Gaynor. Today’s title – a TV programme, a famous one. Who wrote it?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)