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 Gadeso. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gadeso. Show all posts
Friday, November 18, 2016
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Tourist Satisfaction Not Guaranteed
We are told, repeatedly, that things have never been better for peak-summer tourism. In they come, the holidaymakers, great droves of them, boosting occupancy levels in some resorts to 100% (a figure which may be given but which is only truly attained in specific instances and never resort-wide). More passengers than ever before have passed through Son Sant Joan. The "irregular" offer of holiday accommodation is booming in much the same way as the legitimate offer is. But this joyous news is, as always, tempered by realities created by all-inclusives and of genuine spend. It may well be up, but the spread is not uniform.
It is also tempered by concerns that there are simply too many people. The strains on services, on infrastructure, on the environment are such that the regional government appears willing to consider what has not previously been unthinkable but which has not been acted upon or at least seen through: a deliberate and concerted strategy aimed at reduction, offset, the government would hope, by a smoothing of tourist numbers to create a longer season.
While the politicians agonise over this human and environmental pressure, dabble with financial engineering (tourist tax, off-season social security discounts) and constantly utter the mantra of a tourist base of greater quality, the hoteliers have been hard at it, raising their game along with their star classifications and so prices. Profit is up, turnover is up. Tour operators are gladdened by the upward trend in the quality of hotel stock. Mallorca may be more expensive - hotel-wise - than most of the Mediterranean, but to the advantages of reliability, safety and durability can be added this recent qualitative leap.
But if this is all the case, why are the people who really matter - the holidaymakers - not more satisfied? Are the strains causing them to be less satisfied? Are they more discerning, more demanding than ever before? Is dissatisfaction simply the result of their not having been asked before?
Gadeso, the Mallorcan research organisation, does ask tourists. It has been asking for a few years now. It isn't alone. Cala Millor is an example of a resort having finally cottoned on to the need to conduct surveys with the objective - it might be hoped - of the opinion-asking being more than just PR. But the surveying is limited; Gadeso's sample base is small - only 400 interviews.
Given the size of the sample, should the latest tourist satisfaction survey be considered credible? Can it ever be truly representative of what is, after all, a highly diverse market? Tourists form anything but a homogeneous market. It is one that differs in every way imaginable: demographics, attitudes, country of origin, expectations, to cite just a few.
The findings, therefore, come with this caveat. Nevertheless, there are worrying trends. Take the upping of the quality ante and of prices. The price-quality ratio for accommodation is deemed "adequate" (six out of ten), but it is slipping by a point year upon year. It's impossible to know if this is as a consequence of higher prices or of, for example, a more demanding attitude, one that may be influenced by experiences in other destinations. Whatever the cause, despite the efforts to raise quality, the satisfaction level stubbornly continues to drop.
It is when one leaves the hotel, however, that things go decidedly pear-shaped. The price-quality ratio satisfaction for the "specialised" offer - restaurants, beach services, shops, sports facilities, leisure activities - has gone from "deficient" to "very deficient" (2.9 out of ten). Gadeso supports this finding by referring to excessively high prices for food and shopping that are "repetitive and outmoded". It is an embarrassing finding, given that gastronomy is supposedly one of the great saviours of Mallorca's tourism.
Then there is what may be evidence of those strains of human pressure. Down have gone assessments for water quality (the sea's), for air pollution, for the general environment. Down also are opinions on what previous surveys had already identified as the two most deficient factors - cleanliness and noise (acoustic contamination).
Palma's new mayor, José Hila, has identified filth as a major problem for the city, and his administration is making efforts in rectifying this. But is Palma unique? Cast an eye around and observe, for example, plastics recycling containers that are overflowing and so not emptied often enough. Has it not occurred to anyone that there is high plastics waste on account of all those bottles of water and drinks being purchased? This is only one example, and standards of waste collection will doubtless vary from resort to resort, as will complaints about noise.
Gadeso cannot be taken as being definitive, but it is an indication. As such, therefore, it should serve not as the definitive word but as the starting-point. There should be far greater systematic surveying of visitors: resort by resort.
It is also tempered by concerns that there are simply too many people. The strains on services, on infrastructure, on the environment are such that the regional government appears willing to consider what has not previously been unthinkable but which has not been acted upon or at least seen through: a deliberate and concerted strategy aimed at reduction, offset, the government would hope, by a smoothing of tourist numbers to create a longer season.
While the politicians agonise over this human and environmental pressure, dabble with financial engineering (tourist tax, off-season social security discounts) and constantly utter the mantra of a tourist base of greater quality, the hoteliers have been hard at it, raising their game along with their star classifications and so prices. Profit is up, turnover is up. Tour operators are gladdened by the upward trend in the quality of hotel stock. Mallorca may be more expensive - hotel-wise - than most of the Mediterranean, but to the advantages of reliability, safety and durability can be added this recent qualitative leap.
But if this is all the case, why are the people who really matter - the holidaymakers - not more satisfied? Are the strains causing them to be less satisfied? Are they more discerning, more demanding than ever before? Is dissatisfaction simply the result of their not having been asked before?
Gadeso, the Mallorcan research organisation, does ask tourists. It has been asking for a few years now. It isn't alone. Cala Millor is an example of a resort having finally cottoned on to the need to conduct surveys with the objective - it might be hoped - of the opinion-asking being more than just PR. But the surveying is limited; Gadeso's sample base is small - only 400 interviews.
Given the size of the sample, should the latest tourist satisfaction survey be considered credible? Can it ever be truly representative of what is, after all, a highly diverse market? Tourists form anything but a homogeneous market. It is one that differs in every way imaginable: demographics, attitudes, country of origin, expectations, to cite just a few.
The findings, therefore, come with this caveat. Nevertheless, there are worrying trends. Take the upping of the quality ante and of prices. The price-quality ratio for accommodation is deemed "adequate" (six out of ten), but it is slipping by a point year upon year. It's impossible to know if this is as a consequence of higher prices or of, for example, a more demanding attitude, one that may be influenced by experiences in other destinations. Whatever the cause, despite the efforts to raise quality, the satisfaction level stubbornly continues to drop.
It is when one leaves the hotel, however, that things go decidedly pear-shaped. The price-quality ratio satisfaction for the "specialised" offer - restaurants, beach services, shops, sports facilities, leisure activities - has gone from "deficient" to "very deficient" (2.9 out of ten). Gadeso supports this finding by referring to excessively high prices for food and shopping that are "repetitive and outmoded". It is an embarrassing finding, given that gastronomy is supposedly one of the great saviours of Mallorca's tourism.
Then there is what may be evidence of those strains of human pressure. Down have gone assessments for water quality (the sea's), for air pollution, for the general environment. Down also are opinions on what previous surveys had already identified as the two most deficient factors - cleanliness and noise (acoustic contamination).
Palma's new mayor, José Hila, has identified filth as a major problem for the city, and his administration is making efforts in rectifying this. But is Palma unique? Cast an eye around and observe, for example, plastics recycling containers that are overflowing and so not emptied often enough. Has it not occurred to anyone that there is high plastics waste on account of all those bottles of water and drinks being purchased? This is only one example, and standards of waste collection will doubtless vary from resort to resort, as will complaints about noise.
Gadeso cannot be taken as being definitive, but it is an indication. As such, therefore, it should serve not as the definitive word but as the starting-point. There should be far greater systematic surveying of visitors: resort by resort.
Tuesday, March 03, 2015
The Politics Of Regeneration
The people of the Balearics have been asked what they think about the political situation in the islands and in the country. The good news is that there are more who think the situation is very good in the Balearics than in Spain: 1.1% beats 0.1%. The bad news is that, no surprise here, over three quarters believe that the Balearics situation is bad or very bad. It is worse in Spain, but that will be small comfort to an islands' political class which might previously have taken little notice of such findings but which now finds that it has to take note. Democratic regeneration is on everyone's lips (well, not quite everyone's) and the various parties are galvanising themselves into regenerative action, having been stung out of their inertia by the regenerators of Podemos.
This political flavour of the moment is even being tasted by the Balearics' Partido Popular, President Bauzá claiming that it is only the PP which can regenerate democracy. Given that it has been the PP which has been principally responsible for its degeneration, this might sound a bit rich, but then as we know the president is apparently steadfast in his desire to drive out corruption, and it is corruption that, according to the recent survey by the research organisation Gadeso, is the main cause of this degeneration. Fighting the fight against corruption or not, it is doubtful whether Bauzá would have suddenly discovered a regeneration zeal had it not been for Podemos going around telling everyone that democracy needed regenerating.
There are other parties who have been waving the flag of regeneration for a few years longer than Podemos has been, but it is unquestionably the emergence of Podemos and its campaigning against corruption and the political system that has brought the issue to the front of the public's mind. It is doubtful that the public would, until recently, have been asked about democratic regeneration; it is a mark of the impact that Podemos has had that the question should now be being put.
The Gadeso survey concludes that confidence in the post-Franco political system is at an all-time low (which we knew anyway), and the causes are familiar ones. Corruption and dissatisfaction with the political system cover a multitude of sins, so they are not just about trousering some dodgy money. Lack of transparency, lousy communications and aloofness, nepotism and "amiguismo" (favouring friends) and sheer inefficiency are all identified. Basically, the whole system sucks, and into this mix can be added the perceived ills of the justice system (unfair, too slow, not independent): the second greatest concern after corruption.
While discontent with political systems is not unique to the Balearics or Spain, the system here has its peculiarities which mean that it is not as entrenched as elsewhere. The main target for the discontent is the dominant two-party system (the PP and PSOE). Yet this is comparatively new. The PP is only 26 years old. Its forerunner, the Alianza Popular, with its Francoist hangover, was not a great power in the land. It performed well enough in some regions (the first Balearics government was an Alianza one) but not nationally, being soundly stuffed by PSOE at both the 1982 and 1986 general elections. It reinvented itself as the PP in 1989 and finally gained power for the first time in 1996 under José María Aznar.
The two-party status quo, while it has endured for a generation in its current guise, is far less established than in certain other countries. Allied to this relative newness, there is, as revealed by all the survey's anxieties, a perpetuation of what existed before democracy and indeed well before Franco. It is a system which, in a sense, hasn't grown up, and as it hasn't matured, the potential to disrupt it is greater than might be the case elsewhere. And this, as evidenced by the rise of Podemos, is what is happening.
One way in which the established parties are trying to put the fear of God into the electorate is by referring to Podemos as a dangerous "experiment" which threatens democracy. Describing it as an experiment is reasonable enough, but then it might be said that the system which finally emerged with the PP in 1989 has also been an experiment, and if democracy is in such need of regeneration as it appears to be, then one conclude that the experiment has not succeeded. Can a different approach be described as a threat to democracy when the one it seeks to replace has been so discredited?
For all this and for all that Podemos has taken the lead in espousing regeneration, even it needs to look at what the survey finds. Yes, Podemos is considered to be more capable of democratic regeneration than other parties, but it trails by fifteen points the survey winner: no party will be capable.
This political flavour of the moment is even being tasted by the Balearics' Partido Popular, President Bauzá claiming that it is only the PP which can regenerate democracy. Given that it has been the PP which has been principally responsible for its degeneration, this might sound a bit rich, but then as we know the president is apparently steadfast in his desire to drive out corruption, and it is corruption that, according to the recent survey by the research organisation Gadeso, is the main cause of this degeneration. Fighting the fight against corruption or not, it is doubtful whether Bauzá would have suddenly discovered a regeneration zeal had it not been for Podemos going around telling everyone that democracy needed regenerating.
There are other parties who have been waving the flag of regeneration for a few years longer than Podemos has been, but it is unquestionably the emergence of Podemos and its campaigning against corruption and the political system that has brought the issue to the front of the public's mind. It is doubtful that the public would, until recently, have been asked about democratic regeneration; it is a mark of the impact that Podemos has had that the question should now be being put.
The Gadeso survey concludes that confidence in the post-Franco political system is at an all-time low (which we knew anyway), and the causes are familiar ones. Corruption and dissatisfaction with the political system cover a multitude of sins, so they are not just about trousering some dodgy money. Lack of transparency, lousy communications and aloofness, nepotism and "amiguismo" (favouring friends) and sheer inefficiency are all identified. Basically, the whole system sucks, and into this mix can be added the perceived ills of the justice system (unfair, too slow, not independent): the second greatest concern after corruption.
While discontent with political systems is not unique to the Balearics or Spain, the system here has its peculiarities which mean that it is not as entrenched as elsewhere. The main target for the discontent is the dominant two-party system (the PP and PSOE). Yet this is comparatively new. The PP is only 26 years old. Its forerunner, the Alianza Popular, with its Francoist hangover, was not a great power in the land. It performed well enough in some regions (the first Balearics government was an Alianza one) but not nationally, being soundly stuffed by PSOE at both the 1982 and 1986 general elections. It reinvented itself as the PP in 1989 and finally gained power for the first time in 1996 under José María Aznar.
The two-party status quo, while it has endured for a generation in its current guise, is far less established than in certain other countries. Allied to this relative newness, there is, as revealed by all the survey's anxieties, a perpetuation of what existed before democracy and indeed well before Franco. It is a system which, in a sense, hasn't grown up, and as it hasn't matured, the potential to disrupt it is greater than might be the case elsewhere. And this, as evidenced by the rise of Podemos, is what is happening.
One way in which the established parties are trying to put the fear of God into the electorate is by referring to Podemos as a dangerous "experiment" which threatens democracy. Describing it as an experiment is reasonable enough, but then it might be said that the system which finally emerged with the PP in 1989 has also been an experiment, and if democracy is in such need of regeneration as it appears to be, then one conclude that the experiment has not succeeded. Can a different approach be described as a threat to democracy when the one it seeks to replace has been so discredited?
For all this and for all that Podemos has taken the lead in espousing regeneration, even it needs to look at what the survey finds. Yes, Podemos is considered to be more capable of democratic regeneration than other parties, but it trails by fifteen points the survey winner: no party will be capable.
Friday, August 01, 2014
The Decline In Tourist Satisfaction
Tourism, it is an obvious thing to say, is nothing without tourists. Ah yes, tourists; all too often, it seems, the last people that certain elements of the tourism industry pay any attention to. Gadeso, the Mallorcan research organisation, has to be praised for being something of a rarity. It actually surveys tourists. Hears what tourists have to say. There should be very much more of this questioning and listening. Gadeso's is one survey. Its results can be disputed, but they are nonetheless worthy of attention. They don't make for very good reading.
The Gadeso survey of tourist satisfaction is limited, this much has to be said. The number interviewed is only 400, but the organisation is confident that the number is representative and that the margin of error from its results is no more and no less than 5%. The headlining part of the latest is that satisfaction continues its downward creep. Year after year, overall contentment with Mallorca slips. Not greatly by any means, but it slips all the same.
If you go through the survey, there are winners and losers as far as tourists are concerned. The biggest losers are the hotels and the complementary offer, i.e. the non-hotel sector. The biggest winners are agrotourism, rural hotels and residential private accommodation. The hoteliers will hate the fact that the latter of these has a higher satisfaction rating. They should also hate the fact that were it not for these three sectors of the industry, satisfaction with Mallorca would be very much lower. Agrotourism and rural hotels beat regular tourist hotels by almost two points out of ten.
The complementary offer, split into five components for the purpose of the survey, fares just as badly as the hotels. The greatest satisfaction is reserved for services on beaches and for recreational activities, though both of these show a downward trend. It is gastronomy, used here in a general way to refer to bars and restaurants, that shows one of the largest falls in satisfaction. Put alongside an overall rating of only three out of ten for the price-to-quality ratio for the complementary sector, you begin to get an appreciation of why satisfaction with bars and restaurants is in decline. It's all about price.
Indeed, it is price which is probably the most significant finding. The hotels, despite dissatisfaction in other ways, rate pretty well when it comes to the price-quality ratio, but Gadeso concludes that this is largely because of all-inclusive. Price is the prime motivation for coming to Mallorca. It rates almost 16 percentage points above sun and beach in second place. Yet, this seems curious when there appears to be dissatisfaction with prices in bars and restaurants. It isn't curious when you throw all-inclusives into the mix, and of those in the survey who had booked all-inclusive in Mallorca, almost 60% had done so for the first time this summer. Price, price, price.
This doesn't necessarily mean that these tourists will be returning. All-inclusive package holidaymakers say that it would depend both on the resort and the characteristics of the hotel, and what is meant by these characteristics is that some hotels simply don't seem to have made adequate preparation for offering all-inclusive. There is also the question as to where they are located. The intention among tourists to be repeat visitors to Mallorca has fallen by four percentage points over the past two years. The intention to be repeat visitors to the same tourism zone is as low as 16.4%. Why? The nature of many resorts, i.e. their maturity and/or obsolescence. It might seem perverse that all-inclusive holidaymakers should care that much about the state of the resorts, given the assumption that many don't go out of the hotel grounds, but they do.
There are other findings which should make the island's tourism industry take note. Levels of cleanliness are considered to be deficient. Levels of acoustic contamination - noise, in other words - are too great. And, cutting to the bone of the notion that Mallorca is a destination for cultural tourism, cultural facilities are found to also be deficient. As Gadeso says at the start of its report that there is "the necessity to improve our product". It's hard to argue with the statement.
The Gadeso survey of tourist satisfaction is limited, this much has to be said. The number interviewed is only 400, but the organisation is confident that the number is representative and that the margin of error from its results is no more and no less than 5%. The headlining part of the latest is that satisfaction continues its downward creep. Year after year, overall contentment with Mallorca slips. Not greatly by any means, but it slips all the same.
If you go through the survey, there are winners and losers as far as tourists are concerned. The biggest losers are the hotels and the complementary offer, i.e. the non-hotel sector. The biggest winners are agrotourism, rural hotels and residential private accommodation. The hoteliers will hate the fact that the latter of these has a higher satisfaction rating. They should also hate the fact that were it not for these three sectors of the industry, satisfaction with Mallorca would be very much lower. Agrotourism and rural hotels beat regular tourist hotels by almost two points out of ten.
The complementary offer, split into five components for the purpose of the survey, fares just as badly as the hotels. The greatest satisfaction is reserved for services on beaches and for recreational activities, though both of these show a downward trend. It is gastronomy, used here in a general way to refer to bars and restaurants, that shows one of the largest falls in satisfaction. Put alongside an overall rating of only three out of ten for the price-to-quality ratio for the complementary sector, you begin to get an appreciation of why satisfaction with bars and restaurants is in decline. It's all about price.
Indeed, it is price which is probably the most significant finding. The hotels, despite dissatisfaction in other ways, rate pretty well when it comes to the price-quality ratio, but Gadeso concludes that this is largely because of all-inclusive. Price is the prime motivation for coming to Mallorca. It rates almost 16 percentage points above sun and beach in second place. Yet, this seems curious when there appears to be dissatisfaction with prices in bars and restaurants. It isn't curious when you throw all-inclusives into the mix, and of those in the survey who had booked all-inclusive in Mallorca, almost 60% had done so for the first time this summer. Price, price, price.
This doesn't necessarily mean that these tourists will be returning. All-inclusive package holidaymakers say that it would depend both on the resort and the characteristics of the hotel, and what is meant by these characteristics is that some hotels simply don't seem to have made adequate preparation for offering all-inclusive. There is also the question as to where they are located. The intention among tourists to be repeat visitors to Mallorca has fallen by four percentage points over the past two years. The intention to be repeat visitors to the same tourism zone is as low as 16.4%. Why? The nature of many resorts, i.e. their maturity and/or obsolescence. It might seem perverse that all-inclusive holidaymakers should care that much about the state of the resorts, given the assumption that many don't go out of the hotel grounds, but they do.
There are other findings which should make the island's tourism industry take note. Levels of cleanliness are considered to be deficient. Levels of acoustic contamination - noise, in other words - are too great. And, cutting to the bone of the notion that Mallorca is a destination for cultural tourism, cultural facilities are found to also be deficient. As Gadeso says at the start of its report that there is "the necessity to improve our product". It's hard to argue with the statement.
Tuesday, April 01, 2014
Insecurities Of Mallorca
What do expatriates worry about? Do they share similar concerns to the natives? Were you to present an expat with a diagram that shows him or her at its centre surrounded by crises of basic rights, politics, socioeconomics and lack of social cohesion, would any of it be of any obvious concern? Or would any of the further issues within these "crises" be of concern - the provision of services (education and health, for instance), poverty, the devaluation of democracy and corruption?
I am referring to a diagram produced by the Mallorcan research organisation, Gadeso, which forms the basis for a survey it has conducted into uncertainties and insecurities felt by people in the Balearics (when it says insecurities, it is referring to a feeling of insecurity, e.g. through employment worries, but more to feeling unsafe). Of its 900 respondents, one would have to presume that few if any are expatriates. Why would Gadeso ask expats? Would they show any interest or concern?
It is easy to brand the expat class as being indifferent, but this is a generalisation, albeit one with some justification. Expats (and I'm primarily referring to British ones) fall into different categories, of which one is undoubtedly the indifferent one, but to apply this branding across the board would be wrong. By the simple expedients of talking to people and the gathering of intelligence from social media, one is aware of uncertainties and insecurities that are not far removed from those identified in the survey once one gets to its nitty-gritty.
What are the situations which generate insecurity? They include offences against people and property, petty crime and street prostitution. What are the principal causes of insecurity? Lack of police presence and vigilance, unemployment and unstable work, laws and the judicial system. What are the main solutions to this insecurity? Modification of laws, increase in policing numbers and effectiveness, reduction in social inequality, measures to provide youth employment, changes to the educational system.
All of these are listed in the survey and all of them have increased in terms of the percentage of respondents identifying them. Over the past five years, the sense of insecurity has, according to the survey, risen alarmingly. Some of it might be attributable to economic crisis, but it would be wrong to conclude that it can all be.
Expatriate responses, were he or she to be asked the same questions, would, I would suggest, reflect their own package of circumstances - financial, social, work, location and so on. For the expat down Magalluf way, as an example, there is plenty in this survey which matches what has been said over the past months about the resort - lack of policing, petty crime, prostitution, need to modify laws - and judging by the amount of coverage these get, one would conclude that they have increased as expat concerns as markedly as they have for the survey respondents.
But one makes this conclusion through a process of extrapolation and some assumption and not on a more scientific basis. The fact is that we know very little about what expats think, about their insecurities, uncertainties and concerns. We know of some which are a long way distant from those of the survey but which are, in truth, inconsequential. Getting into a lather over a residence card is hardly in the same category as corruption, lack of effective policing or prostitution. But even were there to be a more scientific approach to unearthing these worries, the results would probably be very uneven. For some, there are few worries, save for the reporting of assets. There is the expat real world and there is the expat unreal world. Two or more worlds divided as greatly as Mallorcan society is divided and has grown in its lack of social cohesion.
Expatriate generalisation, driven to no small extent by an often wilfully prejudiced British media, is full of fallacies, but certain generalisations, even if they have been twisted somewhat, can cut to the bone because they expose some truths. Yes, I remember that "Daily Mail" article well. The Portalsisation of Mallorcan expat life, one might have called it. But it is world away from the other expat worlds, ones in which issues contained in the survey might be just as applicable - unstable work, poverty, drug addiction. Other worlds that do not revolve around the beautiful people and the need-to-be-seen and which are essentially humdrum in the sun and are concerned principally with pensions or the effects of all-inclusives on their bars: the everyday expats.
Whatever concerns the expat may or may not have, will he or she take notice of the concerns expressed in the Gadeso survey? Some will, some won't, but the increase in insecurity that the people of Mallorca has identified, combined with low levels of satisfaction as to its handling (be it through laws, by the police or other agencies) is something with which everyone should be concerned.
I am referring to a diagram produced by the Mallorcan research organisation, Gadeso, which forms the basis for a survey it has conducted into uncertainties and insecurities felt by people in the Balearics (when it says insecurities, it is referring to a feeling of insecurity, e.g. through employment worries, but more to feeling unsafe). Of its 900 respondents, one would have to presume that few if any are expatriates. Why would Gadeso ask expats? Would they show any interest or concern?
It is easy to brand the expat class as being indifferent, but this is a generalisation, albeit one with some justification. Expats (and I'm primarily referring to British ones) fall into different categories, of which one is undoubtedly the indifferent one, but to apply this branding across the board would be wrong. By the simple expedients of talking to people and the gathering of intelligence from social media, one is aware of uncertainties and insecurities that are not far removed from those identified in the survey once one gets to its nitty-gritty.
What are the situations which generate insecurity? They include offences against people and property, petty crime and street prostitution. What are the principal causes of insecurity? Lack of police presence and vigilance, unemployment and unstable work, laws and the judicial system. What are the main solutions to this insecurity? Modification of laws, increase in policing numbers and effectiveness, reduction in social inequality, measures to provide youth employment, changes to the educational system.
All of these are listed in the survey and all of them have increased in terms of the percentage of respondents identifying them. Over the past five years, the sense of insecurity has, according to the survey, risen alarmingly. Some of it might be attributable to economic crisis, but it would be wrong to conclude that it can all be.
Expatriate responses, were he or she to be asked the same questions, would, I would suggest, reflect their own package of circumstances - financial, social, work, location and so on. For the expat down Magalluf way, as an example, there is plenty in this survey which matches what has been said over the past months about the resort - lack of policing, petty crime, prostitution, need to modify laws - and judging by the amount of coverage these get, one would conclude that they have increased as expat concerns as markedly as they have for the survey respondents.
But one makes this conclusion through a process of extrapolation and some assumption and not on a more scientific basis. The fact is that we know very little about what expats think, about their insecurities, uncertainties and concerns. We know of some which are a long way distant from those of the survey but which are, in truth, inconsequential. Getting into a lather over a residence card is hardly in the same category as corruption, lack of effective policing or prostitution. But even were there to be a more scientific approach to unearthing these worries, the results would probably be very uneven. For some, there are few worries, save for the reporting of assets. There is the expat real world and there is the expat unreal world. Two or more worlds divided as greatly as Mallorcan society is divided and has grown in its lack of social cohesion.
Expatriate generalisation, driven to no small extent by an often wilfully prejudiced British media, is full of fallacies, but certain generalisations, even if they have been twisted somewhat, can cut to the bone because they expose some truths. Yes, I remember that "Daily Mail" article well. The Portalsisation of Mallorcan expat life, one might have called it. But it is world away from the other expat worlds, ones in which issues contained in the survey might be just as applicable - unstable work, poverty, drug addiction. Other worlds that do not revolve around the beautiful people and the need-to-be-seen and which are essentially humdrum in the sun and are concerned principally with pensions or the effects of all-inclusives on their bars: the everyday expats.
Whatever concerns the expat may or may not have, will he or she take notice of the concerns expressed in the Gadeso survey? Some will, some won't, but the increase in insecurity that the people of Mallorca has identified, combined with low levels of satisfaction as to its handling (be it through laws, by the police or other agencies) is something with which everyone should be concerned.
Wednesday, February 06, 2013
This Is Our Land: Perceptions of tourists
What is the single most important measure that needs to be adopted in Mallorca in respect of the tourist "product"? If you are resident, but not Mallorcan, or if you are a visitor (as in a tourist), what would you say was the most important out of the following: 1. the conversion of hotels; 2. the modernisation of the complementary offer (bars, restaurants, pretty much anything that isn't a hotel); 3. the modernisation of mature tourism centres; 4. improvements to transport connections; 5. the diversification of the tourist product; 6. environmental and cultural protection.
Of this little list, there is only one that suggests to me that it would be of paramount concern and that would be number four - improvements to transport connections, as in more flights in winter. Of the others, I don't know that British or other foreign residents or tourists would express much of a preference. Indeed, they might not really get the question. What, for example, is meant by modernisation of the complementary offer?
These measures are not ones that I have dreamt up; they were the six that formed the basis of the most recent survey of attitudes towards the tourist product conducted by the research organisation Gadeso. The survey was undertaken last month. Overwhelmingly, probably exclusively, the respondents would have been Mallorcan. It would be very much more interesting were Gadeso to conduct different research: that into attitudes of tourists themselves and from different nationalities.
The most important measure, according to the survey, is number six - environmental and cultural protection. The finding is no great surprise. It reflects the constant struggle between the commercial realities of tourism and the exploitation of the natural land and seascapes; a struggle that Mallorcans find hard to reconcile. This protection embodies a proclamation of this (Mallorca) being our land (the Mallorcan people's land).
It would be untrue to imply that tourists are not also concerned about environmental and cultural protection. There has been research among tourists into just this issue. The French, for instance, are particularly dismayed as to the extent of coastal development. The Germans are considered to be so environmentally righteous (a stereotyping that may not be wholly accurate) that they are the only ones, including and especially including Mallorcan residents, who pick every last bit of a container apart in order to place it in the correct recycling bin.
But a general perception among Mallorcans is that tourists care little about either the environment or the island's culture. And where many tourists are concerned, they are right to perceive this. The consequent tensions between tourists and islanders are, therefore, the product of differing perceptions of the tourist product. It is because such tensions exist that research would be that much more meaningful were it to highlight where and why these perceptions diverge.
But tourists, far from being one homogeneous blob, are a vast collection of organisms wriggling in opposing directions. There is no one tourist perception. One tourist's aloof and nose-raised snootiness directed at a Brit-style or less-than-sophisticated bar is another tourist's contentment with even the naffest hostelry. Satisfying tourists as one unified whole is an impossibility because there is no such thing as a unified perception by tourists of the tourist product. The only way that such unity of perception might be attained is through some engineering that creates a relative singularity of tourist psychographics and socioeconomics.
Mallorcans might yearn for a homogeneous, "quality" tourist whose sympathies might correspond more with their own perceptions, a tourist who is environmentally and culturally sound and who is more inclined to engage in tourist pastimes that aren't simply to be found on a beach or by a pool. They might yearn for such a paragon of touristic excellence, but then what else does the Gadeso survey reveal? The least important measure is considered to be diversification of the tourist product, supposedly the grand panacea for Mallorca's ills, especially in the off-season. What this finding suggests is a reinforcement of the most important measure of environmental and cultural protection. It is a reinforcement of what many suspect; that Mallorcans put up with tourists in resorts in summer but don't particularly want them elsewhere or during the months of the off-season. This is our land. Nostra terra.
Behind the Gadeso survey one detects the admission of perceptions that are less to do with physical manifestations of the tourist product and more with the abstract - what Mallorcans think about tourists. Whatever they truly reveal, one thing is for sure, that Mallorcan and tourist perceptions of the tourist product are two very different things.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Of this little list, there is only one that suggests to me that it would be of paramount concern and that would be number four - improvements to transport connections, as in more flights in winter. Of the others, I don't know that British or other foreign residents or tourists would express much of a preference. Indeed, they might not really get the question. What, for example, is meant by modernisation of the complementary offer?
These measures are not ones that I have dreamt up; they were the six that formed the basis of the most recent survey of attitudes towards the tourist product conducted by the research organisation Gadeso. The survey was undertaken last month. Overwhelmingly, probably exclusively, the respondents would have been Mallorcan. It would be very much more interesting were Gadeso to conduct different research: that into attitudes of tourists themselves and from different nationalities.
The most important measure, according to the survey, is number six - environmental and cultural protection. The finding is no great surprise. It reflects the constant struggle between the commercial realities of tourism and the exploitation of the natural land and seascapes; a struggle that Mallorcans find hard to reconcile. This protection embodies a proclamation of this (Mallorca) being our land (the Mallorcan people's land).
It would be untrue to imply that tourists are not also concerned about environmental and cultural protection. There has been research among tourists into just this issue. The French, for instance, are particularly dismayed as to the extent of coastal development. The Germans are considered to be so environmentally righteous (a stereotyping that may not be wholly accurate) that they are the only ones, including and especially including Mallorcan residents, who pick every last bit of a container apart in order to place it in the correct recycling bin.
But a general perception among Mallorcans is that tourists care little about either the environment or the island's culture. And where many tourists are concerned, they are right to perceive this. The consequent tensions between tourists and islanders are, therefore, the product of differing perceptions of the tourist product. It is because such tensions exist that research would be that much more meaningful were it to highlight where and why these perceptions diverge.
But tourists, far from being one homogeneous blob, are a vast collection of organisms wriggling in opposing directions. There is no one tourist perception. One tourist's aloof and nose-raised snootiness directed at a Brit-style or less-than-sophisticated bar is another tourist's contentment with even the naffest hostelry. Satisfying tourists as one unified whole is an impossibility because there is no such thing as a unified perception by tourists of the tourist product. The only way that such unity of perception might be attained is through some engineering that creates a relative singularity of tourist psychographics and socioeconomics.
Mallorcans might yearn for a homogeneous, "quality" tourist whose sympathies might correspond more with their own perceptions, a tourist who is environmentally and culturally sound and who is more inclined to engage in tourist pastimes that aren't simply to be found on a beach or by a pool. They might yearn for such a paragon of touristic excellence, but then what else does the Gadeso survey reveal? The least important measure is considered to be diversification of the tourist product, supposedly the grand panacea for Mallorca's ills, especially in the off-season. What this finding suggests is a reinforcement of the most important measure of environmental and cultural protection. It is a reinforcement of what many suspect; that Mallorcans put up with tourists in resorts in summer but don't particularly want them elsewhere or during the months of the off-season. This is our land. Nostra terra.
Behind the Gadeso survey one detects the admission of perceptions that are less to do with physical manifestations of the tourist product and more with the abstract - what Mallorcans think about tourists. Whatever they truly reveal, one thing is for sure, that Mallorcan and tourist perceptions of the tourist product are two very different things.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tuesday, February 07, 2012
Does The Centre Hold?: Class in the Balearics
The classless society. Remember that? It was John Major's big thing. The classless society was idealistic nonsense, but it reflected what has often been thought to be a British obsession with class.
Why is this meant to be such a British obsession? Because class doesn't exist elsewhere? Well, one place it does exist is the Balearics, though for the purposes of discovering where political sympathies lie, social-class categories aren't defined according to high, medium or low birth. Rather, they are grouped mainly according to employment status, though this will often amount to the same thing as privilege by birth.
The Balearics upper-class is inhabited by those from large businesses with property and capital and who hold senior managerial positions. The lower-class comprises the long-term unemployed, uneducated young people and immigrants without social networks. Between these two polarities are the lower-middle, middle and upper-middle classes. It all sounds pretty familiar.
This social classification comes in handy when researchers wish to go a-researching. And no more so than when the research has to do with politics. The Mallorcan research organisation Gadeso has been doing just this, and what has it discovered?
Would you be surprised to know that among the upper-class 71.4% are centre-right and a mere 1.4% is either left or centre-left? Equally, would you be amazed to learn that of the lower-class a further 1.4% describes itself as right-wing and 4% as left-wing?
I don't know about you, but I am amazed. A lower-class that is defined, by implication and in part, as socially excluded and poor would, you would think, be up for higher levels of extremism. It is perhaps difficult to know where centre becomes centre-left and centre-left becomes left, but the lower-class is pretty much solidly centre to centre-left; sympathetic to the PSOE socialist party, the PSM Mallorcan socialists and others, but not out on the loony fringe.
The lunatics are instead to be found among the upper class and more or less them alone. A lower percentage of the upper-middle class is on the far right (5.7%) than the 9.5% of the upper class and a much lower percentage is centre-right (a mere 30.8%).
The centre dominates, to the extent that 43.1% of the Balearics population considers itself to be of the centre. But isn't there a discrepancy here? How come the Partido Popular are in power?
One thing the PP isn't is of the centre. Despite constant references otherwise, it isn't really centre-right. There are certainly those who would argue that it is the most right-wing party in Europe, though it would be given a good run for its money by the weirdos knocking around a few former Soviet-bloc countries.
The inference, where the most recent elections were concerned, is that the real centre was abandoned. Though it might occasionally come up with its own nutty ideas, PSOE is pretty much that centre. It most certainly isn't the party of its socialist revolutionary origins in the nineteenth century.
Gadeso's findings are significant, though they do, as always with surveys, come with the caveat that surveys aren't necessarily completely accurate. What they suggest is that the PP, far from being the natural party of Balearics government (which history since autonomy in 1983 suggests), is not, and that were PSOE to sharpen up its act, and its organisation is lamentable by comparison with the PP, it could well return to government next time round. Lack of progress on the economy by the PP might lead to this in any event, but the general sympathies of the population indicate an underlying support, were the conditions to be appropriate.
The rejection of more extremist stances among the lower class, be they left or right, is also significant. This suggests that there is no groundswell of fanaticism in the Balearics that might lead to the sort of social disaffection and agitation that rotten economic circumstances can give rise to.
The most significant finding, and the most disturbing, is the one of the rightist sympathies of the upper class, that which holds power through large organisations. To what extent these sympathies coincide with more extremist elements one can only guess at. But one can guess how they might manifest themselves, and not just in terms of handling the economy or industrial relations. Social and religious issues are bound up in this rightism. And if it is the case that extremism on these counts are promulgated by a powerful upper-class, then what otherwise appears to be a moderate, centrist Balearics could cease to be so.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Why is this meant to be such a British obsession? Because class doesn't exist elsewhere? Well, one place it does exist is the Balearics, though for the purposes of discovering where political sympathies lie, social-class categories aren't defined according to high, medium or low birth. Rather, they are grouped mainly according to employment status, though this will often amount to the same thing as privilege by birth.
The Balearics upper-class is inhabited by those from large businesses with property and capital and who hold senior managerial positions. The lower-class comprises the long-term unemployed, uneducated young people and immigrants without social networks. Between these two polarities are the lower-middle, middle and upper-middle classes. It all sounds pretty familiar.
This social classification comes in handy when researchers wish to go a-researching. And no more so than when the research has to do with politics. The Mallorcan research organisation Gadeso has been doing just this, and what has it discovered?
Would you be surprised to know that among the upper-class 71.4% are centre-right and a mere 1.4% is either left or centre-left? Equally, would you be amazed to learn that of the lower-class a further 1.4% describes itself as right-wing and 4% as left-wing?
I don't know about you, but I am amazed. A lower-class that is defined, by implication and in part, as socially excluded and poor would, you would think, be up for higher levels of extremism. It is perhaps difficult to know where centre becomes centre-left and centre-left becomes left, but the lower-class is pretty much solidly centre to centre-left; sympathetic to the PSOE socialist party, the PSM Mallorcan socialists and others, but not out on the loony fringe.
The lunatics are instead to be found among the upper class and more or less them alone. A lower percentage of the upper-middle class is on the far right (5.7%) than the 9.5% of the upper class and a much lower percentage is centre-right (a mere 30.8%).
The centre dominates, to the extent that 43.1% of the Balearics population considers itself to be of the centre. But isn't there a discrepancy here? How come the Partido Popular are in power?
One thing the PP isn't is of the centre. Despite constant references otherwise, it isn't really centre-right. There are certainly those who would argue that it is the most right-wing party in Europe, though it would be given a good run for its money by the weirdos knocking around a few former Soviet-bloc countries.
The inference, where the most recent elections were concerned, is that the real centre was abandoned. Though it might occasionally come up with its own nutty ideas, PSOE is pretty much that centre. It most certainly isn't the party of its socialist revolutionary origins in the nineteenth century.
Gadeso's findings are significant, though they do, as always with surveys, come with the caveat that surveys aren't necessarily completely accurate. What they suggest is that the PP, far from being the natural party of Balearics government (which history since autonomy in 1983 suggests), is not, and that were PSOE to sharpen up its act, and its organisation is lamentable by comparison with the PP, it could well return to government next time round. Lack of progress on the economy by the PP might lead to this in any event, but the general sympathies of the population indicate an underlying support, were the conditions to be appropriate.
The rejection of more extremist stances among the lower class, be they left or right, is also significant. This suggests that there is no groundswell of fanaticism in the Balearics that might lead to the sort of social disaffection and agitation that rotten economic circumstances can give rise to.
The most significant finding, and the most disturbing, is the one of the rightist sympathies of the upper class, that which holds power through large organisations. To what extent these sympathies coincide with more extremist elements one can only guess at. But one can guess how they might manifest themselves, and not just in terms of handling the economy or industrial relations. Social and religious issues are bound up in this rightism. And if it is the case that extremism on these counts are promulgated by a powerful upper-class, then what otherwise appears to be a moderate, centrist Balearics could cease to be so.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
The First And Last Resort
The resorts of Mallorca are not subject to detailed research into what visitors make of them. They should all be. Every year there should be surveys. What you get instead is a mass of anecdotes, snotty letters to an editor here or there, soundings-off on the internet and precious little, if anything, by way of a coherent response.
Of resorts that are put under the researchers' lens, only one (or, strictly speaking, three) is paid much attention to: Playa de Palma (along with Arenal and Can Pastilla). History decrees that it should be. This is where it pretty much all began; mass tourism, that is. The resort's antiquity affords it a special status, one that has meant to be bringing about its transformation.
The research organisation Gadeso was in Playa de Palma in 2009. It has been back again recently. The transformation of Playa de Palma can't come soon enough, it would appear. Excusing a touch of the dramatic, the introduction to Gadeso's 2011 survey states that "every day it becomes more urgent" to improve and modernise Mallorca's resorts, and Playa de Palma in particular.
It's not all bad news, unless you happen to run a hotel, tourist apartments or residential tourist accommodation. For each category, the level of satisfaction has gone down since 2009, and the all-inclusive rates lower than the other categories. It's not surprising: the restaurants are worse than regular hotels; the comfort is worse; the standards of cleanliness and facilities are lower. Customers may demand all-inclusives - the tour operators keep insisting that they do - but they also demand a reasonable level of service.
The satisfaction with Playa de Palma is lower than with the rest of Mallorca and so is the likelihood of people coming back again. The report's conclusion: could do better, see me!
This year's survey and that in 2009 are not the only ones that Gadeso has done in Playa de Palma. It hasn't gone into other resorts, or hadn't until it went to Cala Bona and Cala Millor last year. The survey there didn't report in the same way. Though the conclusions said that there was an excessive amount of all-inclusive, it didn't specifically offer information on hotel satisfaction.
The focus on this factor in Playa de Palma is understandable. Hotels are really at the heart of the whole project to transform Playa de Palma. And much as there is a desire for an overall upgrading of hotels across Mallorca, there has been not insignificant resistance from Playa de Palma hoteliers who argue that the bread-and-butter of the three-star should not be interfered with.
Gadeso has appended documents to its survey. One is a paper that emanates from the University of Barcelona which highlights the fact that, six years on from the creation of a consortium, political scraps, opposition (from hoteliers who should mainly welcome it and some residents who haven't welcomed it) and general inertia have failed to effect a process of transformation that would make the resort the model for subsequent redevelopments elsewhere and also a model of which Mallorca could be proud. The paper emphasises the fact that the resort is deteriorating, thus reinforcing what Gadeso says in its survey introduction and what the survey itself suggests.
A different document, a letter to the tourism minister, argues that to continue with a consortium that is hamstrung by a lack of government finance is a "nonsense and a waste". There is a plea that the project should be in the hands of the private sector, given the inability of the politicians to carry out such projects and to wrong priorities.
And one of those priorities, about the only public project that appears to have escaped President Bauzá's axe, is the Palacio de Congresos, described as a bottomless pit that will do nothing to alleviate seasonality. The Palacio can't be abandoned now, but it should never have been a priority. Its whole being, apart from the vanity of Palma and Mallorca being able to claim that it has a conference complex - as do many other cities in Spain as well as the Canaries - is predicated on a market, that of "meetings, incentives, conferences and events (MICE)", which is largely unknown.
The sun and beach of Playa de Palma is known. It's been known for years. Hopefully, it will be known for many more years to come, but its future has been placed in the balance by inadequate political supervision. Hand it over to the private sector, and just let them get on with it.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Of resorts that are put under the researchers' lens, only one (or, strictly speaking, three) is paid much attention to: Playa de Palma (along with Arenal and Can Pastilla). History decrees that it should be. This is where it pretty much all began; mass tourism, that is. The resort's antiquity affords it a special status, one that has meant to be bringing about its transformation.
The research organisation Gadeso was in Playa de Palma in 2009. It has been back again recently. The transformation of Playa de Palma can't come soon enough, it would appear. Excusing a touch of the dramatic, the introduction to Gadeso's 2011 survey states that "every day it becomes more urgent" to improve and modernise Mallorca's resorts, and Playa de Palma in particular.
It's not all bad news, unless you happen to run a hotel, tourist apartments or residential tourist accommodation. For each category, the level of satisfaction has gone down since 2009, and the all-inclusive rates lower than the other categories. It's not surprising: the restaurants are worse than regular hotels; the comfort is worse; the standards of cleanliness and facilities are lower. Customers may demand all-inclusives - the tour operators keep insisting that they do - but they also demand a reasonable level of service.
The satisfaction with Playa de Palma is lower than with the rest of Mallorca and so is the likelihood of people coming back again. The report's conclusion: could do better, see me!
This year's survey and that in 2009 are not the only ones that Gadeso has done in Playa de Palma. It hasn't gone into other resorts, or hadn't until it went to Cala Bona and Cala Millor last year. The survey there didn't report in the same way. Though the conclusions said that there was an excessive amount of all-inclusive, it didn't specifically offer information on hotel satisfaction.
The focus on this factor in Playa de Palma is understandable. Hotels are really at the heart of the whole project to transform Playa de Palma. And much as there is a desire for an overall upgrading of hotels across Mallorca, there has been not insignificant resistance from Playa de Palma hoteliers who argue that the bread-and-butter of the three-star should not be interfered with.
Gadeso has appended documents to its survey. One is a paper that emanates from the University of Barcelona which highlights the fact that, six years on from the creation of a consortium, political scraps, opposition (from hoteliers who should mainly welcome it and some residents who haven't welcomed it) and general inertia have failed to effect a process of transformation that would make the resort the model for subsequent redevelopments elsewhere and also a model of which Mallorca could be proud. The paper emphasises the fact that the resort is deteriorating, thus reinforcing what Gadeso says in its survey introduction and what the survey itself suggests.
A different document, a letter to the tourism minister, argues that to continue with a consortium that is hamstrung by a lack of government finance is a "nonsense and a waste". There is a plea that the project should be in the hands of the private sector, given the inability of the politicians to carry out such projects and to wrong priorities.
And one of those priorities, about the only public project that appears to have escaped President Bauzá's axe, is the Palacio de Congresos, described as a bottomless pit that will do nothing to alleviate seasonality. The Palacio can't be abandoned now, but it should never have been a priority. Its whole being, apart from the vanity of Palma and Mallorca being able to claim that it has a conference complex - as do many other cities in Spain as well as the Canaries - is predicated on a market, that of "meetings, incentives, conferences and events (MICE)", which is largely unknown.
The sun and beach of Playa de Palma is known. It's been known for years. Hopefully, it will be known for many more years to come, but its future has been placed in the balance by inadequate political supervision. Hand it over to the private sector, and just let them get on with it.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Is The Customer Satisfied?
The Balearics received 11% more international visitors in the first seven months of this year than last. Let joy be unconfined. Put out the bunting.
5.75 million people up to the end of July, but have they been happy? Loads of people doesn't automatically mean loads of satisfied people or indeed loadsamoney. At the same time as the statistics of joy are being sung about arrivals into the airports and ports, the latest tourism satisfaction survey compiled by the research organisation Gadeso offers a less upbeat tempo.
The overall index of satisfaction where Mallorca is concerned is down. Only fractionally, but down nevertheless. Of the four key measures of satisfaction, only the quality of the environment shows a slight upward trend. Satisfaction with public services is unchanged from 2010, while satisfaction with both accommodation and the so-called complementary offer (bars, restaurants etc.) is down.
A caveat in all this is that the results are based on a mere 400 interviews, and these 400 have been conducted across the Balearics. There have been more in Mallorca than anywhere else, but the number still isn't great, and there is no indication as to the backgrounds of those interviewed. So, is the survey of any use?
Its value does rather depend upon whether you believe that results from a limited survey can be extrapolated into painting an accurate picture of attitudes more generally. Tourists are a highly diverse bunch with a highly diverse set of expectations, and when a survey asks for making a ranking between one and ten, the decision of the person being surveyed can be fairly arbitrary.
What you get, at best, is an indication. No more. You can choose to use the results as evidence or not. If, however, you are inclined to take them as evidence, then certain findings do rather jump out at you. One in particular. That of the satisfaction with the price-quality ratio of the bars and restaurants. It has the lowest rating of any factor in the survey - 3.4 - which is the same as last year and down from 4.0 since 2009. It is the one factor that Gadeso describes as "deficient".
If one interprets this as meaning that prices are too high and quality is too low, then the bars and restaurants of Mallorca are not performing well. One suspects the ratio is, in the minds of those surveyed, skewed more by price than it is by quality; that the assessment is an assessment of price as opposed to what actually appears on a plate. Why might one suspect this? Because prices are known. Quality is intangible. Providing a ratio between the known and the unknown will place a greater emphasis on what is known. Simple.
Consequently, can we assume that prices are too high? Anecdotally they are said to be. But what are the benchmarks? One also suspects that a benchmark is an historical recollection of what things cost in the good old days or is a completely unrealistic expectation that because Mallorca is "foreign" it should automatically be cheap. Prices vary so markedly that is almost impossible to come to a conclusion. How, for instance, does one reconcile the fact that in Puerto Pollensa you can pay three euros for a coffee and a bacon sandwich in one establishment, then go to another and pay 4.50 for the coffee alone? Yes, the quality element kicks in, but if you go solely on price then a reconciliation cannot be made, other than the fact that one place is cheap and the other isn't.
The singling out of price, be it by anecdote or by survey result, is a headline maker because price is arguably the most important issue to the tourist. Indeed the Gadeso survey reinforces this, but in doing so it raises an apparent contradiction. Since 2009 price as a motivation for tourists choosing Mallorca has shot up by over 12 percentage points. 61.8% of those surveyed said it was the main motivation. So, how does this square with the finding regarding the price-quality ratio?
Perhaps it is a reflection of what tourists expect of Mallorca and is also a reflection, as noted by the survey, of low-cost travel. It may also represent expectations of first-time visitors, those who opted for Mallorca this year because of problems elsewhere in the Mediterranean region. The percentage of those who had previously been to Mallorca is down quite significantly, while the percentage of those saying they would return is also down.
Surveys are notorious for enabling whatever interpretation you want to put on them, but the message from this one is that price is the overriding factor in coming to Mallorca in the first place, and that price, once on the island, is not quite as was expected.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
5.75 million people up to the end of July, but have they been happy? Loads of people doesn't automatically mean loads of satisfied people or indeed loadsamoney. At the same time as the statistics of joy are being sung about arrivals into the airports and ports, the latest tourism satisfaction survey compiled by the research organisation Gadeso offers a less upbeat tempo.
The overall index of satisfaction where Mallorca is concerned is down. Only fractionally, but down nevertheless. Of the four key measures of satisfaction, only the quality of the environment shows a slight upward trend. Satisfaction with public services is unchanged from 2010, while satisfaction with both accommodation and the so-called complementary offer (bars, restaurants etc.) is down.
A caveat in all this is that the results are based on a mere 400 interviews, and these 400 have been conducted across the Balearics. There have been more in Mallorca than anywhere else, but the number still isn't great, and there is no indication as to the backgrounds of those interviewed. So, is the survey of any use?
Its value does rather depend upon whether you believe that results from a limited survey can be extrapolated into painting an accurate picture of attitudes more generally. Tourists are a highly diverse bunch with a highly diverse set of expectations, and when a survey asks for making a ranking between one and ten, the decision of the person being surveyed can be fairly arbitrary.
What you get, at best, is an indication. No more. You can choose to use the results as evidence or not. If, however, you are inclined to take them as evidence, then certain findings do rather jump out at you. One in particular. That of the satisfaction with the price-quality ratio of the bars and restaurants. It has the lowest rating of any factor in the survey - 3.4 - which is the same as last year and down from 4.0 since 2009. It is the one factor that Gadeso describes as "deficient".
If one interprets this as meaning that prices are too high and quality is too low, then the bars and restaurants of Mallorca are not performing well. One suspects the ratio is, in the minds of those surveyed, skewed more by price than it is by quality; that the assessment is an assessment of price as opposed to what actually appears on a plate. Why might one suspect this? Because prices are known. Quality is intangible. Providing a ratio between the known and the unknown will place a greater emphasis on what is known. Simple.
Consequently, can we assume that prices are too high? Anecdotally they are said to be. But what are the benchmarks? One also suspects that a benchmark is an historical recollection of what things cost in the good old days or is a completely unrealistic expectation that because Mallorca is "foreign" it should automatically be cheap. Prices vary so markedly that is almost impossible to come to a conclusion. How, for instance, does one reconcile the fact that in Puerto Pollensa you can pay three euros for a coffee and a bacon sandwich in one establishment, then go to another and pay 4.50 for the coffee alone? Yes, the quality element kicks in, but if you go solely on price then a reconciliation cannot be made, other than the fact that one place is cheap and the other isn't.
The singling out of price, be it by anecdote or by survey result, is a headline maker because price is arguably the most important issue to the tourist. Indeed the Gadeso survey reinforces this, but in doing so it raises an apparent contradiction. Since 2009 price as a motivation for tourists choosing Mallorca has shot up by over 12 percentage points. 61.8% of those surveyed said it was the main motivation. So, how does this square with the finding regarding the price-quality ratio?
Perhaps it is a reflection of what tourists expect of Mallorca and is also a reflection, as noted by the survey, of low-cost travel. It may also represent expectations of first-time visitors, those who opted for Mallorca this year because of problems elsewhere in the Mediterranean region. The percentage of those who had previously been to Mallorca is down quite significantly, while the percentage of those saying they would return is also down.
Surveys are notorious for enabling whatever interpretation you want to put on them, but the message from this one is that price is the overriding factor in coming to Mallorca in the first place, and that price, once on the island, is not quite as was expected.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Hidden Identities: Spanish or Mallorcan?
Let's imagine that you are minding your own business, walking down the street and some chap with a clipboard accosts you and starts asking you with what you identify; your country or island, that is. Were this to happen in Mallorca, you would, and I assume for a moment that you are English, reply in song, "England till I die", and then probably nut the interviewer. Were, though, you unable to opt for England or any other part of the British Isles, but had to select Mallorca or Spain or even the Balearics, what would be your reply?
Well, imagination is all fine and dandy, but chances are that you wouldn't be asked. Unlike 900 Balearic sorts. The research organisation Gadeso has been asking them whether they feel more Spanish, more Mallorcan (or Menorcan, Ibizan or Formenteran) or more Balearic. And what do they feel? For the most part, they are neither one thing nor the other. They are split personalities, as Spanish as they are Balearic. 55% of them. But of those who are one thing or the other, roughly equal numbers consider themselves more Spanish or more Balearic, while equal numbers (7%) believe they are either only Spanish or only Balearic.
There we are then. The islands mainly comprise people who, on given the compromise option, opt for it. Spanish and Balearic in equal measure. It's the don't know answer for those who probably normally never give the question a moment's thought. Gadeso is a worthy body, but this research is somewhat spurious. Or is it?
Not completely. Gadeso argues that an increase in those who feel more Spanish than the last time such research was conducted can be explained by dissatisfaction with government in the Balearics. Possibly. It could also be that they are just asking different people.
The more interesting stuff, though, lies in the detail behind the general findings. On first reading the report of this research, my own reaction was to question the degree to which local people associate themselves with the islands of the archipelago as a whole, the Balearics, or with an individual island. I cannot ever recall a Mallorcan referring even vaguely to the Balearics in terms of the islands being his or her homeland. To Mallorca, yes, but not the Balearics. The research bears this out. Around two-thirds of Mallorcans identify with Mallorca and not the Balearics; the numbers are higher in the other islands.
Is this either surprising or important? No, it isn't surprising, but, yes, it is important. Important because regional government is Balearic, because autonomy is that of the Balearics and because much impulse for positioning and promotion is Balearic, even that of tourism promotion. Just as the tourist thinks only of the individual islands, so too do the people of the individual islands. The Balearics are a geographical convenience, rather than a cohesive political, social or touristic unit.
The finding is also important because, if there genuinely is a desire for greater autonomy or indeed independence, then it is not the Balearics which are inspiring this desire; it is the islands themselves. But even here, the sympathy is skewed significantly. Of the four main political parties or groupings at the 2007 local elections, only those who voted for the left-wing Bloc (the Mallorcan socialist party and others) have a strong Balearics-only identity. This, though, is diluted when Balearic and island identity is asked about. Across the four parties - Bloc, Partido Popular, PSOE socialists and the now ex-Unió Mallorquina - identity is overwhelmingly with the island and not the Balearics.
Any drive towards independence and an association with another vague political and social construct, the "Catalan lands", is exposed as having virtually no ground swell of identity. A whole 2% of Bloc voters place a Catalan identity above a Balearic or island identity. The percentages are zero for the other parties. This will make uneasy reading for the likes of the Obra Cultural Balear and others on the independence wing who seem to believe that there is mileage in independence and a confederation of Catalan states. They may believe it, but the public may beg to differ.
Taking the findings as a whole, the case for greater autonomy or independence would seem, on the basis of personal identity at any rate, to have only a minority public support. Almost 80% of the public consider themselves to be either as Spanish as they are Balearic, more Spanish or Spanish alone. Another angle on this, and it should be something that the Partido Popular with its potentially dangerous tendency towards greater "Spanishness" should take note of, is that only a quarter of its supporters feel that they are more Spanish than Balearic and that only 10% feel more Spanish alone. They are not the majority, therefore.
What the findings also show is a confirmation of what has historically been the case. That the people of Mallorca and the islands are generally middle of the road and conservative with a small "c". It's a message that may not please the promoters of independence and it may contradict a growing sense of radicalism, but it is a message that is probably accurate.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Index for March 2011
Airport workers strike - 7 March 2011
Baltasar Garzón - 26 March 2011
Bars to close in smoking-ban protest - 9 March 2011
British, what Mallorcans think of the - 30 March 2011
Carlos Delgado: ambitions for office - 20 March 2011
Convergència per les Illes Balears - 6 March 2011
Cycling tourism - 8 March 2011
Earthquakes - 19 March 2011
Film in Mallorca - 21 March 2011
GESA building - 1 March 2011
Historic tourism season in 2011 - 23 March 2011
Identity, Mallorca v. Spanish - 31 March 2011
Infrastructure, expensive - 22 March 2011
Innovation and development - 25 March 2011
Insults, Balearics parliament and political - 17 March 2011
Magaluf death of a tourist - 29 March 2011
Mallorca Rocks - 16 March 2011
María Salom and the Council of Mallorca - 13 March 2011
Menorca: all-inclusives and restaurant offers - 28 March 2011
Miserable, Spanish the most - 11 March 2011
Oil and petrol prices - 7 March 2011
Partido Popular, corruption and - 6 March 2011
Photography, society and - 15 March 2011
Rain, pollen and dust - 18 March 2011
Ramón Socias - 6 March 2011
Royal wedding and street parties - 27 March 2011
Seasonal workers and expats - 14 March 2011
Sepia fair, Alcúdia's fishermen pull out of - 3 March 2011
Sobrasada - 4 March 2011
Speed limit reduction - 2 March 2011
Sustainable tourism - 24 March 2011
Tourism minister, President Antich and - 12 March 2011
Trains and public transport - 10 March 2011
"Wetten, dass ...?" broadcast from Palma - 5 March 2011
Well, imagination is all fine and dandy, but chances are that you wouldn't be asked. Unlike 900 Balearic sorts. The research organisation Gadeso has been asking them whether they feel more Spanish, more Mallorcan (or Menorcan, Ibizan or Formenteran) or more Balearic. And what do they feel? For the most part, they are neither one thing nor the other. They are split personalities, as Spanish as they are Balearic. 55% of them. But of those who are one thing or the other, roughly equal numbers consider themselves more Spanish or more Balearic, while equal numbers (7%) believe they are either only Spanish or only Balearic.
There we are then. The islands mainly comprise people who, on given the compromise option, opt for it. Spanish and Balearic in equal measure. It's the don't know answer for those who probably normally never give the question a moment's thought. Gadeso is a worthy body, but this research is somewhat spurious. Or is it?
Not completely. Gadeso argues that an increase in those who feel more Spanish than the last time such research was conducted can be explained by dissatisfaction with government in the Balearics. Possibly. It could also be that they are just asking different people.
The more interesting stuff, though, lies in the detail behind the general findings. On first reading the report of this research, my own reaction was to question the degree to which local people associate themselves with the islands of the archipelago as a whole, the Balearics, or with an individual island. I cannot ever recall a Mallorcan referring even vaguely to the Balearics in terms of the islands being his or her homeland. To Mallorca, yes, but not the Balearics. The research bears this out. Around two-thirds of Mallorcans identify with Mallorca and not the Balearics; the numbers are higher in the other islands.
Is this either surprising or important? No, it isn't surprising, but, yes, it is important. Important because regional government is Balearic, because autonomy is that of the Balearics and because much impulse for positioning and promotion is Balearic, even that of tourism promotion. Just as the tourist thinks only of the individual islands, so too do the people of the individual islands. The Balearics are a geographical convenience, rather than a cohesive political, social or touristic unit.
The finding is also important because, if there genuinely is a desire for greater autonomy or indeed independence, then it is not the Balearics which are inspiring this desire; it is the islands themselves. But even here, the sympathy is skewed significantly. Of the four main political parties or groupings at the 2007 local elections, only those who voted for the left-wing Bloc (the Mallorcan socialist party and others) have a strong Balearics-only identity. This, though, is diluted when Balearic and island identity is asked about. Across the four parties - Bloc, Partido Popular, PSOE socialists and the now ex-Unió Mallorquina - identity is overwhelmingly with the island and not the Balearics.
Any drive towards independence and an association with another vague political and social construct, the "Catalan lands", is exposed as having virtually no ground swell of identity. A whole 2% of Bloc voters place a Catalan identity above a Balearic or island identity. The percentages are zero for the other parties. This will make uneasy reading for the likes of the Obra Cultural Balear and others on the independence wing who seem to believe that there is mileage in independence and a confederation of Catalan states. They may believe it, but the public may beg to differ.
Taking the findings as a whole, the case for greater autonomy or independence would seem, on the basis of personal identity at any rate, to have only a minority public support. Almost 80% of the public consider themselves to be either as Spanish as they are Balearic, more Spanish or Spanish alone. Another angle on this, and it should be something that the Partido Popular with its potentially dangerous tendency towards greater "Spanishness" should take note of, is that only a quarter of its supporters feel that they are more Spanish than Balearic and that only 10% feel more Spanish alone. They are not the majority, therefore.
What the findings also show is a confirmation of what has historically been the case. That the people of Mallorca and the islands are generally middle of the road and conservative with a small "c". It's a message that may not please the promoters of independence and it may contradict a growing sense of radicalism, but it is a message that is probably accurate.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Index for March 2011
Airport workers strike - 7 March 2011
Baltasar Garzón - 26 March 2011
Bars to close in smoking-ban protest - 9 March 2011
British, what Mallorcans think of the - 30 March 2011
Carlos Delgado: ambitions for office - 20 March 2011
Convergència per les Illes Balears - 6 March 2011
Cycling tourism - 8 March 2011
Earthquakes - 19 March 2011
Film in Mallorca - 21 March 2011
GESA building - 1 March 2011
Historic tourism season in 2011 - 23 March 2011
Identity, Mallorca v. Spanish - 31 March 2011
Infrastructure, expensive - 22 March 2011
Innovation and development - 25 March 2011
Insults, Balearics parliament and political - 17 March 2011
Magaluf death of a tourist - 29 March 2011
Mallorca Rocks - 16 March 2011
María Salom and the Council of Mallorca - 13 March 2011
Menorca: all-inclusives and restaurant offers - 28 March 2011
Miserable, Spanish the most - 11 March 2011
Oil and petrol prices - 7 March 2011
Partido Popular, corruption and - 6 March 2011
Photography, society and - 15 March 2011
Rain, pollen and dust - 18 March 2011
Ramón Socias - 6 March 2011
Royal wedding and street parties - 27 March 2011
Seasonal workers and expats - 14 March 2011
Sepia fair, Alcúdia's fishermen pull out of - 3 March 2011
Sobrasada - 4 March 2011
Speed limit reduction - 2 March 2011
Sustainable tourism - 24 March 2011
Tourism minister, President Antich and - 12 March 2011
Trains and public transport - 10 March 2011
"Wetten, dass ...?" broadcast from Palma - 5 March 2011
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