Coveting Thy Neighbour's Tourist Market

The Christian theme park, "Tierra Santa", has been hawked around Mallorcan towns like the lost tribes of Israel going vainly in search of some room at an inn. Capdepera and Ses Salines have both been fancied runners to house the theme park, Alcúdia and Calvià are among other towns that have been spoken to, and now the park may well have its final resting place - Inca.

This is not the first time that a theme park has been talked about in Inca. The park between Llucmajor and Campos about which there was considerable publicity towards the end of last year - and about which not a peep has been heard since - was originally planned for Inca (or Calvia) some ten years ago. Inca may now finally get its theme park, though the impression being given is that the town hall administration is cool on the idea.

When the possibility of Inca being the location was first mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Inca's mayor, Rafel Torres, insisted that the only contact had been an informal one. Now that the theme park is starting to seem like more than just a possibility, the mayor has made clear that there will be conditions - jobs would have to be for people of the town only, and businesses inside the theme park could not be in competition with any in the town.

The regional government says that the plan to site the park on rustic land at the foot of the Puig de Santa Magdalena would "probably" be in compliance with provisions in the new tourism law that allow for construction on such land. 21 hectares would become theme-parked, and the environmentalists are, as you might imagine, distinctly unimpressed; the Salva Mallorca platform has set up an online petition to campaign against the theme park.

There are plenty of hoops to go through before Tierra Santa becomes a reality, but if it does become reality, what would it mean? Apart from 800 jobs (all for Inca people, the mayor hopes) and 30 million euros of investment, the promoters say that the environmentalists shouldn't worry. The park would be "ecological", it wouldn't be "cement" and it could be dismantled. It would be inclusive in terms of religion, though clearly there would be a concentration on one particular religion. Quite what is made of the whole idea in local ecclesiastical circles, I'm not sure, though the promoters say that it has the approval of the Bishopric of Mallorca and of the Vatican.

The park would consist of a re-creation of Jerusalem at the time of Christ, of figures and actors representing that era, of exhibitions to show customs, traditions and the origins of spirituality, of music and dance shows, of ancient Arabic, Jewish and Armenian gastronomy as well as of restaurants more in keeping with contemporary times; it might be the latter which cause some conflict with businesses outside the theme park.

But most important is what the park would generate in terms of tourism. The promoters claim that there will be more than 60,000 new tourists each month, and note that they say "each month". If it were to, then it would go some way to boosting winter tourism, but would it?

The projected number of tourists needs to be put into context. Palma Aquarium, the most visited attraction on Mallorca, registered its highest number of visitors in August this year - 78,000. The Aquarium, however, has made quite clear the difficulties that it and other attractions have out of season and that earlier months of the summer season were relatively slow.

The Christian theme park would be a totally different attraction, but unless it were to create a whole new tourism market (one coming to Mallorca because of the theme park), it would still be in direct competition with other attractions. It would have to work extremely hard at its marketing to meet its 60,000 per month. And hard it might well be. Attractions rely heavily on their relationships with tour and excursions operators and travel agencies. One wonders if a Mallorca Holy Land might be a tough sell when up against the likes of the Aquarium, Marineland and others; might it be simply a bit weird for the general tourist public?

Then there is the location. Would Inca be a disadvantage? Stuck in the middle of the island, it might seem to hold an advantage, but the main tourist population is in the south and it has any number of attractions right on its doorstep that don't require travelling any real distance. 

There is one other consideration. For various reasons, would a Mallorca Holy Land send out the right message? I'm not sure that it would.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

From Woe To Joy: Tourism announcements

I hate to bang on about all this, but some decidedly odd and contradictory statements have been emanating from sectors of the tourism industry over the past few weeks.

Towards the end of August, the hoteliers federation came out with its now infamous statement about the economy being broken on account of a failure to register 100% occupancy in August, a statement I showed to be fallacious as historically August occupancy across Mallorca averages around 90%. At the same time predictions for September and October were said to be poor. From the middle of September, added the federation, bookings were set to fall drastically and from the start of October there would be "a massive closure of hotels".

We now have a situation in which September, according to the federation, will be "exceptional" and the "most profitable of the whole season, better than other years". Moreover, October is looking that good that the season, which had looked as though it would end prematurely with the massive closure of hotels in the first week of the month, will certainly extend until around the 20th of the month.

The simple explanation for this positive news appears to be an unexpectedly high level of last-minute bookings, with the British market performing particularly well. It is quite possible that bad weather, the Olympics and Paralympics can explain this late rush, but the British market is not unique; most markets are apparently performing well - German, Russian, Scandinavian, Italian, you name it.

While one can never truly understand tourist consumer behaviour and so dismiss a collective desire to book last minute across much of Europe, it seems more than slightly strange that the situation should have changed so dramatically from one of woe three weeks ago to one of joy now. But in fact, one didn't have to wait three weeks. On 3 September, a week after the federation was issuing its warnings about a poor second half of the month, certain hotel chains were explaining to the website preferente.com that their figures for September were already exceptional: Garden Hotels with seven establishments in the north, Arenal and Cala Millor were announcing 92.3% occupancy for September; Viva Hotels (thirteen hotels in the north and Palmanova) were anticipating at least 90% and possibly even 95%. Moreover, in Viva's case the first half of October was pretty much full.

This altogether rosier picture does appear taken some hotels and the federation by surprise, or so they say, but is it all attributable to last-minute bookings? Perhaps it is, but if it is, then it serves as a reminder (again) to be wary of what actually is announced by sources such as the hoteliers. Even poor forecasts should come with a caveat; they can apparently change dramatically.

Then we have the island's tourist attractions. At the end of the first week of August I wrote about how the attractions can blame the wrong sort of weather for a failure to bring in the punters. Too hot and people stay away. Yet we were told a week ago that August had been very good for many attractions (and we're not talking waterparks here). And this despite this August having been the second hottest since 1961. So, how can this very good August be explained? A change in the profile of visitor, it is said, to a family visitor and from a youthful tourist in previous months.

This in itself is odd. It's hardly news that August attracts more families than other months. I'm sure the attractions are well aware of this historical trend. Have they therefore been taken by surprise by good August sales as much as the hoteliers have been by September's and October's? It would appear that they have as the logic of the hot weather spin would suggest that they should have done poorly in August.

The explanation regarding the family tourist in August doesn't chime with what one is typically told on the streets. Plenty of businesses hate August because tourists, despite the numbers, spend less, precisely because they are families who, not unreasonably, are worried about the pennies when they have various juniors in tow. And as for tourists in June or July being more "youthful", I simply don't buy the argument. Apart from anything else, especially in July, there are plenty of families because of variations in school summer holidays in Europe.

I am left to conclude, and I shouldn't really need these latest examples as confirmation, that most of what one is fed by the local tourism industry is, for different reasons, at best questionable and at worst just plain wrong. Why do we (I) even bother reporting what they say or comment on it? God knows.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Fatal Attractions: IVA, weather and seasonality

You will know that the British can blame the wrong sort of snow for interruptions to public transport services. Did you also know that the Mallorcans can blame the wrong sort of heat for not getting punters through the turnstiles at attractions? If it's too hot and too sunny, then waterparks win out over other attractions that are indoors or mainly under cover. Well, blow me, I would never have thought this. And nor would I ever have thought that during a Mallorcan summer the weather might be hot and sunny. 

The Asociación Mallorquina de Actividades Turísticas (AMAT) was formed in 2001 and it comprises nineteen businesses engaged in different types of attraction, outdoors and indoors, daytime and evening. It is an association whose voice was rarely raised loudly until recently. This raising in volume coincided with the appointment of Palma Aquarium's Antonio González as its president. In April this year, as an example, the association launched an attack on the harm that all-inclusives were having on the island's attractions. It has now met with President Bauzá and has been telling the media about the problems that attractions face, one of which is the weather.

Hot and sunny weather is a lame reason to give for the fact that waterparks might perform better than other attractions. It would be a good reason if hot and sunny weather was not common, but it is. Surely, the association has noticed this, but then among its members there is one business that appears to be absent which might be able to make the point: Aspro Ocio, which, with the exception of Hidropark, runs the island's waterparks as well as Marineland.

There are other reasons why AMAT has wanted to have a word with the president: the small number of hotels open in winter and the reduced number of flights; the rise in IVA (VAT) from September; and promotion towards a youth market, as opposed to a family market, which has lower spending power and is interested only in night-time entertainment.

This last aspect is curious. Firstly, because Mallorca is still considered to be and is promoted as a family destination far more so than as a youth one. Secondly, because one of AMAT's members is Cursach. And what are their attractions? Well, Magalluf's BCM for a kick off.

AMAT's meeting with President Bauzá and the resultant attention in the media comes close on the heels of the announcement by the travel agencies' association, AVIBA, that sales of excursions are down. The two are not coincidental, as both associations represent parts of the tourism industry which are none too impressed by the government's new tourism law or by the IVA increase.

But as I pointed out in a recent article about AVIBA, its travel agencies are only part of the attractions' sales distribution channel, while the main reasons why the sale of excursions is down are very simple - lower tourist spend and economic crisis. The complaints that AMAT has, except the strange one about the weather and the curious one to do with youth promotion, are not unreasonable, but they ignore the underlying reasons why some attractions, in particular the evening ones, are finding that the going has got tough.

One should, though, have sympathy for the attractions. Most of them are open all year and so provide a basis for off-season tourism. An attraction such as the Aquarium can't just shut down in winter. Its sharks, fish, turtles are on fixed, annual contracts; they are not temporary workers that can be laid off when winter comes. Rancho Grande has its resident horses and other animals, the Sóller train chugs away, Costa Nord and La Granja don't shift themselves to different locations in winter. They all require investment and cost, some of it enormous. They cannot get away with being closed in winter, unlike many of the hotel chains. And if the regional government doesn't appreciate this, then it should do. Who owns Costa Nord?

And where IVA is concerned, though the reduced rate that applies to the tourist sector will go up by two points to 10%, categories of business that have benefited from the lower rate have been changed. Consequently, clubs, such as BCM, as well as theatre and other "spectaculars" will be liable to the new higher rate of 21%. If the evening excursion hadn't already been affected (which it has been), it now definitely will be.

AMAT making its voice heard is a good thing, but it has been stung into making its voice heard because so many factors are conspiring against some of its members. It should have shouted a lot more loudly a lot earlier.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Attractions Want Lower Attraction?

Did you know there was such a thing as an association for Mallorcan tourist attractions? As there is an association for pretty much everything else, it should come as no surprise that attractions should have one. But unlike the attractions themselves, which attract no end of attention, the association barely seems to register in the tourist scheme of things. Yet it should have an altogether stronger presence, because its membership comprises the best-known names in Mallorca. Best-known names, bar none, including hotels.

What reminded me of an association I and probably everyone else had completely forgotten about was a report of a speech by the association's new president. The director-general of the Palma Aquarium, Antonio González, was talking about the "error" that is the all-inclusive.

Here we go again, you might think. And here we do indeed go again. Sr. González argues that the all-inclusive offer represents an attempt to compete on price with other destinations (which is hard to do and even harder to sustain) and also a long-term danger that threatens the "quality of supply" in Mallorca.

Well, it's difficult to disagree, especially if you've been saying much the same thing for God knows how many years. And this is precisely the problem with all the discourse surrounding all-inclusives; it has been said time and time again, and the debate never moves on and no one seems to listen. No one who matters, that is.

Actually, this isn't totally accurate. There are those who listen, as they are made to. Meliá, for example, had to listen to questions regarding its re-development in Magalluf the other day. Was it going to entail more all-inclusive, the company was asked. Oh no, came the answer. Meliá has in mind a new profile of tourist with high purchasing power, one on 250 euros a night. Really?

Let's hope there isn't any backtracking. All-inclusive isn't solely about competing on price. There can be costly all-inclusive, just as there can be the economy class. You could get some pretty exclusive all-inclusive for 250 euros a night, especially if the regional government has allowed you - you being a hotel, that is - to fill the hotel grounds with much of what is currently only available outside these hotel grounds, including that offered by the odd member of the attractions' association.

What eventually transpires in Magalluf could, one stresses could, just serve as a model for the rest of the island's resorts. If so, the attractions' association would be extremely happy, as would be many others. Or would they? What sort of volume of tourist numbers will be passing through Palma airport in future if they are all expected to part with 250 euros a night? The question is an important one, because much of the island's tourism industry relies on high volume, as does that industry which is offshore, namely the tour operators and most airlines. And this volume demands all-inclusive, and inexpensive all-inclusive, to boot.

The seemingly intractable problem of quantity versus quality (and in overall tourism terms, you can't have both) and its associated problem of the all-inclusive is not likely to be resolved swiftly by what Meliá is planning. Nor is the other intractable problem of seasonality, a theme to which Sr. González also turned his attention. Six to seven months tourism and it's hard for any business, let alone an attraction, to be able to invest for a future or justify investing in a future that might or might not eventually bring in the 250-euro-a-night tourist.

This said, the Aquarium is an example of significant investment. It is also an example of all-year business, as indeed are some other attractions that are members of the association. As with all-inclusives, Sr. González has not offered a solution to the lack of off-season tourism, but it is good that the attractions' association seems to want to make its voice heard. These attractions attract between them 5.5 million visitors a year. They are hugely important players which should be taking a more assertive and central role in influencing general tourism strategy than, as a lack of media coverage would suggest, they have.

Though the attractions, like other businesses, depend on volume, the future may require a lower volume of tourism. No, not may, does require. Sr. González has added that the number of tourists is less important than tourist spend potential. And if a lower number means fewer economy-class all-inclusives, then so be it. Whether such a solution would, however, be palatable to everyone, such as the tour operators, is another matter. But then the attractions know all about the tour operators.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Finding Nemo: Palma Aquarium

One of the images of the Palma Aquarium is the clownfish, the comedian of the deep; Nemo found. This small joker in the pack of the oceans, the housekeeper-in-chief and cleaner to the sea anemone, with which it is symbiotic to the extent of having been nicknamed from the anemone itself, is a tiny specklet of life amidst the larger submariners of the seas. On a scale of one to several billion, it is amoebic within the vastness of the Aquarium and its grounds.

Heading towards its fourth anniversary, the Aquarium is an oddity of all-year attraction, the lie to the criticism of fallow-season all-closure. It is also an oddity of commercialism combined with philanthropy for the aquatic natural world, a charitableness that extends to its campaigning on behalf of the bluefin tuna. Coals to Newcastle and then back again. The tuna that is harvested from the seas around Mallorca can well end up at a sushi processor in Japan before being shipped back and served locally. So it is with the madness of the demands of current-day culinary refinement, and so it also helps to make the jellyfish of Balearic waters proliferate.

This philanthropy and campaigning comes with an educative element, replete with a classroom, one wall of which is an orange submarine. The young Captain Nemos learn from within a Nautilus, and a different kind of Nautilus, created as an archway sculpture of the mollusc's chambers, is its own portal through which you pass into this twenty thousand leagues under the sea, lavishly and lovingly reproduced inside an ocean-colour-scene blue building near to Playa de Palma.

The Nemos junior, enthralled by their clowning namesakes, can also feel. In one of the touch pools of the Aquarium, there are some gobbling fish, frantic at the prospect of food, who would have your hand off were it actually edible; their mouths like plumbers' plungers popping against flesh but finding nothing on the menu.

In the tanks are some startling weirdos. None more so than ones you can barely see. In a bed of sand carved and curved like roof tiles, one head sticks out. This is the only one-way tank in the aquarium. The sand eels are not show-offs like other fish. They will not show at all, if they can help it, and certainly not if anything is in the eye-line. The tank looks like a mistake or one that is in preparation for some new inhabitants. It isn't; there are some 70 or so eels there, buried under the sand, save for the one who has come up for a furtive look around. Then there is the dragon fish of a sea-horse variety, newly arrived, suspended in the water, unmoving, like a Hirst in aspic. Less weird, but bumblingly big is the Napoleon fish with his Josephine, a social pair that appear to be possessed of a rare fishy quality, that of recognition, of the diver-keepers.

Into the blue, the Big Blue, the deepest shark tank in Europe. The immensity of the tank, matched by what is moving around inside it, is exaggerated by the low-lighting of the viewing area. This is in common with other sections of the Aquarium's interior. The vivid collages of fish and coral are highlighted, spotlighted if you prefer, by an ambient lighting that is sufficient for human movement but which accentuates the richness of the contents of the tanks.

And outside, around the gardens, are the jungle with its damp tropical sprays, more tanks of turtles and sharks and even some unprepossessing-looking flora, an endangered species of limonium, native not just to Mallorca but to the door step of the Aquarium itself.

The Aquarium is a remarkable place. It is one that has come at no small cost. Fifty million euros or so went into its creation, and it operates with a substantial staff and with much that, like the sand eels, you don't see. There's an awful lot of kit needed to keep fish and coral happy.

Aquaria don't always have a great name, the reason being that they can disappoint. They promise something they don't actually deliver. They do things by half. This cannot be said of the Palma Aquarium. The little clownfish, the Nemos, are one of its images, but little the aquarium most certainly isn't. Big. Blue. And all year. It's the model for other attractions to aspire to.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.