In February, an article appeared in the local press which praised the bravery of Calvia's mayor, Alfonso Rodríguez. As I said of this at the time: "His bravery was because he had shown his willingness to remove a town hall official who was obstructing an investigation by a lower-ranking official. Moreover, Rodríguez was making it clear that Calvia will be ensuring that this investigation proceeds."
The mayor now faces a charge of malfeasance, an abuse of power, an act by a public official which is legally unjustified and contrary to law. The charge has been brought against him by Pedro Horrach, a name that should be very familiar. Horrach was until recently a prosecutor with the anti-corruption delegation in the Balearics: the best known prosecutor in Mallorca and probably in Spain. It was Horrach who gripped a nation and who came to the attention of the international media as the trial of Iñaki Urdangarin was broadcast. Horrach was the prosecutor of Urdangarin, of Matas (not for the first time) and others. He was not the prosecutor of Princess Cristina.
In a separate article, I praised Horrach. Despite the disagreement with Judge Castro regarding the prosecution of the Infanta (Castro was for, Horrach against), his honour was not in question. It still isn't. But I am not alone in having been surprised (to put it mildly) that it was Horrach who should be the one pressing charges against Rodríguez. No longer an employee of the state, back in private practice, his first notable intervention was linked to a corruption investigation of vastly greater significance than that of Urdangarin or anything that Matas got up to: the Cursach affair.
The town hall official who Rodríguez removed was Jaime Nadal. The former director of commercial affairs, it wasn't strictly his domain to be involved with licences: this is the business of the "activities" department. Nevertheless, it was alleged that he had sought to obstruct a review into the BCM licence. Rodríguez took his decision only a few weeks before the events of early March. The National Police raided Megapark, BCM, Calvia town hall and other establishments. Tolo Cursach was arrested. The mayor wouldn't have known about this. But when Nadal was himself arrested last week, accused of having favoured Cursach businesses, another piece of the jigsaw seemed to have been placed. At which point, enter Pedro Horrach, who had come to Nadal's defence.
Horrach is of course at liberty to take on any case he wishes. But the prosecution service, his one-time colleagues, believe that there is incompatibility. The college of lawyers in the Balearics, essentially like the Bar Council in England and Wales, is considering a breach of the state code regarding compatibility. It could oblige Horrach to step away from the case.
He wasn't directly involved in the Cursach investigation. The chief prosecutor is Miguel Ángel Subirán, a former colleague who was seemingly taken aback that Horrach should have been in court when Nadal made his appearance before the investigating judge, Manuel Penalva. The possible incompatibility arises from the fact that Horrach did have some involvement in the wider investigation into police corruption, which led eventually to Cursach. He had, for instance, passed on to Subirán a report by businesspeople in Magalluf who had complained to Horrach about police, politicians and bribery. These businesspeople had gone to Horrach because they hadn't felt they could trust going to the police.
The issue of possible incompatibility will be one for legal argument, but there is a separate issue, one of perception, one of appearance. Horrach was something of the people's hero, a tireless persecutor of the corrupt. With Castro, Subirán, Carrau, Penalva and other judges and prosecutors, he had won the people's respect and admiration. He now risks seeing that evaporate.
One isn't of course party to the minutiae of the accusations against Nadal. There may indeed be very good grounds for his defence. There may well be good reasons for the charge levelled at Rodríguez. But it is the fact that Horrach has become involved which has stunned so many people. Even more so because of the alleged link of Nadal to Cursach.
To the outside world, i.e. the world outside Mallorca, Cursach is of little significance. What mainly matters to the outside world is the fate of BCM. The outside world draws a distinction between the criminality allegations and the club. In Mallorca, though there are many who are making a similar distinction, there are others who are not. A quite astonishing recent article in El País* makes the point clearly enough.
The Cursach affair surpasses anything else. Horrach is now caught up in it. And there are those who express their concern about the show which surrounds the justice system. The walk to the courts, the sheer spectacle and the consequent celebrity. But celebrity can turn sour.
* http://elpais.com/elpais/2017/05/19/inenglish/1495192924_803760.html
Index for May 2017
Airbnb myths - 6 May 2017
All-inclusives and false claims - 3 May 2017
Andalusian migration - 5 May 2017
Balearic financing - 17 May 2017
Balti Picornell - 7 May 2017
Beach weddings - 25 May 2017
Blue Flags - 11 May 2017
German tourism quality - 16 May 2017
Holiday rentals - 15 May 2017, 27 May 2017
Los Javaloyas - 22 May 2017
Mallorca Live Festival - 12 May 2017
May fairs - 8 May 2017
Mayors' job swaps - 30 May 2017
Mediaevalism - 20 May 2017
Park and ride for beaches - 2 May 2017
Pedro Horrach and Cursach affair - 31 May 2017
Pedro Sánchez returns for PSOE - 24 May 2017
Podemos Balearic leadership - 14 May 2017, 18 May 2017, 28 May 2017
Protests in Mallorca - 26 May 2017
Provincial Deputation - 10 May 2017
Son Bosc golf - 29 May 2017
Ternelles finca and beach trespass - 23 May 2017
Thomas Jefferson and Mallorcan wine - 1 May 2017
Tourism responsibilities - 13 May 2017
Tourist saturation - 4 May 2017
Touristification - 19 May 2017
Tramuntana and holiday rentals - 9 May 2017
Xelo Huertas - 21 May 2017
Showing posts with label BCM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BCM. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 31, 2017
Sunday, July 10, 2016
The Forgetfulness Of Clubs' Finances
Clubs are suddenly very much in fashion - news fashion, that is. The police and the tax agency have made them so. One of them is Amnesia, the Ibiza club that regularly features among awards for the best club in the world and which has been with us since the start of the 1970s. Amnesia, more than any other club, gave Ibiza its club reputation. It now looks as if it might acquire a different reputation.
Over recent days, the club and other property belonging to its owner, Martin Ferrer, have been raided by the Guardia Civil. The operation was ordered through a combination of an investigating judge in Ibiza, the tax agency and the Guardia Civil's central operations unit. The judge has since issued an order to "block" a total of sixteen properties belonging to Ferrer, meaning that they cannot be sold or their assets transferred. The scope of the operation is such that it involves property as far away as Leon on the mainland, where Ferrer has a house in Crémenes and various others.
The raid on Amnesia, which was over two days, extended to the opening of bank safe deposits. At least two million euros have been found. Ferrer was arrested but has been released, much to the perplexity of the prosecution service which had called for his precautionary detention and that of others. Nevertheless, the Guardia's criminal police and the tax agency believe they have the documentation they need and so it will not be altered or somehow disappear. Tax fraud and money laundering are the main charges that prosecutors are levelling.
The nature of the operation is such that Guardia detectives were moved in from Mallorca. Virtually no officers in Ibiza have been involved. At the room they have occupied at the Ibiza headquarters, the first thing that was done was to change the lock. A preliminary estimation by the tax agency of the level of alleged fraud is nearly five million euros. This figure relates to only two years - 2012 and 2013 - and this particular investigation was sparked by an anonymous tip-off directed principally against the former chief financial officer of Amnesia and related companies, Josep Aymar, with Ferrer also implicated.
The case has been several months in the unfolding. The prosecution service, on receipt of a report from the tax agency, lodged it was the court back in October. There had been a period of investigation prior to this, with the anonymous information and the facts it offered having been scrutinised.
The operation against Amnesia is not an isolated one. In fact it falls under a massive nationwide action. Dubbed "Operation Chopin", a total of 87 clubs were raided across Spain when officers from the Guardia, the National Police and the Mossos in Catalonia moved in early on Saturday morning at times when the clubs were closing: in the case of Amnesia, it typically closes at 7am. Among these clubs were other well-known ones in Ibiza - Space and Privilege - as well as BCM in Magalluf. Chopin is thus a major operation against potential tax fraud that embraces much of the elite of Balearic and Spanish nightlife.
The scale is enormous, the coordination of the action impressive. There were four clubs in the Balearics that were raided, but elsewhere there were as many as twenty (in Valencia), sixteen in both Catalonia and Galicia and ten in Andalusia. Together these clubs represent some twenty per cent of the entire turnover of Spain's nightlife sector. But what actually is the turnover? That's something for investigators to identify. Approximately 75% of revenue is cash.
As to Ferrer, it is not the first time that he has been the focus of an investigation. There was one in 2011 related to VAT returns five years previously. His involvement with Aymar is said to have been financially disadvantageous to him in that there were poor investment decisions, such as the Amnesia Barcelona project. An allegation is that the debt and interest that needed to be paid for that resulted in the diversion of funds in order to service the repayments; this represented, therefore, a loss for the tax agency, which is a polite way of saying that a fraud was committed.
Where does this all lead to? It's impossible to say. This is an investigation into a sector in which cash dominates. Establishing alleged trails of money laundering therefore becomes central. Unravelling them will not happen overnight; say between 12 midnight and 7am, when a club would be open.
Over recent days, the club and other property belonging to its owner, Martin Ferrer, have been raided by the Guardia Civil. The operation was ordered through a combination of an investigating judge in Ibiza, the tax agency and the Guardia Civil's central operations unit. The judge has since issued an order to "block" a total of sixteen properties belonging to Ferrer, meaning that they cannot be sold or their assets transferred. The scope of the operation is such that it involves property as far away as Leon on the mainland, where Ferrer has a house in Crémenes and various others.
The raid on Amnesia, which was over two days, extended to the opening of bank safe deposits. At least two million euros have been found. Ferrer was arrested but has been released, much to the perplexity of the prosecution service which had called for his precautionary detention and that of others. Nevertheless, the Guardia's criminal police and the tax agency believe they have the documentation they need and so it will not be altered or somehow disappear. Tax fraud and money laundering are the main charges that prosecutors are levelling.
The nature of the operation is such that Guardia detectives were moved in from Mallorca. Virtually no officers in Ibiza have been involved. At the room they have occupied at the Ibiza headquarters, the first thing that was done was to change the lock. A preliminary estimation by the tax agency of the level of alleged fraud is nearly five million euros. This figure relates to only two years - 2012 and 2013 - and this particular investigation was sparked by an anonymous tip-off directed principally against the former chief financial officer of Amnesia and related companies, Josep Aymar, with Ferrer also implicated.
The case has been several months in the unfolding. The prosecution service, on receipt of a report from the tax agency, lodged it was the court back in October. There had been a period of investigation prior to this, with the anonymous information and the facts it offered having been scrutinised.
The operation against Amnesia is not an isolated one. In fact it falls under a massive nationwide action. Dubbed "Operation Chopin", a total of 87 clubs were raided across Spain when officers from the Guardia, the National Police and the Mossos in Catalonia moved in early on Saturday morning at times when the clubs were closing: in the case of Amnesia, it typically closes at 7am. Among these clubs were other well-known ones in Ibiza - Space and Privilege - as well as BCM in Magalluf. Chopin is thus a major operation against potential tax fraud that embraces much of the elite of Balearic and Spanish nightlife.
The scale is enormous, the coordination of the action impressive. There were four clubs in the Balearics that were raided, but elsewhere there were as many as twenty (in Valencia), sixteen in both Catalonia and Galicia and ten in Andalusia. Together these clubs represent some twenty per cent of the entire turnover of Spain's nightlife sector. But what actually is the turnover? That's something for investigators to identify. Approximately 75% of revenue is cash.
As to Ferrer, it is not the first time that he has been the focus of an investigation. There was one in 2011 related to VAT returns five years previously. His involvement with Aymar is said to have been financially disadvantageous to him in that there were poor investment decisions, such as the Amnesia Barcelona project. An allegation is that the debt and interest that needed to be paid for that resulted in the diversion of funds in order to service the repayments; this represented, therefore, a loss for the tax agency, which is a polite way of saying that a fraud was committed.
Where does this all lead to? It's impossible to say. This is an investigation into a sector in which cash dominates. Establishing alleged trails of money laundering therefore becomes central. Unravelling them will not happen overnight; say between 12 midnight and 7am, when a club would be open.
Friday, August 22, 2014
Magalluf - Mole In The Hole
The Magalluf nonsense rumbles on. You could have put good money on the British red-tops doing whatever they could to get a story once THAT video became public knowledge. And to no one's surprise, therefore, "The Sun", via its so-called Magalluf Mole, came up with its laughable front page on Tuesday. A staged photo? A fake? Who cares what it was, it was worthy of all the derision that it received, as was the story that went with it: the same outrageous stuff we have been accustomed to this summer.
While we can all be critical of Calvia, in this instance the town hall would have had every right to have made a statement declaring that it was totally contemptuous of "The Sun". But while one feels a touch of sympathy on this occasion, what do we make of the video doing the rounds of the sex on the BCM party boat? And what do we make of Calvia's silence on the matter? The video was posted onto Manu Onieva's Facebook wall. The mayor's comments were requested. There have been none.
In a further development, Javier Pierotti, who was the one who put out the video of the cars trapped by the baying hordes on the Punta Ballena last summer (Magalluf Chaos), has released another video, which asks for people's help in getting improvements in Magalluf. With the support of Shaggie (he of Shagalluf), Elizabeth Dobson and others, a request is being made for Javier, who has no political affiliation or ambition, to be co-opted onto working groups at Calvia town hall so that the views of people in Magalluf can be heard and their co-operation can be sought in bringing about genuine improvements. Javier put a 32-page dossier some time ago in which he highlighted problems and made suggestions and recommendations (seemingly all ignored). A petition to have Javier co-opted has been placed on Change.org. There is more information on Facebook - For a better Calvia - and the video asking for help is on YouTube - "Magalluf Video - We Need Your Help".
Saturday, January 11, 2014
BCM Meets Mallorca Rocks: Magalluf youth tourism
Update of 13 January: Since writing this article, which was based to an extent on press information from Cursach, I have received further information from the Ibiza Rocks (Mallorca Rocks) group which seeks to clarify inaccuracies, which I am more than happy to do. The agreement between Ibiza Rocks and Palladium in respect of Mallorca Rocks expires after this year's season, so a new agreement will be in place as from 2015. This is the one which involves Cursach taking on the management of the four hotels. Mallorca Rocks, the brand, will not be a part of this new arrangement. My understanding is that options are being considered for maintaining the Mallorca Rocks brand in Magalluf at a different location to the current one. So, the implication in this article that there will be a coming-together of Mallorca Rocks and Cursach (BCM) is inaccurate, and I am pleased to set the record straight.
The hotel business is not a straightforward matter when it comes to who does what. We may see the name of a hotel chain shining into a night sky, but behind the neon, the logo and the brand there are invariably other businesses involved, while the appearance of a hotel chain's name isn't always an indication of ownership.
The move towards hotel theming and branding makes the who-does-what equation rather more complicated than it used to be. Brands, if they aren't specifically hotel ones, don't necessarily want to be involved in hotel day-to-day. Indeed, they may not want to be involved at all, other than to be informed as to how much they are getting by way of royalties and commissions. Brands can have "hotel operations", but these are not managerial operations; they are purely strategic and financial.
A brand which does have day-to-day involvement is Mallorca Rocks (or Ibiza Rocks). It has to. Its holiday offer isn't conventional, given that it is predicated on live music and all that goes with it. Be it customer service, marketing or pandering to the needs of a chart-topping pop or rock act, it is essential that the organisation has control and involvement. But Mallorca Rocks doesn't own the Mallorca Rocks hotel. Ultimately, the ownership lies, through the Palladium Hotel Group, with GEM, Grupo Empresas Matutes. Palladium was, until the end of 2012, known as the Fiesta Hotel Group. Name change notwithstanding, its principal owner is Abel Matutes, a one-time minister for foreign affairs with the Spanish Government.
Palladium, an Ibiza-based operation and not a Mallorcan one, had announced towards the end of last year that it intended to rent out Mallorca Rocks. It was said at the time that the company which would be doing the renting, the Dutch investment firm Evertaas, would take on the management. In fact, there will be another company which will be doing the managing. It is Cursach. Yes, that Cursach, which, among other things, owns the BCM club in Magalluf.
A year before Palladium made the announcement about Evertaas' involvement, Cursach had gone public about its interest in having the BCM brand name used for a theme hotel in Magalluf. It said that this wouldn't just be a branding exercise; it would want management involvement. In considering this, I suggested that the move would make a great deal of sense for BCM and for Magalluf and that it was an understandable move in light of the tourism law which permitted secondary activities, such as concerts and clubs open to the general public, in hotel grounds. It appears that I was pretty much spot-on; Cursach is citing the tourism law as a reason for it now realising its interest in hotel management.
There is an irony in all this, though. It is no secret that Cursach opposed the concerts at Mallorca Rocks. But there is a further irony in that it was the support for the concerts offered by the then Calvia mayor Carlos Delgado, something which brought forth all manner of complaints channelled via the tourist businesses association Acotur, which acted as a template for the provisions for hotel secondary activities in the tourism law that Delgado was to draw up once he became tourism minister. Mallorca Rocks, revolutionary in many ways, was, without necessarily knowing that it was, the secondary-activities pilot scheme in Mallorca, the Ibiza Rocks hotel having trialled the secondary-activities scheme some time before.
It is remarkable, given the fuss about Mallorca Rocks, that Cursach should now end up managing it. But in so doing, it will create a mega youth brand that combines Mallorca Rocks and BCM, while at the same time keeping them distinct. It sounds like very good business, and there is more to it. There won't be just one hotel. There will be four. Mallorca Rocks, Tropical, Sahara and Magamar, and they will form one complex with over 1,000 rooms, one for which an upgrade to four-star is envisaged and which will have all manner of attractions for the much-hyped "Millennials" age group.
But where, you might be wondering, does this leave Evertaas? Very much in the thick of things. It is an investment company, one that invests in real estate. It, one has to conclude, is going to be the prime mover behind the financing of the changes that Cursach plans. And it has form in this regard in Magalluf. Though it has been reported that there is a fair amount of British money sloshing around in Magalluf (rightly so, as there is), Evertaas is the front organisation for a good deal of the investment that Meliá Hotels has been pumping into Magalluf.
So, as you can see, things aren't straightforward when it comes to who does what. But then, the hotel business isn't straightforward. Not nowadays anyway. It is the melding of brands, hotel chains, investors, management companies to meet the demands of new market segments and enhancements to the overall holiday experience. And Magalluf demonstrates this as well as anywhere. The Cursach move is intriguing and potentially a very good one.
The hotel business is not a straightforward matter when it comes to who does what. We may see the name of a hotel chain shining into a night sky, but behind the neon, the logo and the brand there are invariably other businesses involved, while the appearance of a hotel chain's name isn't always an indication of ownership.
The move towards hotel theming and branding makes the who-does-what equation rather more complicated than it used to be. Brands, if they aren't specifically hotel ones, don't necessarily want to be involved in hotel day-to-day. Indeed, they may not want to be involved at all, other than to be informed as to how much they are getting by way of royalties and commissions. Brands can have "hotel operations", but these are not managerial operations; they are purely strategic and financial.
A brand which does have day-to-day involvement is Mallorca Rocks (or Ibiza Rocks). It has to. Its holiday offer isn't conventional, given that it is predicated on live music and all that goes with it. Be it customer service, marketing or pandering to the needs of a chart-topping pop or rock act, it is essential that the organisation has control and involvement. But Mallorca Rocks doesn't own the Mallorca Rocks hotel. Ultimately, the ownership lies, through the Palladium Hotel Group, with GEM, Grupo Empresas Matutes. Palladium was, until the end of 2012, known as the Fiesta Hotel Group. Name change notwithstanding, its principal owner is Abel Matutes, a one-time minister for foreign affairs with the Spanish Government.
Palladium, an Ibiza-based operation and not a Mallorcan one, had announced towards the end of last year that it intended to rent out Mallorca Rocks. It was said at the time that the company which would be doing the renting, the Dutch investment firm Evertaas, would take on the management. In fact, there will be another company which will be doing the managing. It is Cursach. Yes, that Cursach, which, among other things, owns the BCM club in Magalluf.
A year before Palladium made the announcement about Evertaas' involvement, Cursach had gone public about its interest in having the BCM brand name used for a theme hotel in Magalluf. It said that this wouldn't just be a branding exercise; it would want management involvement. In considering this, I suggested that the move would make a great deal of sense for BCM and for Magalluf and that it was an understandable move in light of the tourism law which permitted secondary activities, such as concerts and clubs open to the general public, in hotel grounds. It appears that I was pretty much spot-on; Cursach is citing the tourism law as a reason for it now realising its interest in hotel management.
There is an irony in all this, though. It is no secret that Cursach opposed the concerts at Mallorca Rocks. But there is a further irony in that it was the support for the concerts offered by the then Calvia mayor Carlos Delgado, something which brought forth all manner of complaints channelled via the tourist businesses association Acotur, which acted as a template for the provisions for hotel secondary activities in the tourism law that Delgado was to draw up once he became tourism minister. Mallorca Rocks, revolutionary in many ways, was, without necessarily knowing that it was, the secondary-activities pilot scheme in Mallorca, the Ibiza Rocks hotel having trialled the secondary-activities scheme some time before.
It is remarkable, given the fuss about Mallorca Rocks, that Cursach should now end up managing it. But in so doing, it will create a mega youth brand that combines Mallorca Rocks and BCM, while at the same time keeping them distinct. It sounds like very good business, and there is more to it. There won't be just one hotel. There will be four. Mallorca Rocks, Tropical, Sahara and Magamar, and they will form one complex with over 1,000 rooms, one for which an upgrade to four-star is envisaged and which will have all manner of attractions for the much-hyped "Millennials" age group.
But where, you might be wondering, does this leave Evertaas? Very much in the thick of things. It is an investment company, one that invests in real estate. It, one has to conclude, is going to be the prime mover behind the financing of the changes that Cursach plans. And it has form in this regard in Magalluf. Though it has been reported that there is a fair amount of British money sloshing around in Magalluf (rightly so, as there is), Evertaas is the front organisation for a good deal of the investment that Meliá Hotels has been pumping into Magalluf.
So, as you can see, things aren't straightforward when it comes to who does what. But then, the hotel business isn't straightforward. Not nowadays anyway. It is the melding of brands, hotel chains, investors, management companies to meet the demands of new market segments and enhancements to the overall holiday experience. And Magalluf demonstrates this as well as anywhere. The Cursach move is intriguing and potentially a very good one.
Friday, November 30, 2012
Join Our Club: BCM and theming
If you can't beat 'em, then join 'em. This is one way of interpreting the speculation surrounding Grupo Cursach possibly allowing the BCM brand to be adopted by a hotel (or hotels). It was generally thought that BCM was one of the principal objectors to the Fiesta Group's Mallorca Rocks hotel, one of the most obvious examples of hotel theming to date, and one very much with a more youthful market in mind. If so, then the BCM attitude has undergone some amelioration. The line now is that Mallorca Rocks (and Mallorca Wave) are complementary to BCM and that concerts finishing by midnight at Mallorca Rocks do not constitute a threat as such.
This was the line that should always have been adopted. The arrival of Mallorca Rocks - responded to last year by the staging of concerts by BCM in its square -marked a real opportunity for Magalluf. Rather than resisting, the impetus that Mallorca Rocks gave needed to be embraced. It now seems as though it has been. Momentum is gathering in establishing Magalluf even more firmly as a "party" resort, one in which the total should be greater than the sum of its individual parts. An incoming competitor, even a competitor whose competition is comparatively loose, which is the case where Mallorca Rocks is concerned, fertilises the ground from which more business can be grown - by all parties.
Cursach says that a hotel theming or branding exercise involving BCM is not a priority but that if the company were to go down that route then it would want to be involved in the management of a hotel; it wouldn't, therefore, just be a branding exercise. If Cursach does decide to diversify, it would be entirely its affair as to how this might work, but the fact that a declaration of intent has been made - in the form of a wish to manage a hotel, if only in partnership - suggests that the company may be closer to establishing such an arrangement than it is letting on. If it is, then good for it. The concept could well make a great deal of sense, not just for BCM but also for Magalluf.
There is a second reason for thinking that Cursach is "joining 'em" rather than trying to "beat 'em". This has to do with the reform of the tourism law which allows hotels to offer so-called secondary activities which would be open to non-guests. One such activity concerns the club sector, BCM's market therefore. While there have been understandable objections to the legal reform (and I have agreed that it can be construed as being unfair), a more positive way of looking at the reform is to try and get a piece of the action. And what better way than being a business from outside moving inside a hotel.
For a business with such a strong brand name and high awareness as BCM, an association with a hotel (or multiple associations) represents a means of exploiting and developing the brand. As such therefore, the reform of the law creates an opportunity. This, in the rush to condemn the reform, was probably being overlooked.
If opportunity there is then, would similar opportunities exist for other businesses and ones not just in Magalluf? They would apply pretty much exclusively to clubs, bars or even restaurants with strong names and reputations in specific resorts, but if I were to take a resort I know well - Alcúdia - I could think of a handful of businesses which might well indeed sense an opportunity; not for hotel theming or branding as such, but as an operator inside hotel grounds. Association with a strong name from outside the hotel could well be attractive to a hotel, as it would give the hotel additional marketing leverage.
But might such arrangements be harmful to the main business? Would it be a case of cannibalising the existing product or of stretching the brand to the extent that neither the original nor the new business benefits? Possibly it would, but not necessarily. Much would depend on the product of the new, hotel-based business, and this raises a question as to how adept some businesses might be in understanding new product development.
To come back to BCM and to Magalluf, if Cursach were to embark on a hotel theming venture, it would be another example of the extent to which the resort is being given a makeover. But there is in all of this makeover, a question mark, and it concerns just what sort of resort is being conceived. The ultimate party resort does not necessarily sit easily alongside ambitions for a more up-market family resort. And party resort brings with it certain downsides, as already exist in Magalluf.
Hotel theming, branding exercises need to be undertaken within the context of a wider and integrated strategy, the branding of Magalluf and how its component parts are organised and if necessary segregated. There is much to excite in Magalluf's rejuvenation, but there is much that also needs to be given careful thought.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Index for November 2012
BCM and hotel theming - 30 November 2012
British Consul non-replacement - 25 November 2012
Business opportunities: making them easier - 18 November 2012
Can Picafort front line - 9 November 2012
Car hire and tourist taxes - 7 November 2012
Carlos Delgado and the deer hunt - 21 November 2012
Catalonian election - 23 November 2012, 28 November 2012
Corruption and political party system - 1 November 2012
Dogs on beaches in Pollensa - 5 November 2012
Expatriate categorisation - 17 November 2012
Fishermen's guilds - 3 November 2012
Flags: bans on use - 27 November 2012
García surname popularity in Mallorca - 13 November 2012
Holiday lets and national law - 20 November 2012
Hotels and town hall bureaucracy - 2 November 2012
Joan Mesquida - 12 November 2012
Mass tourism - 10 November 2012
Mountains and snow - 29 November 2012
November - 6 November 2012
Palacio de Congresos - 26 November 2012
Pollensa fair - 14 November 2012
Press, Carlos Delgado and Artur Mas - 22 November 2012
Proposta per les Illes (El Pi) - 4 November 2012
Rafael Bosch and Cabrera diving trips - 11 November 2012
Ramon Llull Institute - 8 November 2012
Themed hotels - 16 November 2012
Tourism promotion obligations - 19 November 2012
Trust in politicians: lack of - 15 November 2012
This was the line that should always have been adopted. The arrival of Mallorca Rocks - responded to last year by the staging of concerts by BCM in its square -marked a real opportunity for Magalluf. Rather than resisting, the impetus that Mallorca Rocks gave needed to be embraced. It now seems as though it has been. Momentum is gathering in establishing Magalluf even more firmly as a "party" resort, one in which the total should be greater than the sum of its individual parts. An incoming competitor, even a competitor whose competition is comparatively loose, which is the case where Mallorca Rocks is concerned, fertilises the ground from which more business can be grown - by all parties.
Cursach says that a hotel theming or branding exercise involving BCM is not a priority but that if the company were to go down that route then it would want to be involved in the management of a hotel; it wouldn't, therefore, just be a branding exercise. If Cursach does decide to diversify, it would be entirely its affair as to how this might work, but the fact that a declaration of intent has been made - in the form of a wish to manage a hotel, if only in partnership - suggests that the company may be closer to establishing such an arrangement than it is letting on. If it is, then good for it. The concept could well make a great deal of sense, not just for BCM but also for Magalluf.
There is a second reason for thinking that Cursach is "joining 'em" rather than trying to "beat 'em". This has to do with the reform of the tourism law which allows hotels to offer so-called secondary activities which would be open to non-guests. One such activity concerns the club sector, BCM's market therefore. While there have been understandable objections to the legal reform (and I have agreed that it can be construed as being unfair), a more positive way of looking at the reform is to try and get a piece of the action. And what better way than being a business from outside moving inside a hotel.
For a business with such a strong brand name and high awareness as BCM, an association with a hotel (or multiple associations) represents a means of exploiting and developing the brand. As such therefore, the reform of the law creates an opportunity. This, in the rush to condemn the reform, was probably being overlooked.
If opportunity there is then, would similar opportunities exist for other businesses and ones not just in Magalluf? They would apply pretty much exclusively to clubs, bars or even restaurants with strong names and reputations in specific resorts, but if I were to take a resort I know well - Alcúdia - I could think of a handful of businesses which might well indeed sense an opportunity; not for hotel theming or branding as such, but as an operator inside hotel grounds. Association with a strong name from outside the hotel could well be attractive to a hotel, as it would give the hotel additional marketing leverage.
But might such arrangements be harmful to the main business? Would it be a case of cannibalising the existing product or of stretching the brand to the extent that neither the original nor the new business benefits? Possibly it would, but not necessarily. Much would depend on the product of the new, hotel-based business, and this raises a question as to how adept some businesses might be in understanding new product development.
To come back to BCM and to Magalluf, if Cursach were to embark on a hotel theming venture, it would be another example of the extent to which the resort is being given a makeover. But there is in all of this makeover, a question mark, and it concerns just what sort of resort is being conceived. The ultimate party resort does not necessarily sit easily alongside ambitions for a more up-market family resort. And party resort brings with it certain downsides, as already exist in Magalluf.
Hotel theming, branding exercises need to be undertaken within the context of a wider and integrated strategy, the branding of Magalluf and how its component parts are organised and if necessary segregated. There is much to excite in Magalluf's rejuvenation, but there is much that also needs to be given careful thought.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Index for November 2012
BCM and hotel theming - 30 November 2012
British Consul non-replacement - 25 November 2012
Business opportunities: making them easier - 18 November 2012
Can Picafort front line - 9 November 2012
Car hire and tourist taxes - 7 November 2012
Carlos Delgado and the deer hunt - 21 November 2012
Catalonian election - 23 November 2012, 28 November 2012
Corruption and political party system - 1 November 2012
Dogs on beaches in Pollensa - 5 November 2012
Expatriate categorisation - 17 November 2012
Fishermen's guilds - 3 November 2012
Flags: bans on use - 27 November 2012
García surname popularity in Mallorca - 13 November 2012
Holiday lets and national law - 20 November 2012
Hotels and town hall bureaucracy - 2 November 2012
Joan Mesquida - 12 November 2012
Mass tourism - 10 November 2012
Mountains and snow - 29 November 2012
November - 6 November 2012
Palacio de Congresos - 26 November 2012
Pollensa fair - 14 November 2012
Press, Carlos Delgado and Artur Mas - 22 November 2012
Proposta per les Illes (El Pi) - 4 November 2012
Rafael Bosch and Cabrera diving trips - 11 November 2012
Ramon Llull Institute - 8 November 2012
Themed hotels - 16 November 2012
Tourism promotion obligations - 19 November 2012
Trust in politicians: lack of - 15 November 2012
Friday, March 02, 2012
Murder On The Dance Floor
"You better not steal the moves, DJ, gonna burn this God damn house right down." Well, let's not get carried away. There will be no murder and no burning of houses down, but stealing of moves, DJ? Sort of, yes.
Sophie Ellis Bextor would be rather passé now for the dance floors, streets or terraces of Magalluf, but Pitbull or Jessie J would not be. Indeed, they aren't. They are just two artists who could be on their way this coming summer to Magalluf, where dancing will be on terraces and streets as well as on floors.
There won't be stealing of moves so much as competitive moves, and these moves - dance and others - are going to come about largely as a result of Mallorca Rocks.
You may recall there having been a spot of bother surrounding Mallorca Rocks. The association representing tourist business, Acotur, was threatening various actions against the hotel and especially against Calvià town hall because of questions over whether the hotel was licensed to stage its music concerts. The threats went away when the regional government's tourism ministry discovered that it was able to grant the required licence when it had previously said that it was unable to.
Mallorca Rocks has been highly successful. The hotel itself has enjoyed pretty much full occupancy and the concerts have been well patronised. The success, due in no small part to a concert schedule replete with British dance acts, has not gone unnoticed. Other businesses were unhappy about this success, but they were ultimately unable to prevent it. So rather than try to beat it, they are going to join it, and then try and beat it.
Everyone knew which businesses were behind the opposition to Mallorca Rocks that was channelled through Acotur. If they didn't, they would now have a pretty good idea, as BCM plans staging up to nine concerts of its own in its "square", and Pitbull and Jessie J are a couple of the acts being talked about as possibles.
Objections to Mallorca Rocks were couched in technical terms, as with the correct licence and on health and safety grounds, but at the heart of the objections was the competition that the hotel brought. The director of Grupo Cursach, of which BCM is a part, has said that the concerts will be in response to hotels which have "changed the balance" in Magalluf.
Mallorca Rocks did change the balance, because it introduced new competition. There were certainly question marks over whether the hotel should have been staging what are "secondary activities", but these activities are going to be sanctioned once and for all in the government's new tourism law. There will be no more question marks, and their removal opens the way up to not just a more competitive market but also to the making of Magalluf as far, far more of a club and dance resort than it has been.
BCM isn't the only operation planning on or considering concerts or DJ events. Another hotel chain, Marina, has converted its Barracuda hotel into a themed party hotel, even going so far as to re-do its rooms in a "fun" style and with singles (young singles) in mind. DJ events are on the cards for this year. Meliá's rebranded Sol Wave House, which features two surf wave machines from Wave House, is also likely to stage concerts.
Mallorca Rocks may have upset some businesses, but by changing the balance it has created competition that is now fighting back, and in so doing the resort is going to catch a wave of a new explosion in popularity. It will be a popularity that doubtless some will scorn, as it is youthful popularity, but it is popularity nonetheless that other resorts would be only too delighted to share.
Magalluf, for all its at-times bad reputation, represents a changing face of Mallorca, one that is following more of an Ibiza line, which is ironic as Ibiza has sought to shed its party reputation. Murder on the dance floor there will not be. It's going to be altogether happier than this, but one thing is for sure, there is going to also be some intense competition. If this means more concerts and bigger names, it can only be positive. The God damn house is going to be burned down right enough.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sophie Ellis Bextor would be rather passé now for the dance floors, streets or terraces of Magalluf, but Pitbull or Jessie J would not be. Indeed, they aren't. They are just two artists who could be on their way this coming summer to Magalluf, where dancing will be on terraces and streets as well as on floors.
There won't be stealing of moves so much as competitive moves, and these moves - dance and others - are going to come about largely as a result of Mallorca Rocks.
You may recall there having been a spot of bother surrounding Mallorca Rocks. The association representing tourist business, Acotur, was threatening various actions against the hotel and especially against Calvià town hall because of questions over whether the hotel was licensed to stage its music concerts. The threats went away when the regional government's tourism ministry discovered that it was able to grant the required licence when it had previously said that it was unable to.
Mallorca Rocks has been highly successful. The hotel itself has enjoyed pretty much full occupancy and the concerts have been well patronised. The success, due in no small part to a concert schedule replete with British dance acts, has not gone unnoticed. Other businesses were unhappy about this success, but they were ultimately unable to prevent it. So rather than try to beat it, they are going to join it, and then try and beat it.
Everyone knew which businesses were behind the opposition to Mallorca Rocks that was channelled through Acotur. If they didn't, they would now have a pretty good idea, as BCM plans staging up to nine concerts of its own in its "square", and Pitbull and Jessie J are a couple of the acts being talked about as possibles.
Objections to Mallorca Rocks were couched in technical terms, as with the correct licence and on health and safety grounds, but at the heart of the objections was the competition that the hotel brought. The director of Grupo Cursach, of which BCM is a part, has said that the concerts will be in response to hotels which have "changed the balance" in Magalluf.
Mallorca Rocks did change the balance, because it introduced new competition. There were certainly question marks over whether the hotel should have been staging what are "secondary activities", but these activities are going to be sanctioned once and for all in the government's new tourism law. There will be no more question marks, and their removal opens the way up to not just a more competitive market but also to the making of Magalluf as far, far more of a club and dance resort than it has been.
BCM isn't the only operation planning on or considering concerts or DJ events. Another hotel chain, Marina, has converted its Barracuda hotel into a themed party hotel, even going so far as to re-do its rooms in a "fun" style and with singles (young singles) in mind. DJ events are on the cards for this year. Meliá's rebranded Sol Wave House, which features two surf wave machines from Wave House, is also likely to stage concerts.
Mallorca Rocks may have upset some businesses, but by changing the balance it has created competition that is now fighting back, and in so doing the resort is going to catch a wave of a new explosion in popularity. It will be a popularity that doubtless some will scorn, as it is youthful popularity, but it is popularity nonetheless that other resorts would be only too delighted to share.
Magalluf, for all its at-times bad reputation, represents a changing face of Mallorca, one that is following more of an Ibiza line, which is ironic as Ibiza has sought to shed its party reputation. Murder on the dance floor there will not be. It's going to be altogether happier than this, but one thing is for sure, there is going to also be some intense competition. If this means more concerts and bigger names, it can only be positive. The God damn house is going to be burned down right enough.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
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