I didn't know him so much as occasionally stumble into him, though really that should be the other way round, despite a seemingly industrial capacity for holding his drink. There was a pub in Twickenham that I would now and then frequent. It was his local, he having been and remaining Dennis Waterman. On one occasion he was exiting at the same time as I was. He paused and asked - of no one in particular - "anyone seen my Roller?" It would probably have been as well if no one had seen it.
As Terry McCann in Minder, Dennis had his memorable quotes; rather more memorable, one imagines, than the enquiry about the Roller. But it was Arthur Daley (George Cole) on whom Leon Griffiths' script generosity for great lines mostly fell. It was Arthur who pined for the days of honest-to-God, decent, professional thieves. They could no longer be found as they were all living in Spain.
Arthur once let Terry in on his secret as a businessman: "You make contact with your customer, understand their needs, and then flog them something they could well do without.” And why does this come to mind? Well, because it may be the type of advice being issued at the tourism ministry at present. Understand tourists' needs and then present them with what they almost certainly could do without - a winter break when Cyclone Bruno (or any other cyclone) is battering the Balearics. Better in winter, albeit that it was springlike last week.
My guess is that Bel of the Ministry isn't that adept at one-liners. I may be doing her a disservice, but she doesn't give the impression of having landed at the tourism ministry armed with a book of gags. Indeed, when it comes to the imparting of gems of wisdom in an Arthur manner, it may well be that there is a role reversal: it's the Minder who's advising Bel.
We were more or less formally introduced to him during the negotiations over Biel Barceló's successor. Those one-sided negotiations - to ensure Bel was the new Biel - were conducted on the Més side by a trio that someone (not me) referred to as looking like a Bulgarian hit squad. Their opposite numbers from PSOE were Iago of employment and two of the socialist dames - Pilar of the presidency department and Mercedes of the Council (holiday rental zoning and all that). Towering over them was Lluís Apesteguia, who Mercedes will have recognised from the Council. Iago would doubtless have become familiar with him as well. "It's going to be Bel, isn't it." "Er, well, yes." "Good boy."
The reward for Lluis is to now find himself as Bel's Minder, which officially means her chief of staff. A rising star in Més, and a substantial one at that, Lluis' career progression has been assisted by his having gained a degree in classical philology. So, that's at least two philologists in charge of tourism then; Bel's language capabilities we already knew about.
His elevation to Minder status is being interpreted in some quarters as bolstering Bel's bid to lead Més to electoral glory in 2019. His appointment, it is said, gives greater political weight to the tourism ministry, with Bel now given the chance to shine and look forward to becoming the next president of the Balearics. And if she were to be, then what will Lluis' next reward be? As Bel probably wouldn't say: "The world's your lobster, Lluis."
Showing posts with label Balearic tourism ministry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Balearic tourism ministry. Show all posts
Sunday, January 07, 2018
Friday, December 22, 2017
The Last Tourism Minister?
No one from the hoteliers or the tourism sector in general was present at government HQ for the swearing-in of Bel Busquets as vice-president and tourism minister. It was apparently the first time that a tourism minister has taken office without the hoteliers having been represented. Their absence was downplayed. The hoteliers were holding an assembly and they were also having their Christmas lunch. So, no controversy there, then.
Whatever the hoteliers and the rest of the tourism industry in the Balearics think about Busquets, they're just going to have to get on with things and try and get on with her. In pure political terms they do at least know what the agenda is: the same as with Biel Barceló. But even sharp division on policies, such as the tourist tax, can be made to appear friendly enough; it depends on the individuals. Barceló and Inma Benito, no longer the hoteliers president, did at least seem to get on. It was a tribute to both that they did.
Busquets, for her part, has been coming out with the normal stuff about dialogue. In fact, she went one step further than normal; there is to be "maximum consensus and dialogue", once Christmas and the Kings are out of the way and everyone can get back to work. If there was ever going to be a good time for her to take office, it has been now, especially as the hoteliers were tucking into their turkey (or whatever) and donning the hats from their crackers at the very moment she was uttering her oath.
In addition to this maximum consensus and dialogue, Busquets trotted out all the other clichés. For instance, the tourist tax is for improving "the territory and the people"; the tax "takes advantage of benefits from tourism to make policies for protecting the territory". Yes, Bel, I think we've all got that message.
The tourism industry should not fear, or so it would appear, as Bel stated that she is not opposed to tourism. Which was good of her. It would be strange indeed for a tourism minister to be opposed to the very thing she is supposed to be responsible for. But then these are strange times, not least because - and despite the government's "agreements for change" (to which she naturally referred) - most of the government and the whole of the non-government didn't want her. President Armengol had wanted an independent and a "consensual" person at the ministry's helm. So had Mae de la Concha, the Podemos general secretary. The PP and the opposition had wanted anyone but another member of Més.
But Bel is now minister, so all that reluctance - as Biel Barceló has noted - should be forgotten. One wonders if it will be. Hers is a peculiar appointment; there are no two ways about it. Even more peculiar, however, is the possibility that she might just be the last Balearic tourism minister. Barceló has suggested there may not be the need for one in future. This is because of all those tourism responsibilities being transferred to the island councils.
So, maybe this is the point we should all get our heads around. Bel isn't opposed to tourism. She's perfectly in favour of it, with other institutions running it. Bel, the tourism minister who called time on the tourism ministry.
Whatever the hoteliers and the rest of the tourism industry in the Balearics think about Busquets, they're just going to have to get on with things and try and get on with her. In pure political terms they do at least know what the agenda is: the same as with Biel Barceló. But even sharp division on policies, such as the tourist tax, can be made to appear friendly enough; it depends on the individuals. Barceló and Inma Benito, no longer the hoteliers president, did at least seem to get on. It was a tribute to both that they did.
Busquets, for her part, has been coming out with the normal stuff about dialogue. In fact, she went one step further than normal; there is to be "maximum consensus and dialogue", once Christmas and the Kings are out of the way and everyone can get back to work. If there was ever going to be a good time for her to take office, it has been now, especially as the hoteliers were tucking into their turkey (or whatever) and donning the hats from their crackers at the very moment she was uttering her oath.
In addition to this maximum consensus and dialogue, Busquets trotted out all the other clichés. For instance, the tourist tax is for improving "the territory and the people"; the tax "takes advantage of benefits from tourism to make policies for protecting the territory". Yes, Bel, I think we've all got that message.
The tourism industry should not fear, or so it would appear, as Bel stated that she is not opposed to tourism. Which was good of her. It would be strange indeed for a tourism minister to be opposed to the very thing she is supposed to be responsible for. But then these are strange times, not least because - and despite the government's "agreements for change" (to which she naturally referred) - most of the government and the whole of the non-government didn't want her. President Armengol had wanted an independent and a "consensual" person at the ministry's helm. So had Mae de la Concha, the Podemos general secretary. The PP and the opposition had wanted anyone but another member of Més.
But Bel is now minister, so all that reluctance - as Biel Barceló has noted - should be forgotten. One wonders if it will be. Hers is a peculiar appointment; there are no two ways about it. Even more peculiar, however, is the possibility that she might just be the last Balearic tourism minister. Barceló has suggested there may not be the need for one in future. This is because of all those tourism responsibilities being transferred to the island councils.
So, maybe this is the point we should all get our heads around. Bel isn't opposed to tourism. She's perfectly in favour of it, with other institutions running it. Bel, the tourism minister who called time on the tourism ministry.
Wednesday, December 20, 2017
Philology And Tourism: Bel Busquets
Being intimately knowledgeable of the detail of a portfolio isn't necessarily a pre-requisite for a ministerial appointment. But it can help, as can demonstrable competence for even having been considered for the appointment.
The rules of the "new politics" have thrust into the limelight those whose qualifications for ministerial office are shaky, to say the least; non-existent might also be a way of describing them. The new politics aren't always at play, though. The Partido Popular in the Balearics is representative of the old school, one that has done quite well at keeping its friends in the private sector contented. The new politics eschew such cosiness. New faces are thus presented, and they are representative of greater democracy. Why should ministerial posts, why should government be the preserve of the old and established guard?
All true perhaps. But there is always a but. The old politics can make questionable promotions, just as the new politics can. For both, it is a matter of dogmatic continuity, or in the case of the PP it was the necessity for dogma to reign supreme. President Bauzá sacked Rafael Bosch as education minister. Bosch's crime was that he knew too much. Education was his specialism. He had doubts about a zealous anti-Catalanism. Dogma ruled, and he had to go.
In his place came Joana Maria Camps, an estate agent by background. She was Bauzá's mouthpiece, but unfortunately what came out just helped to make her appointment seem ever the more bizarre. Poor Joana, one felt sorry for her. She tripped up, none more so than when she managed to use the Catalan verb to tread on to mean the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) survey. Parliamentary deputies were in fits of laughter. Catalan had intruded in a way that Catalan should not have. Such, one might suggest, can be a drawback with Catalan philology (the study of language); however odd this was, given the anti-Catalanism of the time.
Bauzá eventually saw sense and replaced her with Nuria Riera, a generally accomplished and experienced politician who did at least attempt to build the destroyed bridges with the teaching fraternity. It was too late, though.
Balearics tourism has had the occasional individual with intimate knowledge at a ministerial level. Jaume Cladera has been the clearest example. Biel Barceló was not intimate. Forget the name, he is not from the hotel group's family. But he did, as he once explained, have some experience of tourism, though he never offered any detail. Perhaps he had once been a hotel entertainer. Who can say?
He was at least experienced, if not as a minister then as someone who had been on the political stage for several years. If Més were to have a tourism minister, which they were always going to have, then it may as well have been Biel. Other candidates were in any event in short supply, if at all.
Biel is part of the new politics, the new democracy of challenging the old guard, and he has now given way to Bel Busquets. Bel is the new tourism minister. The industry, especially that which isn't based in the Balearics, will be asking who the Balearics have managed to serve up this time. Tourism ministers; there have been a few, too many to mention.
The headline of an article in the Spanish media more or less summed up this appointment: "A philologist fronting Balearic tourism." Bel is a qualified Catalan philologist. She has been a school teacher. She is now the minister of tourism. And the only reasons that she is have to do with Més dogma and with the intrigues of the Balearic government. She will carry on the good Més work at tourism, even if she has no real idea what it entails. She will be presented to the tourism industry because Més wouldn't allow any other outcome. Joana Camps revisited, but wearing a pan-Catalanist, eco-nationalist frock.
Regarding the appointment of Busquets, I asked someone - where do they find these people? At the bottom of the pyramid came the response. Barrel might have been an alternative. It's not that I wish her ill; quite the contrary. But how can it be that the Balearics most important industry is placed in the hands of someone who on the face of it is not equipped for the post? Well, I think we know why. Dogma, power games within the government and the sudden opportunities offered by the new politics.
How PSOE must really wish that there was a return to the old way. It was manifestly obvious that President Armengol didn't want Busquets. At her swearing-in there was a distinct frostiness of body language. But PSOE just have to lump it and hope that Busquets heeds Armengol's words about positive dialogue with the industry. At least with Barceló he did appreciate there is a certain "realpolitik" in dealing with the hoteliers. Will Bel?
The rules of the "new politics" have thrust into the limelight those whose qualifications for ministerial office are shaky, to say the least; non-existent might also be a way of describing them. The new politics aren't always at play, though. The Partido Popular in the Balearics is representative of the old school, one that has done quite well at keeping its friends in the private sector contented. The new politics eschew such cosiness. New faces are thus presented, and they are representative of greater democracy. Why should ministerial posts, why should government be the preserve of the old and established guard?
All true perhaps. But there is always a but. The old politics can make questionable promotions, just as the new politics can. For both, it is a matter of dogmatic continuity, or in the case of the PP it was the necessity for dogma to reign supreme. President Bauzá sacked Rafael Bosch as education minister. Bosch's crime was that he knew too much. Education was his specialism. He had doubts about a zealous anti-Catalanism. Dogma ruled, and he had to go.
In his place came Joana Maria Camps, an estate agent by background. She was Bauzá's mouthpiece, but unfortunately what came out just helped to make her appointment seem ever the more bizarre. Poor Joana, one felt sorry for her. She tripped up, none more so than when she managed to use the Catalan verb to tread on to mean the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) survey. Parliamentary deputies were in fits of laughter. Catalan had intruded in a way that Catalan should not have. Such, one might suggest, can be a drawback with Catalan philology (the study of language); however odd this was, given the anti-Catalanism of the time.
Bauzá eventually saw sense and replaced her with Nuria Riera, a generally accomplished and experienced politician who did at least attempt to build the destroyed bridges with the teaching fraternity. It was too late, though.
Balearics tourism has had the occasional individual with intimate knowledge at a ministerial level. Jaume Cladera has been the clearest example. Biel Barceló was not intimate. Forget the name, he is not from the hotel group's family. But he did, as he once explained, have some experience of tourism, though he never offered any detail. Perhaps he had once been a hotel entertainer. Who can say?
He was at least experienced, if not as a minister then as someone who had been on the political stage for several years. If Més were to have a tourism minister, which they were always going to have, then it may as well have been Biel. Other candidates were in any event in short supply, if at all.
Biel is part of the new politics, the new democracy of challenging the old guard, and he has now given way to Bel Busquets. Bel is the new tourism minister. The industry, especially that which isn't based in the Balearics, will be asking who the Balearics have managed to serve up this time. Tourism ministers; there have been a few, too many to mention.
The headline of an article in the Spanish media more or less summed up this appointment: "A philologist fronting Balearic tourism." Bel is a qualified Catalan philologist. She has been a school teacher. She is now the minister of tourism. And the only reasons that she is have to do with Més dogma and with the intrigues of the Balearic government. She will carry on the good Més work at tourism, even if she has no real idea what it entails. She will be presented to the tourism industry because Més wouldn't allow any other outcome. Joana Camps revisited, but wearing a pan-Catalanist, eco-nationalist frock.
Regarding the appointment of Busquets, I asked someone - where do they find these people? At the bottom of the pyramid came the response. Barrel might have been an alternative. It's not that I wish her ill; quite the contrary. But how can it be that the Balearics most important industry is placed in the hands of someone who on the face of it is not equipped for the post? Well, I think we know why. Dogma, power games within the government and the sudden opportunities offered by the new politics.
How PSOE must really wish that there was a return to the old way. It was manifestly obvious that President Armengol didn't want Busquets. At her swearing-in there was a distinct frostiness of body language. But PSOE just have to lump it and hope that Busquets heeds Armengol's words about positive dialogue with the industry. At least with Barceló he did appreciate there is a certain "realpolitik" in dealing with the hoteliers. Will Bel?
Monday, December 18, 2017
The Biel Barceló Legacy
Biel Barceló was in the grand tradition of Balearic tourism ministers. He resigned. Yet resignation after only two and a half years in office can still bring with it a legacy. It may not be a fully fulfilled legacy, but it can be legacy nonetheless. Carlos Delgado bequeathed the "ley Delgado", the 2012 tourism law that Barceló spent much of his period as minister attempting to alter. In the process, he will go down in the annals as the minister who introduced the second ecotax and who incurred the wrath of holiday rentals liberals. In Balearic tourism ministry terms, he achieved much, even if there will be many who would prefer that he had departed without having left any legacy at all.
Tourism was always going to be his job to have, once Més, PSOE and Podemos had struck their agreement for government in 2015. Onto tourism he grafted his pet topic of innovation and research, and thus formed a ministry in his own image, and that of Més. The opprobrium directed towards Barceló regarding rentals and the tax is not justifiable in personal terms. If one cares to look at the Més manifesto for 2015, one will discover that both were on the agenda, although both - it is probably fair to say - have developed in ways that hadn't necessarily been envisaged.
For a doubling of the tourist tax, one really has to blame Podemos and the gun it held to the government over the budget. Barceló had, in the months after the tax had been introduced, been distinctly equivocal on whether it would go up. There was no room for equivocation when the barrels of Podemos were pointed.
As for the rentals legislation, I maintain that this took a course that hadn't been foreseen. Més were committed to legislate, but this was because the Partido Popular had failed to do so. PSOE agreed with them. There had to be new regulations, and these would have been drafted in a different fashion had it not been for the sudden explosion caused by the perfect storm of Airbnb (and others) and the massive demand for the Balearics that stemmed from Mediterranean geopolitics. Contrary to what anyone might believe, Més would have adopted a more relaxed attitude to regulation, if only because the PP had been illiberal.
That the legislation has become a complete dog's breakfast doesn't reflect well on Barceló, but again he can't be singled out. Podemos caused their own havoc, and the involvement of the Council of Mallorca and its incomprehensible zoning has just added to it. Fundamentally, however, Barceló was right. Things had got totally out of hand. Order had to be established, and the Balearics have been no different to many other places where Airbnb has completely disrupted the residential market.
He got things wrong with a failure to make immediate and forceful condemnations of bouts of anti-tourism and with going on about saturation. Both failures merely fed a growing antagonism towards tourism, but a response - setting limits on the number of tourists - was hardly the radical proposal that has been portrayed. Limits have been on the table for years; even the PP (Delgado) alluded to the potential need.
A further response is the frankly laughable notion that tourists will opt to come to the Balearics at times other than the summer. The Better in Winter campaign suffers because of its very slogan, as it begs the alternative - worse in summer. But any gains that might be claimed because of this campaign are questionable. A lengthening of the season has occurred because of increased demand resulting from the geopolitics, because of the ever greater momentum in niche products such as cycling and hiking that owes virtually nothing to government policy, and simply because of a greatly improved economic climate.
The only body which can genuinely be held up as having made a difference is the Palma 365 Foundation, of which the government isn't a part. And it most certainly has benefited from good press. That famous article about Palma in The Sunday Times was by a journalist who is well known to the Mallorca Tourist Board, a private organisation that promotes the island; so not, therefore, the government.
That article just goes to highlight an area where Barceló failed, just as ministers have in the past. Communications are hopeless. There is still no coherent approach to social media. The website for explaining how the tourist tax is spent was and is an utter embarrassment, and when the tax was introduced, he insisted on references to small percentages to be added to the overall cost of the holiday rather than appealing to the tourist's heart.
Has he left a legacy? We may start to get an idea next year, as his period as minister may have been when the mass in mass tourism was put into reverse. He hands over to Bel Busquets, a secondary school teacher by profession.
Tourism was always going to be his job to have, once Més, PSOE and Podemos had struck their agreement for government in 2015. Onto tourism he grafted his pet topic of innovation and research, and thus formed a ministry in his own image, and that of Més. The opprobrium directed towards Barceló regarding rentals and the tax is not justifiable in personal terms. If one cares to look at the Més manifesto for 2015, one will discover that both were on the agenda, although both - it is probably fair to say - have developed in ways that hadn't necessarily been envisaged.
For a doubling of the tourist tax, one really has to blame Podemos and the gun it held to the government over the budget. Barceló had, in the months after the tax had been introduced, been distinctly equivocal on whether it would go up. There was no room for equivocation when the barrels of Podemos were pointed.
As for the rentals legislation, I maintain that this took a course that hadn't been foreseen. Més were committed to legislate, but this was because the Partido Popular had failed to do so. PSOE agreed with them. There had to be new regulations, and these would have been drafted in a different fashion had it not been for the sudden explosion caused by the perfect storm of Airbnb (and others) and the massive demand for the Balearics that stemmed from Mediterranean geopolitics. Contrary to what anyone might believe, Més would have adopted a more relaxed attitude to regulation, if only because the PP had been illiberal.
That the legislation has become a complete dog's breakfast doesn't reflect well on Barceló, but again he can't be singled out. Podemos caused their own havoc, and the involvement of the Council of Mallorca and its incomprehensible zoning has just added to it. Fundamentally, however, Barceló was right. Things had got totally out of hand. Order had to be established, and the Balearics have been no different to many other places where Airbnb has completely disrupted the residential market.
He got things wrong with a failure to make immediate and forceful condemnations of bouts of anti-tourism and with going on about saturation. Both failures merely fed a growing antagonism towards tourism, but a response - setting limits on the number of tourists - was hardly the radical proposal that has been portrayed. Limits have been on the table for years; even the PP (Delgado) alluded to the potential need.
A further response is the frankly laughable notion that tourists will opt to come to the Balearics at times other than the summer. The Better in Winter campaign suffers because of its very slogan, as it begs the alternative - worse in summer. But any gains that might be claimed because of this campaign are questionable. A lengthening of the season has occurred because of increased demand resulting from the geopolitics, because of the ever greater momentum in niche products such as cycling and hiking that owes virtually nothing to government policy, and simply because of a greatly improved economic climate.
The only body which can genuinely be held up as having made a difference is the Palma 365 Foundation, of which the government isn't a part. And it most certainly has benefited from good press. That famous article about Palma in The Sunday Times was by a journalist who is well known to the Mallorca Tourist Board, a private organisation that promotes the island; so not, therefore, the government.
That article just goes to highlight an area where Barceló failed, just as ministers have in the past. Communications are hopeless. There is still no coherent approach to social media. The website for explaining how the tourist tax is spent was and is an utter embarrassment, and when the tax was introduced, he insisted on references to small percentages to be added to the overall cost of the holiday rather than appealing to the tourist's heart.
Has he left a legacy? We may start to get an idea next year, as his period as minister may have been when the mass in mass tourism was put into reverse. He hands over to Bel Busquets, a secondary school teacher by profession.
Saturday, December 16, 2017
The Curse Of The Balearic Tourism Ministry
Between 1983 and 1993, the Balearics had one tourism minister. He was the first tourism minister, Jaume Cladera. Such stability at the ministry is something that can now only be dreamt of.
Biel Barceló's resignation bears an uncanny resemblance that of Carlos Delgado, who was the first of two tourism ministers in the Bauzá government. Delgado resigned for personal reasons, though his tenure wasn't without its moments of controversy. There was the infamous photo of him with a deer's testicles on his head, his trophy from a hunting expedition. The photo predated his time as minister. It wasn't a resigning matter, just a bit of an embarrassment.
What was more of an issue was his appointment of his then girlfriend (now wife) to a position within the ministry. The outcry of over this led to the appointment being withdrawn. He didn't resign over this, but it did make life somewhat awkward for the Bauzá regime. When he did resign, it was just after Christmas in 2013. This is the uncanny aspect. Barceló has gone at more or less the same time into a government's administration: two and a half years, and then out.
Before Delgado there had been the revolving door of the Antich administration, which saw four tourism ministers in all. There were also comings and goings among senior officials. Susanna Sciacovelli left her post as director of Ibatur (which was to become the Balearic Tourism Agency) in May 2010. She was replaced by Mar Guerrero, who herself resigned because of budgetary cutback at the ministry. She had been in the post for only eight months.
Barceló is the biggest scalp that the tourism ministry's curse has claimed during the current administration. To his name are added those of two directors of the Balearic Tourism Agency - Miquel Àngel Roig and Pere Muñoz - and one director-general of tourism, Pilar Carbonell.
The ministry has been like no other. Ministers have gone because of blatant corruption (Miquel Nadal), scandal (Barceló), personal reasons (Delgado) and sheer bad luck - Miquel Ferrer lasted one month before his party, the Unió Mallorquina, was thrown out of the coalition government. It really doesn't reflect very well.
But life will go on post-Barceló, just as it did post-Delgado. And there will, despite the upheaval be continuity, meaning the continuity of the incumbent regime (and party; Més, in the case of the tourism ministry). It has been peculiar to read some of the comments about Barceló's departure. While there has been some rejoicing, some anticipation that things will change is wholly misplaced. Why would things change?
I'm sorry to have to tell those who might hope that there will be some change that there will not be. The holiday rentals legislation policy will not alter, and the tourist tax will remain as is. There will still be talk of saturation, of tourist limits and of better in winter. Nothing will change, which for some might be the true curse of the tourism ministry.
Biel Barceló's resignation bears an uncanny resemblance that of Carlos Delgado, who was the first of two tourism ministers in the Bauzá government. Delgado resigned for personal reasons, though his tenure wasn't without its moments of controversy. There was the infamous photo of him with a deer's testicles on his head, his trophy from a hunting expedition. The photo predated his time as minister. It wasn't a resigning matter, just a bit of an embarrassment.
What was more of an issue was his appointment of his then girlfriend (now wife) to a position within the ministry. The outcry of over this led to the appointment being withdrawn. He didn't resign over this, but it did make life somewhat awkward for the Bauzá regime. When he did resign, it was just after Christmas in 2013. This is the uncanny aspect. Barceló has gone at more or less the same time into a government's administration: two and a half years, and then out.
Before Delgado there had been the revolving door of the Antich administration, which saw four tourism ministers in all. There were also comings and goings among senior officials. Susanna Sciacovelli left her post as director of Ibatur (which was to become the Balearic Tourism Agency) in May 2010. She was replaced by Mar Guerrero, who herself resigned because of budgetary cutback at the ministry. She had been in the post for only eight months.
Barceló is the biggest scalp that the tourism ministry's curse has claimed during the current administration. To his name are added those of two directors of the Balearic Tourism Agency - Miquel Àngel Roig and Pere Muñoz - and one director-general of tourism, Pilar Carbonell.
The ministry has been like no other. Ministers have gone because of blatant corruption (Miquel Nadal), scandal (Barceló), personal reasons (Delgado) and sheer bad luck - Miquel Ferrer lasted one month before his party, the Unió Mallorquina, was thrown out of the coalition government. It really doesn't reflect very well.
But life will go on post-Barceló, just as it did post-Delgado. And there will, despite the upheaval be continuity, meaning the continuity of the incumbent regime (and party; Més, in the case of the tourism ministry). It has been peculiar to read some of the comments about Barceló's departure. While there has been some rejoicing, some anticipation that things will change is wholly misplaced. Why would things change?
I'm sorry to have to tell those who might hope that there will be some change that there will not be. The holiday rentals legislation policy will not alter, and the tourist tax will remain as is. There will still be talk of saturation, of tourist limits and of better in winter. Nothing will change, which for some might be the true curse of the tourism ministry.
Friday, December 15, 2017
Biel Barceló: Unforgivable Misjudgment
There are worse offences, if you can call going on a freebie to the Dominican Republic an offence. It isn't of course. Anyone is free to go, but the problem can arise when this freedom comes free of charge. You or I would probably bite the hand off of someone generous enough to provide flights and accommodation gratis, but neither you nor I is the vice-president and tourism minister of the Balearics. The largesse of Globalia - Air Europa and Be Live Hotels - would thus be denied us. Shame that. A couple of days in the Caribbean in December might do nicely, being whisked away from any Cyclone Ana which just happens to pummel Mallorca. Happily (one trusts), the hurricane season will have passed in the Caribbean, and Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic can be enjoyed at its balmy best - #Punta Cana Better In Winter.
Not that being the vice-president and the minister for tourism had anything to do with either the invitation or the free package holiday. Biel Barceló, sporting Biel, had gone in a private capacity, one of a number of contributors to a sports programme being ... being, well what? It was all a pleasant little jolly, even if there was no requirement to take part in the programme to be made in Punta Cana. And there wasn't.
Why did he do it? Seriously, why did he accept the programme's invitation and the generosity of the CEO of Mallorca's Globalia, Javier Hidalgo? Actually, it's most unlikely that Javi knew anything about it. Or anyone in the higher echelons of Globalia come to that, if the trip had all been arranged by the programme. Why would they have known? Rather like President Armengol didn't know Biel was going, there was no particular reason for them to have known. It was a private trip, after all; not an official vice-presidential one.
Biel has explained, indeed emphasised, that there was no direct or indirect relationship with any company. If by this he had meant Globalia, then one is inclined to accept that this was the case; in part, anyway. One understands what he was saying. He hadn't gone because one of Mallorca and Spain's leading travel and tourism companies had directly arranged for him to go, and that he had said, thanks very much and there's no potential conflict of interest. But there was a relationship, whether he agreed with the assertion or not. Globalia paid. Or the programme paid. There was, therefore, a direct relationship with the company behind the programme, even if it was one with which he has been associated for a decade.
There are times when politicians (and others) simply don't get it or are blind to the pitfalls of decisions. The trip to Punta Cana was one such time. Biel had suggested that there was a misjudgment. There was no suggest about it. Swanning off to the Caribbean when there was an important debate to be had in parliament was bad enough. To have missed that debate on account of a freebie was frankly unforgivable. It was a serious misjudgment, and when politicians are guilty of misjudgments they are therefore guilty of an offence of ruined credibility.
Podemos and others were waving the corruption banner. I don't buy that for one moment. Naive, stupid, ill-considered, but hardly corrupt. No, make that absolutely not corrupt. Forget any suggestion of corruption. But there are the ethical codes of Més and the government to consider. These may or may not have been transgressed, but there is a factor as important if not more so. What the citizens made of it all. For some, it will have been evidence of all politicians, despite their fine words (including those of Biel), being in it for themselves. For others, astonishment. There may have been no wrongdoing, but for goodness sake it didn't look good.
Maybe, who can tell, Biel had thought that no one would ever know he'd gone. More fool he, if he did. This is the era of Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes, Wayne Rooney and far too many others to mention. People do find out, and it was on Instagram. He really was naive, and having been naive and made a serious misjudgment, his capacity for other judgment was placed under the microscope. And unfortunately for Biel there had been previous.
He may have had nothing to do with the Més contracts, but he had really only survived that affair because Podemos backed off. They weren't about to now. But there were other questionable decisions, such as the appointments of both Pilar Carbonell and Pere Muñoz, both now no more.
I have no axe to grind with Barceló. I disagree with the tourist tax but I agree with other tourism policies. A generally reasonable and agreeable fellow, but this wasn't enough. He had to resign.
Not that being the vice-president and the minister for tourism had anything to do with either the invitation or the free package holiday. Biel Barceló, sporting Biel, had gone in a private capacity, one of a number of contributors to a sports programme being ... being, well what? It was all a pleasant little jolly, even if there was no requirement to take part in the programme to be made in Punta Cana. And there wasn't.
Why did he do it? Seriously, why did he accept the programme's invitation and the generosity of the CEO of Mallorca's Globalia, Javier Hidalgo? Actually, it's most unlikely that Javi knew anything about it. Or anyone in the higher echelons of Globalia come to that, if the trip had all been arranged by the programme. Why would they have known? Rather like President Armengol didn't know Biel was going, there was no particular reason for them to have known. It was a private trip, after all; not an official vice-presidential one.
Biel has explained, indeed emphasised, that there was no direct or indirect relationship with any company. If by this he had meant Globalia, then one is inclined to accept that this was the case; in part, anyway. One understands what he was saying. He hadn't gone because one of Mallorca and Spain's leading travel and tourism companies had directly arranged for him to go, and that he had said, thanks very much and there's no potential conflict of interest. But there was a relationship, whether he agreed with the assertion or not. Globalia paid. Or the programme paid. There was, therefore, a direct relationship with the company behind the programme, even if it was one with which he has been associated for a decade.
There are times when politicians (and others) simply don't get it or are blind to the pitfalls of decisions. The trip to Punta Cana was one such time. Biel had suggested that there was a misjudgment. There was no suggest about it. Swanning off to the Caribbean when there was an important debate to be had in parliament was bad enough. To have missed that debate on account of a freebie was frankly unforgivable. It was a serious misjudgment, and when politicians are guilty of misjudgments they are therefore guilty of an offence of ruined credibility.
Podemos and others were waving the corruption banner. I don't buy that for one moment. Naive, stupid, ill-considered, but hardly corrupt. No, make that absolutely not corrupt. Forget any suggestion of corruption. But there are the ethical codes of Més and the government to consider. These may or may not have been transgressed, but there is a factor as important if not more so. What the citizens made of it all. For some, it will have been evidence of all politicians, despite their fine words (including those of Biel), being in it for themselves. For others, astonishment. There may have been no wrongdoing, but for goodness sake it didn't look good.
Maybe, who can tell, Biel had thought that no one would ever know he'd gone. More fool he, if he did. This is the era of Jonny Bairstow, Ben Stokes, Wayne Rooney and far too many others to mention. People do find out, and it was on Instagram. He really was naive, and having been naive and made a serious misjudgment, his capacity for other judgment was placed under the microscope. And unfortunately for Biel there had been previous.
He may have had nothing to do with the Més contracts, but he had really only survived that affair because Podemos backed off. They weren't about to now. But there were other questionable decisions, such as the appointments of both Pilar Carbonell and Pere Muñoz, both now no more.
I have no axe to grind with Barceló. I disagree with the tourist tax but I agree with other tourism policies. A generally reasonable and agreeable fellow, but this wasn't enough. He had to resign.
Wednesday, November 29, 2017
Reclaiming The Tourism Ministry
Misfortune can sometimes work to your advantage. For Balearic tourism minister Biel Barceló, the resignation of his director-general has delivered unto him an eco-sovereignty brother in arms as a replacement. Antoni Sansó, with hindsight, might have been DG all along. There are reasons why.
His predecessor, Pilar Carbonell, preparing for her Cursach-related appointment with Judge Manuel Penalva today, was not cut from similar cloth to Antoni. Or anything like it. She was neither especially eco nor pro-Balearic sovereignty, if at all (on either count). Her background was with the restaurants association within that institutional edifice of the Confederation of Balearic Business Associations. She wasn't a member of Més. She only really got the job because she knew the tourism sector and because she had her brushes with the Mallorca Hoteliers Federation. She was once responsible for ejecting people from her restaurant who were wearing the green t-shirts of educational protest on the very day that thousands went to Palma to demonstrate against José Ramón Bauzá's TIL trilingual teaching. She also, the most heinous of her sins, habitually spoke Castellano rather than Catalan. Most within Més couldn't understand why Biel had appointed her.
Pilar also spoke in a friendly manner on the phone to Cursach's enforcer, Tolo Sbert - in Castellano, naturally enough. Antoni Sansó gives the impression of not speaking in a friendly manner to anyone. He no doubt does, but conveying a tough demeanour will stand him in good stead with the Més rank and file and with fighting the good fight for the tourist tax and the holiday rentals legislation. And with the latter, he comes into the post well-qualified; he wrote the legislation.
He will also stand Biel in greater stead, as the tourism minister reaches to pull himself out of the vast political hole into which he has descended. Fellow party members will look upon Biel with renewed favour, now that Pilar is no more. Even Podemos might take a belated shine to Biel. Eco-sovereignty, in the right senior official place, can work wonders for doubting so-called government partners, not least when they are seeking an insistence on vetting appointments in the tourism ministry.
Antoni has got off to a rollicking good start. In his first interview since taking over the DG's office he expressed not the least concern that the Balearics might lose one million tourists next year. It wouldn't be a "drama" if the million went AWOL, he observed. Antoni is clearly not a man for turning a non-drama into a crisis. How about losing a second million?
He then parroted all that we are now familiar with. Growth of tourism in the low-season months. Lengthening the season. No more tourists in the summer are needed. A ceiling on tourist places will not allow there to be growth in the summer. All the right stuff. Perhaps it was he who had in fact written Biel's script previously. He was after all "the advisor" to the ministry.
He will certainly be more comfortable in the DG's shoes than Pilar could have been. As someone from her restaurant background, neither the tourist tax nor the rentals legislation made much sense. Still, if you are invited to be tourism DG, then you presumably and willingly accept the shilling. Which she did. Antoni appears to be a more ready-made willing recipient, and would say so in Catalan and not in Castellano. He probably has a green t-shirt somewhere in his drawers.
If Pilar, notwithstanding her history of having rows with the hoteliers federation, may have privately been equivocal on the matter of the tourist tax, there is no such equivocation with Antoni. The greatest catastrophe where the tax is concerned lies not with the current tax but the old ecotax. If it had been retained, he has noted, no one would now be questioning the new one. Which may be true, but then Antoni is perhaps neglecting a little bit of history.
When the ground was being laid for the introduction of the old ecotax, there were dissenting and questioning voices. You would have expected that these were hotelier and Partido Popular voices, but they also came from within the ranks of the government of the time: not PSOE's but the PSM Mallorcan Socialists, Biel's party that is now the main constituent of Més.
The PSM weren't opposed to the ecotax but they did express concern about the timing if its introduction. What were they worried about? Losing tourists, that's what. They looked across the Mediterranean and thought, oh dear, what about the competition. So, things weren't quite as Antoni now presents them. But then, fifteen years ago is a long time, and eco-sovereignty is today on a firmer footing, sponsored by tourists at up to four euros a night.
His predecessor, Pilar Carbonell, preparing for her Cursach-related appointment with Judge Manuel Penalva today, was not cut from similar cloth to Antoni. Or anything like it. She was neither especially eco nor pro-Balearic sovereignty, if at all (on either count). Her background was with the restaurants association within that institutional edifice of the Confederation of Balearic Business Associations. She wasn't a member of Més. She only really got the job because she knew the tourism sector and because she had her brushes with the Mallorca Hoteliers Federation. She was once responsible for ejecting people from her restaurant who were wearing the green t-shirts of educational protest on the very day that thousands went to Palma to demonstrate against José Ramón Bauzá's TIL trilingual teaching. She also, the most heinous of her sins, habitually spoke Castellano rather than Catalan. Most within Més couldn't understand why Biel had appointed her.
Pilar also spoke in a friendly manner on the phone to Cursach's enforcer, Tolo Sbert - in Castellano, naturally enough. Antoni Sansó gives the impression of not speaking in a friendly manner to anyone. He no doubt does, but conveying a tough demeanour will stand him in good stead with the Més rank and file and with fighting the good fight for the tourist tax and the holiday rentals legislation. And with the latter, he comes into the post well-qualified; he wrote the legislation.
He will also stand Biel in greater stead, as the tourism minister reaches to pull himself out of the vast political hole into which he has descended. Fellow party members will look upon Biel with renewed favour, now that Pilar is no more. Even Podemos might take a belated shine to Biel. Eco-sovereignty, in the right senior official place, can work wonders for doubting so-called government partners, not least when they are seeking an insistence on vetting appointments in the tourism ministry.
Antoni has got off to a rollicking good start. In his first interview since taking over the DG's office he expressed not the least concern that the Balearics might lose one million tourists next year. It wouldn't be a "drama" if the million went AWOL, he observed. Antoni is clearly not a man for turning a non-drama into a crisis. How about losing a second million?
He then parroted all that we are now familiar with. Growth of tourism in the low-season months. Lengthening the season. No more tourists in the summer are needed. A ceiling on tourist places will not allow there to be growth in the summer. All the right stuff. Perhaps it was he who had in fact written Biel's script previously. He was after all "the advisor" to the ministry.
He will certainly be more comfortable in the DG's shoes than Pilar could have been. As someone from her restaurant background, neither the tourist tax nor the rentals legislation made much sense. Still, if you are invited to be tourism DG, then you presumably and willingly accept the shilling. Which she did. Antoni appears to be a more ready-made willing recipient, and would say so in Catalan and not in Castellano. He probably has a green t-shirt somewhere in his drawers.
If Pilar, notwithstanding her history of having rows with the hoteliers federation, may have privately been equivocal on the matter of the tourist tax, there is no such equivocation with Antoni. The greatest catastrophe where the tax is concerned lies not with the current tax but the old ecotax. If it had been retained, he has noted, no one would now be questioning the new one. Which may be true, but then Antoni is perhaps neglecting a little bit of history.
When the ground was being laid for the introduction of the old ecotax, there were dissenting and questioning voices. You would have expected that these were hotelier and Partido Popular voices, but they also came from within the ranks of the government of the time: not PSOE's but the PSM Mallorcan Socialists, Biel's party that is now the main constituent of Més.
The PSM weren't opposed to the ecotax but they did express concern about the timing if its introduction. What were they worried about? Losing tourists, that's what. They looked across the Mediterranean and thought, oh dear, what about the competition. So, things weren't quite as Antoni now presents them. But then, fifteen years ago is a long time, and eco-sovereignty is today on a firmer footing, sponsored by tourists at up to four euros a night.
Friday, November 17, 2017
The Curse Of The Balearic Tourism Ministry
Francesc Buils and Miquel Nadal. They were the tourism ministers during the 2007-2011 government who were sent to prison and who are currently still in prison. Things really aren't as bad as they were in those days of unfettered Unió Mallorquina (UM) corruption that wrote its name into the core of the ministry. But they are bad enough. To lose one director may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose a second just a few weeks later looks like the wheels are coming off.
Pere Muñoz, the director of the Balearic Tourism Agency, resigned because of his implication in the Més contracts affair. Pilar Carbonell, the tourism director-general, has now resigned because she is under investigation for alleged corruption related to Cursach Group businesses. The tourism minister, Biel Barceló, is said to be experiencing some bad luck. The bad luck is misfortune turning into ministerial meltdown. History is repeating itself at the ministry, even if the scale of the allegations is not as it was with the UM.
The bad luck might not even have arisen in the Carbonell case, if it hadn't been for the name Cursach. Once the press exposed her apparent willingness in having expedited proceedings for work at MegaPark in record time compared with the normal ministerial bureaucratic tardiness, her days were numbered. The police went looking, and the police suggest that she was a virtual Cursach employee. Bad luck, Pilar. Bad luck, Biel. The tentacles of Tolo Cursach reach out from his prison cell (he's back in Palma now) and they touch with poison anyone whose name is said in the same breath as the fallen King of the Night.
Barceló is hanging on. Just. A motion of censure brought by the Partido Popular and stemming from the contracts affair very nearly succeeded. The vote was a tie. The media enjoyed pointing out that Biel might have been censured had the PP's Álvaro Gijón been in the parliamentary house. What irony. Gijón, up to his neck in the Cursach case, symbolises the enduring reputation of PP corruption but was not there to deliver a fateful blow. It needs saying, however, that President Armengol was also absent. She was unwell. A full house and it would still have been a tie.
Carbonell has been replaced by Antoni Sansó, chief advisor to the tourism ministry. He has been photographed periodically with Barceló or Carbonell. A dour-looking, unsmiling sort of character, he was apparently the brains behind the holiday rentals legislation. Amidst this ministerial musical chairs, the only real thing to be said for Barceló is that opinion polls seem to give him local support for his stellar items of legislation - the rentals and the tourist tax. But as Més see their support in general ebb in other polls, this is unlikely to count for much. He and his party are in something of a crisis.
Barceló has said that he won't be staying on after the next election. He might in any event not have had any choice in the matter. But with his disappearance from the scene, Més are casting around for someone who can assume his figurehead role. And this isn't easy. Prime possibilities either don't want the job of running for president (Miquel Ensenyat at the Council of Mallorca wants to stay put), are needed elsewhere (Antoni Noguera in Palma) or are not products of the PSM Mallorca Socialist party.
Més, a left coalition, has prominent one-time members of the communist United Left. Social services minister Fina Santiago is one. Parliamentary spokesperson and principal advocate of independence for the Balearics, David Abril, is another. Santiago might be advanced as presidential candidate, but it would be with reluctance by the solid PSM faction. Quite how appealing she would be to the electorate is another matter. Not especially, one would fancy.
The party can just hope that Barceló keeps his head down for the remainder of this government and doesn't get his head chopped off. Podemos want him to go, but couldn't bring themselves to have voted with the PP on the censure motion. They will seize whatever chance comes along to force his resignation or dismissal. Such are the workings of this government and the power behind the throne that is Podemos.
Bad luck for Pilar, bad luck for Biel, bad luck for Més, which might go into electoral freefall. The bad luck was having charge of the tourism ministry. That bad luck has passed to many, such as those paying the tourist tax. Bad luck all round. It's the curse of the Balearic tourism ministry.
Pere Muñoz, the director of the Balearic Tourism Agency, resigned because of his implication in the Més contracts affair. Pilar Carbonell, the tourism director-general, has now resigned because she is under investigation for alleged corruption related to Cursach Group businesses. The tourism minister, Biel Barceló, is said to be experiencing some bad luck. The bad luck is misfortune turning into ministerial meltdown. History is repeating itself at the ministry, even if the scale of the allegations is not as it was with the UM.
The bad luck might not even have arisen in the Carbonell case, if it hadn't been for the name Cursach. Once the press exposed her apparent willingness in having expedited proceedings for work at MegaPark in record time compared with the normal ministerial bureaucratic tardiness, her days were numbered. The police went looking, and the police suggest that she was a virtual Cursach employee. Bad luck, Pilar. Bad luck, Biel. The tentacles of Tolo Cursach reach out from his prison cell (he's back in Palma now) and they touch with poison anyone whose name is said in the same breath as the fallen King of the Night.
Barceló is hanging on. Just. A motion of censure brought by the Partido Popular and stemming from the contracts affair very nearly succeeded. The vote was a tie. The media enjoyed pointing out that Biel might have been censured had the PP's Álvaro Gijón been in the parliamentary house. What irony. Gijón, up to his neck in the Cursach case, symbolises the enduring reputation of PP corruption but was not there to deliver a fateful blow. It needs saying, however, that President Armengol was also absent. She was unwell. A full house and it would still have been a tie.
Carbonell has been replaced by Antoni Sansó, chief advisor to the tourism ministry. He has been photographed periodically with Barceló or Carbonell. A dour-looking, unsmiling sort of character, he was apparently the brains behind the holiday rentals legislation. Amidst this ministerial musical chairs, the only real thing to be said for Barceló is that opinion polls seem to give him local support for his stellar items of legislation - the rentals and the tourist tax. But as Més see their support in general ebb in other polls, this is unlikely to count for much. He and his party are in something of a crisis.
Barceló has said that he won't be staying on after the next election. He might in any event not have had any choice in the matter. But with his disappearance from the scene, Més are casting around for someone who can assume his figurehead role. And this isn't easy. Prime possibilities either don't want the job of running for president (Miquel Ensenyat at the Council of Mallorca wants to stay put), are needed elsewhere (Antoni Noguera in Palma) or are not products of the PSM Mallorca Socialist party.
Més, a left coalition, has prominent one-time members of the communist United Left. Social services minister Fina Santiago is one. Parliamentary spokesperson and principal advocate of independence for the Balearics, David Abril, is another. Santiago might be advanced as presidential candidate, but it would be with reluctance by the solid PSM faction. Quite how appealing she would be to the electorate is another matter. Not especially, one would fancy.
The party can just hope that Barceló keeps his head down for the remainder of this government and doesn't get his head chopped off. Podemos want him to go, but couldn't bring themselves to have voted with the PP on the censure motion. They will seize whatever chance comes along to force his resignation or dismissal. Such are the workings of this government and the power behind the throne that is Podemos.
Bad luck for Pilar, bad luck for Biel, bad luck for Més, which might go into electoral freefall. The bad luck was having charge of the tourism ministry. That bad luck has passed to many, such as those paying the tourist tax. Bad luck all round. It's the curse of the Balearic tourism ministry.
Tuesday, October 24, 2017
The End Of Tourism
In 1983 the first Balearic government was formed. In addition to the president, Gabriel Cañellas, and the vice-president, Joan Rotger, there were nine ministers. Two of these ministers had one portfolio only. Jaume Llompart was the interior minister and Jaume Cladera was the tourism minister. Debate will always be had on such matters, but Cladera is often held up as having been the Balearics best tourism minister. He went into the job holding an advantage that no others since have been able to claim. He was from the tourism industry and had been closely involved with the Fomento del Turismo (Mallorca Tourist Board) prior to his being made minister and the tourist board losing most of its role for promoting tourism, something it had been doing for almost eighty years.
Cladera was to remain tourism minister throughout the period of the second Cañellas administration of 1987 to 1991 and into the third, during which he was replaced by Joan Flaquer. Subsequent governments had their tourism ministers, and while there were to be other sole ministerial responsibilities, e.g. for health, tourism stood on its own. From 1983 to 2007 there were ministers who only had responsibility for tourism. No other ministry had such consistency of function.
When the 2007 administration of Francesc Antich came along, the PSOE-Unió Mallorquina-PSM Mallorcan socialist pact combined tourism for the first time. Employment and training were grafted on. The Bauzá government from 2011 changed things. Although Carlos Delgado and then Jaime Martínez also had responsibility for sport, tourism was pretty much restored to how it had previously been. Then came the current government. Biel Barceló is the government vice-president, he is the minister for innovation and research, and he is the minister for tourism.
The Antich PSOE-led government from 1999 hadn't tampered with the previous model, though the strategic importance of tourism for that administration took on a different complexion: Celestí Alomar was the minister who introduced the original ecotax. The two other PSOE pacts have tampered, and there might just be more to come.
Barceló, in announcing the formalisation of procedures to transfer tourism promotion responsibilities to the island councils and the downgrading of the role of the Balearic Tourism Agency, let it slip that he thought that after the 2019 election there might not be a tourism ministry. In other words, tourism would be rolled into another. It might, for example, be how tourism is currently treated by the Council of Mallorca - a subsidiary responsibility under the umbrella of economic affairs and finance.
One of the more extraordinary aspects of the suggestion that tourism will be further diminished at ministerial level is that it seems to have gone almost unnoticed. Yet it would break with 36 years of ministerial and government tradition and would, moreover, be highly symbolic. Barceló, one assumes, said this with one eye on Més and the pact still being in power after the next election. The Partido Popular, one would also assume, would not reduce tourism in the same way. Therefore, can we conclude that the very idea that tourism ceases to be a ministry in its own right and that there is no longer a minister with a specific tourism portfolio is an indication of what this current government really thinks about tourism?
The suggestion is even more extraordinary when one considers the fact that there has been a great deal of pressure placed on the national government to have a minister with sole tourism responsibility. In the Balearics, where in comparative GDP terms tourism is vastly more significant than it is nationally, a tourism minister hasn't just been important, it has been imperative.
One accepts that the island councils are to assume greater powers, but the transfer of these should not mean that the regional government abandons a ministerial function. Tourism is simply too important to be consumed by another ministry. It should not be allowed to become a component of, say, a general industry ministry, as it is an industry that stands apart from and above all other industry. Tourism is the Balearics, the Balearics is tourism, regardless of the attitude of this current government.
With the transfer for powers, one can understand that the current ministry of tourism, innovation and research wouldn't require the same level of budgeting. As things stand, it already has the second lowest budget of all ministries (74 million euros this year). But even stripped down, there is surely enough justification in terms of global planning and organisation to say nothing of coordination nationally and internationally for it to command more than the smallest of all the ministries - that of the presidency (24.6 million euros).
Here, though, may lie the answer. I long ago once advocated, because of its strategic importance, that tourism should be a direct responsibility of the presidency. The ministry of the presidency and tourism. This government would never sanction such a notion.
Cladera was to remain tourism minister throughout the period of the second Cañellas administration of 1987 to 1991 and into the third, during which he was replaced by Joan Flaquer. Subsequent governments had their tourism ministers, and while there were to be other sole ministerial responsibilities, e.g. for health, tourism stood on its own. From 1983 to 2007 there were ministers who only had responsibility for tourism. No other ministry had such consistency of function.
When the 2007 administration of Francesc Antich came along, the PSOE-Unió Mallorquina-PSM Mallorcan socialist pact combined tourism for the first time. Employment and training were grafted on. The Bauzá government from 2011 changed things. Although Carlos Delgado and then Jaime Martínez also had responsibility for sport, tourism was pretty much restored to how it had previously been. Then came the current government. Biel Barceló is the government vice-president, he is the minister for innovation and research, and he is the minister for tourism.
The Antich PSOE-led government from 1999 hadn't tampered with the previous model, though the strategic importance of tourism for that administration took on a different complexion: Celestí Alomar was the minister who introduced the original ecotax. The two other PSOE pacts have tampered, and there might just be more to come.
Barceló, in announcing the formalisation of procedures to transfer tourism promotion responsibilities to the island councils and the downgrading of the role of the Balearic Tourism Agency, let it slip that he thought that after the 2019 election there might not be a tourism ministry. In other words, tourism would be rolled into another. It might, for example, be how tourism is currently treated by the Council of Mallorca - a subsidiary responsibility under the umbrella of economic affairs and finance.
One of the more extraordinary aspects of the suggestion that tourism will be further diminished at ministerial level is that it seems to have gone almost unnoticed. Yet it would break with 36 years of ministerial and government tradition and would, moreover, be highly symbolic. Barceló, one assumes, said this with one eye on Més and the pact still being in power after the next election. The Partido Popular, one would also assume, would not reduce tourism in the same way. Therefore, can we conclude that the very idea that tourism ceases to be a ministry in its own right and that there is no longer a minister with a specific tourism portfolio is an indication of what this current government really thinks about tourism?
The suggestion is even more extraordinary when one considers the fact that there has been a great deal of pressure placed on the national government to have a minister with sole tourism responsibility. In the Balearics, where in comparative GDP terms tourism is vastly more significant than it is nationally, a tourism minister hasn't just been important, it has been imperative.
One accepts that the island councils are to assume greater powers, but the transfer of these should not mean that the regional government abandons a ministerial function. Tourism is simply too important to be consumed by another ministry. It should not be allowed to become a component of, say, a general industry ministry, as it is an industry that stands apart from and above all other industry. Tourism is the Balearics, the Balearics is tourism, regardless of the attitude of this current government.
With the transfer for powers, one can understand that the current ministry of tourism, innovation and research wouldn't require the same level of budgeting. As things stand, it already has the second lowest budget of all ministries (74 million euros this year). But even stripped down, there is surely enough justification in terms of global planning and organisation to say nothing of coordination nationally and internationally for it to command more than the smallest of all the ministries - that of the presidency (24.6 million euros).
Here, though, may lie the answer. I long ago once advocated, because of its strategic importance, that tourism should be a direct responsibility of the presidency. The ministry of the presidency and tourism. This government would never sanction such a notion.
Saturday, October 07, 2017
Always The Tourism Ministry
During the PSOE-led government between 2007 and 2011, there were four tourism ministers. Three of them were with the now defunct Unió Mallorquina, which was brought down by corruption scandals. Two of the three - Francesc Buils and Miquel Nadal - were sent to prison. They are still there.
The tourism ministry was at the heart of much the corruption that engulfed that government. The UM was ultimately thrown out of the coalition by PSOE. Two agencies within the ministry - Ibatur (tourism promotion) and Inestur (tourism research) - were wound up as a result of the corruption. They were replaced by one new body - the Balearic Tourism Agency. Its current director, Pere Muñoz, now faces criminal proceedings. He is one of five people to be cited in the case of the Més contracts that were awarded to Jaume Garau, the party's campaign manager and "guru" for the 2015 elections. The tourism ministry is not the only one affected, as the other three officials (Garau is the fifth person to be cited) were from the transparency and culture ministry. But in the case of Muñoz, he is the only one still holding his position. He may not be for much longer.
The contracts affair, in terms of the money involved, is not in the same league as what the UM used to get up to. One has felt that rather too much has been made of it, but the political climate being as it is, any whiff of corruption is now pounced upon. And that brings the tourism minister and government vice-president, Biel Barceló, firmly into the equation. He hasn't been cited. Had he been, then all hell would have been let loose. But there are those who will now be gunning for him again - Podemos and the Partido Popular in particular.
To make matters worse, there are the accusations that the tourism director-general, Pilar Carbonell, acted in a favourable manner towards the Cursach Group. The versions of events differ. The tourism ministry offers one, the judge investigating Cursach and police corruption suggests that there is another. The ministry, and to therefore be fair to Carbonell, is right when it says that there are typically communications with businesses over the winter months regarding the expediting of building work. In this respect, it would have been no particular surprise that Carbonell was in contact with Tolo Sbert from Cursach.
As Cursach is involved, the case has inevitably been blown up, especially as the court account appears to suggest that a processing on behalf of Cursach (work at MegaPark) took only two weeks over a Christmas period from the time of contact between Sbert and Carbonell. The conversation between the two, reproduced in the media, is also somewhat damning insofar as it suggests how compliant Carbonell was. Més are themselves investigating what happened. And then there is also the fact that Carbonell has been summoned to appear in court later this month in a case involving a petrol station on the Son Bugadelles industrial estate in Santa Ponsa. This refers to a time when she didn't have any public office.
All of this is now circling around Biel Barceló. Muñoz is an old friend and political sparring partner. Carbonell wasn't his first choice as director-general; Garau was. He needs all of this like a hole in the head, given what he has on his plate in tourism policy terms and that he is due to be in London next month for the World Travel Market. Meanwhile, the knives are being sharpened.
The tourism ministry was at the heart of much the corruption that engulfed that government. The UM was ultimately thrown out of the coalition by PSOE. Two agencies within the ministry - Ibatur (tourism promotion) and Inestur (tourism research) - were wound up as a result of the corruption. They were replaced by one new body - the Balearic Tourism Agency. Its current director, Pere Muñoz, now faces criminal proceedings. He is one of five people to be cited in the case of the Més contracts that were awarded to Jaume Garau, the party's campaign manager and "guru" for the 2015 elections. The tourism ministry is not the only one affected, as the other three officials (Garau is the fifth person to be cited) were from the transparency and culture ministry. But in the case of Muñoz, he is the only one still holding his position. He may not be for much longer.
The contracts affair, in terms of the money involved, is not in the same league as what the UM used to get up to. One has felt that rather too much has been made of it, but the political climate being as it is, any whiff of corruption is now pounced upon. And that brings the tourism minister and government vice-president, Biel Barceló, firmly into the equation. He hasn't been cited. Had he been, then all hell would have been let loose. But there are those who will now be gunning for him again - Podemos and the Partido Popular in particular.
To make matters worse, there are the accusations that the tourism director-general, Pilar Carbonell, acted in a favourable manner towards the Cursach Group. The versions of events differ. The tourism ministry offers one, the judge investigating Cursach and police corruption suggests that there is another. The ministry, and to therefore be fair to Carbonell, is right when it says that there are typically communications with businesses over the winter months regarding the expediting of building work. In this respect, it would have been no particular surprise that Carbonell was in contact with Tolo Sbert from Cursach.
As Cursach is involved, the case has inevitably been blown up, especially as the court account appears to suggest that a processing on behalf of Cursach (work at MegaPark) took only two weeks over a Christmas period from the time of contact between Sbert and Carbonell. The conversation between the two, reproduced in the media, is also somewhat damning insofar as it suggests how compliant Carbonell was. Més are themselves investigating what happened. And then there is also the fact that Carbonell has been summoned to appear in court later this month in a case involving a petrol station on the Son Bugadelles industrial estate in Santa Ponsa. This refers to a time when she didn't have any public office.
All of this is now circling around Biel Barceló. Muñoz is an old friend and political sparring partner. Carbonell wasn't his first choice as director-general; Garau was. He needs all of this like a hole in the head, given what he has on his plate in tourism policy terms and that he is due to be in London next month for the World Travel Market. Meanwhile, the knives are being sharpened.
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