So, the tourist tax is not to go up during the low season. Despite the pressure from Podemos for an all-year doubling, the government has determined that it is wise to leave the tax as it is - 50% off the current summer rate. Greater wisdom, it might be argued, would have been displayed if the tax had been scrapped for the low season. The government, ministers Barceló and Cladera at any rate, suggested that keeping the existing rate will not make a significant difference to anticipated revenue in 2018. This said much for the lack of low-season tourism. It also, logically, would not make a significant difference if there were no low-season tax.
Logic, where Barceló was concerned, had to do with the "Better in Winter" campaign. Quite. So why was an increase to the low-season rate ever contemplated in the first place? There is another form of logic that Barceló is not telling us about. This is the political logic of the realities of the government and parliament. Who was it who had originally called for a freezing of the low-season rate? Més in Menorca, that's who. Més, in its combined Mallorca-Menorca form, is deeply divided. The Menorcans are not forgiving the way in which Ruth Mateu is taking the rap for the Més contracts' affair. Their three parliamentary deputies can make life awkward for the government, if they so choose; they having formally split from Més in Mallorca - Barceló's domain. The logic has as much to do with realpolitik as it does with any tourism policy.
In addition, there is the logic that will confront Barceló next month at the World Travel Market in London. It would make no sense to go there and attempt to convince tour operators to assist in his fantasy of "diverting" large numbers of tourists away from spring and summer to autumn and winter, if at the same time he is having to explain a doubling of the low-season rate. Again, one has to wonder why this doubling was even considered.
Yet another aspect is the policy of tourism responsibility transfers to the island councils. Barceló referred to different low-season circumstances in Formentera, Ibiza and Menorca. The least one can say about this is that a tourism minister has for once recognised that there are three other islands. But with the islands now far more to the fore in shaping their own destinies and their promotion, a "tax break" makes political sense. Inherent to what he said, however, was a suggestion that Mallorca is that much better off than the other islands in the low season. It is better off, but all things are relative. His observation smacked of a magnanimity that disguised Mallorca's own, long-standing low-season failings.
A certain amount of publicity given this week to the introduction of a tourist tax in Greece next year will not have done Barceló's London mission any harm. This said, the Greek tax has been known about for several months. The rates are similar to the new ones in the Balearics, though oddly enough they apply only to hotels. One can imagine the Greek hoteliers crying the same foul as Balearic hoteliers did with the old ecotax: the foul of discrimination in favour of other forms of accommodation. Still, there is to be a tax in Greece, and where are the howls of reproach in the foreign media that are vented when Mallorca gets an increased tax? Corfu, Crete, Mykonos, Rhodes and Zante just don't cut it in the same media way as Mallorca.
Barceló, in a sense, can also thank the Catalonia crisis as this will overshadow all else in London. However, he might just find "Better in Winter" taking a knock from an independence movement that he personally endorses. The World Travel & Tourism Council brings together 150 of the most powerful companies in the sector. Its president, Gloria Guevera, was warning earlier this week of a "domino effect" from the crisis that will hit other Spanish destinations. It is being suggested that Spain's tourist total for this year might not after all top the 80 million mark because of a slump in fourth-quarter tourism. Then there is next year to be concerned about.
Showing posts with label Better in Winter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Better in Winter. Show all posts
Saturday, October 28, 2017
Monday, August 28, 2017
#Better In Summer
Sorry, but things aren't quite going to plan, are they. Mallorca (and the Balearics) have admittedly only been officially better in winter since the tourism agency started insisting this was the case last winter, but winter betterment was a wonderland dream of the tourism minister prior to the government's stamp of betterment. Being better in winter means that summers shouldn't be as good, as in there aren't as many tourists, while winters will be better because of a summer tourist reallocation to mid-January. Ah yes, of course winters will be better. However ... the Sant Antoni and Sant Sebastià fiestas are great fun, but sadly they don't come replete with 30-plus degrees of sun.
While Mallorca is knocking out hotel occupancy levels in summer that are the envy of the rest of the country, the sad truth of the matter is that there were fewer tourists this year between January and March. Better in winter really does have some catching-up to do. This said, April was positively overflowing with tourists. Saturated, one might even say. The ministry has frowned upon this. In April next year, the tourists are going to have to pay the full tourist tax whack. That'll learn 'em. And we (the ministry) will have a higher rate of tax, to boot. Take that, you tourist. Aren't you listening? It's better in winter, and the tax is lower. Ok!
Of course, and according to some, the ministry and the government are doing their best to create a nuclear winter all year round. One detects a glee in some quarters. These are the quarters manned by the critics whose cliches extend no further than wishing Mallorca back to the days of everyone riding donkeys. Seriously, can't anyone come up with something more original?
Yes, these critics gloat and sneer, mass unemployment awaits, not mass tourism. You're making us feel unwelcome with all your holiday rentals' caper, all your tourist tax, all your anti-tourist protests, all your queues at the airport, all your three euros for a coffee. Ha ha, Mallorca, your time's up, and I'm off to Croatia. (Take care, all ye gloaters, for it will come to pass that the Croatians and others willst apply stiff rentals' legislation and elevated tourist taxes as well.)
Touristic nuclear winter is not about to descend. The winter itself may be better, but if it is, then it will only ever be moderately better. The summer, however, may well be better. Can Mallorca afford to lose some tourists? I would suggest that it can, given that the numbers have grown like Topsy over the past three or four summers.
You see, there can be such a thing as saturation. Or at least comparative saturation. Here are some more facts from last week which might prove the point. In July, there were 17,676 more guests in Mallorca's hotels than in the whole of Andalusia. And Andalusia is a damn sight bigger than Mallorca. In all of the Canary Islands combined, there were some 330,000 fewer guests than in Mallorca.
Better in winter? Nope. Better in summer.
While Mallorca is knocking out hotel occupancy levels in summer that are the envy of the rest of the country, the sad truth of the matter is that there were fewer tourists this year between January and March. Better in winter really does have some catching-up to do. This said, April was positively overflowing with tourists. Saturated, one might even say. The ministry has frowned upon this. In April next year, the tourists are going to have to pay the full tourist tax whack. That'll learn 'em. And we (the ministry) will have a higher rate of tax, to boot. Take that, you tourist. Aren't you listening? It's better in winter, and the tax is lower. Ok!
Of course, and according to some, the ministry and the government are doing their best to create a nuclear winter all year round. One detects a glee in some quarters. These are the quarters manned by the critics whose cliches extend no further than wishing Mallorca back to the days of everyone riding donkeys. Seriously, can't anyone come up with something more original?
Yes, these critics gloat and sneer, mass unemployment awaits, not mass tourism. You're making us feel unwelcome with all your holiday rentals' caper, all your tourist tax, all your anti-tourist protests, all your queues at the airport, all your three euros for a coffee. Ha ha, Mallorca, your time's up, and I'm off to Croatia. (Take care, all ye gloaters, for it will come to pass that the Croatians and others willst apply stiff rentals' legislation and elevated tourist taxes as well.)
Touristic nuclear winter is not about to descend. The winter itself may be better, but if it is, then it will only ever be moderately better. The summer, however, may well be better. Can Mallorca afford to lose some tourists? I would suggest that it can, given that the numbers have grown like Topsy over the past three or four summers.
You see, there can be such a thing as saturation. Or at least comparative saturation. Here are some more facts from last week which might prove the point. In July, there were 17,676 more guests in Mallorca's hotels than in the whole of Andalusia. And Andalusia is a damn sight bigger than Mallorca. In all of the Canary Islands combined, there were some 330,000 fewer guests than in Mallorca.
Better in winter? Nope. Better in summer.
Sunday, June 25, 2017
Selling A Winter Tourism Strategy
Aviba is the Balearic association of travel agencies. It is forty years old. A new image has been created. In the words of its president, Toni Abrines: "We are Mediterranean, which means being sea, sun, infinite sunsets, the horizon, light. Aviba and the Balearics are blue and yellow."
The association is thus banking on an image that has served Mallorca for as long as there has been mass tourism. The image was officially, in promotional terms, once captured in Joan Miró's Sol de Mallorca. Little has therefore changed, except for Abrines adding that there have to be "tourist interests that go beyond sun and beach". He wants there to be a tourism strategic plan which recognises that there are "political ups and downs" but would nevertheless support the tourism industry by sticking to a plan.
Defining a plan that achieves consensus seems like a pipe dream. It would require agreement from political parties of differing complexions, from the numerous business associations, from unions, from society. Just as one example of how difficult it might be is the fact that Podemos (in the form of Laura Camargo) have drawn winter tourism into question by pointing out that the poor workers would have to work for more than eight months a year.
Aviba itself seems unclear what the strategy might be. In opting for a refreshed image that stresses the essential components of Mallorca's tourism (its summer tourism), it is making off-season tourism secondary. There again, that it is exactly what it is. And to suggest otherwise is a nonsense.
In the Canary Islands, they are working on such a plan, and the government there is opening it up to the public. It is inviting opinion. The Canaries, though, are a different proposition to the Balearics. Those islands have genuine all-year tourism. There is little variance in tourist numbers between summer and winter. But this is not the only way that the Canaries differ from the Balearics. Promotion is innovative, whereas in the Balearics it is not. The Disney-style element to the official promotional website says it all. Here is an imaginative means of selling attractions, including the national parks in the Canaries and their winter appeal. In the Balearics, promotion is almost a dirty word, and what word there is tends to be mixed.
The travel agents association does rather sum this up. It wants winter tourism but at the same time presents an image that can seem at odds with this. The Balearic tourism ministry, meanwhile, has simply stopped any promotion of summer. Its strategic plan is the winter. All promotional eggs are in the low-season basket.
This emphasis on the winter is perfectly reasonable. Indeed, Mallorca has been crying out for a concerted and coordinated winter promotional effort for years. Herein lies the rub - coordination. When there used to be the Winter in Mallorca campaign some years ago, it didn't have the necessary support politically or from business. It was eventually and quietly dropped. Indifference and lack of will had won the day.
Having a strategy is one thing. Selling it is quite another. This selling includes the messages and in particular how they are conveyed. I'm unconvinced that the ministry and its tourism agency know how to go about this in an effective way. Let me give an example.
I am to be working on a promotion for the ministry. Basically, this is a translation from Spanish for something which, as I understand it, is to be distributed on planes from the UK (or on arrival at the airport). It's all about the low season - Better In Winter. The first paragraph of this informs the reader that the Balearic archipelago is some two hours' flight time from central European cities. I looked at this and thought - you're kidding. Firstly, what sort of an introduction is that? Secondly, it's aimed at the UK market. Thirdly, if you're on a plane or have arrived, then you know how long the flight is.
My version will relegate this factual intro, but it is indicative of the kind of mindset that dominates the messages. Facts and information come before emotion and inspiration. It's hard enough to differentiate destinations when they are all essentially selling the same things, so you have to go hard on appealing to the heart and on creating a genuine connection in the minds of visitors (both potential and actual).
The same applied towards the end of 2015. The ministry was on a mission to explain the tourist tax to the UK market. I received some copy and binned it. What resulted was much longer and was written in order to tug at the heart strings. And this was from someone who was and remains no great supporter of the tourist tax.
The strategy for winter tourism is there, and it is unlikely to be altered if there is political change in two years time. The PP had assured us back in 2011 and 2012 that the fruits of its winter promotional efforts would have been realised by the time of the 2015 election. They would not be about to put the strategy in reverse. But far more important is what the strategy says. Far more important is getting all parties (and not just political ones) on board. Everyone has to buy into it - Aviba is right in this regard - but the most important party of all is the tourist. Strategies require implementation, and their messages are key.
The association is thus banking on an image that has served Mallorca for as long as there has been mass tourism. The image was officially, in promotional terms, once captured in Joan Miró's Sol de Mallorca. Little has therefore changed, except for Abrines adding that there have to be "tourist interests that go beyond sun and beach". He wants there to be a tourism strategic plan which recognises that there are "political ups and downs" but would nevertheless support the tourism industry by sticking to a plan.
Defining a plan that achieves consensus seems like a pipe dream. It would require agreement from political parties of differing complexions, from the numerous business associations, from unions, from society. Just as one example of how difficult it might be is the fact that Podemos (in the form of Laura Camargo) have drawn winter tourism into question by pointing out that the poor workers would have to work for more than eight months a year.
Aviba itself seems unclear what the strategy might be. In opting for a refreshed image that stresses the essential components of Mallorca's tourism (its summer tourism), it is making off-season tourism secondary. There again, that it is exactly what it is. And to suggest otherwise is a nonsense.
In the Canary Islands, they are working on such a plan, and the government there is opening it up to the public. It is inviting opinion. The Canaries, though, are a different proposition to the Balearics. Those islands have genuine all-year tourism. There is little variance in tourist numbers between summer and winter. But this is not the only way that the Canaries differ from the Balearics. Promotion is innovative, whereas in the Balearics it is not. The Disney-style element to the official promotional website says it all. Here is an imaginative means of selling attractions, including the national parks in the Canaries and their winter appeal. In the Balearics, promotion is almost a dirty word, and what word there is tends to be mixed.
The travel agents association does rather sum this up. It wants winter tourism but at the same time presents an image that can seem at odds with this. The Balearic tourism ministry, meanwhile, has simply stopped any promotion of summer. Its strategic plan is the winter. All promotional eggs are in the low-season basket.
This emphasis on the winter is perfectly reasonable. Indeed, Mallorca has been crying out for a concerted and coordinated winter promotional effort for years. Herein lies the rub - coordination. When there used to be the Winter in Mallorca campaign some years ago, it didn't have the necessary support politically or from business. It was eventually and quietly dropped. Indifference and lack of will had won the day.
Having a strategy is one thing. Selling it is quite another. This selling includes the messages and in particular how they are conveyed. I'm unconvinced that the ministry and its tourism agency know how to go about this in an effective way. Let me give an example.
I am to be working on a promotion for the ministry. Basically, this is a translation from Spanish for something which, as I understand it, is to be distributed on planes from the UK (or on arrival at the airport). It's all about the low season - Better In Winter. The first paragraph of this informs the reader that the Balearic archipelago is some two hours' flight time from central European cities. I looked at this and thought - you're kidding. Firstly, what sort of an introduction is that? Secondly, it's aimed at the UK market. Thirdly, if you're on a plane or have arrived, then you know how long the flight is.
My version will relegate this factual intro, but it is indicative of the kind of mindset that dominates the messages. Facts and information come before emotion and inspiration. It's hard enough to differentiate destinations when they are all essentially selling the same things, so you have to go hard on appealing to the heart and on creating a genuine connection in the minds of visitors (both potential and actual).
The same applied towards the end of 2015. The ministry was on a mission to explain the tourist tax to the UK market. I received some copy and binned it. What resulted was much longer and was written in order to tug at the heart strings. And this was from someone who was and remains no great supporter of the tourist tax.
The strategy for winter tourism is there, and it is unlikely to be altered if there is political change in two years time. The PP had assured us back in 2011 and 2012 that the fruits of its winter promotional efforts would have been realised by the time of the 2015 election. They would not be about to put the strategy in reverse. But far more important is what the strategy says. Far more important is getting all parties (and not just political ones) on board. Everyone has to buy into it - Aviba is right in this regard - but the most important party of all is the tourist. Strategies require implementation, and their messages are key.
Thursday, June 22, 2017
#BetterInInstagram
Rather more to the point, when Collins considers the picture postcard as an adjective, it says that this describes a place that is very attractive. Somewhere can be "very picturesque". By adding picture to the equation, the mundane functionality of a postcard takes on a whole different characteristic. Picture postcard settings are for aspiration and inspiration. They present very much greater stimulus to the wishing you were here sloganising of the postcard of yore. And in contemporary social network speak, these are settings to be liked or loved.
Does anyone send postcards any longer? Actually, they do. I received one from Zanzibar not so long ago. It must have taken about a month, which is partly the issue. As with other communications, the postcard has been booted onto the scrap heap of ancient technology. Why bother with a postcard when there is the immediacy, let's say, of Instagram? And with the additional technological aids available, the sharing of picture postcard scenes are even more picture postcard than they once were. These are virtual art forms revealing virtual destinations. Wish you were here? Oh yes: aspire, inspire, like, love.
The Balearic Tourism Agency, whose familiarity with contemporary technologies has often seemed to be non-existent or stuck in a past of postcards with pictures of donkeys wearing sombreros, has discovered Instagram: Turismoislasbaleares is where you'll find it. And goodness, what finds there are. Gorgeous coves, dramatic mountain scenes, quaint fishermen harbours, strange islets surrounded with deep blues of the Mediterranean, appealing streets with clothes of primary colours hanging outside pretty boutiques. Wish you were here? Heavens, yes. Here is Heaven - #MallorcaLover (or the other islands), #BetterInWinter.
The picture postcard instant gratification of Mallorca-gone-Instagram is a delight to behold. However, there is something missing from mostly all these picture postcard scenes. Their picturesque quality would be clearly lessened. This is a quality of Mallorca from a distant time even if it is still visible. This is tourism promotion not from the days just before the boom, it is from before they even started to formalise attempts at promotion 112 years ago. What is missing? Not what, but who. People.
The idyllic imagery is, one might suggest, slightly at variance with the general narrative of the times, one that the tourism ministry has indulged in or even actively encouraged. Coves, we have learned, are saturated with people, cars, rubbish, illegal chiringuitos, lookies, town hall and other authorities shaking their heads, and police attempting to de-saturate the coves. The mountains are overrun with coaches and cyclists. Appealing streets with their pretty boutiques may indeed be appealing, but no one's buying anything except from the ranks of even more lookies with their blankets on the ground just round the corner from the appealing street. This is Mallorca as the picture postcard would love it to always be. And of course it is; just that the images don't tell the whole picture.
There was a recent survey in which tourists were asked what was good and not so good about Mallorca. A staggering (or was it?) 91% said that the large number of tourists in summer was the island's least positive aspect, i.e. most negative. Yes, tourists believe that there are too many damn tourists. And many of them are blocking the view of what Instagram would have us believe is the wholly unspoiled island that Santiago Rusiñol (in 1912) described as calm.
This said, the Instagram hashtags provide a clue as to what this promotion is in aid of. #BetterInWinter is the tourism agency's passionate promotional cri de coeur. In winter, unless it's blowing a gale or hammering down with rain, the coves are gorgeous, the strange islets are surrounded with deep blues. And there indeed isn't anyone to block the view, at least in part because getting here can be as tortuous a communications process as sending a postcard from Zanzibar.
Still, one shouldn't really quibble too much. The picture postcards are lovely. And the tourism agency is finally catching up with technology: it's taken an awfully long time. But are the 12.3k followers of the Instagram channel seekers of picture postcards of the winter or of the summer? Do their likes and loves stem from existing knowledge? If so, they may be among the 91% - in summer anyway.
Wishing you were here? #BetterInInstagram.
* Balearic Islands Instagram: Turismoislasbaleares
** Photo here (mine): Sa Foradada and sea from Son Marroig, Deià.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
