The national tourism minister, Álvaro Nadal, has not exactly endeared himself to Biel Barceló. The minister, responding to a press question at the Berlin fair about anti-tourist sentiment, said that tourismphobia and prominence given to "saturation" are the result of political interests rather than their being a reflection of social concerns. Moreover, this tourismphobia only exists in the Balearics and Catalonia; nowhere else.
For a Partido Popular politician, which Nadal is, to cite these two regions might itself sound political. Catalonia, politically, we know all about, while its capital - Barcelona - has been right at the centre of the tourismphobia/saturation phenomenon; far more so than the Balearics. The city's mayor, Ada Colau, is light years away from Nadal in political terms.
Biel Barceló doesn't occupy such distant political territory, but he is nevertheless what he is: a left-wing, pro-Majorcan nationalism politician. There is a great deal of water between him and Nadal, some of it the product of more than 200 kilometres of sea. In fact, Barceló would argue, as do others in the Balearics, that it's mostly to do with all that sea: Madrid just doesn't get it where the Balearics are concerned.
Nadal is correct, though, in highlighting the two regions. When I have done research into this so-called tourismphobia, I have only ever found references in the Balearics and Catalonia. It may well exist elsewhere, but if it does, it doesn't make its presence felt.
But is Nadal correct in suggesting that politics have driven the arguments and not society? Up to a point he is. Saturation was first really heard about when Barceló started referring to it in summer 2015. The anti-tourist slogans in Palma appeared several months later. However, is it too simplistic and convenient to draw the conclusion that Nadal has?
Although the word may not have been used, saturation has been an issue bubbling under the surface ever since the days of the old ecotax. There again, one can ask how genuinely societal a development of tourismphobia has been. GOB, the environmentalists, have been agitating in an anti-tourism style for years. Despite their being a "social agent", they are overtly political. There is a blurring, therefore, between social and political. Other groups, ones now enjoying increasing prominence - Terraferida, Palma XXI and Tramuntana XXI - have been a response to the arguments, rather than instigators.
Whatever the political/social balance, Barceló clearly doesn't see politics (his, for instance) as having been the driving force. He was therefore furious with what Nadal had to say. But Barceló can himself appear contradictory. He has spoken against limits being imposed on tourist numbers (saying that it would be impractical to do so), has argued that the tourist tax is not a means of limiting tourists, and yet he wants co-management of the airports for the very reason that the government could then exert some control over numbers.
Responding to Nadal, he made it clear that a way to reduce saturation would be through a reform of the Ley de Arrendamientos Urbanos (the tenancy act). This is because it would, he hopes, limit the number of tourists staying in apartments (the main cause of saturation) and also limit the activities of Airbnb and others. Nadal, it would appear, is not inclined to reform the act, thus seeming to himself contradict Matilde Asián, the secretary of state for tourism, who has implied that she is open to considering this. Instead, Nadal said that there will be a tightening of taxation on the likes of Airbnb.
This only made Barceló more agitated. Rather than Madrid coming to the aid of the Balearics via legislative reform, all the national government does is to want to collect more taxes. The irony of this, one would suggest, wasn't lost on many. Nadal, as with all other PP politicians, is firmly opposed to tourist taxes, which only the Balearics and Catalonia have.
Anyway, political or social, we know that this summer will again be about saturation, with tourismphobia tossed into the mix. And if we didn't know, then GOB were telling the Germans that it will be. Who was it that once said that GOB should put up and become a political party or shut up? A PP politician.
Showing posts with label Majorca. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Majorca. Show all posts
Saturday, March 11, 2017
Wednesday, August 24, 2016
The "Sport" Of Holiday Compensation Claims
How many of you reading this are either at an all-inclusive hotel or have been to one? And by all-inclusive, I'm tending towards excluding those which display four or even five stars. Why would I do this? Principally, and do please excuse the generalisation, the three-star all-inclusive might typically house a clientele that is most interested in the pursuit of compensation.
If you are and have been at an all-inclusive, and it does seem to apply mostly to all-inclusives, you may have been aware of some of the individuals who seem to hang around. They can be found inside hotel grounds and on hotel property as well as outside. Security in many a hotel is lax to the point of non-existent.
These individuals can include, inter alia, illegal street sellers. They move in from the streets and inhabit poolside and other areas. How on earth is this allowed to happen? Reasons, one in particular, have been offered to me. I'm not, it has to be said, convinced by allegations that "incentives" are offered to turn a blind eye. The street sellers just don't have that kind of wherewithal, albeit their masters may have. Even then, I frankly doubt it.
There are sellers of a different sort. They don't come armed with fake products (or drugs). They don't want any money as such. They are armed instead with claims' forms, either actual ones or available from websites. They are representatives of one of the most miserable, ethically reprehensible and morally bankrupt lines of business that exists in the holiday market. They come from law firms lining up to press compensation claims. The legal profession ethical? Most of it is, but there are also elements of it who - as the old gag would have it - would fail to distinguish between ethics and a county in eastern England.
The claiming of compensation, often for minor matters or perhaps even trumped up, is nothing new of course, but as a "business" it has more tools at its disposal - social networks - than were generally the case over five years ago when I previously looked into it. The circumstances as they were then have not altered, save for the seemingly greater determination to seek to extract compensation. They are principally of British making, involve British law firms and tour operators and British tourists from a culture that has been consumed by the pernicious influence of what was once mainly promoted at appropriate times on UK television and radio but which has now spread to social media.
The hotels are almost invariably the victims. Hard though it may be for some to feel sorry for them - and there are examples of their being their own worst enemies - the hotels are caught by contractual arrangements with tour operators and by the massive costs of challenging claims, which themselves will typically be greatly in excess of what a Spanish court might permit: there are caps under Spanish law but aren't under UK law. And it is UK law and UK courts which decide. It simply isn't worth hotels making challenges. Instead, they find that arrangements with tour operators are such that claims levelled against tour operators are deducted from the invoices the hotels send to the tour operators.
Hotels complain that tour operators are far too compliant in accepting claims. They are, after all, in a better position to fight claims in court, but generally tend not to, challenging only the obviously fraudulent attempts, such as trying to claim for something at a hotel that the holidaymaker had not been staying at.
This is an issue which doesn't affect only Mallorca. It is one that is evident in all the sun-and-beach regions where there is a mass of British tourism - Benidorm, Tenerife and elsewhere. Hosteltur magazine online reports that Ashotel, which is the association for hoteliers in Tenerife as well as in La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro, has sent out a communication to its members in which it identifies one particular firm in north-west England as allegedly encouraging British tourists to press claims for the likes of food poisoning. Hosteltur also reports that Tui and Jet2 are making hotels aware of individuals who are knocking around hotels looking for likely claimants, with law firms operating on a no win, no fee basis.
There are, of course, genuine cases and very serious ones, such as claims against Thomson by holidaymakers who contracted cryptosporidium at a hotel in Can Picafort in June 2003 and which took until January 2011 to be settled. But many are anything but reasonable; they are what the tourism industry in Mallorca refers to as the "sport" of the holiday compensation claim, and one played principally by the British.
Coming back to those loitering around hotels, perhaps some holidaymakers will claim for the annoyance caused by illegal sellers. As I say, some hotels are their own worst enemies.
If you are and have been at an all-inclusive, and it does seem to apply mostly to all-inclusives, you may have been aware of some of the individuals who seem to hang around. They can be found inside hotel grounds and on hotel property as well as outside. Security in many a hotel is lax to the point of non-existent.
These individuals can include, inter alia, illegal street sellers. They move in from the streets and inhabit poolside and other areas. How on earth is this allowed to happen? Reasons, one in particular, have been offered to me. I'm not, it has to be said, convinced by allegations that "incentives" are offered to turn a blind eye. The street sellers just don't have that kind of wherewithal, albeit their masters may have. Even then, I frankly doubt it.
There are sellers of a different sort. They don't come armed with fake products (or drugs). They don't want any money as such. They are armed instead with claims' forms, either actual ones or available from websites. They are representatives of one of the most miserable, ethically reprehensible and morally bankrupt lines of business that exists in the holiday market. They come from law firms lining up to press compensation claims. The legal profession ethical? Most of it is, but there are also elements of it who - as the old gag would have it - would fail to distinguish between ethics and a county in eastern England.
The claiming of compensation, often for minor matters or perhaps even trumped up, is nothing new of course, but as a "business" it has more tools at its disposal - social networks - than were generally the case over five years ago when I previously looked into it. The circumstances as they were then have not altered, save for the seemingly greater determination to seek to extract compensation. They are principally of British making, involve British law firms and tour operators and British tourists from a culture that has been consumed by the pernicious influence of what was once mainly promoted at appropriate times on UK television and radio but which has now spread to social media.
The hotels are almost invariably the victims. Hard though it may be for some to feel sorry for them - and there are examples of their being their own worst enemies - the hotels are caught by contractual arrangements with tour operators and by the massive costs of challenging claims, which themselves will typically be greatly in excess of what a Spanish court might permit: there are caps under Spanish law but aren't under UK law. And it is UK law and UK courts which decide. It simply isn't worth hotels making challenges. Instead, they find that arrangements with tour operators are such that claims levelled against tour operators are deducted from the invoices the hotels send to the tour operators.
Hotels complain that tour operators are far too compliant in accepting claims. They are, after all, in a better position to fight claims in court, but generally tend not to, challenging only the obviously fraudulent attempts, such as trying to claim for something at a hotel that the holidaymaker had not been staying at.
This is an issue which doesn't affect only Mallorca. It is one that is evident in all the sun-and-beach regions where there is a mass of British tourism - Benidorm, Tenerife and elsewhere. Hosteltur magazine online reports that Ashotel, which is the association for hoteliers in Tenerife as well as in La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro, has sent out a communication to its members in which it identifies one particular firm in north-west England as allegedly encouraging British tourists to press claims for the likes of food poisoning. Hosteltur also reports that Tui and Jet2 are making hotels aware of individuals who are knocking around hotels looking for likely claimants, with law firms operating on a no win, no fee basis.
There are, of course, genuine cases and very serious ones, such as claims against Thomson by holidaymakers who contracted cryptosporidium at a hotel in Can Picafort in June 2003 and which took until January 2011 to be settled. But many are anything but reasonable; they are what the tourism industry in Mallorca refers to as the "sport" of the holiday compensation claim, and one played principally by the British.
Coming back to those loitering around hotels, perhaps some holidaymakers will claim for the annoyance caused by illegal sellers. As I say, some hotels are their own worst enemies.
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