The Tourist Tax Lottery

Celestí Alomar, the one-time Balearics tourism minister, said the other day that had the eco-tax been allowed to continue it would by now have realised some 800 million euros worth of investment. 800 million; that's a fair old wedge. The eco-tax was not designed for such purposes, but 800 million would have wiped out the debt that the Balearics health service has and left a goodly amount left over to pay for Palma's Palacio de Congresos and any other number of projects.

Alomar would of course defend the eco-tax and big up the lost opportunity of investment through its continued imposition. He was the tourism minister who introduced it. He was no longer tourism minister when, two years after the tax was brought in, the then government of Jaume Matas scrapped it.

Much as the eco-tax was unpopular and ill-conceived, with hindsight one could argue that there was a good deal of foresight in its introduction. Taxes have come in elsewhere, and Catalonia will bring in its tourist tax from November this year. It was the implementation, the discriminatory basis of the tax and the PR that were wrong, not the eco-tax per se.

The tax had merit, and as a general principle, I believe that tourists should make some form of contribution to services and what have you in their destinations. I know, I know ... tourists pay for services, these services are taxed, businesses pay tax on receipts. I know all this, but this is not an argument which invalidates the concept of a direct contribution to help fund certain services.

Take the health service, for example. Hugely in debt, as everyone knows, it is a health service that is at the disposal of tourists. Indeed, the quality of health service is something which has been identified as being key to future tourism development; not by health tourists but as a vital service to an ageing population that comprises a good chunk of the tourism market. The local health service is hard-pressed as it is. It becomes more so during the main season, especially if some tourists insist on going around jumping off balconies.

Though there are no plans to re-introduce a tax in the Balearics, were there to be, how much would it be? The Catalonia tax has varying rates depending on type of accommodation and where it is. It complicates things, but there is some sense in tourists heading for four or five-star accommodation paying slightly more, but then a similar system of a higher rate would need also to apply to luxury villas. The implementation of such a system is what becomes difficult, and implementation was one of the problems with the eco-tax.

But assuming an efficient system could be established and that a Balearics tax were to be along similar rates as to that in Catalonia, an average tax revenue of around ten euros per tourist would be generated (Catalonia's is to be charged for a maximum of seven nights but won't be levied on children under 16). As a rough estimate, the Balearics could raise in the region of 70 to 80 million euros a year, which over ten years would be getting on for 800 million, as Alomar has claimed the eco-tax would have generated.

This is a significant sum, but as soon as the T-word is mentioned, everyone gets into a lather. So rather than a tax, what about something else? Ladies and gentlemen, I offer for your consideration the Balearics tourist lottery, i.e. the tax would still be applied but would be for a lottery.

Don't ask me how this might be implemented, as it is simply an idea that has flown into my mind. Among other things, a change to tax law would be needed as currently if a tourist were to win the Spanish national lottery and take the winnings out of Spain, he would be liable for tax. But if there were to be a lottery, with a good range of prizes, yes some of the revenue would have to be paid back in the form of prizes, say 20%, but it could well be far more acceptable to tourists. If these lotteries were weekly, then why not also, during the high season in particular, have roadshows hitting different resorts to make the draws. Entertainment, bands, stuff for kids, whatever. This would take some more out of the pot, but it would be strong PR and would represent regular "tourist days" rather than the annual one-offs that occur in Alcúdia for example.

Tax. Lottery. Both would generate revenue, but a lottery would be a whole load more fun and potentially a whole load less painful.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Have Yourselves A Crisis Little Christmas

The Mallorcans don't really do Christmas. This is a half truth. They may not go the full-stomached, cloyingly sentimental nine yards of Christmas Day, but Christmas they most certainly do do. The half truth stems, in part, from the fact that the holiday period is that long it's hard to know what is festive season and what isn't.

From Constitution Day through to Antoni and Sebastià in January, it is one long series of "puente" breaks, meals out or in, family and social gatherings and one long round of shopping. When there is so much to pack in over such a prolonged period, it's hardly surprising if Christmas Day itself constitutes something of a day of rest. All this notwithstanding, the Mallorcan Christmas has a bit of a crisis on its hands.

I'm not sure if Mallorcan office workers are issued with advice similar to that which is given to their British counterparts regarding not getting so slaughtered at the Christmas party that you find a P45 slipped inside your Christmas card, having become overly familiar with the boss's wife, but the local Christmas party is something of a victim of "crisis at Christmas". There is expected to be a fall of around 60% in terms of Christmas meals out for the staff, and those unlucky enough to have to suffer sitting next to the office bore will also have to suffer a fall in what's on offer; it's chicken nuggets this year, rather than a full roast.

Cuts to companies' Christmas largesse is not confined solely to the staff dinner. Spending on Christmas hampers, by way of gifts to staff, to customers or perhaps to politicians whose favours are being sought, is also way down this year. 15 euros is a sort of going rate for hampers that can cost astronomical sums when they come stuffed with whole hams and fine wines; it's a bottle of cava and a slab of nougat for the Crisis Christmas "cesta". It doesn't sound like there'll be too many favours being extended, therefore.

One element of a Mallorcan Christmas that isn't being cut back on is the number of surveys which come out telling everyone how miserable they're going to be because they're not spending enough money. Average family spend in the Balearics is estimated to be below the national highs of Madrid and Valencia where money is being tossed around to the tune of 600 euros per household. At 585 euros, this does represent quite a sizable fall in the Balearics. Two years ago, average Balearics spend was said to have been 747 euros, which itself was 11% lower than the year before. Christmases are coming, and the geese are getting progressively thinner.

It's not all bad news in the Balearics and not all bad news for the restaurants which are finding they are not being called upon to provide the office lunch. Spending on eating out and going out is reckoned to be higher in the Balearics than it is anywhere else in Spain.

And there is certainly one area of economic activity that will be thriving this Christmas. The lottery. The 600 euros in Valencia, for instance, is boosted by a spend of 125 euros. Yes really, 20% of Christmas cheer handed over in the hope that "El Gordo" will come up trumps, but even the Valencians aren't as extravagant as they have been; they parted with 147 euros on the lottery last year.

In the survey by the unfortunately acronymed FUCI (Federación de Usuarios Consumidores Independientes), the Balearics do at least come near the top when it comes to toys and gifts - 200 euros, only ten under the Spanish league leaders in Madrid - but the survey does just confirm the degree to which Christmas spending has slumped over the past three years in the Balearics and the whole of Spain. Only three regions break the 600 barrier this year; in 2008, all were over or near the 800 euro mark.

Two years ago, a survey by a different organisation, the Mallorca-based Gadeso, indicated not just the overall level of Christmas spend but also the degree to which it varied markedly. Gadeso will doubtless be producing its own new survey for this year, and it would be surprising were it not to show that the divisions had widened. Unemployment up considerably, state assistance not being paid in some instances, small companies not being paid, the variance in 2009 of nearly 1000 euros between highest and lowest-spending categories will surely have increased.

It's a half truth that the Mallorcans don't do Christmas, but what is a whole truth is that they are doing it less, and some are doing it hardly at all.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

The Heavenly Stars, The Heavenly Stars

Three days before Christmas, and you might expect that bars, restaurants and shops would be alive with Yuletide muzak. Some are, but yesterday there was another form of song - if song is the right word. Singing by numbers. Small children, trussed up as though at a wedding or communion or junior Strictly Come Dancing, hold numbers and chant them as they cross the stage with almost reverential and quasi-religious but flat Gregorianism. This is "El Gordo", the annual lottery - the fat or big one - and its marathon presentation; fatuous and bloated might be more accurate. Tuneless and monotonous, how can noventa cinco or cuarenta tres be made melodic. The answer is that they cannot. Only if Leonard Cohen had penned a song of the times tables and found it Cowell-ised as a number one might numbers be the stuff of popular song; and even then it would be doubtful. Wherever one went yesterday, there, in a corner, was a TV set with these mini adults and their grating alleged singing. Even my bank manager(ess) was following it on the internet. It does perhaps come to something when senior bank staff are hanging on the very number of the lottery. There is not a lot of business, she admitted to me. Someone, or some people, will have had their prayers answered yesterday. The tickets cost that much that syndicates in local neighbourhoods comprise the majority of the gamblers. I was not one to have had any prayers answered, as I hadn't offered any; I didn't have a ticket. Mallorca and Spain came to a stop for some of yesterday. The efforts of the national football team may have done similarly at the end of June this year, but that achievement and expression of national pride was nothing compared with the prospect of millions of euros. Hark the herald lottery sings.


It shouldn't surprise me, but it does. The people who contact me and where they are from. By definition of course, the internet is world-wide, and so are those who follow the blog or come to it. The other day I had another contact from Australia. A chap called Stephen who had come across what I had done about the "politics of language" and tourism. He is doing a PhD in just that subject. Fascinating stuff, at least I thought so, and no doubt so does he and his academic supervisor. So, in the spirit of this global reach, may I take the opportunity to wish all those of you, from whichever country, who come to this blog and support it with your comments and feedback and just your reading, a very happy Christmas. And maybe even one of you has won a local lottery. A few days off; I shall be back on 27 December unless something major happens in the meantime.


The forecast suggests a change for Christmas Day, but at present it is clear. And at night the sky is a magician's show. The heavenly stars glow and vibrate. It is close to freezing, and one can almost imagine snow, the saw-teeth of holly and a choir of all is calm, all is bright. As the evening becomes tomorrow, the road is silent. The pines at the edge of Albufera appear as genial fluffy clouded puff-monsters silhouetted in the darkness. A night bird calls. And the power station throbs, a lowing cow by a distant manger. There goes a late plane across the speckled blackness and now a shooting star. It races from nowhere and disappears as quickly as it arrived. And once again it is silent, a silent night, and the heavenly stars twinkle on, and maybe that shooting star was something, someone, else. Who knows? Maybe it was him, a bearded man with large boots. Happy Christmas, everyone.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Bruce Hornsby (And The Range). Today's title - a line from what was this blog's song of the year in 2007.

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