We must be coming to the end of the season. The tourism industry is gathering, holding conferences. Autumn is a time for reflection and casting an eye to horizons new, and the industry gets into a collective huddle to review the past months and to deliver encouraging and motivational oratory - the visions of the future.
In six weeks time this global industry will descend on London. The World Travel Market is the first of the premier league industry events. More than 2.5 billion pounds of new business, 300,000 new connections, more than 50,000 travel professionals. So shouts the website. Buried under the safety umbrella of the Turespaña pavilion, the islands of the Balearics will await the inevitable. It's going to be an awkward market.
It would be stretching things to suggest that the eyes of the world will be turned towards Mallorca, but some eyes will be, as will ears. The difficult questions that will be asked, the forced smiles conveying harmony to be captured through the lens of a smartphone and instantaneously flagged up, shared and tweeted, especially if those smiles betray unease. But then, it is a compliment that such attention should be paid. What happens in Mallorca doesn't stay in Mallorca, and it never has done. Or not for the past fifty or so years at any rate. Mallorca has played a part, a very significant part in creating the peripatetic monster that is the tourism industry and its travelling roadshows of autumn and winter. If there ever was such a thing as Year Zero in tourism, then it was a Mallorcan invention. Mallorca was and is mass, and the massive attacks of other destinations were learned at its knee.
While the industry is preparing for its London November, closer to home, as in Mallorca, the industry is congregating on much more modest scales. There is a conference today. Telefonica and other genies of digital technologies will be offering their tablets of stone, made gigabyte transmission. The "social" communications of the digital transformation of the tourism industry, the new mass, hidden within the smily-faced virtuousness of the ease of information searching and sharing, that of Big Data and its cookie back-end data mining.
There was another conference - it took place yesterday - that was equally as important. The management of risks in the tourism sector. Investment, the use of the internet, the internationalisation of business and the management of personnel in an environment geared, supposedly, towards corporate social responsibility. They might have added another risk - actions of regional governments viz. taxation, for example.
Forty-two years ago, ABTA held its first ever convention. The location it chose was Mallorca. The choice was highly appropriate. Britain's travel agencies had never had it so good, thanks in no small part to Mallorca. The coincidence of the oil crisis of the time shook the tourism industry and shook Mallorca, but it took only a short time for the industry to recover and for Mallorca to bounce back, its place at the centre of travel agencies' shelves once more confirmed. Here was reliable Mallorca. Big Mallorca.
That first ABTA convention should have been a springboard, but in terms of congresses Mallorca has never assumed the position that it should have done and nor has it ever assumed a position, drawn from the strengths of its experiences and of the pervasive interest shown in it, to diversify a world tourism leadership into a different type of world leadership - that as the centre for tourism excellence, knowledge, research and, yes, conferences and congresses.
There are and have been attempts. There is to be the business school, largely the creation of leading hoteliers. There is a fine tourism research centre at the university. There are technological developments, though there are also the embarrassing failures, as with the Microsoft centre. And then, of course, there is the Palacio de Congresos.
Amid all the recriminations and arguments surrounding the Palacio, there is also the sense that it is far too late. If there was ever going to be a major conference and exhibition centre, it should have been built years ago. That it wasn't points to where Mallorca failed to grasp the nettle of what it could now be: that world centre of tourism excellence and of conventions. Madrid may be Spain's capital, but it was not the epicentre for Spain's dramatic tourism boom. Mallorca was (and, it should be conceded, so also was the Costa Brava). Yet the Spanish equivalent of the World Travel Market is held in Madrid.
The opportunity that was missed lay with not appreciating that there was more than just living from tourism. There was living from the tourism industry as well - its meetings, its research, its education, its technologies. Winter, one would suggest, would be very different had that opportunity not gone begging.
Showing posts with label Conferences. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Conferences. Show all posts
Friday, September 25, 2015
Thursday, October 23, 2014
Mallorca's History ... In Catalan
On 19 November 1981 the culture department at the Council of Mallorca held the first of what has since become an annual conference. It was the first Jornades d'Estudis Històrics Locals. A prime objective of this conference was to allow young researchers to present their projects and discuss them with those of greater seniority and experience. Initially, project submission was open only to researchers who were resident in the Balearics. This soon changed. The door was thrown open to international researchers, and some of the results of these conferences were published.
Next week, on 28 and 29 October, the thirty-third conference will take place. It will be held at the university's Sa Riera building in the street named after one of the more important figures in recent Mallorcan history, Miquel dels Sants Oliver, the journalist and political thinker who, it might be argued, was the father of twentieth-century Mallorcan tourism. Its theme will be the era of the Taifa of Denia, the Muslim kingdom that was one of various other taifas that were formed after the disintegration of the Caliphate of Cordoba. The Denia taifa was all important in Mallorcan history, as it controlled Mallorca. One of the presentations is entitled "Power and culture in Mallorca (or rather Mayurqa) in the eleventh and twelfth centuries". Others include the use of coins in the taifa and the relationship between Islam and Christianity.
Overseeing all this is the Institute of Balearic Studies. a consortium for the diffusion and promotion of Balearic culture and the development of the Catalan language. Presentations, papers have, therefore, to be in Catalan, and you wouldn't really expect them not to be. But this does have one drawback. The audience is not as wide as it might be.
In December 2009 the institute published a whole collection of papers. It stretches to over five hundred pages. I have a copy, and much as I might attempt to read some of it, over five hundred pages would be taking an interest a bit far. Yet, what this particular publication contains (and it is the second volume) are papers devoted to the theme of studies of the local press by which is meant not so much newspapers or magazines but research devoted to towns across Mallorca. The conference on local history studies is not the only conference of its type. There are similar conferences in various towns as well. Alcúdia, as an example, will be holding its latest conference over three days at the end of next month; the ninth such conference to be held.
The collection of papers published in 2009 doesn't cover every town on the island - it was the second volume after all - but if I start to list the towns that it does cover, then you will get an impression of how comprehensive the collection is: local studies in Alcúdia, in Algaida, in Ariany, in Campanet, in Campos. In addition, there is a separate collection - "The Civil War in Mallorca: village by village" - while there are also papers to do with Menorca. Most of the papers are entitled "local studies of ...", but there is one which dispenses with this. It is simply called "The Local History of Pollensa". It is in fact more a history of historians who have contributed to the town's history, but its pages are naturally enough full of the stuff of the local history.
The papers in the collection, though academic, are not presented in the manner in which much academic research is, i.e. in the formulaic style highly valued by academia in which methodology and proof of research rigour can seem to assume greater purpose than the message and which is thus totally baffling to anyone unused to, for instance, the detail of statistical analysis or literature reviews.
This might all sound like dry stuff but it isn't, and fortunately some of the more extreme academic material which does get published in the proceedings of town's local studies conferences finds its way into more digestible forms, such as the histories which town halls have produced. I have, by way of example, a couple - one for Sa Pobla and one for Santa Margalida. They're in Catalan, but they are also goldmines of information.
The point is, though, that someone without any understanding of Catalan wouldn't even start to read them, and so vast resources go to waste in terms of taking local history to a wider audience. And these are vast resources. Mallorca does history extraordinarily well and in great detail: not just the broad brush stuff of conquest, kings and battles but the more focused stuff, as with the histories of each town.
Mallorca desperately wants the foreign visitor to engage with its history and its culture. It has a wealth of history and of material which explains it. Development of the Catalan language by all means, but history is not or should not only be Catalan.
Next week, on 28 and 29 October, the thirty-third conference will take place. It will be held at the university's Sa Riera building in the street named after one of the more important figures in recent Mallorcan history, Miquel dels Sants Oliver, the journalist and political thinker who, it might be argued, was the father of twentieth-century Mallorcan tourism. Its theme will be the era of the Taifa of Denia, the Muslim kingdom that was one of various other taifas that were formed after the disintegration of the Caliphate of Cordoba. The Denia taifa was all important in Mallorcan history, as it controlled Mallorca. One of the presentations is entitled "Power and culture in Mallorca (or rather Mayurqa) in the eleventh and twelfth centuries". Others include the use of coins in the taifa and the relationship between Islam and Christianity.
Overseeing all this is the Institute of Balearic Studies. a consortium for the diffusion and promotion of Balearic culture and the development of the Catalan language. Presentations, papers have, therefore, to be in Catalan, and you wouldn't really expect them not to be. But this does have one drawback. The audience is not as wide as it might be.
In December 2009 the institute published a whole collection of papers. It stretches to over five hundred pages. I have a copy, and much as I might attempt to read some of it, over five hundred pages would be taking an interest a bit far. Yet, what this particular publication contains (and it is the second volume) are papers devoted to the theme of studies of the local press by which is meant not so much newspapers or magazines but research devoted to towns across Mallorca. The conference on local history studies is not the only conference of its type. There are similar conferences in various towns as well. Alcúdia, as an example, will be holding its latest conference over three days at the end of next month; the ninth such conference to be held.
The collection of papers published in 2009 doesn't cover every town on the island - it was the second volume after all - but if I start to list the towns that it does cover, then you will get an impression of how comprehensive the collection is: local studies in Alcúdia, in Algaida, in Ariany, in Campanet, in Campos. In addition, there is a separate collection - "The Civil War in Mallorca: village by village" - while there are also papers to do with Menorca. Most of the papers are entitled "local studies of ...", but there is one which dispenses with this. It is simply called "The Local History of Pollensa". It is in fact more a history of historians who have contributed to the town's history, but its pages are naturally enough full of the stuff of the local history.
The papers in the collection, though academic, are not presented in the manner in which much academic research is, i.e. in the formulaic style highly valued by academia in which methodology and proof of research rigour can seem to assume greater purpose than the message and which is thus totally baffling to anyone unused to, for instance, the detail of statistical analysis or literature reviews.
This might all sound like dry stuff but it isn't, and fortunately some of the more extreme academic material which does get published in the proceedings of town's local studies conferences finds its way into more digestible forms, such as the histories which town halls have produced. I have, by way of example, a couple - one for Sa Pobla and one for Santa Margalida. They're in Catalan, but they are also goldmines of information.
The point is, though, that someone without any understanding of Catalan wouldn't even start to read them, and so vast resources go to waste in terms of taking local history to a wider audience. And these are vast resources. Mallorca does history extraordinarily well and in great detail: not just the broad brush stuff of conquest, kings and battles but the more focused stuff, as with the histories of each town.
Mallorca desperately wants the foreign visitor to engage with its history and its culture. It has a wealth of history and of material which explains it. Development of the Catalan language by all means, but history is not or should not only be Catalan.
Friday, October 07, 2011
The Travelling Blackberries
One of the things you would probably expect at an ABTA convention is a lot of travel agents. ABTA is, after all, the Association of British Travel Agents. Going by the list of delegates at the Palma thrash (around 800 or so), I would guess that only around an eighth were in fact from travel agencies. ABTA isn't just about travel agents as it is "The Travel Association" and so includes tour operators as well, and the line between a travel agent and a tour operator can blur, but the attendees seemed to overwhelmingly come from other parts of the travel world. Many of them were those, like me, who talk about travel and tourism. The convention is a great occasion for talking shop among those who do a lot of talking anyway.
Given the uneven distribution in terms of those who do and those who don't do - arranging holidays or travel, that is - what is the point of it all? There is of course the "networking" defence, sometimes known as getting to know people, and this getting to know tends to involve excruciating conversations littered with business newspeak. "We can envision synergetic windows of opportunity going forward" or some such tosh.
There is the chance to learn new jargon in this newspeak world. I noted down the term "disintermediating". I haven't a clue what it means, but I intend to use it regularly in future; you've been warned.
But a more important point of it all is, as has been the case ever since the conference or convention (call it as you wish) was hit upon as being a "good idea", that it's a bit of a jolly. Even in economically-straitened times, and by God, didn't we hear about how straitened these times have become and will become, there has to be an opportunity for the travel community to let its hair down and to fire off images of it doing so thanks to the latest gadgetry.
I well remember the jolly and the times when conferences were two a penny. One week New Orleans, the next Milan. New Orleans, in between Henry Kissinger asking me what I was doing having come from England to attend a management conference in Louisiana, was a fine excuse for hitting the blues and jazz bars of Bourbon Street. Milan involved a do at Armani's gaffe. Not his house as such, but the Armani HQ emporium. And there was the great man himself, who wasn't so great as he is a shorthouse, who insisted on making a gift to all attendees at his special dinner of a bottle of the Armani house liqueur, a truly revolting and undrinkable concoction made out of rose petals.
But those were in the days before we we had ever heard of carbon footprints and before the technology arrived that was meant to put an end to all the need to jump on BA and hack across the Atlantic or to climb aboard the O'Leary Express and hop off to Palma. Despite the technology, it still happens, and can be put down to one thing - the industry that is MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions). If it weren't to exist, then Palma's brand new (if and when it's completed) Palacio de Congresos would be an even greater waste of money than it will prove to be anyway.
Though ABTA's convention seemed primarily to be a junket for members of the media and for the new-age travel service providers of the internet (and of course smartphones), it would be a curious thing were there not to be a convention that involved some travel. This is what ABTA does, or at least what its members facilitate. A travel association that didn't actually travel anywhere would be setting a bad example to all those who really need to, as in holidaymakers.
You have to conclude, therefore, that this, over and above the jolly, is the main point of it all. The travel itself. We are a travel association, therefore we travel. All aboard the ABTA Airbus and off we go, a band not of Traveling Wilburys but of Travelling Blackberries; have smartphone, will travel.
All the technology, Google's "Goggles", social networking (that word again) with crazed movements of thumbs and fingers on a small phone keyboard, uploading and sharing every waking moment; it makes you wonder if the day of the virtual tourist is nearly upon us. You will never need to leave the house in order to experience the holiday experience; all that's missing is something like Aldous Huxley's "feelies". They'll be here, though. One day. And then we really wouldn't need to go on holiday and never need to travel. But I tell you something, there would still be a convention in order that we can all talk about it.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Given the uneven distribution in terms of those who do and those who don't do - arranging holidays or travel, that is - what is the point of it all? There is of course the "networking" defence, sometimes known as getting to know people, and this getting to know tends to involve excruciating conversations littered with business newspeak. "We can envision synergetic windows of opportunity going forward" or some such tosh.
There is the chance to learn new jargon in this newspeak world. I noted down the term "disintermediating". I haven't a clue what it means, but I intend to use it regularly in future; you've been warned.
But a more important point of it all is, as has been the case ever since the conference or convention (call it as you wish) was hit upon as being a "good idea", that it's a bit of a jolly. Even in economically-straitened times, and by God, didn't we hear about how straitened these times have become and will become, there has to be an opportunity for the travel community to let its hair down and to fire off images of it doing so thanks to the latest gadgetry.
I well remember the jolly and the times when conferences were two a penny. One week New Orleans, the next Milan. New Orleans, in between Henry Kissinger asking me what I was doing having come from England to attend a management conference in Louisiana, was a fine excuse for hitting the blues and jazz bars of Bourbon Street. Milan involved a do at Armani's gaffe. Not his house as such, but the Armani HQ emporium. And there was the great man himself, who wasn't so great as he is a shorthouse, who insisted on making a gift to all attendees at his special dinner of a bottle of the Armani house liqueur, a truly revolting and undrinkable concoction made out of rose petals.
But those were in the days before we we had ever heard of carbon footprints and before the technology arrived that was meant to put an end to all the need to jump on BA and hack across the Atlantic or to climb aboard the O'Leary Express and hop off to Palma. Despite the technology, it still happens, and can be put down to one thing - the industry that is MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions). If it weren't to exist, then Palma's brand new (if and when it's completed) Palacio de Congresos would be an even greater waste of money than it will prove to be anyway.
Though ABTA's convention seemed primarily to be a junket for members of the media and for the new-age travel service providers of the internet (and of course smartphones), it would be a curious thing were there not to be a convention that involved some travel. This is what ABTA does, or at least what its members facilitate. A travel association that didn't actually travel anywhere would be setting a bad example to all those who really need to, as in holidaymakers.
You have to conclude, therefore, that this, over and above the jolly, is the main point of it all. The travel itself. We are a travel association, therefore we travel. All aboard the ABTA Airbus and off we go, a band not of Traveling Wilburys but of Travelling Blackberries; have smartphone, will travel.
All the technology, Google's "Goggles", social networking (that word again) with crazed movements of thumbs and fingers on a small phone keyboard, uploading and sharing every waking moment; it makes you wonder if the day of the virtual tourist is nearly upon us. You will never need to leave the house in order to experience the holiday experience; all that's missing is something like Aldous Huxley's "feelies". They'll be here, though. One day. And then we really wouldn't need to go on holiday and never need to travel. But I tell you something, there would still be a convention in order that we can all talk about it.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Divorced From Realities: Conferences and academia
Two conferences. One just finished. One taking place this coming week. Both important, and both representative of something which Mallorca does rather well - tourism research. A welcome by-product of a one-product economy, such as Mallorca's, is that it has spawned a world-class faculty at the Universitat de les Illes Balears, one dedicated to the application of academic research to the practicalities of tourism and its relationship with the economy, the environment and consumerism.
The conference that has finished was an international seminar held at the ParcBit technology park. The seventh International Seminar on Innovation in Tourism (INTO 2010) considered the ways in which tourism knowledge is transferred from academia and research into the business world. What might sound like dry academics talking to other academics overlooks the contributions of the likes of Sol Meliá's chief marketing officer and representatives of Bicycle Holidays and Expedia.
The one that takes place on 28 and 29 October is the first national congress on tourism rights; one that covers, among other things, air travel, contraction in the tourism industry and tourist consumer protection.
Does any of this matter? The answer is that it should matter a great deal. Academia, in particular, has a crucial role to play in the moulding of strategies at governmental level and at that of the über-professional - hotel managements, tour operators and so on. But to what extent it ever deals with the realities of tourism is another matter. Sometimes it does seem to, but it merely acts to emphasise the apparent impotence of governments and elements of business to take any action to tackle these tourism realities.
Let me give two examples. The most startling pieces of research that I have come across from the university relate to all-inclusives and to the actual value of different "groups" of tourist. The first, discovering the bleeding obvious probably, sought to place a figure on how little the all-inclusive guest contributes in terms of spend by comparison with visitors in other types of accommodation. The second, more startling, was the revelation that at least ten per cent of tourists amount to, in effect, a net loss. It costs more to have them as visitors than they contribute. And this was research that goes back many years. Instinctively, one finds it hard not to conclude that the percentage has risen. It was also research conducted well before the onset of the all-inclusive.
Both these pieces of research should have set alarm bells ringing. Maybe they did, but in the case of the latter (and the former, by implication), it is politically expedient to have tourism that contributes little, nothing or less than nothing. Why? So the tourism numbers and the numbers passing through the airports continue to look good.
A problem with the sort of worthy work that comes from academia or is spouted at conferences is that it might just be self-serving. The congress on tourism rights is organised by the islands' college of lawyers. Not that they don't have much to offer that is sensible in considering tourists' rights; they certainly do. But they also tend to rather like legislation. And this can have a significant impact on the realities of tourism.
When one refers to tourism rights, the other side of the coin should also be considered: the rights of tourism to, in effect, leech off the resources of Mallorca (or anywhere) and offer nothing by way of return. Is it, or should it be, the right of anyone to do this? Notwithstanding the fact that tourism made Mallorca, there is such a thing as reciprocity. Rights work both ways. For the tourist and for the tourist resorts, their people and their businesses.
Fundamentally though, the problem with the conferences, with academia is that what they talk about, what they find is completely meaningless to the front-line operators in the bars, the restaurants and the rest. They are a part of the same elite formed also by government which produces statistics no one can get their heads around. We have just learned that tourism numbers for 2010 have been superior to those in 2009; that tourism spend for the first eight months of 2010 rose by 6%. I don't personally dispute either figure, but I can well understand a response along the lines of - "and your point is?". Occupancy numbers are an irrelevance, if you take into account the percentage that might as well not be here, while spend is a generally arrived at figure, rather than one broken down by resorts and even parts of a resort.
Academia cannot be wholly blamed. It is not its fault that it may have unearthed certain findings, such as the net-lossmaking tourists, and that no one has taken any notice. Or been able or willing to do anything about it. You would hope, however, that something really meaningful does come out of these two conferences. There was one session at the INTO 2010 meeting that really stood out. Its title was "How To Develop Value In A Destination". We should be told and specifically we should be told for whom value is to be developed. My fear is that you and I know the answer, and that it ain't you, if you happen to be a bar-owner.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The conference that has finished was an international seminar held at the ParcBit technology park. The seventh International Seminar on Innovation in Tourism (INTO 2010) considered the ways in which tourism knowledge is transferred from academia and research into the business world. What might sound like dry academics talking to other academics overlooks the contributions of the likes of Sol Meliá's chief marketing officer and representatives of Bicycle Holidays and Expedia.
The one that takes place on 28 and 29 October is the first national congress on tourism rights; one that covers, among other things, air travel, contraction in the tourism industry and tourist consumer protection.
Does any of this matter? The answer is that it should matter a great deal. Academia, in particular, has a crucial role to play in the moulding of strategies at governmental level and at that of the über-professional - hotel managements, tour operators and so on. But to what extent it ever deals with the realities of tourism is another matter. Sometimes it does seem to, but it merely acts to emphasise the apparent impotence of governments and elements of business to take any action to tackle these tourism realities.
Let me give two examples. The most startling pieces of research that I have come across from the university relate to all-inclusives and to the actual value of different "groups" of tourist. The first, discovering the bleeding obvious probably, sought to place a figure on how little the all-inclusive guest contributes in terms of spend by comparison with visitors in other types of accommodation. The second, more startling, was the revelation that at least ten per cent of tourists amount to, in effect, a net loss. It costs more to have them as visitors than they contribute. And this was research that goes back many years. Instinctively, one finds it hard not to conclude that the percentage has risen. It was also research conducted well before the onset of the all-inclusive.
Both these pieces of research should have set alarm bells ringing. Maybe they did, but in the case of the latter (and the former, by implication), it is politically expedient to have tourism that contributes little, nothing or less than nothing. Why? So the tourism numbers and the numbers passing through the airports continue to look good.
A problem with the sort of worthy work that comes from academia or is spouted at conferences is that it might just be self-serving. The congress on tourism rights is organised by the islands' college of lawyers. Not that they don't have much to offer that is sensible in considering tourists' rights; they certainly do. But they also tend to rather like legislation. And this can have a significant impact on the realities of tourism.
When one refers to tourism rights, the other side of the coin should also be considered: the rights of tourism to, in effect, leech off the resources of Mallorca (or anywhere) and offer nothing by way of return. Is it, or should it be, the right of anyone to do this? Notwithstanding the fact that tourism made Mallorca, there is such a thing as reciprocity. Rights work both ways. For the tourist and for the tourist resorts, their people and their businesses.
Fundamentally though, the problem with the conferences, with academia is that what they talk about, what they find is completely meaningless to the front-line operators in the bars, the restaurants and the rest. They are a part of the same elite formed also by government which produces statistics no one can get their heads around. We have just learned that tourism numbers for 2010 have been superior to those in 2009; that tourism spend for the first eight months of 2010 rose by 6%. I don't personally dispute either figure, but I can well understand a response along the lines of - "and your point is?". Occupancy numbers are an irrelevance, if you take into account the percentage that might as well not be here, while spend is a generally arrived at figure, rather than one broken down by resorts and even parts of a resort.
Academia cannot be wholly blamed. It is not its fault that it may have unearthed certain findings, such as the net-lossmaking tourists, and that no one has taken any notice. Or been able or willing to do anything about it. You would hope, however, that something really meaningful does come out of these two conferences. There was one session at the INTO 2010 meeting that really stood out. Its title was "How To Develop Value In A Destination". We should be told and specifically we should be told for whom value is to be developed. My fear is that you and I know the answer, and that it ain't you, if you happen to be a bar-owner.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Crystal Tipps And ...
This is becoming SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENTS column. Two more of them today. What's going on?
Anyway, firstly let's go with MARCO'S AUDI. This is Marco from Puerto Alcúdia's Engel & Völkers office. A man sworn to the Audi mark, but who finds himself with a fleet sufficiently large that he can dispose of his treasured S4, 2.7 Biturbo. It's got the lot - 4x4, GPS and all that - 155,000 kms on the clock, 1999, perfect condition, and it will be, because he looks after his cars, does Marco. Give the man a ring on 699 777 910. 12,500 euros o.n.o. (That's the motor above.)
Secondly, and for something utterly and totally different - CRYSTAL SKULLS. You heard me. Not Crystal Tipps, crystal skulls. Talk of propitious timing, what with the new Indiana Jones film being ... and The Crystal Skull. In May, there is to be a conference and workshop event in Alcúdia all about crystal skulls and their spiritual healing. It is a subject about which I know absolutely nothing, so I am indebted to Gina for bringing this all up as she sets about marketing the event and for giving me some idea as to what it is all about. I quote:
"Legends from around the world describe crystal skulls as an inheritance from ancient times. Crystal skulls are believed to “talk and sing” and to store and transmit messages for all sentient life. They are seen as messengers of light and portals to help us on our journey towards a higher vibrational state of being. Metaphysically, the symbol of the skull represents the higher mind. To attain the higher mind of spiritual awareness and psychic ability, we must be released from the thrall of the lower cognitive mind.
"The lost civilization of Atlantis is also said to be part of Mallorca and the Balearic Islands. Stories about crystal skulls and Atlantis have always gone hand in hand, thus this will be the perfect energetic location for this event and our meditations.
"Activities will include workshops and lectures by key experts on crystal skulls who will share their profound wisdom and healing to those who attend, along with a sacred "mystery tour" to be disclosed that week."
So there you go. The idea is for the conference to take place at the Auditorium in Alcúdia with participants and workshop leaders staying at Bellevue. The full programme and further information - about prices and so on - are listed on the WHAT'S ON BLOG (click on the link in the links menu).
QUIZ
Yesterday - Men They Couldn't Hang. By the way, the question about Beach Baby Beach. All The Rubettes answers were of course wrong. There was but one with the right answer, no less than Soulmaster Geoff. Still can't believe he liked the song. Today's title - and?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
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