The Man Who Invented Sun And Beach

One of the favoured acronyms that Mallorca's town halls baffle us all with is the PGOU. It stands for Plan General de Ordenación Urbana (or Urbanística). Essentially, it is the grand design for a municipality's urban planning. Go to many a town hall website or to a town hall's planning department, and you will discover this plan. It will be colour-coded according to various purposes: the whole of the municipality mapped plot by plot dependent on what function the land has.

In very general terms the plan will follow three basic guidelines: land already developed, land that could be developed and land that cannot be (in theory if not always in practice). This template is sixty years old this year. It has been worked over and adapted during this time, town hall administrations of differing hues amending the colours of the codes in line with their own colours (as is happening at present).

The first ever global PGOU was for Spain as a whole (there had been a specific one for Madrid ten years before). Guidelines were to be ones followed by provincial, city, town and village administrations (there weren't regional authorities as such in those days). This first plan came under what was known as the Land Law, a classic example of how the highly centralised regime under Franco operated. The vast country of Spain with its enormous diversity was to be plotted and planned in accordance with central diktat. It was, but only up to a point. More remote parts of the country didn't always observe the rules. You can probably guess at least one part of Spain where the rules were not always followed according to the letter of the law.

The 1956 plan was to prove to be significant, not least because the acronym has remained in use ever since. It was significant in another way because of its chief architect. In the history of Spain's tourism there was a man known far more for a different innovation, one which, bizarrely enough, was to contribute to his becoming a trusted member of the Franco regime. He was Pedro Zaragoza. The mayor of Benidorm from 1950 to 1967, if things had turned out differently, he wouldn't have been the architect of the plan. Nor might Benidorm have become what it is. Nor might Mallorca's resorts have become what they are.

Zaragoza was the mayor who first permitted the wearing of bikinis on beaches. There were then rules on what could be worn on beaches and the bikini was the last thing that Spanish women would have worn. But Zaragoza didn't have local women in mind. He was interested in foreign women and foreign tourists. He involved himself directly in promoting Benidorm as a holiday destination. It was he who was largely attributed with coming up with "sun and beach" as a phrase and also with the notion of "bottled sun".

The story of the bikini is one of the most famous in Spain's tourism history. It might be an exaggeration to say that it changed everything, but Zaragoza's initiative most certainly led to a gradual relaxation of attitudes that was to contribute to the eventual boom. The story is as famed as it is because Zaragoza was denounced by the Guardia Civil and then threatened with excommunication by the church. Undeterred, he went right to the top. He met Franco and the bikinis of Benidorm were permitted, as was a local bylaw under which anyone insulting a woman for wearing one would be fined.

In 2014, a short film comedy was made about this famous meeting. Entitled "Bikini", it is now available on YouTube. It is of course in Spanish but even if one is unfamiliar with the language, the comedy comes through, such as when Franco is attempting to determine what the bikini top actually entails. There is of course some licence but the film is pretty faithful to what happened, such as Zaragoza having travelled all the way to Madrid on his Vespa: Franco was not wholly impressed by his using an Italian scooter.

Zaragoza didn't meet the Generalissimo solely to plead his case for the bikini. It was when Franco was shown the numbers - the potential revenues from a new brand of tourism - that he came round to Zaragoza's arguments. He, Franco, was convinced, but someone else needed convincing - his wife, Carmen. Zaragoza had another idea - the Benidorm Festival of Spanish Song. The bikini was in the bag.

This was no liberal. Zaragoza was a Falangist and it was his orthodoxy that eventually led him to the regime's inner circle and to the creation of the land plan. Had the meeting turned out differently, who can say how developments might have been. The plan was to be the template for Benidorm, the Costas and for Mallorca, as also and as importantly was the bikini.

The Neglect Of Calas de Mallorca

Calas de Mallorca is a resort that has for years suffered from neglect. Partly this has been because of its origins as an essentially private development which still creates issues for the town hall in Manacor in terms of services. Nevertheless, last year the town hall was stung into taking action when examples of neglect began to appear in the media. So, it showed some initiative, the lack of which has been the focus of criticism of regimes at the town hall over several years when it has come to tourism infrastructure (and not just Calas de Mallorca). It is a resort which has also become a dumping ground for all-inclusive. In this regard it is not unique, but the almost total economy nature of its some 6,000 or so hotel places has bred a form of all-inclusive that reflects the hotel stock and a level of all-inclusive which is said to represent anywhere between 80% and 90% of those places.

The quoting of such figures is always something in which holes can be picked. Data from the Balearic tourism ministry (such as they are) and information from studies give varying percentages as to the level of all-inclusive. A typical figure has been around 33% for the whole of Mallorca, which might just be believable when one takes account of the island's entire hotel stock but is most definitely not believable at the micro level of individual resorts, of which Calas de Mallorca is a good example.

With a new regime at the town hall, the issue of all-inclusive, as it is in other municipalities, has come to the top of the agenda. But like other municipalities, Calvia for example where the mayor has spoken of regulation, Manacor cannot effect any municipal legislation that limits or bars all-inclusive. It can introduce bylaws that might influence aspects of the all-inclusive offer but it can do no more: it is otherwise a matter for regional government.

If the volume of all-inclusive is as it is quoted, there should be a fundamental question being asked: what is the point of Calas de Mallorca as a resort? If general economic welfare is so limited as a consequence of one particular type of accommodation board, then its purpose as a resort is diminished. It is not sustainable, and in the mantra of the current day, it therefore runs counter to the notions of sustainable (aka responsible) tourism that tour operators and some hoteliers make a big issue of, yet singularly fail to practise.

The new regional administration, with its twin policy items of the eco-tax and all-inclusive regulation (yet to be defined), may well have an underlying strategy aimed at reducing tourist numbers. It is a strategy littered with risks, but if these policies, allied to tactics such as the declaration of far more "mature zones" in tourist resorts, were to result in a decline in the number of places in a resort like Calas de Mallorca but the removal of a great deal of that 80 or 90%, then the cost-benefit equation would in all likelihood weigh heavily in favour of general economic benefit for the local economy.

The mature zones, a mechanism for liberalising and incentivising redevelopment but also forcing it, should be applied widely across Mallorca, but it is a tactic which might itself run up against government antagonism towards in-resort investment. What we are not seeing at present is a clear vision of what Biel Barceló, the tourism minister, wants. When he speaks of tourism re-investment facilitated by the eco-tax, how much of this would be directed at the resorts? Even if it were to be, mature zones rely massively on private investment for the tactic to succeed or be given the chance to succeed, and neither Més (certain members of the party at any rate) nor Podemos are currently endearing themselves to the principal sources of such investment - the hoteliers and their backers.

There is a great deal of muddled thinking at present. While reducing tourist numbers, limiting all-inclusive but raising general standards in terms of the type of tourism that Mallorca has are not in themselves bad policies, another side of the coin is that of employment. And into this equation comes the issue of wages, employment conditions and contracts. A report this week that reveals that increased employment levels in the Balearics are predominantly due to short-term, seasonal tourism contracts will come as absolutely no surprise. Podemos, in attacking the hoteliers for a lack of job security, has to accept certain realities of the tourism industry. Firstly, it is seasonal and secondly, there is a very good reason why wages are as they are - low. Podemos (and the government) wants there to be higher quality employment in the industry, implying higher wages, full contracts and so on. But then what is this employment? For the most part, it is unskilled or low-skilled. This shouldn't be an excuse for worker exploitation, but tourism jobs are like they are in Mallorca the world over: that's the reality.

To return to the theme of all-inclusive regulation, it is not one that is only exercising the minds of councillors in Manacor and Calvia and Balearic government ministers. In Benidorm, a commission is being set up to analyse the impact of all-inclusive. The conclusions of its findings will be sent to the regional government (Valencia in this instance). What is significant about this commission is the fact that it involves all interested parties, including the Benidorm hoteliers. Absent from its membership, however, are any tour operators, and as we all know it is they who hold the key, not the hoteliers, many of whom would rather not have to offer all-inclusive (a sentiment which exists in Mallorca as well).

But with the Canaries also setting all-inclusives in their sights, there is a discernible shift in political and business perspective. Finally, after a good couple of decades of all-inclusive there is some momentum and desire to address its impact, and it is a momentum being felt in different parts of Spain. Ultimately, however, the tour operators need to be included, as it is they who wield much of the power. But might they finally wake up to the responsibilities they claim in the marketing-speak of their responsible/sustainable tourism mission statements? Don't hold your breath.

Happy Campers?: Not in Mallorca

In the Alicante province, near to the El Fondó nature park, there is what is called an eco-camping resort. Its name is the Marjal Costa Blanca Resort. It is a camping complex with bungalows and plots for caravans and tents. There are 1,432 of these plots. Some way north of the Marjal Costa Blanca is Benidorm, a resort most commonly associated with high-rise hotels but which also happens to be the national leader for camping holidays. The Costa Blanca and the Valencia Community are not the overall leaders for camping, however. Catalonia, and so the Costa Brava, is. The total number of camping places in Catalonia is over 200,000, only some 50,000 fewer than the total number of hotel places.

In the Balearics there are nine campsites, as in proper campsites for holidaymakers. Seven of these are in Ibiza. There isn't one in Mallorca. A letter-writer to the "Majorca Daily Bulletin" asked recently why Mallorca didn't have any camping. He guessed that it may have had something to do with the power of the hoteliers. It was a perfectly reasonable guess. It was correct.

Yesterday I referred to a law that was passed in 1984. The "ley sobre alojamientos extrahoteleros" (law on non-hotel accommodation) was the first piece of legislation that was directly to do with tourism following the establishment of the regional Balearics government in 1983. Among the issues that the law addressed was that of clandestine accommodation. The story about holiday lets goes back to this law and so also does the story about camping in Mallorca.

In essence what this law sought to bring about were improvements in quality and the provision of specific services. Allied to the first "Decreto Cladera", also in 1984, which established space requirements for hotel rooms, it was a way of introducing order to the tourism offer that hadn't until then been adequately controlled. The Cladera of the Decreto was the first tourism minister, Jaume Cladera, who arguably has been the best tourism minister the Balearics has had. He has certainly been one from a tourism background, unlike others. Though Cladera did a great deal that was good, he was close to the hotel sector, and once he ceased to be minister in 1993, he became CEO of companies linked to Stil Hotels.

In February 1986 there was another "decreto", one that followed on from the 1984 law. This decree dealt specifically with camping and even more specifically with "impeding the proliferation of campsites" in the Balearics of the type that had been established on the coasts of mainland Spain. Andrés Avelino Blasco Esteve, Professor of Administrative Law at the Universitat de les Illes Balears, has set out various pieces of legislation between 1984 and 1999 that affected Mallorca's tourism, and what he says about the decree on campsites tells us really all we need to know as to why the situation regarding camping is as it now is. It was Blasco who used the word "impeding" in outlining the "strict requisites" to be applied under the 1986 decree.

These established, inter alia, that there was to be a limit of between 70 to 100 plots (bear in mind the number that the Marjal Costa Blanca has), that there had to be safety measures, electricity supplies and sewage treatment or connections, roads or tracks of a certain width and one parking place for every two plots. The requisites also stipulated that there would be a minimum size per plot and that campsites could only be authorised for up to three years (presumably there would then be an application for renewal). Moreover, these sites had to be to luxury or "primera" standards, thus excluding the "comfort" economy class.

In pure space terms, the minimum was four times greater than that set out for hotel rooms. This was just one reason why camping failed to take off. The other reasons are pretty obvious. It was a business which would have been on shaky ground if the authorisation was for such a short period. Professor Blasco sums it all up thus: "The purpose of the decree seems clear - to hinder the implementation of campsites on the islands ... and to make it impossible for them to become a type of alternative accommodation to hotels and apartments. The consequence of this has been the virtual absence of this type of tourist establishment."

Of course, this doesn't explain why Ibiza has the campsites it has. One reason, and it is an assumption, may lie with the hippy culture of the island from the 1960s. Another is that, despite powerful hoteliers such as Abel Matutes, Ibiza is different in terms of its hotel lobby. Behind the 1986 decree, as Professor Blasco makes clear, was an intent to ensure that hotels in Mallorca dominated, a situation which does not exist in either Alicante and Benidorm or in Catalonia.

Tax Incentives For Hotels Opening All Year?

The Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodation (CEHAT) held its last meeting of the year this week in Madrid. One of the main topics for discussion was the old - very old - chestnut of seasonality. Solutions that the meeting raised included those which are as old as the problems posed by seasonality, ones that are of a financial (tax) nature.

The headlining suggestion from the meeting was that the super-reduced rate of IVA (VAT) should be applied to those hotels which stay open all year, meaning that it would only be 4%. It is believed that this reduction would have a direct effect in increasing revenues.

Playing around with tax has been spoken about for so long and the debilitating effect of seasonality has existed for so long that it seems astonishing that there haven't been measures adopted which might give tax breaks and so incentivise hotel openings. In fact, certain local authorities have brought in tax breaks for those taxes which they have responsibility for. In Marbella, hotels will be credited with 50% of their business tax if they stay open. In Almeria, both business and property tax will be reduced.

Marbella and Almeria are in Andalusia, a region of Spain which attracts greater numbers of off-season tourists than most others. As an example, it receives seven times the number of golf tourists who visit the Balearics. Despite this greater number, Andalusia is and has been mightily concerned about the impact of seasonality. In October, the region's tourism minister met with business and unions in arriving at an agreement for incentives for hotels to stay open. The incentives have yet to be fully worked out, but the very fact that various parties have got together in order to come to an agreement in principle contrasts greatly with the situation in the Balearics. In Andalusia, where the problem of seasonality is less acute, they nevertheless are looking to do something about the problem. There's a lesson here for the Balearics.

Represented at the meeting this week was HOSBEC, the hotel association for Benidorm and the Costa Blanca. Benidorm, widely believed to be a destination that has something approximating to a genuine winter season, has witnessed a decline in this seasonal tourism over the past few years, but this November hotel occupancy in Benidorm was 79%, up by 8.5% over the same month in 2012. In the second half of November, overnight stays by Spanish guests rose by a staggering 42%.

Benidorm does benefit from national tourism in the off-season and most of what it was receiving in November was from the "seniors" market, but the figures for November indicate what can be achievable. HOSBEC, looking to develop on this success, has added to the call for incentives. It wants social security payments to be deferred for hotels which keep open.

Both the Costa Blanca and Andalusia have advantages which Mallorca and the Balearics do not. They are easier to get to for both national and international travellers. There are, for example, that many more international flights, partly a reflection of the existence of much larger populations of foreign nationals (British for instance). But both are looking to be proactive in bringing more off-season tourists and in introducing or pressing for incentives. The Mallorcan hoteliers have spoken about incentives as well, but a key difference is that, where there is talk in Mallorca, in other parts of Spain, they get on and actually do something.

And there is a way in which HOSBEC differs to Mallorca. It, and CEHAT appears to side with it on this one, wants to establish a uniform system of private tourist accommodation, drawing on the experiences in Catalonia and work done there by, yes, the Barcelona Hotel Association. Totally unlike the Balearics, the hoteliers have worked with the private owners to arrive at a system which has now been launched that categorises private accommodation (including and especially apartments) according to a key system. HOSBEC and CEHAT refer to the need to eradicate illegal accommodation, but both appear to accept the sense of there being a properly regulated and marketed private accommodation sector. Again, there should be a lesson here for the Balearics, but of course there almost certainly won't be.

The Catalonian categorisation, were it to be more widely adopted, would in fact fall in line with what the national government had foreseen in its national tourism plan, namely more standardisation of accommodation types and classification. It might, therefore, become a national standard, except that it wouldn't be national, not while the obstinacy of the regional government and hoteliers in the Balearics remains as it is.

Resigned To Fate: Mallorca in winter

Driving through Playa de Muro one evening last week, I saw something unusual. Lights on. A few people milling around. The next day, I understood why. Pantechnicons and other vehicles for the Russian Katusha cycling team were parked in front of an Iberostar hotel. This hotel normally opens early for cycling teams, but this year it has opened particularly early.

Iberostar had previously announced that it was making inroads into the death of the resort during winter by having the hotel open for almost ten months. We now know what the company meant. Good for the hotel, some employees and some suppliers, not much good for anyone else. Professional cyclists won't be paying a great deal of attention to the rest of the resort, which is just as well. A couple of cafés and restaurants open at times but not one other hotel open. Not a single shop open. Even the little supermarket is closed.

This winter has been worse than ever: in Playa de Muro, in any resort on Mallorca. According to the hoteliers federation, a mere 17.5% of hotel places are actually available in January. It isn't only Mallorca, though. As an example, comparisons with Benidorm neglect the fact that, while Benidorm unquestionably attracts far more visitors in winter than any resort on Mallorca, it has been experiencing a downward trend for some years. In the Alicante province as a whole, hotel winter closures have risen by ten percentage points in the past two years. As a further example, on the Costa del Sol, that part of mainland Spain which benefits from the best winter weather, the hotel closure rate is up by around 5%. This still means that some 65% of hotels are open (oh that Mallorca could say the same), but even the Costa del Sol is not immune to the decline caused by seasonality.

Neither the Costa Blanca nor the Costa del Sol have quite the same disadvantage as Mallorca in terms of winter flight schedules. Their falls are attributed less to the logistics of travel and more to economic hard times in Europe as a whole and especially in Spain. Benidorm, regardless of the image conveyed by the Garveys and The Oracle, is every bit as much a Spanish resort as it is British (or any other nationality). It may, therefore, enjoy a bounce when or if the Spanish economy recovers, though even this might be questionable; the downward trend has existed for longer than economic crisis has.

Nevertheless, there is this domestic market which can come to the aid of the Costas in a way that it doesn't come, to anything like the same degree, to Mallorca's aid. The winter Spanish "pensionista" market may have been undermined by lack of subvention, but in truth it doesn't contribute hugely, and apart from this, the Spanish winter market is relatively small and generally confined to Palma and some agrotourism.

Pinning hopes on a revival in the domestic market is, however, a diversion, be this in Mallorca or on the Costas. Indeed, pinning hopes on anything is increasingly looking like a diversion. The Mallorca hoteliers federation, in lamenting the dire situation with hotel openings this winter, has announced that "we (in Mallorca) need to position Mallorca as a destination for the low and medium seasons". Well, who would ever have thought that this might be the need?

It is desperate that the hoteliers federation can be making such a statement, as it is one that has been a familiar annual cry for years. The Balearic Government may have come up with a "plan" for tackling seasonality, but this plan is little more than a re-working of equally familiar solutions and prescriptions, ones that have had minimal impact.

Mallorca is far from alone in seeking solutions to its winter malaise. The Costas advance similar solutions, as do destinations elsewhere in the Mediterranean. Only where heat is far more guaranteed is there a solution, and it is the same as that which drives summer tourism. Mallorca, therefore, will continue to beat the drum for its winter alternatives while coming up against the same drumbeats from other destinations hoping to break the cycle of seasonality and almost certainly failing because there is no differentiation and nothing that is unique or of sufficient incentive to create winter tourism over and above the very small scale.  

You don't just give up, but does Mallorca have to resign itself to a fate that there is never going to be a winter season? Perhaps it would be wise if the delusion that there will be was dispensed with once and for all. Only then, might minds be exercised sufficiently in seeking solutions other than the piecemeal of some cycling and some cooking. Solutions beyond tourism.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

A Mallorcan Winter Climate Of Distrust

Benidorm and comparisons with Mallorca have found their way into the pages of the Bulletin over the past few days. Firstly, there were Ian Morrison's photos (3 January) showing an empty Magalluf and a busy Benidorm in December. Secondly, there was the letter by Elizabeth Dobson (5 January) which contrasted levels of customer care in Mallorca with those in Benidorm.

From the photos, one could see that while Benidorm is open for business in winter, Magalluf (for which one can also read Mallorca as a whole) is closed. Why is this? It isn't the weather, or only marginally if it is. Benidorm is fractionally further south than Magalluf, but the comparative latitudes make little or no difference to temperatures. The weather can be iffy in both places. Or it can be glorious as it was on Friday when I was in Magalluf and when there were few people around and fewer still bars open in which one could have a coffee.

Because the weather offers no clue as to why Benidorm and not Magalluf (Mallorca), other clues need to be found. And there is one very big clue. People.

We are fed some nonsense about the size of the British expatriate population on Mallorca. A 50,000 figure for the Balearics would suggest that there must be some 40,000 Brits residents on Mallorca. The figure is plain wrong. It is around 16,000. In the Alicante province, of which Benidorm is a part, the official number of UK residents (as of a couple of years ago) is just short of 130,000. The land area of Alicante is 37% greater than Mallorca. Even if one were to factor this in, the British expat population of the island would climb to only 22,000.

One really needs to look no further than this wide difference in populations to understand why, as an example, Ryanair can, over a week in January, fly daily to Alicante from Stansted but can't to Palma.

It isn't only the comparative British populations that have an impact. According to benidormallyearround.com (and yes, it is all year round), Benidorm attracts tourists from the likes of Madrid over the festive season. The number who drive to the resort explains, so the website says, the lack of parking that is available. And note that they drive. They don't need to fly.

It would be too simple and indeed simplistic to use population statistics as the sole explanation as to why Benidorm and not Magalluf, but when airlines have a greater potential pool of demand to supply then they will supply, and from this supply other things follow, like those visiting the expatriates, tourists availing themselves of flights and hotels and bars staying open.

Then there is the contrast in customer care. Ms. Dobson's letter was, to say the least, heartfelt. It also had more than the superficiality of the pure anecdote about it in castigating Mallorcan attitudes and levels of care and in comparing them unfavourably with the mainland and Benidorm in particular. Doubtless there will be those who rush to the anecdote to either challenge her conclusions or support them, but anecdotes and personal experiences amount to only so much.

It is possible to measure how people feel about customer care, and recent tourist satisfaction surveys have shown falls in the level of satisfaction where some aspects of Mallorca are concerned. Generally, though, they don't dig into how people feel they are treated, and it is this that Ms. Dobson was referring to.

Whatever one personally thinks about Ms. Dobson's criticisms, there is one source - a Mallorcan one - that tends to lend support to the argument that tourists (and foreigners in general) are treated less than well. Guy de Forestier's "Beloved Majorcans" has been one of the very attempts to get inside the Mallorcan character, and the book refers variously to a "climate of distrust", always being "on the defensive, extremely prudent, wary and reserved" and "the unsociable nature of the Majorcan".

The letter does offer some harsh comments, ones that cut to the bone: the honeypot having dried up; the island being beautiful on the outside but not being beautiful on the inside. This latter one is a damning observation.

To put the letter into the context of the contrast between Benidorm and Magalluf in winter, perhaps there is, therefore, a reason other than populations. It is all a question of attitude. In Mallorca, tourists are tolerated in summer because of what they can bring in filling the honeypot. But if this tolerance is indeed reluctant, one based on de Forestier's distrust, then not needing or not wishing to extend the tolerance beyond the summer would begin to explain a lot.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Between A Dog And A Hard Place: TV and film in Mallorca

June 1969. Some of you will be old enough to wish you couldn't remember. But you may well do. It was 7 June to be precise. The day when Blind Faith first took to a stage.

Blind Faith were, from the word go, a deeply unsatisfying creation of rock super-groupism. From a healthily organic lineage of The Yardbirds, Cream, the Spencer Davis Group, Traffic and Family emerged the manufacturing of something cynical. So unsatisfying were they, that they fell apart within a year.

Throwing together talents, well-known ones, can bring success. But it can be success achieved, you fear, with an eye merely on the box office or the ratings and without an essential soul. So it is with "Mad Dogs", a Blind Faith of the marrying of names without the substance of the slog of a rock band of old or a TV series that either grows from nowhere or is built on a repertory group in which even relatively star names are subordinate to the ethos of the TV show itself.

"Mad Dogs", not, it must be said, without merit, is nevertheless, and notwithstanding some of its content, safe, middle-of-the-road, middle-class, focus group-shaped telly. The safety of its roster of stars makes it a "Daily Mail" of broadcast exploitation, though don't say this too loudly to Rupert Murdoch. Its exploitation goes beyond that of an indulgent audience, seeking clues as to Mallorcan sites and scenes; it is one that comes also from Mallorca's tourism officialdom who hope for some star dust to rub off, having helped with its funding, despite its not being a travel promo.

Contrast the build-up and the fawning media space granted to "Mad Dogs" with the news of the filming of "The Inbetweeners". The movie version of the comedy series will involve a month of shooting around Magalluf and in particular along Maga's "strip". It is barely getting a mention.

Yet here is a series which has enjoyed the success that comes from organic development and which is also bollock-breakingly funny. A difference with "Mad Dogs" lies with the fact that the show is not star-based. The actors may have achieved some stardom, but the strength of the series resides in the sum of its parts and the symbiosis between the members, a lesson which Blind Faith ignored.

There are further differences. The show isn't safe. Its characters, such as Will who would like to be "hard" but who spends much of the time tackling issues to do with his tackle getting hard, are embarrassing, cringe-worthy and awkward, much like teenagers are meant to be, despite all the actors being far too old for their roles. It is also to be filmed, not in brochure-beautiful, coffee-table locations around Pollensa, but among the down-and-dirty, lager-glass-ringed bar tops of Maga. The contrasting images and the contrasting image of tourism that the locations present are between the Crufts-coiffeuring landscapes of a "Mad Dogs" and the rock-hard place that is the intoxicated full-on-ness of Magalluf.

The excellent shagalluf.com has made the point that it should be worth being in Maga for the filming, but its is pretty much a lone voice in highlighting a reason to visit in what is of course the off-season. And you have to wonder why. The reason, you feel, is snobbery and condescension being shown to the resort and also, by comparison with "Mad Dogs", to "The Inbetweeners".

Locations and filming do have the power to attract tourists, either at the time of shooting or as a consequence of broadcast. The experiences of both "Passport To The Sun" and "Sun Sea and A&E" prove that visitors will either come simply because of programmes or to seek out locations and indeed individuals featured in shows. But both these documentary-style programmes were explicit in terms of what and where they were portraying. "Mad Dogs" isn't. Nor will be "The Inbetweeners", as the film's setting is Crete, as is some other filming.

One series that has been explicit is "Benidorm". It couldn't be anything other than explicit, given its title. In between "Mad Dogs" and "The Inbetweeners" in terms of having some recognisable but not necessarily star names (in its earliest days at any rate), one of its great achievements has been to simultaneously poke fun at but also be affectionate towards its location and its typical clientele. Far from turning people off, it has made them want to visit and, moreover, to visit in order to coincide with off-season filming.

The repertory, ensemble nature of "Benidorm", one that has prevented it being simply a vehicle for its better-known actors, adds to a sense of viewer empathy. Not all of its characters might be said to be typical holidaymakers, but, in Benidorm terms, the Garvey family members who bind the show are.

The shame, for Mallorca perhaps, is that the show's creator, Derren Litten, chose Benny and not Maga. Had he opted for the latter, though, you wonder as to how well received the proposition would have been. Benidorm seems to be unabashed in revealing itself for what it is. Mallorca, on the other hand, has dual personalities, one of which it prefers to try and pretend doesn't exist, and which results, therefore, in promoting the safe artificiality of the star system "Mad Dogs" over the unsafe, true-to-life, unknowns of "The Inbetweeners".


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

High Density: Sustainable tourism

Say "Benidorm" and the image the name is likely to conjure up is one of high-rise holiday hell or the sit-com's Garvey family arguing around the pool at the Solana Resort. It is unlikely to suggest itself as a model of eco-sensibleness. But that is what it is.

Back in 2008 the head of tourism research at Sheffield Hallam University, John Swarbrook, coined the expression "ego-tourism" to refer to the trend towards tourism in parts of the globe where the eco-system is fragile; in Africa or South America, for instance, or the Antarctic, and why would anyone want to go there anyway? There was and is a confusion as to what "sustainable tourism" means. It doesn't mean wealthy tourists heading off for remote areas where it is impossible to sustain them. Unlike Benidorm which, back in 2008, was already being held up as something of an ideal for eco-tourism.

And it is again being lauded for this ideal. A report entitled "Sustainable Holiday Futures", carried out on behalf of Thomson Holidays, refers to the "Benidorm effect". What this means is that, in terms of environmental management and the use of resources, it is far better to pack tourists into a relatively confined area rather than have them lolling around on hammocks on sparsely populated desert islands, trekking through the rain forest or hacking across ice fields with some Huskies.

It may not appeal to the inner romantic of the tourist, but Benidorm is infinitely better for the eco than it is for the ego. Why? Well, clustering tourists into what the report terms "super-holiday hubs" means less environmental damage, so long as the resort is geared up for monitoring and managing resources.

In the case of Benidorm, it is already evident that sensible environmental measures have been adopted, such as lights switching off automatically in hotels, low-energy lighting on the prom, foot pump-operated taps to save water, everything being pretty much in walking distance and local sourcing of food. "High density, low impact" goes the thinking. It's a variant on the old "pile 'em high, sell 'em cheap" retail philosophy of Jack Cohen. The greater the volume, the lower the cost of environmental harm. And not just in-resort.

The report's compilers, The Future Laboratory, point also to the benefits of Benidorm when it comes to the devil of eco-unfriendliness, i.e. carbon. A family of four travelling from the UK consumes 2.2 tonnes of carbon by going to Benidorm, as opposed to 15.8 tonnes on a seemingly more environmentally-friendly hiking tour of Chile.

Sustainable tourism and the managing of environmental resources are concepts often spoken about, not least by politicians who probably have the same limited handle on what they really mean as do tourists. As with everything else of a tourism nature, it is the tour operators, Thomson (and therefore TUI) in this instance, who are taking the lead.

The understanding of the issues by tourists is, though, getting better, and what Thomson are doing is to enhance this understanding. Even relatively simple innovations, such as the Waterpebble, a device for monitoring water usage, given away as a gift to holidaymakers, are intended to heighten consciousness of the environment and resources whilst on holiday.

TUI has been beating the environmental drum in Mallorca for some time and has looked to make environmental righteousness in hotels a selling point for its German clients. I have tended to think that environmentalism is an easier sell to the generally more eco-conscious Germans, but British tourists appear to be catching up. The report says, for example, that 29% of holidaymakers currently monitor their energy and water usage whilst on holiday.

If the "Benidorm effect" were to be repeated in Mallorca, then what might this involve? There are of course holiday centres which could just as easily become "super-holiday hubs", and not just single resorts. Whole conurbations like that on the bay of Alcúdia might become one, but there would be an issue with transport. Specifically, nonetheless, Alcúdia has taken a step in the right direction with its laudable project for recycling water for use by hotels.

It might also be that more isolated, smaller resorts would have to be abandoned. There could never be "high density" in somewhere like Cala San Vicente. Might it indeed be environmentally more efficient to develop Puerto Pollensa further and create higher density there?

These sorts of questions arise from what Thomson are talking about, and they are ones of a strategic nature that we know that Mallorca's decision-makers aren't very good at answering. But the future is being envisioned, and it is one that could create a rather different tourism landscape to the one that currently exists in Mallorca.

* For more information about the "Sustainable Holiday Futures" report, go to the Communications Centre on Thomson's website, www.thomson.co.uk.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.