MALLORCA TODAY - Pollensa concerns over water and transport

Biel Company, who heads the Balearics mega-ministry of environment, agriculture and land, has met with Pollensa mayor Tomeu Cifre who expressed a wish that the cost of water from the Alcúdia desalination plant, on which Pollensa is partially reliant (it is the only municipality to draw water from the plant) should be reduced and that summer bus schedules should not be cut owing to tourism demand.

MALLORCA TODAY - Taxis, buses and airlines look at increasing their prices

With the rising cost of oil, transport providers in Mallorca are considering ways of dealing with this increase. While airlines such as Air Berlin and Air Europa, facing a 30% rise in costs, have already decided to place a surcharge on the price of a ticket, local transport operators are hoping to be able to avoid having to pass on the increase by pressing for a subsidised "professional" petrol/diesel tariff. Public transport buses and also the coach operators for transfers and excursions face having to absorb or pass on a 15% rise.

Sign Here: Petition against the golf course

I'll forgive you for switching off now. It's the golf course - again.

Still with me? Ok, here goes. All manner of political wrangling has occurred since the subject last appeared on the blog. The might of the centre-right (the Partido Popular and Unió Mallorquina) has combined to pass a motion in parliament to the effect that the Muro course should go ahead, as it is in the interest of the island for it do so. The left has retaliated by attempting to get the Son Bosc finca brought under the auspices of the Costas' authority, that which "protects" the coastal areas. This despite the fact that the finca isn't actually by the coast. There is also the matter of the bee-eater bird that breeds on the finca during the summer. This, in itself, is enough to bring any work to a halt.

More than the political to-ing and fro-ing, the environmental group GOB has been soliciting tourist support for the finca to be included as part of the protected area of the Albufera nature park. At the weekend it got tourists coming into Albufera - some 400 or so - to sign a petition against the course. These tourists were then also told about the hotels who were behind the development and given a card to deliver to their hotels (assuming, presumably, they were ones involved in the project) in support of the anti-course position.

What good, frankly, does this do? For one thing, it has the effect of driving a wedge (sand or otherwise) between guests and their hotels. Maybe GOB hopes that the petitioning tourists will go to a different hotel in future. Or a different resort, thanks a lot. Or that the hotels suddenly think: "oh my God, 400 tourists, we must abandon all thought of a golf course". One imagines not.

Getting some nature-admiring tourists to put their mark on a petition would hardly have been difficult. Visitors to Albufera are, pretty much, a captive market for an environmental campaign. Easy-peasy. One doubts that the tourists were given a balanced argument to consider. Of the 400, nine, apparently, admitted to being golfers, and only one of the nine, a Mallorcan, declined to sign the petition. GOB, as stated in the report from "The Diario", reckoned this was "curious". It might also be that the Mallorcan knew a bit more about the story - from both sides.

What was curious about the report was that there was reference to there being hotel companies behind the golf development, but it did not identify them. Why is there such a reluctance to name them? GOB does. Go to its website, and you can discover, under Golf Playa de Muro S.A., the names of hotels associated with Grupotel, Garden and Iberostar. It's common knowledge in the public domain.

Right, finished that bit, you can switch back on again now.


Still with an environmental theme, let us turn, shall we, to pollution from vehicles, in particular that from buses. And one bus in particular.

Driving along the main road through Puerto Alcúdia yesterday, I was forced to slow down and drop back, for in front was a bus belching out rather unpleasant fumes. You'll know the one I mean. Blue, tourist, sight-seeing. What a splendid advertisement this is, and how splendid for those that advertise on the bus. Come take a trip around the sights of Alcúdia and hopefully the fumes will blow - volcano like, one might also hope - in the opposite direction; otherwise a no-drive zone should be declared.

To be fair, this is not the only bus that offends in this way. When the older buses get pressed into public service during the season, there are some frightful old boneshakers billowing bluey stuff in their wake. So if you happen to see drivers putting many a metre between themselves and a bus, you will know why. Perhaps pedestrians should be issued with face masks.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Keep The Car Running: The car-hire price story keeps running

One can predict with a certain degree of certainty that this year will witness further heat steaming from forums and newspaper letters pages. Heat steaming from an overheating hire car, possibly not, but the heat will be steaming around it. One can predict with a certain degree of certainty that this year there will be anecdotes as to inflated prices and calls for "something to be done". The Balearic Government, the vague "authorities", perhaps even God will be told to intervene and do something. There will be stories of we are not coming to Mallorca because, stories of the downward spiral of Mallorca's tourism because. Look, don't worry, I'll write them for you. Give you a selection and you can choose which one and then forward it to the relevant website or to "The Bulletin". No, really, I can write them for you, because I know what will be said. Again. In fact the stories haven't gone away over the winter; they are now, unlike tourism, an all-year-round phenomenon.

Car hire, and its cost. At least the warnings are coming out earlier than last year, but warnings there are nevertheless. In 2009 there was something in the order of a 30% reduction in car-hire fleets in Mallorca and the islands, representing approximately 30,000 vehicles available. This figure is likely to fall by a further 5,000 this year. Just don't say you haven't been warned.

In case you are still in the dark as to why there will be fewer Golfs or Peugeot 207s clogging up the roads of Mallorca, let me explain once more. It is all the economy, stupid. The economy and the lack of bank financing. The banks took their bats home with them at the start of last year and hoarded them alongside the readies that previously had been handed over to car-hire agencies in order to acquire new fleets. The result? Fewer cars. And higher prices in many instances. Supply and demand. And the banks have still got those bats locked away in the vaults this year, to the tune of credit equating to 5,000 cabriolets or family saloons.

There is an added uncertainty though to the certainty of the outraged letters, and this concerns Hiper. In administration, this agency alone accounts for around 5,000 cars on the islands. The company is still operating and is likely to continue to do so, but at what level, one doesn't quite know.

It is, however, instructive to learn that it is the larger concerns, such as Hiper, which are being hit hardest by the absence of financing. Smaller agencies did well last year as they were able to pick up the business the larger ones could not meet. One agency of my acquaintance appears to have had little difficulty in replenishing its fleet for 2010. It also watches carefully the prices of other agencies, especially the larger ones. While not looking to charge excessively, it would be crazy if it didn't seek some profitable benefit by adjusting prices upwards. Supply and demand.

One does have to have some sympathy, however. Sympathy for tourists who may discover that they either can't get a car or can and are being asked to pay a healthy whack more than previously. The apparent rise in car-hire prices (and for one anecdote saying they were/are excessive, you can always find another which counters this) is bound to have a negative effect, if only in that it stops encouraging visitors to move around and to enjoy something more than simply the hotel pool. The car-hire agencies are, though they may not consider themselves so, part of the overall promotion of Mallorca. The alternatives to car hire are not that brilliant. The number of excursion coaches was cut last year as well. Public transport, in the form of buses, can be good (and cheap), but it can also be completely useless. Try, for example, travelling from Alcúdia to the east coast of Cala Bona or Porto Cristo. Fine if you don't mind spending several hours on a scenic route of the island's interior, can do the trip on the day that the bus goes and don't have to come back the same day.

No, I can understand people getting upset and demanding that something be done. But what? Cap prices? How would that work? Moreover, this is, after all, meant to be a free(ish) market. The best advice, the only advice is to shop around. The online broker agencies may offer better deals. Hard to know for sure, and the car-hire industry on the island is saying likewise; hard to know for sure exactly the number of cars that will be available, hard to know for sure whether there will be sufficient cars to go around. It might be less hard to know that some visitors will vote with their feet. And walk instead.


QUIZ - "Keep The Car Running"? Canadian indie. One of the best.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Pour A Cup Of Black Coffee

Rafael Nadal, no sooner having been co-opted as the promotional face of Mallorca and the Balearics (actually, I think it still has to be fully ironed out, but it's on its way), now gets himself hauled into some other campaign. And that is? Well, get this one. There is this thing called "Café per la llengua" which is being launched by the Catalan promoters - Obra Cultural Balear. What it boils down to is that people will be encouraged to go along to their local café, have a coffee (or presumably any other drink) and talk in Catalan. Seriously, that is what this campaign is about. Am I missing something here? What language do many, perhaps most Mallorcans speak when they're having a coffee or indeed not having a coffee? Catalan, or rather its Mallorquín dialect. When I go into a local café, yes you may get some Castilian but generally they're speaking Catalan. So why do they need a campaign? And moreover, what are Nadal and his uncle-trainer doing getting involved? Yes, they are Mallorcan and yes they no doubt speak in Mallorquín with each other, but if, on the one hand, you are the international face of the island, with all the connotations that this has, why, on the other, contradict that internationalism with some parochialism. It all sounds a bit political, and I'm really not sure Nadal should be going along with it. But ultimately, what is the point of it? And there is something vaguely creepy about a campaign that, in the social setting of the bar or café, promotes one language over another.


PUERTO POLLENSA - BUS STATION
I should have added yesterday that the mayor is now also thinking of moving the bus stop by the marina to a position by the municipal offices. This, I suppose, makes some sense as it would mean buses would not need to come right into the centre, or would they? It would depend how they were routed, but if they were to use the disaster area that is the Calle Vicente Buades (the road in front of the municipal buildings), or indeed Calle Roger de Flor (the one that runs parallel to it) they're going to have to re-do both the roads, you would think - which would be no bad thing. The obvious route, though, would be to use the bypass and then terminate by the municipal buildings. I don't know, that doesn't sound such a bad idea, but it would cut out the bus stops on the Calle Juan XXIII if the bus were to come straight along the new road and carry on the bypass at the Eroski roundabout. And indeed, what about the stops on the front line? Are buses among the "heavy traffic" that is meant to now only use the new road? Hmm, not sure this is all being thought through. Nothing new there, then.


BLOG STUFF
Just to say that a new entry to the links section is one for a new forum - The Mallorca Forum. This is something from Hollie, who used to live in Alcúdia, and knew the likes of John and Lynne at The Highlander and Ben and Sara, as in who are now Bellevue Ben and Condes Sara. Recently, a link was also added for Puerto Pollensa.com's forum, and these both follow a pattern as the policy - such as it is - is to admit forums, blogs, myspaces, i.e. small or part sites as opposed to full sites, though there are exceptions, such as for the newspapers. Anyone with something along these lines, assuming it's appropriate, can email me if they wish to be listed.

And on a blog theme ... I was trawling through some of the very old archives of stuff that is no longer retained here, and I found this for 14 December 2005:

"Well, this could be good news indeed. Yesterday MPs in the Balearic parliament voted in favour of forming a body to monitor all-inclusive hotels. Driven by the opposition parties, who believe that such hotels are bad for the economy, the ruling PP (some of whose MPs voted in favour) have to confront the fact that they have not realised the potential harm that all-inclusives can and do cause. Former Tourism Minister Alomar spoke of a “low-quality product” in leading the move."

The ruling party is no longer the PP of course, but I wonder - whatever happened to this, do you suppose?


DIGITAL POLLENSA
Following the recent inclusion of Alcúdia in the signal coverage for the impending switchover to digital television, Pollensa is now also on-stream. The change will occur at the end of next year. It's basically the same as in the UK, so TVs will have to have the appropriate gadgets or be compatible. There is in fact quite a good article on this in the current "Euro Weekly" (one of the newspapers linked). So, anyone locally needing some background, go to the site and you'll find the article. You need to go to Virtual Newspaper then click the Mallorca version and press the forward button to page three.


DOGGY BAGS - UPDATE
Seamus emails me from England to say that you can get 125 doggy bags for 99 pence. So, for those of you struggling to get them locally, stock up when back in England. Maybe something could also be done about cats that piss up against the front-door shutters. What was that, thought I, yesterday morning? Either a cat, a dog or a very short person.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Smokey Robinson (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qV7XlZPdzZI). Today's title - I've used this song before, but it's such a corker, here it makes a reappearance. Girl group.

(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)

Easy Like Sunday Morning

There was an article in "The Bulletin" the other day which was based on a chat with four British holidaymakers in Magalluf. It was not without some interest. Unfortunately, the paper does not archive its articles; otherwise it might be worth linking it so you could all read it. But there you go. Perhaps the most interesting part was the conclusion, as it is the first time I can recall anywhere in the English media here saying something close to what I have - several times. The writer, Brett Gibbons, said - and I paraphrase - that if the various authorities on the island asked people what they wanted, as opposed to presuming what they want, Mallorca may be able to re-establish itself as "Europe's top winter and summer holiday resort". I'm not sure if the island has slumped that much in summer terms, but winter-wise it obviously has. The conclusion felt like something of a vindication for what I have said before here. It relates, in part, to what I was expounding on 2 October (Here I Go Again), and also before in respect not only of the fact that winter promotions are put together which only touch the edges but also the fact that there seems to be little attempt to discover what the tourist might prefer.

The problem is, though, talk to a small group of holidaymakers and you only get a very small impression as to what tourists, in the wider sense, are actually thinking. The group's main concerns centred on prices, service and buses; I have devoted a good deal of blog space to two of these. One, that of prices, is now like a broken record. The complaint is that Mallorca has become too expensive. One wonders at times quite what visitors expect. Well, one knows what they expect - low prices - but they are unrealistic. The introduction of the euro and, as importantly, the ground rules for joining the European Monetary System may have had the effect of raising prices, but that is now long past. The fundamental reason for higher prices is that Mallorca has ceased to be a cheap place. The correction in the local economy may have been dramatic and unwelcome in many respects, but it has occurred and there is no going back on it. Once the "market" really took off in Mallorca, price increases were an inevitability; those currently cheap alternative tourist destinations of eastern Europe will eventually undergo the same transformation.

The poor bar-owner is not an idiot. He knows what he can charge, if only by looking at what the competition is levying. Some may charge to excess, but the majority do not. What seems to be unappreciated is the costs that bars face. When there have been calls for price controls on items like coffees, where are similar ones for the government to cap prices of the likes of energy and social security or for it to force landlords to cut their rents? Intervene with the market in one way, and you have, in the pursuit of fairness, to do so on a much wider basis. It won't happen. And it is not as if all items on a bar menu are expensive. Take the English breakfast. This can be as low as 2.50 euros. Bars make next to nothing on breakfasts; they are loss leaders.

Service I don't wish to go over again here, but buses ... Buses, that's something of a new one. My personal acquaintance with the island's public transport can be summed up in two journeys from Palma, one of which went less than according to plan when the bus broke down somewhere south of Inca. But at a touch over 5 euros to get back to Playa de Muro, the prices are nothing to quibble about; indeed they seem to be among the few things in Mallorca that can now qualify for the cheap categorisation. I suggest all tourists spend all day and every day on a public bus, so that they can appreciate island value for money. But these buses don't go everywhere you might want them to. And if they do, for instance between the east coast resorts and Alcúdia or Pollensa, anticipate several hours of bottom discomfort and do not expect to return for a week. The bus companies aren't daft either. That the odd tourist might want a direct route to some cutesy little mountain village does not justify a regular service for a regular public which would only need a bus once every few years when they're awaiting delivery of the new 4x4.

Maybe the tourist authorities aren't so stupid after all. There's nothing they can do about prices, any attempt at introducing something sensible like a direct bus route to the airport would only result in the taxi-drivers adopting guerilla tactics and letting the buses' tyres down, and as for a surly waiter or two, what are they going to do, dispatch the happy police to cuff the offender round the ear? No, what they should be doing, and maybe the conclusion to that article intended this, is to take an altogether bigger picture of tourist wants and needs, rather than seeking to implement something that has only minority appeal. But I've said all this before, and I don't want to start sounding like a broken record either.


LITTLE LOCAL DISASTERS
5 am Sunday morning. What's that noise? Not in the road. Inside. Water. Everywhere in the utility room and coming into the kitchen. A constant rush of heating. Some steam. The boiler has sprung a leak big time. It had developed one a week or so ago. The chap was meant to come during the week to replace a cover which had cracked slightly, causing the initial leak. He didn't. Water bloody everywhere. Isolate the fuse and switch it off. Turn off the mains water feed. Is there a stop valve for the boiler alone? Dark. Looking around with a torch. No sign. Chase the water out as best as possible and keep the doors open to dry everything out. No going back to bed. 5 am, sodding Sunday morning. Becomes 6 and then 7 sodding Sunday morning. And it's not just Sunday, it's the fiesta of Pilar, and tomorrow is a "puente" holiday as well. Try getting anything done here on a Sunday or especially when there's a fiesta around. Anyone know a plumber?


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Anthony Powell. Today's title - Motown-ers.

(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)

Taxi!

Public transport. Better public transport is needed for tourists travelling in the Alcúdia-Pollensa area; that, at any rate, is the desire of hotel chiefs in the north, according to “Euro Weekly”. This would also, so these same hotel chiefs believe, attract more visitors to the north. Really? How many more visitors would come to, say, Playa de Muro on top of those who represented 100% hotel occupancy for a time during the past summer? Is public transport, or the lack thereof, a deal-maker or deal-breaker when it comes to deciding on a holiday? I doubt it somewhat. More likely is the expectation that there will be buses but there will also be a squeeze, in which case no one is going to be too upset as the expectation will be met.

Better or more public transport will make little difference to the numbers of visitors, but there may well be a case for saying that it could help those visitors to move around more. I say could because for a fair proportion it probably wouldn’t make the slightest bit of difference; indeed there is a fair argument for saying that some of the larded obese to be found waddling around in summer would benefit from the absence of any form of transport except a push-bike. But be that as it may.

Where do people go though? On a typical hot summer’s day in Puerto Alcúdia for instance, people are going nowhere except to the beach, and even for those in the more far-flung all-inclusives or Bellevue the walk is not exactly onerous, and if you want, you can get a boat much of the way from Bellevue in any case. The only days when there is any change to this pattern is on market days when, yes, there is a good argument for there being more buses. Otherwise, the greatest demand is in the evenings, and here there is a need, especially later on. Want a bus after 11 o’clock from the port? Forget it. Want a taxi? Try finding one. There are only so many taxis, which is why, on market days, Alcúdia Taxis have to call in the cavalry from Playa de Muro to assist (the Playa de Muro taxi drivers are not meant to pick up outside of their own territory).

The projected extension to the train line as far as Alcúdia and the proposed trams going from the terminus may be of benefit, but the one really useful addition to the public transport network would be a good train service to the airport. So useful that it will probably never be done.

And on the airport, also in “EW”, it is now the twelfth busiest in Europe. 22 million people used the airport last year, the paper says. That’s last year as in 2007. Hmm, whatever. Being at number 12 in the charts may not sound like much to brag about, but if you consider that Palma does not handle transatlantic and long-haul traffic, then it is fairly astonishing.


QUIZ
Yesterday – Sly And The Family Stone. Today’s title – remember the American comedy series? Who wrote the theme tune? And what is the connection between Taxi and the blog entry for 13 December, “Girls On Film”?

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On The Buses

Here’s a strange thing.

I go to the tourist office in the paseo in Puerto Alcudia. Marina, do you have a new bus timetable? Oh, no, Autocares Mallorca aren’t bringing us any. Why not? Don’t know.

So, I go to the main tourist office in Alcudia. I ask Magdalena the same question. Same answer. Same lack of explanation.

So then I go to the Autocares office. Why aren’t you taking copies of the bus timetable to the tourist offices? Er, one girl passes me on to another. Something about tomorrow, or maybe, or something. Who knows?

Now, this might seem a slightly arcane subject to highlight, but it has a serious side. Fact is that the bus timetables always start on 1 May. Fact is that tourists need this information. Fact is that, among the top five questions tourist offices get asked, is what are the times of buses to …

Now personally I think worrying about what time a bus may or may not turn up is a form of stress best left at the airport check-in. When and if they come, they come. If you can get on, fine. If you can’t, just wait, or give up.

But this sort of thing matters to tourists. So, why is there such a disjointed approach to provision of information? Autocares Mallorca may not be a state company, but they are a stakeholder in the overall success, or otherwise, of their local community, of which tourists form a vital part.

Not to worry, the timetables will probably turn up tomorrow, or maybe they won’t.


Ok, so we’ve moved on from the pop quiz. Now, it’s old sitcoms. The title of this piece is from one. So, here goes. Name the actor who played Blakey? Easy.

(PLEASE REPLY TO info@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE. TA.)