In the annals of the Fomento del Turismo, the Mallorca Tourist Board, there is a 1962 reference to one Bartomeu Sagrera Escalas and to his having talked about a fair. He was, from what I can make out, the delegate in the Balearics for the national trade ministry as well as having been a member of the tourist board. The fair in question was held in the autumn of that year. It was the Feria de Muestras.
The word muestra can have different meanings, but in this context it is probably most satisfactorily translated as exhibition. This fair of exhibitions was a trade fair, one designed in part to show off Mallorca's industry, such as it was. By 1962, the island's industrial base was in decline. Tourism was beginning the process that eventually killed much of it off.
Mallorca's move from a primary economy, one based almost solely on agriculture, had started to gather pace in the final quarter of the nineteenth century. The secondary economy was to bring, for example, textiles, chemicals and leather products. In the early 1950s, it is estimated that around 35% of the population worked in factories that were producing the likes of chemicals. In the following decade, the labour force changed markedly. An example of the decline in textiles can be seen in Pollensa. The ruined Can Morató factory, closed since 1960, was once a significant manufacturer and exporter of carpets. Chemicals factories closed down, while the leather trade was undermined by lack of investment.
Although tourism and the tertiary economy was the coming thing, it was recognised that Mallorca shouldn't be allowed to become dependent on a mono-economic culture. It had been when agriculture was dominant. And that had meant risks because of weather and pests. The devastation of the vineyards in the 1890s was evidence of the latter.
In the '60s, there was to be an effort, as with the creation of Spain's first industrial estate, Son Castelló in Palma, to try and ensure a diverse economy. Although the estate was to be a success, the lack of diversification is a theme one hears too often today. The Feria de Muestras was therefore another effort. But by 1974, they had given up holding a fair. Tourism had well and truly triumphed and had taken construction along with it for the ride.
The desire for economic diversity can be seen from the fact that for the second fair there was an expanded name. It was the Feria de Muestras, Artesania y Turismo. And it was to be moved to a different time of the year. Weirdly, one would suggest, it used to start in June and run for more than two weeks into early July. One says weird because summer is not generally considered to be the best time to hold such a fair.
But June it was. The banner for the 1966 fair (18 June to 3 July) shows a steel cog and what one guesses is supposed to represent an airplane. The fair was held in Palma's Sa Feixina park. In 1967, there were some 200 stands for its sixth staging. During it, there was another type of fair. Between 23 and 25 June, the fourth World Gastronomy Congress was held. There was a cocktail do at Bellver Castle, a gala dinner at the newly opened Palacio de Congresos in the Pueblo Español and a special breakfast and lunch at Pollensa's Hotel Formentor, with invites given out by the national minister for information and tourism, Manuel Fraga.
Gastronomy is nowadays looked upon as a key niche in the tourism sector. The coinciding of the gastronomy congress and the fair fifty years ago demonstrates that it was considered an aspect of tourism even back then. It certainly wasn't a complement to industry.
In 1971, the "muestras" were dropped from the title of the fair. It had become shorter, so between 19 and 29 June there was the first Feria Nacional de Artesanía y Turismo de Palma de Mallorca. Three years on, and the fair was no more. Artisan work was also in retreat. It has of course rebounded to such an extent that today no fair worth its salt doesn't have an artisan element.
Tourism no longer needed to be lumped in with other sectors. It had become the be all and end all. Where fairs or congresses were concerned, this was confirmed in 1973. More sensibly, the timing had shifted to the autumn. In November of that year, ABTA held its convention at the auditorium in Palma. DRV, the German equivalent of ABTA, was to follow. Tourism was international and it was Mallorca's industry.
Showing posts with label Industry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Industry. Show all posts
Monday, June 05, 2017
Thursday, January 19, 2017
What If There Hadn't Been Tourism?
Tourismphobia appears to be a mainly Spanish concept. Indeed it seems to be almost exclusively Spanish. Put tourismphobia into Google and you don't get very far, and where you do get leads you mostly to Spain, including a scholar in Girona who's been researching the phobia. Put "turismofobia" into Google, and there's a different result: five pages convinced me that this is very much a Spanish thing.
Which isn't to say that there isn't fear or dislike of tourism elsewhere, just that Spain (certain parts anyway) is where there is an actual phobia. Despite the phobia appearing to be confined to the likes of Barcelona (and Mallorca), its existence is sufficient for the national tourism minister to refer to it. Álvaro Nadal told an audience in Madrid that there needs to be an end to talk of tourismphobia. Tourism is, after all, good for you and especially for the economy. The trouble is trying to convince everyone of the fact.
The apparent existence of this phobia prompted me to seek out evidence of its historical antecedents in Mallorca. What of phobia at the time of the great boom of the 1960s? The research will take a great deal more time than a cursory examination of Google. I am aware that there was a phobia, which then meant what it should mean - a fear rather than dislike or hatred - but documentary evidence will be thin on the ground. In the 1960s, you didn't go around announcing great protests while Fraga and Franco were overseeing things.
The phobia of the sixties for the most part wasn't a phobia. It was more a case of being jocular in a disparaging way. Dubbing someone a "turista" was used to mock. The presence of actual fear was a different thing. It's not as if everyone was blind to what was happening: the destruction of coastal environments; the assault on culture; the quasi-colonialism which tourism represented. Expressing such a fear, however, was not likely to do you any great favours.
It was during the dying years of the regime and afterwards that voices emerged who spoke of the fear. One to have done so was (and is) Miquel López Crespí, the Sa Pobla-based author. Among his output are reflections of the way in which what was once Sa Pobla's beach on the bay of Alcudia was transformed into Playa de Muro. In the process all the memories of simple August nights in the 1950s became just that - memories.
While I was hunting for some evidence, I stumbled across an article from 1984 by Climent Picornell, a professor at the University of the Balearic Islands. It is germane in the sense that tourismphobia, at its most extreme, would see tourism consigned to the bin of economic activity: a point that Nadal was making, if not in quite these words. The article wasn't written from the point of view of the fear but from a consideration of what there would have been, had there not been tourism.
Hypothetical the situation may have been in 1984 and still is today, but a fear hasn't altered over the intervening 33 years. Picornell referred to the "monospecialisation" of the economy - the reliance on one sector of activity. This is something which is widely spoken about nowadays, and within the debate there are those, such as GOB, who advance the case for greater emphasis on agriculture - a reclaiming of the land that was lost during the boom. Picornell wasn't so sure about that. He suggested that an historical emigration would have continued. People would have sought out prospects in the Caribbean and South America.
His focus wasn't agriculture, however. It was industry, and he looked at the establishment and then growth of industrial estates, such as Son Castelló and Can Valero. There were reasons why Asima, the organisation behind these estates, undertook their development. One day, tourism would come to an end, spelling economic catastrophe. There could be no waiting around for this to happen. An alternative was required.
While the estates might have presupposed the establishment of a thriving, indigenous artisanal industry, the outcome was to prove to be rather different. Even in 1984, Picornell was able to reflect on the way in which the estates had come to serve tourism or to be littered with cash and carrys. Tourism, and all that it bred, including greater consumerism, was all-consuming, and there was of course no catastrophe.
Industry which predated tourism, such as textiles and chemicals, did largely disappear. But had it been necessary for industry, rather than tourism, to dominate, what might the consequences have been? Environmentally, they could have been more savage than anything tourism has served up. And who could possibly say that its competitiveness would have come close to that of tourism? Having a phobia is one thing, eliminating it and replacing it with something else is quite another.
Which isn't to say that there isn't fear or dislike of tourism elsewhere, just that Spain (certain parts anyway) is where there is an actual phobia. Despite the phobia appearing to be confined to the likes of Barcelona (and Mallorca), its existence is sufficient for the national tourism minister to refer to it. Álvaro Nadal told an audience in Madrid that there needs to be an end to talk of tourismphobia. Tourism is, after all, good for you and especially for the economy. The trouble is trying to convince everyone of the fact.
The apparent existence of this phobia prompted me to seek out evidence of its historical antecedents in Mallorca. What of phobia at the time of the great boom of the 1960s? The research will take a great deal more time than a cursory examination of Google. I am aware that there was a phobia, which then meant what it should mean - a fear rather than dislike or hatred - but documentary evidence will be thin on the ground. In the 1960s, you didn't go around announcing great protests while Fraga and Franco were overseeing things.
The phobia of the sixties for the most part wasn't a phobia. It was more a case of being jocular in a disparaging way. Dubbing someone a "turista" was used to mock. The presence of actual fear was a different thing. It's not as if everyone was blind to what was happening: the destruction of coastal environments; the assault on culture; the quasi-colonialism which tourism represented. Expressing such a fear, however, was not likely to do you any great favours.
It was during the dying years of the regime and afterwards that voices emerged who spoke of the fear. One to have done so was (and is) Miquel López Crespí, the Sa Pobla-based author. Among his output are reflections of the way in which what was once Sa Pobla's beach on the bay of Alcudia was transformed into Playa de Muro. In the process all the memories of simple August nights in the 1950s became just that - memories.
While I was hunting for some evidence, I stumbled across an article from 1984 by Climent Picornell, a professor at the University of the Balearic Islands. It is germane in the sense that tourismphobia, at its most extreme, would see tourism consigned to the bin of economic activity: a point that Nadal was making, if not in quite these words. The article wasn't written from the point of view of the fear but from a consideration of what there would have been, had there not been tourism.
Hypothetical the situation may have been in 1984 and still is today, but a fear hasn't altered over the intervening 33 years. Picornell referred to the "monospecialisation" of the economy - the reliance on one sector of activity. This is something which is widely spoken about nowadays, and within the debate there are those, such as GOB, who advance the case for greater emphasis on agriculture - a reclaiming of the land that was lost during the boom. Picornell wasn't so sure about that. He suggested that an historical emigration would have continued. People would have sought out prospects in the Caribbean and South America.
His focus wasn't agriculture, however. It was industry, and he looked at the establishment and then growth of industrial estates, such as Son Castelló and Can Valero. There were reasons why Asima, the organisation behind these estates, undertook their development. One day, tourism would come to an end, spelling economic catastrophe. There could be no waiting around for this to happen. An alternative was required.
While the estates might have presupposed the establishment of a thriving, indigenous artisanal industry, the outcome was to prove to be rather different. Even in 1984, Picornell was able to reflect on the way in which the estates had come to serve tourism or to be littered with cash and carrys. Tourism, and all that it bred, including greater consumerism, was all-consuming, and there was of course no catastrophe.
Industry which predated tourism, such as textiles and chemicals, did largely disappear. But had it been necessary for industry, rather than tourism, to dominate, what might the consequences have been? Environmentally, they could have been more savage than anything tourism has served up. And who could possibly say that its competitiveness would have come close to that of tourism? Having a phobia is one thing, eliminating it and replacing it with something else is quite another.
Wednesday, February 19, 2014
From Naviform To Nadal: Manacor
One of the first times that Manacor loomed onto my radar was when I found the story of the ghost of the neighbourhood of Fartàritx. It turned out, or so it would seem, that this ghost was a simpleton by the name of Pere-Joan. When he died in 1820, the appearances of the ghost stopped. The ghost story is one of the more unusual ones that goes into the making of the history of Manacor, a history which is on display at the town's museum.
There have been other famous people from Manacor. Two of them also brought the town firmly into my consciousness. One of them was Antoni Maria Alcover, one of the most important literary figures that Mallorca has ever produced. Linguist, folklorist, story-teller, Alcover is something of a current-day hero for the Catalanist tradition. In terms of literature and linguistics he is on the same sort of cultural pedestal as that old mystic Ramon Llull, but he did something which Llull didn't; he co-compiled the "Diccionari català-valencià-balear". He has become known as the "apostle of the language": the Catalan language.
A very different historical figure was Simón Ballester (aka Simó Tort). In the middle of the fifteenth century, Ballester led an uprising against the governor of Mallorca. He and his men made at least three attempts to attack Palma and to get rid of the governor. The revolt failed, he fled to Menorca, was captured, returned to Mallorca and executed.
The point about Ballester, Alcover, Pere-Joan and even Rafa Nadal is that they all contribute in their very different ways to the story of Manacor and they are all representative of the richness of the past (and the present) that resides in the town and in other Mallorcan towns. Manacor may be known more for what exists on the coast but there is a great deal away from the coast that is also worth knowing and some of it is to be found in its museum.
This building is in itself part of the town's story. It is located in a manor house, Torre dels Enagistes, which dates back to the thirteenth century. The museum has exhibitions which relate to different eras, starting with prehistory and so with the Talayotic period and what indeed came before it: the Naviform era, so-called because of the way that dwellings were built in the shape of upside-down ships. The museum is remarkably good in identifying time frames. The Naviform people, who provided the first evidence of proper settlement in Manacor, were around from 1700BC. The Talayotic period came some six hundred years later, and there is plenty of evidence of Talayotic settlements dotted around Manacor, and the Talayotic people were later, from the seventh century BC, engaged in trade with the Ebusitano, merchants from Ebussus, aka Ibiza.
But moving much nearer to the present day and to Manacor's reputation as an industrial and commercial centre, the museum is staging a special exhibition dedicated to trades and crafts which have, for the most part, disappeared. The point is made that, though these were trades that were to be found in Manacor, they were ones that would have existed across Mallorca. They were trades which were commonplace, going back centuries, such as to the dairy which was certainly established in the mid-eighteenth century, and which numbered roughly forty in total - anything from healers and water diviners to makers of noodles and to those engaged in trades which survive; bookbinders, for instance.
These traditional trades and crafts didn't necessarily fall by the wayside on account of the industrial revolution of tourism. Though it is said that Mallorca was industrially underdeveloped before the arrival of tourism, this is accurate only up to a point. Manacor is an example of a town which disputes this argument. It transformed itself from the start of the last century thanks to artificial pearls and furniture.
The traditional trades serve as a reminder of times that will not return and of Manacor as it once was, but remembering their passing serves to emphasise the fact that Manacor grew to be the town it now is not because of traditional trades but because of the pre-modern ones that arrived before tourism.
* Photo of Manacor Museum from: http://www.balearsculturaltour.net
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
The Weaver's Tale: Diversification
What does Mauritius have in common with Mallorca? Apart from the fact that both are islands and begin with an "M", their populations are not dissimilar in size and the economies of the two islands are roughly similar in size. Historically, both had an economic reliance on the land: Mallorca on crop farming, Mauritius on sugar.
Tourism came later to Mauritius than to Mallorca, and it was a different type of tourism. In the 1970s a predominantly luxury style of tourism, based on resort hotels, came into being. It was one that benefited the economy in general, but because it was aimed at a more exclusive end of the market and later became all-inclusive, a bar and restaurant sector did not complement the hotels. As a consequence, while the island's macroeconomic status flourished, the local population saw very little evidence of this.
At the same time as Mauritius's tourism was taking off, the government was setting in motion a process of economic development and diversification. Principally, this was a way of shifting the country's emphasis away from the land, i.e. sugar, but the unevenness of the benefits derived from tourism gave the process an added momentum. Furthermore, the government recognised that tourism can be fickle and subject to economic shocks or competition.
Sugar is today far less important but still more important than agriculture is to Mallorca. Tourism and services account for some 70% of GDP. And while industry has fallen back, the process of diversification did reap rewards.
The Mauritian government, through a combination of trade agreements, tax incentives and advantageous investment conditions, created, virtually from scratch, a textile industry. Despite a downturn over recent years, it represents some 7% of GDP. It employs a skilled workforce, it turns out quality product and it supplies the likes of Next and, a Spanish connection, Zara. The industry, and it has contributed as much as 14% to GDP, was built without the island having the natural resources to supply it and so was totally dependent upon the importing of raw material. Nevertheless, it worked.
Where similarities between Mallorca and Mauritius fall down is that one possessed a political class with the foresight to understand the risks inherent to an over-reliance on certain industries. Mallorca, essentially still a single-product island, has never been blessed with governments with sufficient vision to appreciate the dangers posed by a virtual mono-economy. Rather, they have been blinded by the success of tourism and continue to consider it the principal means of economic growth.
Mallorca can boast some textile expertise. Martí Vicens created remarkable textile designs in Pollensa, and they are still evident today. The island doesn't, however, have a great tradition of textiles. There again, neither did Mauritius. I am not advocating that the regional government suddenly weaves a strategy based on textiles, but whether it is skills which do exist in Mallorca or new skills that need to be acquired and new types of business formed, the time is long overdue for a genuine strategy of economic diversification to be put in place.
If there is one thing, and one thing alone, that the new government of President Bauzá should be addressing, it is the economic future of Mallorca and the Balearics, and one that isn't so obsessed with tourism.
There has been some success in diversification, notably with new technologies, but it has been a very small step. A strategy for innovation going forward to 2020, dreamt up by the last administration, has achieved comparatively little, hampered by economic crisis but also by a lack of real energy.
Mauritius shows how with energy and vision a mixed economy can be developed. Textiles were not the only diversification. The island is also a financial centre and has a decent IT industry, one that Mallorca would bite its hand off to have. A small African nation of comparative size to Mallorca has demonstrated how it can be done and how economies do not have to be reliant on tourism and to accept the fate of the consequences of a primary industry, agriculture, in almost terminal decline.
Are the next four years likely to yield anything in respect of real strategic development in Mallorca? You wouldn't bank on it. There may be more of the desperately slow crawl of technological evolution, but something akin to Mauritius's textiles revolution is required. And it won't happen.
(I would like to thank John in South Africa for pointing out the Mauritius experience.)
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tourism came later to Mauritius than to Mallorca, and it was a different type of tourism. In the 1970s a predominantly luxury style of tourism, based on resort hotels, came into being. It was one that benefited the economy in general, but because it was aimed at a more exclusive end of the market and later became all-inclusive, a bar and restaurant sector did not complement the hotels. As a consequence, while the island's macroeconomic status flourished, the local population saw very little evidence of this.
At the same time as Mauritius's tourism was taking off, the government was setting in motion a process of economic development and diversification. Principally, this was a way of shifting the country's emphasis away from the land, i.e. sugar, but the unevenness of the benefits derived from tourism gave the process an added momentum. Furthermore, the government recognised that tourism can be fickle and subject to economic shocks or competition.
Sugar is today far less important but still more important than agriculture is to Mallorca. Tourism and services account for some 70% of GDP. And while industry has fallen back, the process of diversification did reap rewards.
The Mauritian government, through a combination of trade agreements, tax incentives and advantageous investment conditions, created, virtually from scratch, a textile industry. Despite a downturn over recent years, it represents some 7% of GDP. It employs a skilled workforce, it turns out quality product and it supplies the likes of Next and, a Spanish connection, Zara. The industry, and it has contributed as much as 14% to GDP, was built without the island having the natural resources to supply it and so was totally dependent upon the importing of raw material. Nevertheless, it worked.
Where similarities between Mallorca and Mauritius fall down is that one possessed a political class with the foresight to understand the risks inherent to an over-reliance on certain industries. Mallorca, essentially still a single-product island, has never been blessed with governments with sufficient vision to appreciate the dangers posed by a virtual mono-economy. Rather, they have been blinded by the success of tourism and continue to consider it the principal means of economic growth.
Mallorca can boast some textile expertise. Martí Vicens created remarkable textile designs in Pollensa, and they are still evident today. The island doesn't, however, have a great tradition of textiles. There again, neither did Mauritius. I am not advocating that the regional government suddenly weaves a strategy based on textiles, but whether it is skills which do exist in Mallorca or new skills that need to be acquired and new types of business formed, the time is long overdue for a genuine strategy of economic diversification to be put in place.
If there is one thing, and one thing alone, that the new government of President Bauzá should be addressing, it is the economic future of Mallorca and the Balearics, and one that isn't so obsessed with tourism.
There has been some success in diversification, notably with new technologies, but it has been a very small step. A strategy for innovation going forward to 2020, dreamt up by the last administration, has achieved comparatively little, hampered by economic crisis but also by a lack of real energy.
Mauritius shows how with energy and vision a mixed economy can be developed. Textiles were not the only diversification. The island is also a financial centre and has a decent IT industry, one that Mallorca would bite its hand off to have. A small African nation of comparative size to Mallorca has demonstrated how it can be done and how economies do not have to be reliant on tourism and to accept the fate of the consequences of a primary industry, agriculture, in almost terminal decline.
Are the next four years likely to yield anything in respect of real strategic development in Mallorca? You wouldn't bank on it. There may be more of the desperately slow crawl of technological evolution, but something akin to Mauritius's textiles revolution is required. And it won't happen.
(I would like to thank John in South Africa for pointing out the Mauritius experience.)
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
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