If you take a look at the list of companies on Palma's ParcBit technology park, many will probably be unfamiliar. Halfway down the alphabet, though, you will find a very familiar name. Microsoft.
In May 2009, Microsoft opened its first technology centre devoted to tourism anywhere in the world. The Palma-based Microsoft Innovation Center (note the suitably Americanised spelling) Tourism Technologies was founded with three main objectives in mind, one being, and this would be pretty obvious, to create new initiatives for technological innovation that add value to the tourism sector.
Microsoft's mere presence in Mallorca has been a boost to the island's technology industry, but how much of a boost?
When the Microsoft centre was opened, the then president, Francesc Antich, spoke of it as contributing to an aim of raising the value of innovation and development in the Balearics to 5.6% of GDP by the end of his period in office. This was probably always a somewhat ambitious target. Though spend on I+D increased by 10.5% in 2010, the actual contribution in terms of GDP via investment was the lowest of any region of Spain - 0.41% of regional GDP.
One of Microsoft's flagship developments was a "distribution platform" for the whole tourism offer in the Balearics. This web-based portal, described as not being a website as such, was intended to be a single system for different players in the tourism industry by which they could commercialise their services and products and make savings of up to 40% in doing so.
The fanfare that surrounded its announcement in spring last year did rather downplay the fact that it was going to cost the regional government more than had been envisaged. As always, I stand to be corrected, and I would very much like to be, but I cannot find a reference to its having been launched.
Another development has been the "global tourism hub" for the Windows Phone 7, a "killer" application for the tourism industry. Whether it will really prove to be a killer app is another matter. Microsoft also faces competition; from Google, for instance.
Nevertheless, the development, with the Palma centre behind it, has indicated Microsoft's intent and, as much as Microsoft also provides consultancy services to local businesses, it is the rub-off effect from its presence on Mallorca's technology industry that is arguably the greatest benefit the island stands to gain in its aim of getting I+D to be a far more significant element in the regional economy.
The gain for I+D is not, though, the only one that is hoped for, because tourism is at the heart of the Microsoft technologies, and the rub-off effect for tourism is coming from a possibly unexpected area - that of tourism connected to the cinema.
Though, as far as I am aware, it has not been stated as such, a reason for the filming of parts of "Cloud Atlas" on Mallorca may have been Microsoft. The company's reputation (and its being American) is one thing, but as important if not more is its relationship with the Mallorca Film Commission and with the Cluster Audiovisual, the association of audiovisual producers in the Balearics.
Microsoft, together with the Cluster Audiovisual, has come up with what is potentially a brilliant idea, and one that goes a long way to overcoming what might be the disadvantage for tourism from filming at locations such as those used for "Cloud Atlas". The idea is known as "Film Travelling", the slogan for which is "what film do you want to journey to'".
Essentially what this is, or will be, is a video database that will show locations of a film on a map. The intention is to map the Balearics and give a guide to where filming has occurred and what was filmed, and it wouldn't have to be confined to cinema productions. The rub-off would be that the database could be used by the tourism industry to sell visits related to the locations.
When the filming for "Cloud Atlas" was first spoken about, along with its potential benefits for tourism, a point I made was that these benefits would not be as great as might be hoped for as fans of the film wouldn't necessarily know what the locations were. "Film Travelling" solves this problem. It will be launched, it is hoped, at the same time as the premiere of "Cloud Atlas", which does just make you wonder a bit more about whether Microsoft had some influence on the choice of location. Whether the company did or didn't, its benefits to Mallorca's technology and to its tourism are beginning to rub off.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Showing posts with label Locations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Locations. Show all posts
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Between A Dog And A Hard Place: TV and film in Mallorca
June 1969. Some of you will be old enough to wish you couldn't remember. But you may well do. It was 7 June to be precise. The day when Blind Faith first took to a stage.
Blind Faith were, from the word go, a deeply unsatisfying creation of rock super-groupism. From a healthily organic lineage of The Yardbirds, Cream, the Spencer Davis Group, Traffic and Family emerged the manufacturing of something cynical. So unsatisfying were they, that they fell apart within a year.
Throwing together talents, well-known ones, can bring success. But it can be success achieved, you fear, with an eye merely on the box office or the ratings and without an essential soul. So it is with "Mad Dogs", a Blind Faith of the marrying of names without the substance of the slog of a rock band of old or a TV series that either grows from nowhere or is built on a repertory group in which even relatively star names are subordinate to the ethos of the TV show itself.
"Mad Dogs", not, it must be said, without merit, is nevertheless, and notwithstanding some of its content, safe, middle-of-the-road, middle-class, focus group-shaped telly. The safety of its roster of stars makes it a "Daily Mail" of broadcast exploitation, though don't say this too loudly to Rupert Murdoch. Its exploitation goes beyond that of an indulgent audience, seeking clues as to Mallorcan sites and scenes; it is one that comes also from Mallorca's tourism officialdom who hope for some star dust to rub off, having helped with its funding, despite its not being a travel promo.
Contrast the build-up and the fawning media space granted to "Mad Dogs" with the news of the filming of "The Inbetweeners". The movie version of the comedy series will involve a month of shooting around Magalluf and in particular along Maga's "strip". It is barely getting a mention.
Yet here is a series which has enjoyed the success that comes from organic development and which is also bollock-breakingly funny. A difference with "Mad Dogs" lies with the fact that the show is not star-based. The actors may have achieved some stardom, but the strength of the series resides in the sum of its parts and the symbiosis between the members, a lesson which Blind Faith ignored.
There are further differences. The show isn't safe. Its characters, such as Will who would like to be "hard" but who spends much of the time tackling issues to do with his tackle getting hard, are embarrassing, cringe-worthy and awkward, much like teenagers are meant to be, despite all the actors being far too old for their roles. It is also to be filmed, not in brochure-beautiful, coffee-table locations around Pollensa, but among the down-and-dirty, lager-glass-ringed bar tops of Maga. The contrasting images and the contrasting image of tourism that the locations present are between the Crufts-coiffeuring landscapes of a "Mad Dogs" and the rock-hard place that is the intoxicated full-on-ness of Magalluf.
The excellent shagalluf.com has made the point that it should be worth being in Maga for the filming, but its is pretty much a lone voice in highlighting a reason to visit in what is of course the off-season. And you have to wonder why. The reason, you feel, is snobbery and condescension being shown to the resort and also, by comparison with "Mad Dogs", to "The Inbetweeners".
Locations and filming do have the power to attract tourists, either at the time of shooting or as a consequence of broadcast. The experiences of both "Passport To The Sun" and "Sun Sea and A&E" prove that visitors will either come simply because of programmes or to seek out locations and indeed individuals featured in shows. But both these documentary-style programmes were explicit in terms of what and where they were portraying. "Mad Dogs" isn't. Nor will be "The Inbetweeners", as the film's setting is Crete, as is some other filming.
One series that has been explicit is "Benidorm". It couldn't be anything other than explicit, given its title. In between "Mad Dogs" and "The Inbetweeners" in terms of having some recognisable but not necessarily star names (in its earliest days at any rate), one of its great achievements has been to simultaneously poke fun at but also be affectionate towards its location and its typical clientele. Far from turning people off, it has made them want to visit and, moreover, to visit in order to coincide with off-season filming.
The repertory, ensemble nature of "Benidorm", one that has prevented it being simply a vehicle for its better-known actors, adds to a sense of viewer empathy. Not all of its characters might be said to be typical holidaymakers, but, in Benidorm terms, the Garvey family members who bind the show are.
The shame, for Mallorca perhaps, is that the show's creator, Derren Litten, chose Benny and not Maga. Had he opted for the latter, though, you wonder as to how well received the proposition would have been. Benidorm seems to be unabashed in revealing itself for what it is. Mallorca, on the other hand, has dual personalities, one of which it prefers to try and pretend doesn't exist, and which results, therefore, in promoting the safe artificiality of the star system "Mad Dogs" over the unsafe, true-to-life, unknowns of "The Inbetweeners".
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Blind Faith were, from the word go, a deeply unsatisfying creation of rock super-groupism. From a healthily organic lineage of The Yardbirds, Cream, the Spencer Davis Group, Traffic and Family emerged the manufacturing of something cynical. So unsatisfying were they, that they fell apart within a year.
Throwing together talents, well-known ones, can bring success. But it can be success achieved, you fear, with an eye merely on the box office or the ratings and without an essential soul. So it is with "Mad Dogs", a Blind Faith of the marrying of names without the substance of the slog of a rock band of old or a TV series that either grows from nowhere or is built on a repertory group in which even relatively star names are subordinate to the ethos of the TV show itself.
"Mad Dogs", not, it must be said, without merit, is nevertheless, and notwithstanding some of its content, safe, middle-of-the-road, middle-class, focus group-shaped telly. The safety of its roster of stars makes it a "Daily Mail" of broadcast exploitation, though don't say this too loudly to Rupert Murdoch. Its exploitation goes beyond that of an indulgent audience, seeking clues as to Mallorcan sites and scenes; it is one that comes also from Mallorca's tourism officialdom who hope for some star dust to rub off, having helped with its funding, despite its not being a travel promo.
Contrast the build-up and the fawning media space granted to "Mad Dogs" with the news of the filming of "The Inbetweeners". The movie version of the comedy series will involve a month of shooting around Magalluf and in particular along Maga's "strip". It is barely getting a mention.
Yet here is a series which has enjoyed the success that comes from organic development and which is also bollock-breakingly funny. A difference with "Mad Dogs" lies with the fact that the show is not star-based. The actors may have achieved some stardom, but the strength of the series resides in the sum of its parts and the symbiosis between the members, a lesson which Blind Faith ignored.
There are further differences. The show isn't safe. Its characters, such as Will who would like to be "hard" but who spends much of the time tackling issues to do with his tackle getting hard, are embarrassing, cringe-worthy and awkward, much like teenagers are meant to be, despite all the actors being far too old for their roles. It is also to be filmed, not in brochure-beautiful, coffee-table locations around Pollensa, but among the down-and-dirty, lager-glass-ringed bar tops of Maga. The contrasting images and the contrasting image of tourism that the locations present are between the Crufts-coiffeuring landscapes of a "Mad Dogs" and the rock-hard place that is the intoxicated full-on-ness of Magalluf.
The excellent shagalluf.com has made the point that it should be worth being in Maga for the filming, but its is pretty much a lone voice in highlighting a reason to visit in what is of course the off-season. And you have to wonder why. The reason, you feel, is snobbery and condescension being shown to the resort and also, by comparison with "Mad Dogs", to "The Inbetweeners".
Locations and filming do have the power to attract tourists, either at the time of shooting or as a consequence of broadcast. The experiences of both "Passport To The Sun" and "Sun Sea and A&E" prove that visitors will either come simply because of programmes or to seek out locations and indeed individuals featured in shows. But both these documentary-style programmes were explicit in terms of what and where they were portraying. "Mad Dogs" isn't. Nor will be "The Inbetweeners", as the film's setting is Crete, as is some other filming.
One series that has been explicit is "Benidorm". It couldn't be anything other than explicit, given its title. In between "Mad Dogs" and "The Inbetweeners" in terms of having some recognisable but not necessarily star names (in its earliest days at any rate), one of its great achievements has been to simultaneously poke fun at but also be affectionate towards its location and its typical clientele. Far from turning people off, it has made them want to visit and, moreover, to visit in order to coincide with off-season filming.
The repertory, ensemble nature of "Benidorm", one that has prevented it being simply a vehicle for its better-known actors, adds to a sense of viewer empathy. Not all of its characters might be said to be typical holidaymakers, but, in Benidorm terms, the Garvey family members who bind the show are.
The shame, for Mallorca perhaps, is that the show's creator, Derren Litten, chose Benny and not Maga. Had he opted for the latter, though, you wonder as to how well received the proposition would have been. Benidorm seems to be unabashed in revealing itself for what it is. Mallorca, on the other hand, has dual personalities, one of which it prefers to try and pretend doesn't exist, and which results, therefore, in promoting the safe artificiality of the star system "Mad Dogs" over the unsafe, true-to-life, unknowns of "The Inbetweeners".
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
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