There are certain publications that come along which should demand rather greater attention than just that of a Catalan readership. One such publication is the "Anuari del Turisme de les Illes Balears" - the Balearics tourism yearbook. The 2016 edition, the third such edition, has just been published. The work of the Fundació Gadeso, it is supported by the University of the Balearic Islands, the Colonya bank in Pollensa and the government's vice-presidency, in other words the fiefdom of tourism minister Biel Barceló.
It is a staggering publication of 278 pages with contributions that range from those who currently hold public office to those who have held office in the past, to academics, to historians. If there's one criticism to be made of this array of contributors, there is a lack of hard-nosed businesspeople.
This aside, it is nevertheless an absolute goldmine that charts tourism development and places this in the context of the current day and so therefore the debate about what tourism is, about what it should be and about its impacts. It will be required bedtime reading for the tourism minister. It should be required reading for many others.
There is no need to explain yet again the context, in particular the one that has been aired so greatly this year - saturation - but it is this context which makes the opening remarks in the introduction so pertinent. The Gadeso foundation's director, Andreu Grimalt Rosselló, writes that in the previous yearbook, it was noted that the foundation had been warning for some time that the terms of the debate about tourism needed to be reconsidered. He goes on to say that this hadn't been intended as an attack on tourism, remarking that there are, however, individuals and groups who, "living in relative comfort", have no desire for change and who consider any dissenting opinion as though it were an attempt to torpedo the tourism sector.
One might ask what the terms of the debate have been until now. In general, they haven't been markedly different. One of the yearbook's contributors is Celesti Alomar, the tourism minister responsible for the original ecotax. I have previously looked at what Alomar had to say at the time that tax was introduced. It wasn't fundamentally much different to now.
But what has changed is the very much more public nature of the debate, while it is notable that Grimalt should choose to lead on the issue of employment. He wonders about the "social profitability" of tourism, which he defines as stable employment, redistribution of wealth and the generation of citizen welfare. He is somewhat disingenuous in asking how, with hotels recording full occupancy, there can still be 70,000 people unemployed. But observations regarding four to five months work and business growth while there remains this employment imbalance are reasonable. They are also central to regional government policy - or attempted policy; they will chime with President Armengol, Vice-President Barceló and employment minister Negueruela.
In a way, the most revealing observations of all are related to the apparent increase in anti-tourist sentiment. And in this regard, the debate now being conducted is shown to be one that should have taken place years ago. Grimalt refers to the work of George Doxey, which is now forty years old. Doxey proposed a four-scale framework that characterises attitudes towards tourists and tourism. It starts with euphoria, turns into apathy (indifference to larger numbers of tourists), then becomes irritation before developing into antagonism - overt and covert aggression towards tourists.
The discontent isn't as it once was. It has existed but it has now become more overt. And following Doxey's argument, it shouldn't be all that surprising that it has. What his four scales suggest is that a better job of managing the tourist-resident relationship should be made. Or rather, should have been started some years in the past. To Barceló's credit, while he can be accused of having fanned the saturation flames simply by mentioning the word, he has also been instrumental in the campaign to highlight tourism in a positive fashion within the framework of his desire for sustainable tourism. The problem is that there are plenty of others who are less even-handed.
The anti-brigade, notably the environmentalists GOB, have long expressed their discontent, but this has now been magnified through the emergence of groups such as Terraferida. Its wholly one-eyed view has most recently been expressed through its attacks on the government attending the World Travel Market and on the government and the Council of Mallorca having between them contributed almost 600,000 euros to the International Golf Travel Market at Son Termens.
The terms of the debate don't necessarily need to change, but what is evident is that certain ones are treated with very much greater seriousness than previously and by a wider and highly vocal audience. The yearbook sets out them out. Shame it isn't in English.
Showing posts with label Employment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Employment. Show all posts
Friday, November 18, 2016
Wednesday, November 02, 2016
Employment "Inefficiencies": The Seasonality Problem
A conference in Brussels has been discussing Spain's labour market and its employment situation. Under the title of "strengthening the coordination of social services and employment in Spain - experiences and new opportunities", various experts have been considering how Spain can address "significant inefficiencies" in employment policies. Fundamental issues include the way in which the labour market is split so markedly between long and short-term employment, the need to protect the unemployed who are denied benefits, and the need for social services and employment policies to align in order to promote employment and training.
On the face of it, things are very much better on the employment front, but the drop below the 20% mark at national level for the first time in six years disguises the massive reliance on seasonal employment: 27% of the labour market is temporary, and this temporary status clearly does nothing for its sense of job security.
One of the areas that the Brussels conference has been looking at is the coordination at regional level between employment and social services. The capacity for these services needs to be increased. This assessment will ring bells in the Balearics, where the government has been pursuing policies to try and get the longer-term unemployed back into the labour market. The conference, while noting that there needs to be protection for those who lose their benefits, has nevertheless criticised a general policy of managing benefits at the expense of active policies to get people working.
The regional government has also been seeking to improve benefits, as with its social income scheme, one that has been widely publicised and yet which has benefited comparatively few people; far fewer than the government had suggested that it would. Although the Balearics have means of direct fundraising, the overall ability of the regional government to fund anything is inextricably linked to the system of tax revenue distribution, something that the Balearic government considers unjust.
What the conference is getting at, however, is how public spending should be prioritised. Should it go towards improving benefits or should it be for employment schemes? It should be for both, but the conclusion is that there has been far more of the former rather than the latter. Ultimately, however the pie is divided up, if there are to be greater regional efforts, then regional financing has to be reviewed in light of what these efforts might be. For the new administration of Mariano Rajoy, three of its greatest challenges are thus highlighted: policies to further reduce unemployment; policies to reduce the dependence on short-term working; and regional funding.
Boastful headlines referring to Balearic employment leadership and so therefore the lowest rate of unemployment are misleading. They obscure the fact of so much short-term working and job insecurity. The boasts may well continue into the Christmas period; not because of tourism but because of the need for shop and warehouse personnel, drivers, and call-centre staff. Set against this requirement, however, is the fact that construction demands are not expected to be as great as they have been over the past couple of winters. Seasonality is everything in the Balearics, be it because of tourism, retailing, building (much of it in tourist areas prohibited during the summer) and agriculture.
The employment figures will always tend to be presentable, therefore, and it does need pointing out that the underlying rate of unemployment in the Balearics is well below rates in other sun-and-beach regions, such as Andalusia and the Canaries. But however hard the regional (or national) government can work, whatever policies for coordination are arrived at, however much regional funding there might be, can the cycles of seasonal employment ever be disrupted to significant extents in order to give the workforce quality and secure long-term jobs?
There is another Gadeso survey. Its findings are not surprising but they are still disturbing. As Mallorca and the Balearics wave goodbye to a record season, the survey reveals that more than half Mallorca's hoteliers believe that profit has either stayed the same or gone down. For the complementary offer (restaurants, etc.), the news is even worse. Only 12% have had a more profitable season: all-inclusives, lower spending power, a short season are all blamed. And despite the boastful employment headlines, half the hoteliers say they haven't created new jobs, while 79% in the complementary sector have not. What jobs there are, it is admitted, are primarily short-term.
This isn't anything new. The imbalance in the labour market has existed for decades. Whether it can truly ever be overcome has to be debatable. For as long as labour market requirements are driven by seasonal demand, there won't be any genuine change. The Brussels conference can talk all it likes about improved coordination and greater regional employment and social services capacity, but if employment remains wedded to this seasonal demand, there aren't the jobs available.
On the face of it, things are very much better on the employment front, but the drop below the 20% mark at national level for the first time in six years disguises the massive reliance on seasonal employment: 27% of the labour market is temporary, and this temporary status clearly does nothing for its sense of job security.
One of the areas that the Brussels conference has been looking at is the coordination at regional level between employment and social services. The capacity for these services needs to be increased. This assessment will ring bells in the Balearics, where the government has been pursuing policies to try and get the longer-term unemployed back into the labour market. The conference, while noting that there needs to be protection for those who lose their benefits, has nevertheless criticised a general policy of managing benefits at the expense of active policies to get people working.
The regional government has also been seeking to improve benefits, as with its social income scheme, one that has been widely publicised and yet which has benefited comparatively few people; far fewer than the government had suggested that it would. Although the Balearics have means of direct fundraising, the overall ability of the regional government to fund anything is inextricably linked to the system of tax revenue distribution, something that the Balearic government considers unjust.
What the conference is getting at, however, is how public spending should be prioritised. Should it go towards improving benefits or should it be for employment schemes? It should be for both, but the conclusion is that there has been far more of the former rather than the latter. Ultimately, however the pie is divided up, if there are to be greater regional efforts, then regional financing has to be reviewed in light of what these efforts might be. For the new administration of Mariano Rajoy, three of its greatest challenges are thus highlighted: policies to further reduce unemployment; policies to reduce the dependence on short-term working; and regional funding.
Boastful headlines referring to Balearic employment leadership and so therefore the lowest rate of unemployment are misleading. They obscure the fact of so much short-term working and job insecurity. The boasts may well continue into the Christmas period; not because of tourism but because of the need for shop and warehouse personnel, drivers, and call-centre staff. Set against this requirement, however, is the fact that construction demands are not expected to be as great as they have been over the past couple of winters. Seasonality is everything in the Balearics, be it because of tourism, retailing, building (much of it in tourist areas prohibited during the summer) and agriculture.
The employment figures will always tend to be presentable, therefore, and it does need pointing out that the underlying rate of unemployment in the Balearics is well below rates in other sun-and-beach regions, such as Andalusia and the Canaries. But however hard the regional (or national) government can work, whatever policies for coordination are arrived at, however much regional funding there might be, can the cycles of seasonal employment ever be disrupted to significant extents in order to give the workforce quality and secure long-term jobs?
There is another Gadeso survey. Its findings are not surprising but they are still disturbing. As Mallorca and the Balearics wave goodbye to a record season, the survey reveals that more than half Mallorca's hoteliers believe that profit has either stayed the same or gone down. For the complementary offer (restaurants, etc.), the news is even worse. Only 12% have had a more profitable season: all-inclusives, lower spending power, a short season are all blamed. And despite the boastful employment headlines, half the hoteliers say they haven't created new jobs, while 79% in the complementary sector have not. What jobs there are, it is admitted, are primarily short-term.
This isn't anything new. The imbalance in the labour market has existed for decades. Whether it can truly ever be overcome has to be debatable. For as long as labour market requirements are driven by seasonal demand, there won't be any genuine change. The Brussels conference can talk all it likes about improved coordination and greater regional employment and social services capacity, but if employment remains wedded to this seasonal demand, there aren't the jobs available.
Saturday, October 22, 2016
Reflecting On The Season
The season is drawing to a close. It is time to reflect. The great and good of the tourism industry (plus politicians - up to you if you describe them as great or good) gathered for some reflection earlier this week. Some of them will reconvene next week and reflect further. That conference will consider the benefits and risks from the increase in demand, an aspect of which is the "sensation" of saturation, the "feeling" of being overcrowded. It was the same earlier this week. The reflections concerned three words starting with an "s" - sustainability, security and saturation. They sum the summer up. These words are constantly uttered by Mallorca's politicians. When it has come to security, it has been more a case of others' lack of security. Elevated demand for Mallorca because of insecurity equals saturation equals questions of sustainability.
Among the more significant contributions were those related to numbers of tourists and to road users. On the latter, it was said that heavy traffic and jams in Palma - frequently held up as evidence of saturation - have less to do with tourists in hire cars than with the sheer number of island residents who enter the city. This conclusion has been given support by Council of Mallorca statistics for traffic growth: the numbers of vehicles on key stretches of road are back to what they were pre-crisis. Saturation on the roads is as much a consequence of economic well-being on the island, if not more so than tourists and the economic well-being they bring.
The other contribution of note had to do with tourist arrivals. José Antonio Alvarez, who is the director of Son Sant Joan airport, observed that while passenger traffic has risen by ten per cent, the distribution of this increase was weighted in favour of the non-peak summer months. Growth was less in August - only five per cent - while May almost saw the three million mark broken and October won't be that far short. Three million has typically been confined only to July and August, yet June and September surpassed it.
In a way, this showed that the government's wish for more of a spread of tourists has been satisfied this summer, though of course what the government really wishes is that this spread is more even across the whole of the year. It may be a long time in the wishing.
The killer contribution, however, was to do with welfare, the benefit derived by society as a whole from tourism activity, with population and the environment factored in. This welfare has reduced markedly this century. In other words there is greater inequality, with riches being derived at the expense of general societal welfare and also the well-being of the environment because of the strain placed on it by increased numbers.
This is a theme that tourism minister Biel Barceló has explored in the past by referring to the degree to which per capita income in the Balearics has dropped from being at the top of the Spanish list in the 1990s to seventh. There are different manifestations of this decline, and the Exceltur alliance for touristic excellence drew attention to one this week. The increased numbers of tourists who have been "borrowed" this summer do not translate in direct proportion (or anything like it) to increased financial returns. It's common sense and it's something that's been known for years.
While this summer's boom has given a further boost to economic growth (and clearly there is evidence of it, such as with the number of cars), there is great unevenness in terms of the beneficiaries of this growth. The high level of short-term contracts, often poorly paid, is proof of this. In a wider societal sense, the constantly depressing information about Balearic educational performance confirms this welfare imbalance. There are too many young people being seduced into abandoning education for short-term, insecure and not well-paid employment in the summer. One might ask why they do it, but then the young see no further than a summer's enjoyment. They put their futures in doubt and so they and society lose in the longer-term.
As the politicians have been gearing themselves up for negotiations over next year's budget, a theme has been the necessity for a change to the economic model. Podemos talk about this in strident terms, a consequence of their dislike of anything that is vaguely big business. Biel Barceló isn't so strident. Indeed, Barceló is a generally sane bloke, who sees the necessity for re-forming the current model (and its consequent loss of welfare) into one that enhances welfare. Here is where you achieve genuine sustainability in terms of employment and the benefits to be derived from tourism. It is perhaps the most important issue bar none of the debates about tourism. Saturation, quite frankly, is an interim irrelevance.
Among the more significant contributions were those related to numbers of tourists and to road users. On the latter, it was said that heavy traffic and jams in Palma - frequently held up as evidence of saturation - have less to do with tourists in hire cars than with the sheer number of island residents who enter the city. This conclusion has been given support by Council of Mallorca statistics for traffic growth: the numbers of vehicles on key stretches of road are back to what they were pre-crisis. Saturation on the roads is as much a consequence of economic well-being on the island, if not more so than tourists and the economic well-being they bring.
The other contribution of note had to do with tourist arrivals. José Antonio Alvarez, who is the director of Son Sant Joan airport, observed that while passenger traffic has risen by ten per cent, the distribution of this increase was weighted in favour of the non-peak summer months. Growth was less in August - only five per cent - while May almost saw the three million mark broken and October won't be that far short. Three million has typically been confined only to July and August, yet June and September surpassed it.
In a way, this showed that the government's wish for more of a spread of tourists has been satisfied this summer, though of course what the government really wishes is that this spread is more even across the whole of the year. It may be a long time in the wishing.
The killer contribution, however, was to do with welfare, the benefit derived by society as a whole from tourism activity, with population and the environment factored in. This welfare has reduced markedly this century. In other words there is greater inequality, with riches being derived at the expense of general societal welfare and also the well-being of the environment because of the strain placed on it by increased numbers.
This is a theme that tourism minister Biel Barceló has explored in the past by referring to the degree to which per capita income in the Balearics has dropped from being at the top of the Spanish list in the 1990s to seventh. There are different manifestations of this decline, and the Exceltur alliance for touristic excellence drew attention to one this week. The increased numbers of tourists who have been "borrowed" this summer do not translate in direct proportion (or anything like it) to increased financial returns. It's common sense and it's something that's been known for years.
While this summer's boom has given a further boost to economic growth (and clearly there is evidence of it, such as with the number of cars), there is great unevenness in terms of the beneficiaries of this growth. The high level of short-term contracts, often poorly paid, is proof of this. In a wider societal sense, the constantly depressing information about Balearic educational performance confirms this welfare imbalance. There are too many young people being seduced into abandoning education for short-term, insecure and not well-paid employment in the summer. One might ask why they do it, but then the young see no further than a summer's enjoyment. They put their futures in doubt and so they and society lose in the longer-term.
As the politicians have been gearing themselves up for negotiations over next year's budget, a theme has been the necessity for a change to the economic model. Podemos talk about this in strident terms, a consequence of their dislike of anything that is vaguely big business. Biel Barceló isn't so strident. Indeed, Barceló is a generally sane bloke, who sees the necessity for re-forming the current model (and its consequent loss of welfare) into one that enhances welfare. Here is where you achieve genuine sustainability in terms of employment and the benefits to be derived from tourism. It is perhaps the most important issue bar none of the debates about tourism. Saturation, quite frankly, is an interim irrelevance.
Thursday, May 26, 2016
Retailer, Hotelier: Good guy, bad guy
It was the queue of the hopeful. How many of them were there? Hundreds. They went in their droves, enticed by the search for "dynamic, committed, enthusiastic" people of a certain (young) age. Such is the recruitment lingo. When did employers ever wish to take on apathetic, uncommitted, unenthusiastic staff? Once upon a time they probably did. A time when no one much cared for anything other than the pay packet regardless of whatever drudgery was performed or expected.
They were queuing in Madrid last October. Hundreds. They weren't after jobs. They were there to buy. In the capital city's Gran Via, Primark had come to town, and Primark shopping fever had taken over. But jobs with Primark were what mattered last week to those who had waited patiently to hand in their pen drives with all relevant information at the offices of the Balearic Confederation of Business Associations.
Primark will open in September and not towards the end June as had been initially said. FAN Mallorca Shopping, the curious name of the new commercial centre, will not be ready until then. For those queuing it might as well rain until September. Then the sun will shine. Assuming they are the lucky ones. And when the doors of the shopping centre finally open, there will be a tidal wave of shoppers. The roads will have been gridlocked. There's more to FAN, much more to FAN than Primark alone, but it will be the Irish retailer attracting the greatest fan base, if the Madrid experience is anything to go by.
The jobs though, what about the jobs? How much might the lucky ones earn? In Madrid the labour agreement was for a "competitive salary package" for the dynamic ones. The typical sales assistant maximum is just over 15,000 a year - twelve months plus three extras. Over half of the staff, however, are not on full-time contracts. One worker, quoted in a report by the "El Confidencial" website, said she was on 700 euros for a 30-hour week, though this seemed to be for a temporary contract.
Retail jobs are like many in the tourism industry. They are not highly paid. The Primark base salary for full-time employees - 15,247 euros per annum (quoted in connection with the Madrid store) - is virtually identical to the agreement Lidl came to earlier this year. It has a guaranteed fixed hourly minimum of 8.50 euros per hour: 15,257 euros for an annual maximum of 1,795 hours, five days a week. Lidl has also agreed to have a 75% minimum of its staff on full-time contracts.
This doesn't match Mercadona, though. It has 98% full-time contracts. Its base salary is 15,160 euros but it adds two extra months to this depending on performance. It also rewards loyalty. Length of service and corresponding increases in salary mean that it has 90% of staff earning 1,430 euros after tax plus the potential two additional months. Mercadona is looked upon as one of the best employers in the retail sector.
The regional government, the Council of Mallorca and the town halls have an at-times awkward relationship with retailing. The current moratorium on new developments is an example of this and is aimed principally at larger retailers. Yet they will all know that these larger retailers create employment and, as can be seen with Mercadona in particular, this is pretty stable employment. It may not be highly paid, but that is how retailing tends to be. Mallorca's no different to anywhere else in this regard.
Where the public authorities really run into a problem is with seeking to safeguard the smaller retailer and defend it against the voracious appetites of the large multiples. A case in point has been the to-ing and fro-ing over declaring (or not) zones of high touristic influx. Say yes, and there is far greater liberalism for large store opening hours. Say no, and there is not.
But generally, and here is where the government and others let slip their begrudging acceptance of the large retailers, there is no antagonism implied when it comes to terms and conditions of employment. Yes, the government keeps banging the drum for greater "quality" of employment and higher earnings, but the retailers fall into the category of the "good" employer. Mercadona is a prime example.
Contrast this with the general antagonism towards the hoteliers, with Podemos the most ferocious of critics. True, there are issues with maids and some other categories of employee, but the attacks are certainly not always justified. The government is toying with the star ratings being modified to reflect this so-called employment quality. But would such an attempt at labour engineering work? Can the hotels really be blamed for offering contracts that are not in the Mercadona league when it comes to being full-time? It's the seasonality, stupid.
They were queuing in Madrid last October. Hundreds. They weren't after jobs. They were there to buy. In the capital city's Gran Via, Primark had come to town, and Primark shopping fever had taken over. But jobs with Primark were what mattered last week to those who had waited patiently to hand in their pen drives with all relevant information at the offices of the Balearic Confederation of Business Associations.
Primark will open in September and not towards the end June as had been initially said. FAN Mallorca Shopping, the curious name of the new commercial centre, will not be ready until then. For those queuing it might as well rain until September. Then the sun will shine. Assuming they are the lucky ones. And when the doors of the shopping centre finally open, there will be a tidal wave of shoppers. The roads will have been gridlocked. There's more to FAN, much more to FAN than Primark alone, but it will be the Irish retailer attracting the greatest fan base, if the Madrid experience is anything to go by.
The jobs though, what about the jobs? How much might the lucky ones earn? In Madrid the labour agreement was for a "competitive salary package" for the dynamic ones. The typical sales assistant maximum is just over 15,000 a year - twelve months plus three extras. Over half of the staff, however, are not on full-time contracts. One worker, quoted in a report by the "El Confidencial" website, said she was on 700 euros for a 30-hour week, though this seemed to be for a temporary contract.
Retail jobs are like many in the tourism industry. They are not highly paid. The Primark base salary for full-time employees - 15,247 euros per annum (quoted in connection with the Madrid store) - is virtually identical to the agreement Lidl came to earlier this year. It has a guaranteed fixed hourly minimum of 8.50 euros per hour: 15,257 euros for an annual maximum of 1,795 hours, five days a week. Lidl has also agreed to have a 75% minimum of its staff on full-time contracts.
This doesn't match Mercadona, though. It has 98% full-time contracts. Its base salary is 15,160 euros but it adds two extra months to this depending on performance. It also rewards loyalty. Length of service and corresponding increases in salary mean that it has 90% of staff earning 1,430 euros after tax plus the potential two additional months. Mercadona is looked upon as one of the best employers in the retail sector.
The regional government, the Council of Mallorca and the town halls have an at-times awkward relationship with retailing. The current moratorium on new developments is an example of this and is aimed principally at larger retailers. Yet they will all know that these larger retailers create employment and, as can be seen with Mercadona in particular, this is pretty stable employment. It may not be highly paid, but that is how retailing tends to be. Mallorca's no different to anywhere else in this regard.
Where the public authorities really run into a problem is with seeking to safeguard the smaller retailer and defend it against the voracious appetites of the large multiples. A case in point has been the to-ing and fro-ing over declaring (or not) zones of high touristic influx. Say yes, and there is far greater liberalism for large store opening hours. Say no, and there is not.
But generally, and here is where the government and others let slip their begrudging acceptance of the large retailers, there is no antagonism implied when it comes to terms and conditions of employment. Yes, the government keeps banging the drum for greater "quality" of employment and higher earnings, but the retailers fall into the category of the "good" employer. Mercadona is a prime example.
Contrast this with the general antagonism towards the hoteliers, with Podemos the most ferocious of critics. True, there are issues with maids and some other categories of employee, but the attacks are certainly not always justified. The government is toying with the star ratings being modified to reflect this so-called employment quality. But would such an attempt at labour engineering work? Can the hotels really be blamed for offering contracts that are not in the Mercadona league when it comes to being full-time? It's the seasonality, stupid.
Thursday, September 10, 2015
The Illusion Of Purchasing Power
It was one of those statistical tidbits, of which we are fed a vast diet but which, I suspect, we take comparatively little notice, except when there is a nibble to make one wish to digest it. It had to do with purchasing power, defined in this instance as the relationship between consumer prices and average salaries. When I read it or, more accurately, wrote it, because it was a news item from the statistics bombarders of the news syndicates, it did for once make me stop and think. Not, as is sometimes the case, to try and fathom out what contradictory or erroneous message was being conveyed - trust me, this stuff is full of mistakes - but because of its implication.
What it said was that purchasing power in the Balearics has fallen this year by 0.9%: not a huge fall by any means but a fall nonetheless. The explanation for this diminution of power was that prices had risen whilst average salaries had gone down. On the price side, one might think that this was a result of inflation. There is inflation in the Balearics, the highest rate among the regions, but it is currently only 0.6%. There are deflationary pressures in parts of Spain, but not in the Balearics. Only just though. Inflation isn't much of a factor.
But even if it were, there was the fact that average salaries have fallen. How on earth can this be? Are we not supposed to be going through times of economic improvement, of recovery, of growth, of greater business confidence? One could always question the finding, but if it is true and if purchasing power is declining as a consequence, then this all hints at something that the announcements of better times don't: the recovery is not as strong as we're being led to believe.
Easy it would be to say that the positivity - that of politicians, in particular those from the Partido Popular - is all a pre-general election smokescreen: that the recovery is all baloney not matched in reality. Yet, we learn how in the Balearics there is greater buoyancy on the high street (not that there is one in the British sense), there is more spend in restaurants and what have you, there is more being spent at petrol stations. Which may all be true, but how much of it actually comes from the purse of the ordinary Josés of Mallorca (aka Joseps)? The restaurant sector, for example, has been saying that the buoyancy has been mostly confined to the tourism centres, thus implying that it is tourists who are the ones contributing to better times, and of these, it may well be the Brits who are doing much of the contributing, what with the pounds in their pockets stretching to ever greater euro purchasing power.
The retail sector may be a better guide, especially for certain parts of it which are showing good growth: household goods, for instance. As a general rule, tourists don't splash out on things like washing machines as souvenirs, so it's fair to say the growth is local. But this isn't necessarily the case across the whole of the retail sector. The petrol stations are enjoying the spend of the car-rental market, the supermarkets are benefiting from the rise in residential tourism.
Is growth, therefore, purely temporary? Instinctively, you would have to think that it is, given the nature of so much economic and employment activity in Mallorca. And if, underlying this, there is a trend towards reduced purchasing power, then the imbalance of the economy will be more sharply revealed come the winter months.
But this still doesn't explain why it might be that average salaries appear to be falling. Unless, that is, one factors in the growth of seasonal employment. When there are that many more people on low pay, taken on because of increased tourism demand, then the average distribution will tend to show a reduction: a greater proportion of the lower paid will drag down the average of the higher paid.
Does this really matter? In a way it doesn't. It has been ever thus with the seasonal nature of employment, after all. The likelihood might be that purchasing power, following the definition applied here, would rise in winter but only because of all the low-paid who go on the dole. But it does matter from the point of view of all that is being said of the "precarious" nature of this employment, the inherent insecurity and the potential for abuse and exploitation, plus the sheer seasonality of it.
This has been one of the themes of this summer, principally because the new government has made it one. But will this cycle ever be broken? The hoteliers are raising prices massively for next year. Will these result in better pay? Don't bet on it.
What it said was that purchasing power in the Balearics has fallen this year by 0.9%: not a huge fall by any means but a fall nonetheless. The explanation for this diminution of power was that prices had risen whilst average salaries had gone down. On the price side, one might think that this was a result of inflation. There is inflation in the Balearics, the highest rate among the regions, but it is currently only 0.6%. There are deflationary pressures in parts of Spain, but not in the Balearics. Only just though. Inflation isn't much of a factor.
But even if it were, there was the fact that average salaries have fallen. How on earth can this be? Are we not supposed to be going through times of economic improvement, of recovery, of growth, of greater business confidence? One could always question the finding, but if it is true and if purchasing power is declining as a consequence, then this all hints at something that the announcements of better times don't: the recovery is not as strong as we're being led to believe.
Easy it would be to say that the positivity - that of politicians, in particular those from the Partido Popular - is all a pre-general election smokescreen: that the recovery is all baloney not matched in reality. Yet, we learn how in the Balearics there is greater buoyancy on the high street (not that there is one in the British sense), there is more spend in restaurants and what have you, there is more being spent at petrol stations. Which may all be true, but how much of it actually comes from the purse of the ordinary Josés of Mallorca (aka Joseps)? The restaurant sector, for example, has been saying that the buoyancy has been mostly confined to the tourism centres, thus implying that it is tourists who are the ones contributing to better times, and of these, it may well be the Brits who are doing much of the contributing, what with the pounds in their pockets stretching to ever greater euro purchasing power.
The retail sector may be a better guide, especially for certain parts of it which are showing good growth: household goods, for instance. As a general rule, tourists don't splash out on things like washing machines as souvenirs, so it's fair to say the growth is local. But this isn't necessarily the case across the whole of the retail sector. The petrol stations are enjoying the spend of the car-rental market, the supermarkets are benefiting from the rise in residential tourism.
Is growth, therefore, purely temporary? Instinctively, you would have to think that it is, given the nature of so much economic and employment activity in Mallorca. And if, underlying this, there is a trend towards reduced purchasing power, then the imbalance of the economy will be more sharply revealed come the winter months.
But this still doesn't explain why it might be that average salaries appear to be falling. Unless, that is, one factors in the growth of seasonal employment. When there are that many more people on low pay, taken on because of increased tourism demand, then the average distribution will tend to show a reduction: a greater proportion of the lower paid will drag down the average of the higher paid.
Does this really matter? In a way it doesn't. It has been ever thus with the seasonal nature of employment, after all. The likelihood might be that purchasing power, following the definition applied here, would rise in winter but only because of all the low-paid who go on the dole. But it does matter from the point of view of all that is being said of the "precarious" nature of this employment, the inherent insecurity and the potential for abuse and exploitation, plus the sheer seasonality of it.
This has been one of the themes of this summer, principally because the new government has made it one. But will this cycle ever be broken? The hoteliers are raising prices massively for next year. Will these result in better pay? Don't bet on it.
Saturday, August 01, 2015
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.
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.
Monday, January 05, 2015
Uber And Out: Ridesharing in Spain
You would never get an Uber driver talking over a crackly line to a controller, getting information as to the next pick-up and finishing the communication with an "over and out". Uber drivers don't do this type of communication. They don't have controllers. They go as they please within the cities they serve, anticipating pocketing 80% of fares, needing only an Uber phone, an iPhone supplied by the company (for a deposit) that is loaded with a driver Uber app. Their only spoken communication will be with users, those in the car or those who may phone with a specific request. What could be easier?
If you live on Mars you might not know about Uber. In which case ... a short lesson. Uber is an American company that was founded under six years ago. It operates using a mobile app via which users can find the nearest driver who is signed up with the company. No money changes hands, as the user supplies credit-card information. The fare is calculated through a mix of time and distance. Drivers are vetted, so they have to provide proof of a valid driving licence and vehicle insurance and photographic proof of their cars; no rust buckets with many a dent for an Uber driver.
Uber rolled out its first overseas service in Paris at the end of 2011. It came to Spain early last year but not to Mallorca. The service operates only in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. Or did. Before a judge instructed Uber to cease operations last month. The taxi-drivers in Madrid denounced Uber, claiming unfair competition from drivers who have neither a licence to operate as a taxi-driver or the specific insurance for providing a public transport service. Spain is not the only country to have introduced a ban. France, for example, has as well.
The ban is not, however, looked upon as the end for Uber in Spain. The company is looking at ways of working around current laws and also, naturally enough, at what other courts might have to say, which might well mean at European level. It might also be encouraged by the fact that Spain's National Competition Commission (CNC) declined in June last year to ban Uber. Indeed, the commission has since opened up a process of public debate and consultation into what is generally now being referred to as the "collaborative economy", one through which individuals offer their services (of different types) via other mobile apps or social media. The Madrid taxi-drivers have got their way with the court but not with the commission.
Uber and the ridesharing (or carsharing, if you prefer) service that it makes available is one part of the so-called P2P phenomenon - peer to peer, in this instance user to driver. Uber is the facilitator and not the controller, even if it does have or is supposed to have certain controls over its drivers and can instantaneously change the basis for fare calculation according to demand, as typified by its "surge pricing"; it was this which pushed fares up during the hostage crisis in Sydney and drew such an outcry, for which the company has since apologised.
Essentially though, Uber is peer to peer, with one of the peers, the driver, providing his service, his time, his skills (?) and his car. It is, therefore, a similar principle by which accommodation websites like Airbnb operate. A peer has a room, a flat, a house to rent. The other peer, the customer, books it; Airbnb makes its money by taking a cut from the rent paid, just as Uber takes its 20% from a car fare.
The competition commission has not confined itself to Uber. It has also opened up a consultation regarding the renting of private accommodation, something which brings us yet again to the thorny issue of the holiday let. What is interesting with the Uber case, however, is that the Madrid court has applied a nationwide ban. Where accommodation is concerned, of course, it is up to the regions to decide. But the ban makes it ever more imperative that Spain and its regions adopt altogether more coherent approaches to the "collaborative economy". P2P has muddied the already muddy waters of holiday let regulations, but it is not going away, either where accommodation is concerned or ridesharing or any other service. There is now a lobby group, Sharing España, which includes providers similar to Uber; they are simply not as well-known and don't attract the same controversy or attention.
Uber is not out. It will surely return, but it will require a shift in understanding by regulators of a dynamic - the "collaborative economy" - which as yet is not well enough understood in Spain and is certainly not well enough understood in terms of the way in which, in the grander scheme of things, it may well bring about a change to traditional notions of employment and of work.
If you live on Mars you might not know about Uber. In which case ... a short lesson. Uber is an American company that was founded under six years ago. It operates using a mobile app via which users can find the nearest driver who is signed up with the company. No money changes hands, as the user supplies credit-card information. The fare is calculated through a mix of time and distance. Drivers are vetted, so they have to provide proof of a valid driving licence and vehicle insurance and photographic proof of their cars; no rust buckets with many a dent for an Uber driver.
Uber rolled out its first overseas service in Paris at the end of 2011. It came to Spain early last year but not to Mallorca. The service operates only in Madrid, Barcelona and Valencia. Or did. Before a judge instructed Uber to cease operations last month. The taxi-drivers in Madrid denounced Uber, claiming unfair competition from drivers who have neither a licence to operate as a taxi-driver or the specific insurance for providing a public transport service. Spain is not the only country to have introduced a ban. France, for example, has as well.
The ban is not, however, looked upon as the end for Uber in Spain. The company is looking at ways of working around current laws and also, naturally enough, at what other courts might have to say, which might well mean at European level. It might also be encouraged by the fact that Spain's National Competition Commission (CNC) declined in June last year to ban Uber. Indeed, the commission has since opened up a process of public debate and consultation into what is generally now being referred to as the "collaborative economy", one through which individuals offer their services (of different types) via other mobile apps or social media. The Madrid taxi-drivers have got their way with the court but not with the commission.
Uber and the ridesharing (or carsharing, if you prefer) service that it makes available is one part of the so-called P2P phenomenon - peer to peer, in this instance user to driver. Uber is the facilitator and not the controller, even if it does have or is supposed to have certain controls over its drivers and can instantaneously change the basis for fare calculation according to demand, as typified by its "surge pricing"; it was this which pushed fares up during the hostage crisis in Sydney and drew such an outcry, for which the company has since apologised.
Essentially though, Uber is peer to peer, with one of the peers, the driver, providing his service, his time, his skills (?) and his car. It is, therefore, a similar principle by which accommodation websites like Airbnb operate. A peer has a room, a flat, a house to rent. The other peer, the customer, books it; Airbnb makes its money by taking a cut from the rent paid, just as Uber takes its 20% from a car fare.
The competition commission has not confined itself to Uber. It has also opened up a consultation regarding the renting of private accommodation, something which brings us yet again to the thorny issue of the holiday let. What is interesting with the Uber case, however, is that the Madrid court has applied a nationwide ban. Where accommodation is concerned, of course, it is up to the regions to decide. But the ban makes it ever more imperative that Spain and its regions adopt altogether more coherent approaches to the "collaborative economy". P2P has muddied the already muddy waters of holiday let regulations, but it is not going away, either where accommodation is concerned or ridesharing or any other service. There is now a lobby group, Sharing España, which includes providers similar to Uber; they are simply not as well-known and don't attract the same controversy or attention.
Uber is not out. It will surely return, but it will require a shift in understanding by regulators of a dynamic - the "collaborative economy" - which as yet is not well enough understood in Spain and is certainly not well enough understood in terms of the way in which, in the grander scheme of things, it may well bring about a change to traditional notions of employment and of work.
Saturday, January 03, 2015
At The Drink: Mallorca new year political messages
The end of the old year, the start of the new, time for every good politician to come to the aid of his or her party, make some proud resolutions, predictions and boasts and hope like hell that the population is not too drunk or hungover to pay any attention. José Ramón Bauzá gave his presidential address, having wolfed down his twelve grapes for luck and probably having sunk a glass of cava or two. 10,000 new jobs will be created in 2015, he hicced and burped, consulting the back of the fag packet on which his script had been written. Under a commonly accepted principle that 2% growth - which will also occur, according to Joserra - leads to 1% growth in employment, he may well be right. But as no one really knows how many people are genuinely unemployed or indeed employed in the Balearics, it's hard to agree or disagree. If one accepts that the figure of 84,311 unemployed in November is accurate (which it isn't because it only takes account of those registered as unemployed), then the 10,000 seems fair enough, if rather too round.
The PSOE opposition was of course having none of it. "Cynical, meaningless and typical of a president who is in the last days of government," said spokesperson Pilar Costa. The 10,000 jobs boast was a "desperate attempt to give a positive message", she went on. And on. Meanwhile, her boss, Francina Armengol, was letting rip not on account of too many grapes and cavas but because of the "authoritarian" manner of the Bauzá regime and a presidential capacity for being "very strong with the weak and very weak with the strong", which was not a bad soundbite it must be said. Francina then ruined this by asserting that PSOE (which we are really meant to call PSIB in the Balearics) was "the only party capable of real change". Oh dear, oh dear. Elections come ever nearer and the C-word gets dragged out and in different languages: canvi, or cambio for those with a delicate Catalan condition. It went from bad to worse. It seemed as if Francina had after all been at the cava, sunk an entire bottle and a few hierbas as well. "The people have confidence in the Socialist Party." Eh!? These would presumably be the same people who are failing to give PSOE (PSIB) their overwhelming support in the opinion polls.
It was notable that the Partido Popular responded not through its normal spokesperson, Núria Riera, but through another of the Bauzá Babes, Marga Prohens, which, when you think about it, is a suitably feminist name (in English) to possess. Anyway, Marga wasn't going down any feminist line but was asserting that the "government has believed in people not in slogans" without perhaps appreciating that she was sloganising in the process. The question was of course, where was Núria? Had she been confined to the shadows of the teacher-transfer scandal or had she beaten Francina to the cava? We'll probably never know.
The PSOE opposition was of course having none of it. "Cynical, meaningless and typical of a president who is in the last days of government," said spokesperson Pilar Costa. The 10,000 jobs boast was a "desperate attempt to give a positive message", she went on. And on. Meanwhile, her boss, Francina Armengol, was letting rip not on account of too many grapes and cavas but because of the "authoritarian" manner of the Bauzá regime and a presidential capacity for being "very strong with the weak and very weak with the strong", which was not a bad soundbite it must be said. Francina then ruined this by asserting that PSOE (which we are really meant to call PSIB in the Balearics) was "the only party capable of real change". Oh dear, oh dear. Elections come ever nearer and the C-word gets dragged out and in different languages: canvi, or cambio for those with a delicate Catalan condition. It went from bad to worse. It seemed as if Francina had after all been at the cava, sunk an entire bottle and a few hierbas as well. "The people have confidence in the Socialist Party." Eh!? These would presumably be the same people who are failing to give PSOE (PSIB) their overwhelming support in the opinion polls.
It was notable that the Partido Popular responded not through its normal spokesperson, Núria Riera, but through another of the Bauzá Babes, Marga Prohens, which, when you think about it, is a suitably feminist name (in English) to possess. Anyway, Marga wasn't going down any feminist line but was asserting that the "government has believed in people not in slogans" without perhaps appreciating that she was sloganising in the process. The question was of course, where was Núria? Had she been confined to the shadows of the teacher-transfer scandal or had she beaten Francina to the cava? We'll probably never know.
Saturday, January 12, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - Balearics will see minimal growth in 2013
The regional government in the Balearics has admitted that there will be barely any growth of the economy during 2013: at most by an increase of 0.3%. Employment is not expected to show a significant rise until 2014. The region has failed to meet a target of reducing its deficit to 1.5% in 2012, but the government says that the deficit is not as much as 2%.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
Friday, March 11, 2011
MALLORCA TODAY - Balearics expect a million more tourists
From the ITB travel fair in Berlin, regional president Francesc Antich has said that up to a million more tourists can be expected to visit the Balearics this year. With sales rocketing, especially in Germany, some hotel chains have stopped taking bookings for the time being as they are concerned about overbooking, and not just in June, for which a suspension in sales had previously been announced. The anticipated boom in tourism this summer is also proving to be good news on the employment front, with hotels announcing "spectacular" increases to staff numbers.
Sunday, May 03, 2009
So Many Men No-One Needs
Further evidence as to the problems of finding employment comes from the hoteliers and unions who are admitting that some who do get work in the hotel sector this season may get contracts for as short a period as two months. While July and August will doubtless see the "no vacancies" signs being put up by fully occupied hotels, there is a similar sign being raised in May, June and September and October when it comes to job vacancies. It's a pretty awful situation, one compounded by the numbers who arrive from the mainland and other countries looking for seasonal work. They're not going to get it. There was a lad in a bar the other day who was in desperate need of finding something or deciding to take up the option of a flight back to the UK. Maybe building was also an option? Where? Not in summer. And why would a builder take on someone who can't speak the language, even if he did have work? Communication is a pretty basic element in these health and safety times on construction sites. It's not going to happen.
As the hotels and other businesses look to get by with what staff they do have and consider employing people at the last minute nearer to the high season, the ramifications are not good. Work for a couple of months will not be sufficient to qualify for winter handouts through the social. This will just exacerbate the already lunatic situation caused by seasonality. If nothing else, perhaps the current economic problems will have made politicians really wake up from the complacency that strong summer seasons have caused and from the coma of an economy that never was that fundamentally strong. How can it be when, come 1 November, so many troop off to claim their entitlements? Not that this so many will be joined this November by those with just a couple of months work under their belts.
Against this background, one does worry about the social consequences. Crime is just one aspect. And on this ... the flower-conveying pickpockets are in action again. There was a victim along The Mile a couple of days ago. A previous target of these charmers raised the subject with the tour rep who said the matter would be mentioned and a warning given at the next welcome meeting. It wasn't. And the reason why not was that it was bad publicity. Why is warning people against pickpocketing bad publicity? I'll tell you what is, people who do get pickpocketed and then go and tell the world on the internet. Are the tour reps in the real world? Do they not understand that there is a vast communication system out there that doesn't care about so-called bad publicity, and I suppose you could include this blog in that. However, I do care, as do those who post to whatever forum issuing their own warnings. Telling people about the possibility of being fined for purchasing dodgy CDs would probably also be classified as "bad publicity". It's not quite the same as people dropping dead in the streets with swine flu. That would be bad publicity.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Genesis (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d7B00rmBRE). Today's title - and women. Something of a chain thing here with yesterday.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
As the hotels and other businesses look to get by with what staff they do have and consider employing people at the last minute nearer to the high season, the ramifications are not good. Work for a couple of months will not be sufficient to qualify for winter handouts through the social. This will just exacerbate the already lunatic situation caused by seasonality. If nothing else, perhaps the current economic problems will have made politicians really wake up from the complacency that strong summer seasons have caused and from the coma of an economy that never was that fundamentally strong. How can it be when, come 1 November, so many troop off to claim their entitlements? Not that this so many will be joined this November by those with just a couple of months work under their belts.
Against this background, one does worry about the social consequences. Crime is just one aspect. And on this ... the flower-conveying pickpockets are in action again. There was a victim along The Mile a couple of days ago. A previous target of these charmers raised the subject with the tour rep who said the matter would be mentioned and a warning given at the next welcome meeting. It wasn't. And the reason why not was that it was bad publicity. Why is warning people against pickpocketing bad publicity? I'll tell you what is, people who do get pickpocketed and then go and tell the world on the internet. Are the tour reps in the real world? Do they not understand that there is a vast communication system out there that doesn't care about so-called bad publicity, and I suppose you could include this blog in that. However, I do care, as do those who post to whatever forum issuing their own warnings. Telling people about the possibility of being fined for purchasing dodgy CDs would probably also be classified as "bad publicity". It's not quite the same as people dropping dead in the streets with swine flu. That would be bad publicity.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Genesis (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d7B00rmBRE). Today's title - and women. Something of a chain thing here with yesterday.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
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