The tourist tax, as a fiscal measure to be adopted by zealous governmental authorities, throws up some peculiar situations and anomalies. The concept of the tax is a global one, and the world and its local administration wife seems keen to contemplate its introduction, even under the daftest of circumstances.
Have you heard of Oakland in Oregon? It has a population of under 1,000. It wouldn't go amiss in Mallorca therefore. It would be rather akin to Sant Joan, which does admittedly have a population more than twice the size of Oakland, but then Sant Joan does have something in common with the Oregon village. It doesn't have any hotels. There is something else that they share, and that is a tourist tax.
As far as one can be aware, Sant Joan town hall has never wished for a tourist tax. Had it ever wished for one, it wouldn't have been in its gift to have raised it. Local authority fiscal regulation doesn't permit this. Sant Joan, largely or almost totally indifferent to the notion of a tourist tax, therefore had to wait for the Balearic government to start hovering over what tourist accommodation it has with a demand for (as from this year) two euros per person per night for a holiday rental.
Oakland, on the other hand, is not subject to the same sort of municipal tax-raising restrictions. It has introduced a tourist tax despite not having any hotels and indeed only have one holiday rental property. Mayor Bette Keehley says that it was a case of addressing the issue before having the need to do. Whenever that might be.
As things stand, there is no tax revenue from the holiday rental. That's because there are no specific regulations for Airbnb and its ilk. Oakland therefore has a tax but no one to charge it to. The municipal coffers are being increased by zero.
But at least in Oakland, the town hall has the wherewithal to implement a tax and to keep the revenue. The chances of it being able to from a hotel are, it has to be said, somewhat slim. There are no plans at present for there to be a hotel. Nevertheless, it highlights another peculiarity of the tourist tax, which is that individual municipalities have virtually no say in what happens with the revenue. What little say they do have is uttered on their behalf by their federation, the representation of which on the tax spending committee equates to 6.25%.
It will of course be argued that the tourist-tax-raising largesse of Calvia, Palma and other major tourism municipalities bestows on the likes of Sant Joan funding for improved water works and heritage museums that no one will ever visit. Sant Joan town hall will doubtless be aware of this generosity, but might it not have been the case - when drafting the tourist tax legislation - that some thought could have been given to exemptions?
If it is genuinely the case that the Balearic government and its tourism policy sidekicks at the Council of Mallorca wish to foster tourism in the more unlikely parts of the island, i.e. Sant Joan, then why go and impose a tourist tax? Ok, we get the point that there are no hotels, but there is some tourist accommodation, and there could be more, courtesy of the Council's mad criteria for rental zoning.
Ah but, the government replies, the tourist tax won't affect the type of quality tourism Sant Joan can attract, assuming anyone has ever heard of Sant Joan. True perhaps, but nevertheless why are there any exceptions if Sant Joan is not entitled to be one? You didn't think there were exceptions. Oh yes, there are. Or rather, there is. One fairly substantial one. It's known as Menorca.
The hoteliers federation for Ibiza and Formentera is furious that a last-minute amendment to the budget for 2018 slipped in a bit about a 20% reduction of the tourist tax rate for hotels in Menorca that stay open for more than five months. More than five months!? Well, yes, because it is even harder to keep Menorca open than it is Mallorca or indeed Ibiza (though the hoteliers there say that it is equally as hard to operate for five months). The reduction is thus an acknowledgement of circumstances in Menorca. It is also the consequence of Més in Menorca making demands of the government: Més, the party which in Mallorca was essentially responsible for the tourist tax - for the whole of the Balearics without exception, be it Menorca or Sant Joan.
The unspoken reality of the incentive for Menorca is that the tourist tax can potentially he harmful to tourism. The government will never admit this, but how else does one interpret the reduction? Menorca thus exposes the illogic of the tax, as also - for a different reason - does Sant Joan.
Showing posts with label Menorca. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Menorca. Show all posts
Monday, January 08, 2018
Friday, October 13, 2017
Everyone Forgets Menorca
In the eighteenth century it was of significant enough strategic importance that it meant a British admiral being executed for failing to "do his utmost" to prevent the French taking it. A three-nation tussle, with Spain the third, ensured that control was periodically passed. Ultimately though, the importance was not so great. The bargaining chip of Menorca was minor compared with the jackpot of Gibraltar. Spain was allowed to have it: Menorca, the minor island.
For a time Menorca had been flagged up on the Mediterranean geopolitical map. With the signing of the Treaty of Amiens in 1802 it obtained a sense of comparative normality, marked with a legacy of European powers' ambitions in the form of infrastructure and borrowed language: English lurks within the Menorquín tongue. Its burden, in a way, lies with toponymy. It has been saddled with the title of being minor. Geographically it obviously is. But culturally it has been made aware of its place. The major island to its south has always dominated.
They say that it is the oldest island in the Balearics, with a geological history starting some 410 million years ago. Some also say it is the oldest in civilisation terms. Maybe, maybe not. Archaeologists and anthropologists will argue that case until the final herd of autochthonous cows is brought home and provides the raw material of its famous cheese, though the cows are arguably less famed than the hens. Menorca's capital has (perhaps) given the world a generic product: mayonnaise. Not even Palma can boast that.
The minor island naturally attracts fewer tourists than the major island. And the stress is very much on the fewer. According to numbers in the Balearic Tourism Agency's yearbook, the total number of tourists in 2016 was 1,440,036; Mallorca received just under eleven million. This total shows a very different profile in terms of country of origin. The Spanish and the British accounted for very similar proportions of the tourist total - both around the 36% mark (523,216 in the case of the British, fewer than a thousand more than the Spanish). British representation in Mallorca was 21%; Spanish only 11%. By way of further comparison, Menorca's total visitor number in 2016 was only 48% of that of Ibiza and Formentera combined.
Menorca doesn't shout its existence or have it shouted on its behalf. There are no salacious headlines. There is no Magalluf or Playa de Palma. There are no tribes of international DJs flocking to its shores as they do to Ibiza's. Menorca is easy to overlook, which will be why many of the 1.44 million like it, one imagines. But being overlooked can mean being forgotten.
Towards the end of January 2012, Spanair ceased operations. By April of that year the president of the island's hoteliers association, Ashome, was holding talks with the Balearic government about the airline's "disappearance". He said at the time that Menorca had been all but cut off from Madrid because of Spanair's collapse. Other airlines were to take up the slack but they were attracted mostly by that 36% of Spanish tourism, mostly all of it crammed into three to four months in the summer. Did the talks with the government achieve anything? Well, no.
In percentage if not real terms, Menorca has higher hotel occupancy than Mallorca in October. The island's small-scale tourism does quite well from its October trade trade. So the collapse of Monarch is going to make a significant difference. The airline was more important to Menorca than it was to Mallorca: the second highest carrier from the UK and the seventh highest in all. Ashome reckons that the collapse will leave an economic hole of at least 800,000 euros, to which some more will be added because hotels haven't yet quantified the losses.
This may not sound like a vast amount, but for the island's October business it is still something of a disaster. An airline going bust isn't a natural phenomenon, but an airline - one as important as Monarch was to Menorca - is a source of general economic well-being. When Mallorca's potato fields are flooded, the calls for aid go out and there are worries about exports and Mallorca's balance of trade. Does Menorca not deserve a slight consideration because of manmade wreckage? All that one hears from the Balearic government is "concern" at the Monarch demise, and this is despite the transport minister, Marc Pons, being Menorcan.
The government hasn't as yet come to a definitive decision on the doubling of the tourist tax in winter. Més in Menorca has called for a freezing because the island can do with all the help it can get in the off-season. There should be a decision to freeze the tax, even if it is just for Menorca alone. Were there to be, then it might demonstrate more than just the easily expressed "concern". Menorca is too easily forgotten.
For a time Menorca had been flagged up on the Mediterranean geopolitical map. With the signing of the Treaty of Amiens in 1802 it obtained a sense of comparative normality, marked with a legacy of European powers' ambitions in the form of infrastructure and borrowed language: English lurks within the Menorquín tongue. Its burden, in a way, lies with toponymy. It has been saddled with the title of being minor. Geographically it obviously is. But culturally it has been made aware of its place. The major island to its south has always dominated.
They say that it is the oldest island in the Balearics, with a geological history starting some 410 million years ago. Some also say it is the oldest in civilisation terms. Maybe, maybe not. Archaeologists and anthropologists will argue that case until the final herd of autochthonous cows is brought home and provides the raw material of its famous cheese, though the cows are arguably less famed than the hens. Menorca's capital has (perhaps) given the world a generic product: mayonnaise. Not even Palma can boast that.
The minor island naturally attracts fewer tourists than the major island. And the stress is very much on the fewer. According to numbers in the Balearic Tourism Agency's yearbook, the total number of tourists in 2016 was 1,440,036; Mallorca received just under eleven million. This total shows a very different profile in terms of country of origin. The Spanish and the British accounted for very similar proportions of the tourist total - both around the 36% mark (523,216 in the case of the British, fewer than a thousand more than the Spanish). British representation in Mallorca was 21%; Spanish only 11%. By way of further comparison, Menorca's total visitor number in 2016 was only 48% of that of Ibiza and Formentera combined.
Menorca doesn't shout its existence or have it shouted on its behalf. There are no salacious headlines. There is no Magalluf or Playa de Palma. There are no tribes of international DJs flocking to its shores as they do to Ibiza's. Menorca is easy to overlook, which will be why many of the 1.44 million like it, one imagines. But being overlooked can mean being forgotten.
Towards the end of January 2012, Spanair ceased operations. By April of that year the president of the island's hoteliers association, Ashome, was holding talks with the Balearic government about the airline's "disappearance". He said at the time that Menorca had been all but cut off from Madrid because of Spanair's collapse. Other airlines were to take up the slack but they were attracted mostly by that 36% of Spanish tourism, mostly all of it crammed into three to four months in the summer. Did the talks with the government achieve anything? Well, no.
In percentage if not real terms, Menorca has higher hotel occupancy than Mallorca in October. The island's small-scale tourism does quite well from its October trade trade. So the collapse of Monarch is going to make a significant difference. The airline was more important to Menorca than it was to Mallorca: the second highest carrier from the UK and the seventh highest in all. Ashome reckons that the collapse will leave an economic hole of at least 800,000 euros, to which some more will be added because hotels haven't yet quantified the losses.
This may not sound like a vast amount, but for the island's October business it is still something of a disaster. An airline going bust isn't a natural phenomenon, but an airline - one as important as Monarch was to Menorca - is a source of general economic well-being. When Mallorca's potato fields are flooded, the calls for aid go out and there are worries about exports and Mallorca's balance of trade. Does Menorca not deserve a slight consideration because of manmade wreckage? All that one hears from the Balearic government is "concern" at the Monarch demise, and this is despite the transport minister, Marc Pons, being Menorcan.
The government hasn't as yet come to a definitive decision on the doubling of the tourist tax in winter. Més in Menorca has called for a freezing because the island can do with all the help it can get in the off-season. There should be a decision to freeze the tax, even if it is just for Menorca alone. Were there to be, then it might demonstrate more than just the easily expressed "concern". Menorca is too easily forgotten.
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Island Hopping: Joana Camps
We would have had every good reason to have believed that we would have never heard of her again. Former minister, Joana Maria Camps, the second of the three in charge of education under José Ramón Bauzá, was relieved of her duties in September 2014. She had been minister for some eighteen months, during which time the islands' education system went from bad to worse and occasionally descended into farce, with Joana sometimes the cause.
During the time that she was minister, some started to note that she was heading off to Menorca - her home island - not infrequently. Among those doing the noting was the Assemblea de Docents, the teachers' assembly, for whom Joana was public enemy number two after Bauzá.
The Joana affair has, on two occasions, been considered by a court. On both occasions the matter was "archived", which typically means that no more is ever heard of it. However, the court in Palma has re-opened the case, and next month Joana will be obliged to explain herself. The Assemblea is pointing to the fact that Joana went to Menorca 32 times between May and December 2013 and that her stays often coincided with a weekend and lasted for more than a day. A contrast is being made with two visits that were made to Ibiza with travel there and back on the same day and one to Brussels that also involved same-day travel. In addition, there is the fact that Joana received 22,000 euros per annum compensation for needing to base herself in Mallorca.
The court has taken note of four specific trips that were apparently made: three days for a meeting with the mayor of Sant Lluís; six days for trophy-giving for the Almirante Ferragut regatta; five days for the Rocío pilgrimage; five days for the presentation of a magazine for the Sant Joan fiestas in Ciutadella. It should be noted that, in addition to having been education minister, she did also have responsibility for culture, but while this dual portfolio may offer some justification, the court would appear to believe that there is something a tad fishy which is worthy of further examination.
Joana has come out fighting, saying that she has nothing to hide and that there was no misuse of public funds. She is also drawing a comparison with a minister in the Antich government, Joana Barceló, who is also from Menorca and who was in charge of employment before adding the tourism brief in early 2010. Joana says that the other Joana made 46 trips to Menorca - 38 of them at weekends - between February and December 2010 and a further 28 in the five months of 2011 prior to the regional election.
Whether two wrongs - if it is deemed wrongs have been committed - make a right isn't really the issue. But it might be said that there is an issue regarding appointments of ministers (or indeed others) from those in the other islands. While it is only just that these are shared around, it is important that they are made for the right reasons and go to the right people. Joana, as was regularly pointed out, had no specific background that qualified her to be education minister. For an austerity-minded government, was an annual compensation for being based in Mallorca justified, when there were surely others who might have been better qualified for the post? Hers was an appointment to guarantee a following of the party (Bauzá) line on trilingual teaching, the previous and far better qualified incumbent, Rafael Bosch, having been less minded to give the policy his wholehearted support.
The handing-out of appointments does have an element of a quota system to it in order that the other islands are represented in government. Hence, the current cabinet has Marc Pons and Esperança Camps (no relation) from Menorca and Joan Boned from Ibiza. As Boned is transport minister, it might be said that his wish for a 30 euro flat-rate inter-island flight tariff makes sense as it will save on the cost of any travel he has to make with his home island.
It is right that there is all-island representation (though Formentera tends not to get a look in), but then it is also right that travel does not give rise to certain suspicions. With Joana, it is possible that these would not have arisen or not gone as far as the courts, were it not for the Assemblea having it in for her. Is there vindictiveness? Possibly there is. But there again, it isn't altogether surprising that those suspicions were aroused, given the number of trips.
Ministers getting around the other islands should (and does) form part of what they do. A problem for Joana perhaps is less the trips she made to Menorca but the ones she didn't make to Ibiza.
During the time that she was minister, some started to note that she was heading off to Menorca - her home island - not infrequently. Among those doing the noting was the Assemblea de Docents, the teachers' assembly, for whom Joana was public enemy number two after Bauzá.
The Joana affair has, on two occasions, been considered by a court. On both occasions the matter was "archived", which typically means that no more is ever heard of it. However, the court in Palma has re-opened the case, and next month Joana will be obliged to explain herself. The Assemblea is pointing to the fact that Joana went to Menorca 32 times between May and December 2013 and that her stays often coincided with a weekend and lasted for more than a day. A contrast is being made with two visits that were made to Ibiza with travel there and back on the same day and one to Brussels that also involved same-day travel. In addition, there is the fact that Joana received 22,000 euros per annum compensation for needing to base herself in Mallorca.
The court has taken note of four specific trips that were apparently made: three days for a meeting with the mayor of Sant Lluís; six days for trophy-giving for the Almirante Ferragut regatta; five days for the Rocío pilgrimage; five days for the presentation of a magazine for the Sant Joan fiestas in Ciutadella. It should be noted that, in addition to having been education minister, she did also have responsibility for culture, but while this dual portfolio may offer some justification, the court would appear to believe that there is something a tad fishy which is worthy of further examination.
Joana has come out fighting, saying that she has nothing to hide and that there was no misuse of public funds. She is also drawing a comparison with a minister in the Antich government, Joana Barceló, who is also from Menorca and who was in charge of employment before adding the tourism brief in early 2010. Joana says that the other Joana made 46 trips to Menorca - 38 of them at weekends - between February and December 2010 and a further 28 in the five months of 2011 prior to the regional election.
Whether two wrongs - if it is deemed wrongs have been committed - make a right isn't really the issue. But it might be said that there is an issue regarding appointments of ministers (or indeed others) from those in the other islands. While it is only just that these are shared around, it is important that they are made for the right reasons and go to the right people. Joana, as was regularly pointed out, had no specific background that qualified her to be education minister. For an austerity-minded government, was an annual compensation for being based in Mallorca justified, when there were surely others who might have been better qualified for the post? Hers was an appointment to guarantee a following of the party (Bauzá) line on trilingual teaching, the previous and far better qualified incumbent, Rafael Bosch, having been less minded to give the policy his wholehearted support.
The handing-out of appointments does have an element of a quota system to it in order that the other islands are represented in government. Hence, the current cabinet has Marc Pons and Esperança Camps (no relation) from Menorca and Joan Boned from Ibiza. As Boned is transport minister, it might be said that his wish for a 30 euro flat-rate inter-island flight tariff makes sense as it will save on the cost of any travel he has to make with his home island.
It is right that there is all-island representation (though Formentera tends not to get a look in), but then it is also right that travel does not give rise to certain suspicions. With Joana, it is possible that these would not have arisen or not gone as far as the courts, were it not for the Assemblea having it in for her. Is there vindictiveness? Possibly there is. But there again, it isn't altogether surprising that those suspicions were aroused, given the number of trips.
Ministers getting around the other islands should (and does) form part of what they do. A problem for Joana perhaps is less the trips she made to Menorca but the ones she didn't make to Ibiza.
Friday, October 17, 2014
Privatising The Spanish Airports
The partial privatisation of the national airports agency, Aena, is a matter which should be of interest to us all and so not just to the millions of tourists who pass through Son Sant Joan each year. It is a privatisation which, where Palma airport is concerned, could be positive or not so positive. Son Sant Joan is the most profitable Spanish airport. Shareholders like profits and they like to see them grow and to see their dividends also grow.
It is now more accurate to talk about Enaire rather than Aena. Since July this publicly owned company has been in charge of the country's civil airports; it currently owns all the Aena shares, for which offers have been received from the private sector for an initial 21%. The remaining 28% which comprise the partial privatisation (49% of shares) are due to be offered next month. Three "core" shareholders have now been confirmed. They are Banca March, Ferrovial, which is involved with the management of several British airports, and the London-based Children's Investment Fund (TCI).
The response to the offer of this 21% shareholding was, at best, not what the government had hoped for. It would seem that the three shareholders were the only applicants. The remaining 28%, thrown open to wider public subscription, may create greater interest, but there are concerns that the lacklustre start to the privatisation process might be repeated.
A problem for Enaire/Aena is that there are so many airports which aren't profitable, and they include Madrid. There are 49 airports in all and only around a fifth of them make a profit, in addition to which there is debt which many of them have. Palma is exceptional in this regard as it carries no debt. Barcelona, on the other hand, has a similar profit level but a massive debt.
The privatisation has not been met with total approval. The CCOO union is against it, as is PSOE, which is supposedly going to attempt to paralyse the sale in Congress (quite how is not clear). The opposition is all about guarantees of jobs, but there should also be a further concern, which is what investment might be forthcoming as a consequence of privatisation. Is the sale simply a way for the government to improve its accounts? But this question aside, Palma, because of its already high performance, might benefit further. As things stand, it already in a sense gets back much of its profit through the state budget allocation. The worry might be all those airports which are a drain and which demand a diversion of investment, though this assumes that they don't get closed, and it has been argued - justifiably - that Spain has way too many airports.
One airport which is a drain is Menorca's. It runs at a substantial loss - nearly 10 million euros in 2012. It would never be closed because, unlike some airports on the mainland, it is essential both for tourists and residents. But its tourism does perhaps help to explain why it does make a loss. Menorca receives half the number of tourists that Ibiza (together with Formentera) does. Ibiza airport makes a profit, not a huge one but it is profit nonetheless and its debt is small. Menorca's isn't. Over 150 million euros in 2012. Something needs to be done about its performance, and despite crowing in the Balearics that a Mallorcan bank, March, is a shareholder and that a leading Mallorcan hotelier, Simón Barceló, is a non-executive director on the new board will mean a defence of Balearic interests, it has to be accepted that shareholders don't deal with altruism, they deal with returns on investment. Barceló's involvement is arguably the more important - as a non-exec, he would doubtless do the defending - but then both he and March are part of a much bigger business, one with all those other airports that make a loss. The Spanish Government, as majority shareholder, would find itself under fire if it were to appear that the Balearics were being favoured at the expense of smallish regional airports on the mainland. This said, the government has stated in the past that airport closure is not on the cards. Well, that remains to be seen, as indeed does the success or not of the whole share offer.
It is now more accurate to talk about Enaire rather than Aena. Since July this publicly owned company has been in charge of the country's civil airports; it currently owns all the Aena shares, for which offers have been received from the private sector for an initial 21%. The remaining 28% which comprise the partial privatisation (49% of shares) are due to be offered next month. Three "core" shareholders have now been confirmed. They are Banca March, Ferrovial, which is involved with the management of several British airports, and the London-based Children's Investment Fund (TCI).
The response to the offer of this 21% shareholding was, at best, not what the government had hoped for. It would seem that the three shareholders were the only applicants. The remaining 28%, thrown open to wider public subscription, may create greater interest, but there are concerns that the lacklustre start to the privatisation process might be repeated.
A problem for Enaire/Aena is that there are so many airports which aren't profitable, and they include Madrid. There are 49 airports in all and only around a fifth of them make a profit, in addition to which there is debt which many of them have. Palma is exceptional in this regard as it carries no debt. Barcelona, on the other hand, has a similar profit level but a massive debt.
The privatisation has not been met with total approval. The CCOO union is against it, as is PSOE, which is supposedly going to attempt to paralyse the sale in Congress (quite how is not clear). The opposition is all about guarantees of jobs, but there should also be a further concern, which is what investment might be forthcoming as a consequence of privatisation. Is the sale simply a way for the government to improve its accounts? But this question aside, Palma, because of its already high performance, might benefit further. As things stand, it already in a sense gets back much of its profit through the state budget allocation. The worry might be all those airports which are a drain and which demand a diversion of investment, though this assumes that they don't get closed, and it has been argued - justifiably - that Spain has way too many airports.
One airport which is a drain is Menorca's. It runs at a substantial loss - nearly 10 million euros in 2012. It would never be closed because, unlike some airports on the mainland, it is essential both for tourists and residents. But its tourism does perhaps help to explain why it does make a loss. Menorca receives half the number of tourists that Ibiza (together with Formentera) does. Ibiza airport makes a profit, not a huge one but it is profit nonetheless and its debt is small. Menorca's isn't. Over 150 million euros in 2012. Something needs to be done about its performance, and despite crowing in the Balearics that a Mallorcan bank, March, is a shareholder and that a leading Mallorcan hotelier, Simón Barceló, is a non-executive director on the new board will mean a defence of Balearic interests, it has to be accepted that shareholders don't deal with altruism, they deal with returns on investment. Barceló's involvement is arguably the more important - as a non-exec, he would doubtless do the defending - but then both he and March are part of a much bigger business, one with all those other airports that make a loss. The Spanish Government, as majority shareholder, would find itself under fire if it were to appear that the Balearics were being favoured at the expense of smallish regional airports on the mainland. This said, the government has stated in the past that airport closure is not on the cards. Well, that remains to be seen, as indeed does the success or not of the whole share offer.
Saturday, September 06, 2014
The Holiday Lets War Gets Hotter
These have been a strange few days in the ongoing arguments over holiday lets. Firstly, the Mallorcan hoteliers federation, never exactly meek in its attitude towards private tourist accommodation, announced that it had denounced no fewer than forty websites which offer accommodation that has not been legalised. These were websites which were all said to be of a P2P nature, like therefore Airbnb. The federation has brought these websites to the attention of the secretary of state for telecommunications and information society, whose boss just so happens to be the national minister for tourism (and industry), José Manuel Soria. The federation also announced that it had taken on a company whose express task is to identify websites which commercialise apartments as holiday lets, something which, as I think we all know, is forbidden in the Balearics. While the Balearics tourism ministry had indicated that it would be taking a watching brief over such websites, the fact that the hoteliers have now taken this task upon themselves suggests that they may not have been impressed by the ministry's rigour. Whatever the reason, the federation is clearly gunning for websites which engage in promoting non-legalised accommodation, and any accommodation which is not legalised is easy to spot, as registered and so legal accommodation must show a code which proves its legality.
Hot on the heels of the federation's latest war on holiday rentals came an admission from the tourism ministry that provisions in its draft tourism decree might not in themselves actually be legal. We now know, because the minister Jaime Martínez said so during a trip to Menorca, that the draft will be amended to exclude the requirements for certain types of property to have been built before 1960 and for owners to have to seek permission from neighbours in order to rent properties out. These requirements had been criticised for being absurd. Well, they were not only absurd they were also unconstitutional, which does rather beg a question as to how they found their way into the draft in the first place. Still, checks and balances do exist, and national and constitutional laws have supremacy over regional legislation, as Martínez now realises, having however raised a controversy over nothing and having put property owners into a right old flap for no good reason.
Martínez was in Menorca to meet various associations and local government representatives. He said that the draft decree has global consensus among all parties, which may not be a statement that all parties agree with, and certainly not in Menorca. The minister has asked the Menorcans for proposals in respect of the draft, saying that it is important for competitiveness that tourism businesses reach an agreement. He knows full well, or should know, that the Menorcans want a different take on holiday lets, precisely because they believe that a more permissive system of regulation would be beneficial to the island's competitiveness. We should be watching this Menorcan space with some interest in Mallorca, though whether Martínez in the end bows to Menorcan demands must be open to doubt and would thus blow a hole in his argument that there is global consensus.
And then, into the holiday lets equation entered a website named idealista.com. For those of you are interested and can understand the Spanish, there is a YouTube video that this real estate agency (which specialises in rentals as much as it does in sales) has released. Its title is "Prohibido alquilar. La industria hotelera contra el alquiler vacacional". It's almost twelve minutes long but it is worth looking at. The video does not deal with the Balearics only, as it cites examples of what are considered to be alleged abuses of regional regulations against holiday lets, the consequence of the national government having passed responsibility for such lets to the regions and of pressures applied by the large hotel chains on these regional administrations.
If nothing else, the video highlights the total lack of cohesion in rental legislation. Decentralisation is fine but not when it causes the confusion that it has when it comes to this particular topic. It also gives rise to the mistake that the Balearics tourism ministry made in its draft decree but which it has now rectified and also to the lack of clarity in Balearics regional legislation. To come back to the Menorcans, the small to medium-sized businesses association there has asked Martínez for greater clarity in the draft, and it is right to have done so. It was anything but clear, and, as I have pointed out previously, there are, so I am led to believe, others in the ministry who share such a concern.
Monday, August 18, 2014
Responsibilities In Reverse
Amidst the fuss about tourist rentals that the recent draft tourism decree has caused were others matters of policy, equally as arcane in their actual comprehensibility to the layman, which failed to work their way into the headlines. One of these other matters has to do with the removal of certain competences that the islands' councils have for tourism promotion and organisation.
If you have not seen the draft tourism decree (or other items of Balearics legislation come to that), you will not know just how convoluted it is and how, in its preamble in particular, it manages to refer to that many items of other legislation that any sane person would give up after a couple of pages. (Perhaps the government hopes people do give up.) If you persevere, however, and disentangle what is contained in all this mind-boggling legalese, you discover that statutes of autonomy, which apply not just to the regional government but also to the islands' councils, and a general law of 2007 to do with these statutes have been invoked by the regional government in its having now claimed exclusive right to decide on certain tourism matters.
In Menorca, they are bloody furious. The other islands will probably also be mad, but the Menorcans more than the other islands. They have been vocal in asserting their rights to introduce their own regulations in line with what they thought were their competences and responsibilities. The government has taken them away and in one particularly significant way. The Menorcans believed that they would be able to regulate on tourism rentals: not under this decree they can't.
According to Salomé Cabrera, Menorca's councillor for tourism, the decree "violates" competences that the council has for tourism organisation, and she has drawn attention to what was an agreement by the regional government to amend the 2012 law by stating that Menorca could regulate on the matter of tourist stays (which, in translation, is the official term for tourist rentals). Menorca had, before the passing of the 2012 law, lobbied for a more permissive rental regime. It has maintained its opposition since then, its president having not attended a meeting with then tourism minister Carlos Delgado a year ago at which Delgado claimed there was consensus on rentals. This was a barefaced untruth. Its opposition had, nonetheless, looked as if it had worked and had given Menorca the means to counter the harmful effects of all-inclusives on the island through the permissive regulation of private accommodation for rent.
PSOE, in responding to the Martínez decree last week, argued that other competences were being taken away from the councils. It remains to be seen what responsibilities they will be left with, but they are supposed to be getting one that allows them to promote tourism. This was promised by President Bauzá, and it was a promise that had a hefty dose of political expediency about it: smoothing unrest in the other islands.
The change of mind on Menorca's rental responsibilities is indicative of the way in which the statutes of autonomy and the relationships between tiers of government can become political footballs of interpretation, power politics and potential abuse. They are used by Palma where the islands are concerned, and they are also used by Madrid where the Balearics are concerned.
The tourism law and now the new decree are ways in which Palma can assert its authority. It can do so with carte blanche because it, as with other regional administrations, has been allowed to by Madrid, which abrogated its responsibility for legislating on tourist rentals. Had it not and had it opted to legislate centrally, it is quite possible, given how every other region of Spain has been moving, that the Balearics would now be facing a permissive system of regulation. It suited Madrid not to legislate because by not doing so it was able to appear to be acting in a decentralised fashion but more importantly it was able to avoid an almighty great conflict with the hotel lobby. It bottled it, in other words.
The statues of autonomy have created a system of pick 'n' mix whereby Madrid can wield the stick of centralisation or dangle the carrot of decentralisation as it sees fit. The result is one great big power game in which Bauzá has been revealed as impotent on two key issues - oil and financing from central government. Moreover, Madrid has, we now understand, approved some twenty laws which have stripped the Balearics of its own competences. In addition, several articles contained in the new Balearics fishing law have been queried by Madrid.
Because he is so impotent, Bauzá acts on things he knows will show him as being tough without upsetting his political masters. Tourism rentals are one. Education and trilingualism are another. But unfortunately, all that legal mumbo-jumbo can come back and bite. Menorca is threatening to go to court on tourism rentals, which could mean calling for a decision by the Constitutional Court in Madrid, a body which is in constant session, attempting to make sense and arbitrate on issues which are a direct consequence of the political power games played out through the statutes of autonomy. There surely has to be a better way.
If you have not seen the draft tourism decree (or other items of Balearics legislation come to that), you will not know just how convoluted it is and how, in its preamble in particular, it manages to refer to that many items of other legislation that any sane person would give up after a couple of pages. (Perhaps the government hopes people do give up.) If you persevere, however, and disentangle what is contained in all this mind-boggling legalese, you discover that statutes of autonomy, which apply not just to the regional government but also to the islands' councils, and a general law of 2007 to do with these statutes have been invoked by the regional government in its having now claimed exclusive right to decide on certain tourism matters.
In Menorca, they are bloody furious. The other islands will probably also be mad, but the Menorcans more than the other islands. They have been vocal in asserting their rights to introduce their own regulations in line with what they thought were their competences and responsibilities. The government has taken them away and in one particularly significant way. The Menorcans believed that they would be able to regulate on tourism rentals: not under this decree they can't.
According to Salomé Cabrera, Menorca's councillor for tourism, the decree "violates" competences that the council has for tourism organisation, and she has drawn attention to what was an agreement by the regional government to amend the 2012 law by stating that Menorca could regulate on the matter of tourist stays (which, in translation, is the official term for tourist rentals). Menorca had, before the passing of the 2012 law, lobbied for a more permissive rental regime. It has maintained its opposition since then, its president having not attended a meeting with then tourism minister Carlos Delgado a year ago at which Delgado claimed there was consensus on rentals. This was a barefaced untruth. Its opposition had, nonetheless, looked as if it had worked and had given Menorca the means to counter the harmful effects of all-inclusives on the island through the permissive regulation of private accommodation for rent.
PSOE, in responding to the Martínez decree last week, argued that other competences were being taken away from the councils. It remains to be seen what responsibilities they will be left with, but they are supposed to be getting one that allows them to promote tourism. This was promised by President Bauzá, and it was a promise that had a hefty dose of political expediency about it: smoothing unrest in the other islands.
The change of mind on Menorca's rental responsibilities is indicative of the way in which the statutes of autonomy and the relationships between tiers of government can become political footballs of interpretation, power politics and potential abuse. They are used by Palma where the islands are concerned, and they are also used by Madrid where the Balearics are concerned.
The tourism law and now the new decree are ways in which Palma can assert its authority. It can do so with carte blanche because it, as with other regional administrations, has been allowed to by Madrid, which abrogated its responsibility for legislating on tourist rentals. Had it not and had it opted to legislate centrally, it is quite possible, given how every other region of Spain has been moving, that the Balearics would now be facing a permissive system of regulation. It suited Madrid not to legislate because by not doing so it was able to appear to be acting in a decentralised fashion but more importantly it was able to avoid an almighty great conflict with the hotel lobby. It bottled it, in other words.
The statues of autonomy have created a system of pick 'n' mix whereby Madrid can wield the stick of centralisation or dangle the carrot of decentralisation as it sees fit. The result is one great big power game in which Bauzá has been revealed as impotent on two key issues - oil and financing from central government. Moreover, Madrid has, we now understand, approved some twenty laws which have stripped the Balearics of its own competences. In addition, several articles contained in the new Balearics fishing law have been queried by Madrid.
Because he is so impotent, Bauzá acts on things he knows will show him as being tough without upsetting his political masters. Tourism rentals are one. Education and trilingualism are another. But unfortunately, all that legal mumbo-jumbo can come back and bite. Menorca is threatening to go to court on tourism rentals, which could mean calling for a decision by the Constitutional Court in Madrid, a body which is in constant session, attempting to make sense and arbitrate on issues which are a direct consequence of the political power games played out through the statutes of autonomy. There surely has to be a better way.
Saturday, October 05, 2013
Into The Biosphere: Menorca
The UNESCO declaration was made on 8 October 1993, so the island is now celebrating twenty years of having become a biosphere. It is something which the Council of Menorca is shouting about, and there is any amount of self-congratulation going around, stating how well things have all gone.
But not everyone agrees that the biosphere has been the great success the Council would like everyone to believe. Indeed the Council has been identified as having always lacked both the skills and the money to make anything of Menorca's biosphere status in terms of attracting more tourism.
Esther Mascaró, writing in "Hosteltur", has laid into the Council and the Balearic Government. It is she who says that the Council has been found wanting. She adds that there is mistrust in the Council and in its ability to make anything worthwhile come of the biosphere status and that the government has never had the will to create a viable tourism product that exploits the island's natural attributes.
One of the reasons for apparent inaction lies with the fact that businesspeople, who might wish to establish businesses which are in line with the status and which would also help to attract more visitors to Menorca, especially out of the summer season, are hamstrung by the levels of bureaucracy and government. It is a familiar tale of woe that sees applications pass through municipality to provincial administration (the Council) to regional government and possibly also on to Madrid and Brussels and which means that it can take anything up to three years for decisions to be made, approvals to be given and permissions issued.
There was a recent forum on tourism and nature in Menorca. The tourism minister, Carlos Delgado, was there. But not for very long. Many were the complaints that he appeared less than interested or committed enough to have devoted more time to hear from local businesspeople and others.
The forum highlighted examples in Spain where biospheres have been made very much more valuable in tourism terms than Menorca's has. A case in point is La Palma in the Canaries where, despite a similarly heavy reliance on tourism, there is a limit placed on tourist accommodation and a greater emphasis placed on maintaining the island's traditional agriculture and products. La Palma, similar in many ways to Menorca, sounds idyllic insofar as its biosphere status has been applied effectively, but it does benefit from being in the Canaries. Menorca is the wettest of the Balearic Islands and, as with the others, doesn't have the same winter sun and so therefore the same potential for winter-sun tourists.
But Menorca has suffered in other ways. Though a biosphere, it is not part of Turespaña's "ecotourism" product. Which begs a pretty big question why not. Again, the Council and regional government are accused of allowing this to be so. But while the Council of Menorca is criticised, there does seem, and this is not an isolated example, to have been a neglect of Menorca by the government in Palma. The experience with the biosphere does raise a question about how much the islands other than Mallorca are paid a proper amount of attention to. And it raises a further question, that to do with the Tramuntana mountains. These were awarded a different UNESCO status two years ago. What has happened since? Where is the plan for tourism, especially winter tourism, that its heritage status is meant to produce? Are the mountains, like Menorca, being either neglected or exposed to that much bureaucracy and to so many layers of administration that nothing is being done?
* Esther Mascaró's article: http://www.hosteltur.com/114490_menorca-20-anos-reserva-biosfera-producto.html
Saturday, June 22, 2013
MALLORCA TODAY - Thousands leave Alcúdia for Menorca's Sant Joan fiestas
Some 3,000 people are expected to travel from Alcúdia's port to Menorca for the island's Sant Joan fiestas. There was particularly high demand for ferries yesterday, around 2,000 people (mostly young) having decided to head to Menorca where Sant Joan is one of the biggest celebrations of the year.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
Thursday, May 02, 2013
Tourism Promotion In Reverse
In August 2011, the Partido Popular, making efforts to eliminate duplication in public administration on the islands, ensured that the governmental bodies it dominates in Mallorca - the regional government itself and the island's council - agreed on the removal of one example of this duplication: tourism promotion and affairs. The Fundación Mallorca Turismo, part of the council, was wound up, its responsibilities passing to the government's tourism ministry. At that time, the president of the Council of Mallorca was admitting that it was 330 millions in the red. Getting rid of certain duplicative responsibilities, such as those for tourism, was not only a sensible and pragmatic move it was also one that was long overdue. Opponents of the PP insisted that it was a change that was evidence of some unstated agenda on behalf of the PP to centralise different responsibilities, which was nonsense. It was evidence of a desire for greater efficiency, but as one opposition party, the Mallorcan socialists, had previously advocated more not less duplication through responsibilities passing to the Council of Mallorca, such organisational common sense was always unlikely to be understood.
That was August 2011. In May 2013, the government is putting things into reverse. The islands' councils are to be given responsibilities for tourism promotion. The Balearics Tourism Agency, part of the tourism ministry, will retain responsibilities for market research, quality and co-ordination with the central government's tourism promotion agency Turespaña. Otherwise, it's going to be as you were.
Why is this happening? It isn't happening because the government particularly wants it to happen but because the councils in Ibiza and Menorca have kicked up such an almighty great fuss. (Note, by the way, that the Council of Mallorca hadn't been making a fuss.) Their wish to take charge of their own tourism promotion was made clear at the recent travel fair in Madrid where representatives of the two islands (three, as Formentera is linked to Ibiza) were angered by the small amount of representation they had at the Balearics stand. Similar disquiet had been expressed at previous travel fairs. And there was particular anger because Palma, now with its own tourism promotion campaign and organisation, had separate representation at the stand. Things got so bad in Madrid that tourism minister, Carlos Delgado, was told to get lost and stay away from their minimalist booths by the Menorcan and Ibizan representatives.
I can understand that there was and is resentment at the special treatment reserved for Palma, but there again, and in pure population terms, Palma is considerably bigger than Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera put together. It might stick in the craw with some, but they should just lump it; Palma is far too important for it to not have some special treatment. Complaints about the city being portrayed as the "fifth island" are probably convenient ones in any event. Behind Menorca and Ibiza's dissatisfaction is a political stand-off between members of the PP in both islands and with President Bauzá. This is especially so in Ibiza where some PP people consider the president to be persona non grata; all due, it would seem, to disagreements over Bauzá's attitude towards regionalism.
The government's decision to backtrack on the organisation of tourism promotion smacks of politicking. The previous rationalisation was correct, but the government appears to be bowing to the political necessity to maintain or regain support in the other islands. So much for tough decisions. By performing a U-turn, the government will undermine Delgado's role and also that of the Balearics Tourism Agency, and it is not as if Delgado wasn't perfectly aware of the need to promote the various islands separately. He had been that rare beast in Balearics tourism politics who recognised that the branding of the islands as a job-lot made little sense; he said this even before becoming tourism minister.
The Mallorcan hoteliers federation is just one organisation that is unimpressed by the reversal in policy, arguing that, because the islands have the same markets to promote to, this promotion should come under one authority. So long as the individual islands are branded as distinct entities with distinct attributes, then the federation is right to argue this. But then it has its own agenda, one that has differed to that in Menorca, the island which attempted to obtain a far more relaxed approach to holiday lets and apartments in the new tourism law. Shifting responsibilities for promotion won't change the law in this regard, but this difference in attitude just went to emphasise the lack of harmony when it comes to tourism matters. Giving the councils more of a say is not going to resolve this.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
That was August 2011. In May 2013, the government is putting things into reverse. The islands' councils are to be given responsibilities for tourism promotion. The Balearics Tourism Agency, part of the tourism ministry, will retain responsibilities for market research, quality and co-ordination with the central government's tourism promotion agency Turespaña. Otherwise, it's going to be as you were.
Why is this happening? It isn't happening because the government particularly wants it to happen but because the councils in Ibiza and Menorca have kicked up such an almighty great fuss. (Note, by the way, that the Council of Mallorca hadn't been making a fuss.) Their wish to take charge of their own tourism promotion was made clear at the recent travel fair in Madrid where representatives of the two islands (three, as Formentera is linked to Ibiza) were angered by the small amount of representation they had at the Balearics stand. Similar disquiet had been expressed at previous travel fairs. And there was particular anger because Palma, now with its own tourism promotion campaign and organisation, had separate representation at the stand. Things got so bad in Madrid that tourism minister, Carlos Delgado, was told to get lost and stay away from their minimalist booths by the Menorcan and Ibizan representatives.
I can understand that there was and is resentment at the special treatment reserved for Palma, but there again, and in pure population terms, Palma is considerably bigger than Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera put together. It might stick in the craw with some, but they should just lump it; Palma is far too important for it to not have some special treatment. Complaints about the city being portrayed as the "fifth island" are probably convenient ones in any event. Behind Menorca and Ibiza's dissatisfaction is a political stand-off between members of the PP in both islands and with President Bauzá. This is especially so in Ibiza where some PP people consider the president to be persona non grata; all due, it would seem, to disagreements over Bauzá's attitude towards regionalism.
The government's decision to backtrack on the organisation of tourism promotion smacks of politicking. The previous rationalisation was correct, but the government appears to be bowing to the political necessity to maintain or regain support in the other islands. So much for tough decisions. By performing a U-turn, the government will undermine Delgado's role and also that of the Balearics Tourism Agency, and it is not as if Delgado wasn't perfectly aware of the need to promote the various islands separately. He had been that rare beast in Balearics tourism politics who recognised that the branding of the islands as a job-lot made little sense; he said this even before becoming tourism minister.
The Mallorcan hoteliers federation is just one organisation that is unimpressed by the reversal in policy, arguing that, because the islands have the same markets to promote to, this promotion should come under one authority. So long as the individual islands are branded as distinct entities with distinct attributes, then the federation is right to argue this. But then it has its own agenda, one that has differed to that in Menorca, the island which attempted to obtain a far more relaxed approach to holiday lets and apartments in the new tourism law. Shifting responsibilities for promotion won't change the law in this regard, but this difference in attitude just went to emphasise the lack of harmony when it comes to tourism matters. Giving the councils more of a say is not going to resolve this.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, March 01, 2013
Thirty Years Of Trouble: Regional government
Thirty years ago, while Britain was gripped by the Deirdre-Ken-Mike love triangle, was listening to David Bowie's "Let's Dance" number one and was gearing itself up for the any time soon re-election of the vanquisher of Galtieri, the Balearics were celebrating their autonomy. On 1 March 1983, the statute of autonomy came into effect and three months later the islands were to have their first president, Gabriel Cañellas.
The granting of autonomy to the Balearics was one of the last of a series of legislative acts that created the Spanish regional governments in the late 1970s and early 1980s (the north African cities of Ceuta and Melilla were to follow some years later). The islands' autonomy, as with regional autonomy in most other parts of Spain, hadn't initially been envisaged when the post-Franco Constitution was drawn up. Those regions with historical claims to some form of self-government - Catalonia, the Basque Country and Galicia - were the focus of the move to this devolution. Once the Andalusians started pressing their claims as well, the impetus began by which all the regions were to become autonomous.
1983 was, in a way, the final move in a process that had started 52 years before. A statute had been drafted in 1931 in line with a desire of the government of the Second Republic to bring about regional autonomy. This statute was never effected. Apart from the obvious intervention of war, there were any number of factional differences that made it nigh on impossible in arriving at genuine agreement. One of the biggest differences of opinion was between the Mallorcans and the Menorcans. The latter were wary of Mallorcan "centralism" and were also more of a mind to join in with a Catalonian statute of autonomy.
Though the draft statute was approved, even if it was never implemented, it is instructive to see that in 1931 there was the opposition that there was. The Ibizans were reluctant supporters of autonomy, while several municipalities in Mallorca were against it. These included Marratxí.
While there were, naturally enough, celebrations in 1983, they obscured underlying divisions, ones that hadn't essentially changed since the 1930s. Thirty years on, they are still observable. The journalist Chema Ferrer is one who has highlighted these divisions. Ahead of this year's Balearics Day, he suggested that rather than there being a fiesta, it would be better if there were a wake and that the statute of autonomy was buried like the sardine is traditionally buried at Carnival time. He questions the very notion of a Balearic identity and condemns a recent political slogan - "four islands, one land, no border" - as being a fallacy. The Menorcan writer, Ponç Pons, is another who takes issue. He has changed the slogan to "four islands, four worlds".
Thirty years of autonomy have not removed pockets of resentment in the smaller islands of the Balearics. This is a resentment of Mallorcan supremacy and what are considered to be the advantages that Mallorca has and receives. The people of the four islands, surveys tell us, identify far less with the Balearics than with their respective islands, and this sentiment is stronger in Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera than it is in Mallorca.
The Balearics as a region is something of a contrivance, a geo-political convenience. While intuitively I favour regionalism and while I have repeatedly questioned the purpose of island councils, such as the Council of Mallorca, I can see there is more sense to these councils, which did after all pre-date regional government, than there is to a regional government. Because what can truly be said has been the achievement of thirty years of autonomy and of regional government?
I mentioned Marratxí before, because the opposition of that town to the 1931 draft statute has some echo today. President Bauzá, characterised as being against regionalism, is the former mayor of Marratxí. The charge that is levelled against him is that he would allow autonomy to wither in pursuing an unstated campaign against regionalism that lurks within the Partido Popular nationally. Even if the charge is accurate, it shouldn't be forgotten that the Zapatero administration had begun to question regionalism because of its cost.
Regional government was conceived as a way of keeping Spain together, but this had in mind the troublesome Catalans and Basques. Thirty years on, and where are we? Still faced with two troublesome regions. As for other regions, like the Balearics, which have no history of being troublesome, one has to ask whether regionalism has really been worth the trouble.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The granting of autonomy to the Balearics was one of the last of a series of legislative acts that created the Spanish regional governments in the late 1970s and early 1980s (the north African cities of Ceuta and Melilla were to follow some years later). The islands' autonomy, as with regional autonomy in most other parts of Spain, hadn't initially been envisaged when the post-Franco Constitution was drawn up. Those regions with historical claims to some form of self-government - Catalonia, the Basque Country and Galicia - were the focus of the move to this devolution. Once the Andalusians started pressing their claims as well, the impetus began by which all the regions were to become autonomous.
1983 was, in a way, the final move in a process that had started 52 years before. A statute had been drafted in 1931 in line with a desire of the government of the Second Republic to bring about regional autonomy. This statute was never effected. Apart from the obvious intervention of war, there were any number of factional differences that made it nigh on impossible in arriving at genuine agreement. One of the biggest differences of opinion was between the Mallorcans and the Menorcans. The latter were wary of Mallorcan "centralism" and were also more of a mind to join in with a Catalonian statute of autonomy.
Though the draft statute was approved, even if it was never implemented, it is instructive to see that in 1931 there was the opposition that there was. The Ibizans were reluctant supporters of autonomy, while several municipalities in Mallorca were against it. These included Marratxí.
While there were, naturally enough, celebrations in 1983, they obscured underlying divisions, ones that hadn't essentially changed since the 1930s. Thirty years on, they are still observable. The journalist Chema Ferrer is one who has highlighted these divisions. Ahead of this year's Balearics Day, he suggested that rather than there being a fiesta, it would be better if there were a wake and that the statute of autonomy was buried like the sardine is traditionally buried at Carnival time. He questions the very notion of a Balearic identity and condemns a recent political slogan - "four islands, one land, no border" - as being a fallacy. The Menorcan writer, Ponç Pons, is another who takes issue. He has changed the slogan to "four islands, four worlds".
Thirty years of autonomy have not removed pockets of resentment in the smaller islands of the Balearics. This is a resentment of Mallorcan supremacy and what are considered to be the advantages that Mallorca has and receives. The people of the four islands, surveys tell us, identify far less with the Balearics than with their respective islands, and this sentiment is stronger in Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera than it is in Mallorca.
The Balearics as a region is something of a contrivance, a geo-political convenience. While intuitively I favour regionalism and while I have repeatedly questioned the purpose of island councils, such as the Council of Mallorca, I can see there is more sense to these councils, which did after all pre-date regional government, than there is to a regional government. Because what can truly be said has been the achievement of thirty years of autonomy and of regional government?
I mentioned Marratxí before, because the opposition of that town to the 1931 draft statute has some echo today. President Bauzá, characterised as being against regionalism, is the former mayor of Marratxí. The charge that is levelled against him is that he would allow autonomy to wither in pursuing an unstated campaign against regionalism that lurks within the Partido Popular nationally. Even if the charge is accurate, it shouldn't be forgotten that the Zapatero administration had begun to question regionalism because of its cost.
Regional government was conceived as a way of keeping Spain together, but this had in mind the troublesome Catalans and Basques. Thirty years on, and where are we? Still faced with two troublesome regions. As for other regions, like the Balearics, which have no history of being troublesome, one has to ask whether regionalism has really been worth the trouble.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Suspect confesses to 13 forest fires
The suspect arrested in Menorca has confessed to being responsible for four forest fires on Menorca and nine on Mallorca this summer. The Guardia Civil is checking whether the fires match his movements between the islands, but he does fit the profile that the Guardia had issued - that of a former forestry worker with a motive of revenge (probably for loss of employment).
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
Friday, July 13, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Cala Rajada ferry route to Menorca ceases
The port of Alcúdia is set to benefit from the ending of operations by the ferry service to Ciutadella in Menorca from Cala Rajada. The shipping line concerned had entered voluntary bankruptcy but had been operating under a different name until recently.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Finally Speaking Out: Holiday lets
The Menorcan federation of small to medium-sized businesses has asked that the Council of Menorca incorporates into the new Balearics tourism law the possibility that any property on the island that has a certificate of occupancy be made available for tourism rental.
This request comes at a time when the tourism law is going through its parliamentary process. It is a bit late in the day to now be making the request, but perhaps it is a case of better late than never. How, though, the Council of Menorca can incorporate such a measure is a good question. The period of consultation for the new law has finished, though amendments are still being made. The Council of Menorca would nevertheless have to exert an enormous amount of pressure on the Balearic Government for an amendment of this sort to be either considered, let alone adopted. The chances of it being so are virtually zero, you would have thought. Perhaps the federation is hoping that the island council might unilaterally declare such accommodation legal, which it wouldn't unless it wanted a legal battle royal with the government.
The Menorcan business federation's executive committee met earlier this month and agreed to send a letter to the president of the Council stressing that permission for the rental of private accommodation was urgently needed and essential. Its arguments in favour of holiday lets will strike you as being very familiar, as they have been made ad nauseam, so I don't intend repeating them.
Why is the Menorcan federation only now though making its request to the Council of Menorca? I'm guessing, but it may well have been stung by the not untypical and traditional early-season moans and anxieties. Businesses find there is less business and so hit out at whatever they can, usually the all-inclusives, and demand that something be done. Whatever the reason for the federation's belated request, at least it has raised its voice. Which is more than can be said for pretty much any other organisation you care to think of, including the small to medium-sized business federation in Mallorca.
The timidity, fear even you feel, shown when it comes to the holiday-let issue serves to emphasise how cowed various sectors of Balearics business, professions as well as government are by the hotel sector. This is the impression they give, at any rate. No one dares to speak up for private accommodation and no one seems willing to ask the obvious question.
I have made this point before, but I will make it again, as I would dearly love to know, as I am sure would many others, what answer tourism minister Delgado (or any other member of the government or hotel industry representative) would have to it.
On 10 August last year, the Balearics registered the highest number of people on the islands at one time: 1,890,426. The total, regular population of the islands is 1,113,114. The total number of hotel places in the Balearics (and this is a liberal estimate) is in the region of 370,000. Even allowing for temporary workers, cruise passengers and others, this meant that at the height of summer, there was a population of some 400,000 people who were not staying in hotels. So - and this is the obvious question - where were they staying? They couldn't all have been with friends.
Of course, there are plenty of legal holiday lets (the villas and other houses), but these can't explain all of the shortfall. There isn't, as far as I am aware, an accurate answer, but there is a hint of an answer in the monthly figures issued by national government. Extrapolating from these and on the basis of an average length of stay of 6.8 days (a figure from the ImagineTourism consultancy), there were, on 10 August last year, at least 100,000 people staying in rented or "other" type of accommodation (excluding their own or family properties or with friends); significantly more in fact, as this extrapolation has its own shortfall.
I would challenge the government to refute this number and challenge it also to explain where it believes all the islands' tourists should be staying. I would also challenge the hotel industry to explain how this can be unfair competition (one of its usual arguments) when it isn't in a position to meet total demand. And one further challenge to government. Try stop talking about "illegal accommodation", try stop implying criminality when few owners wish to act illegally, and try instead talking about making the illegal legal.
Menorca's business federation may have been late in speaking out, but at least it has had the courage to do so. It's about time others did as well.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
This request comes at a time when the tourism law is going through its parliamentary process. It is a bit late in the day to now be making the request, but perhaps it is a case of better late than never. How, though, the Council of Menorca can incorporate such a measure is a good question. The period of consultation for the new law has finished, though amendments are still being made. The Council of Menorca would nevertheless have to exert an enormous amount of pressure on the Balearic Government for an amendment of this sort to be either considered, let alone adopted. The chances of it being so are virtually zero, you would have thought. Perhaps the federation is hoping that the island council might unilaterally declare such accommodation legal, which it wouldn't unless it wanted a legal battle royal with the government.
The Menorcan business federation's executive committee met earlier this month and agreed to send a letter to the president of the Council stressing that permission for the rental of private accommodation was urgently needed and essential. Its arguments in favour of holiday lets will strike you as being very familiar, as they have been made ad nauseam, so I don't intend repeating them.
Why is the Menorcan federation only now though making its request to the Council of Menorca? I'm guessing, but it may well have been stung by the not untypical and traditional early-season moans and anxieties. Businesses find there is less business and so hit out at whatever they can, usually the all-inclusives, and demand that something be done. Whatever the reason for the federation's belated request, at least it has raised its voice. Which is more than can be said for pretty much any other organisation you care to think of, including the small to medium-sized business federation in Mallorca.
The timidity, fear even you feel, shown when it comes to the holiday-let issue serves to emphasise how cowed various sectors of Balearics business, professions as well as government are by the hotel sector. This is the impression they give, at any rate. No one dares to speak up for private accommodation and no one seems willing to ask the obvious question.
I have made this point before, but I will make it again, as I would dearly love to know, as I am sure would many others, what answer tourism minister Delgado (or any other member of the government or hotel industry representative) would have to it.
On 10 August last year, the Balearics registered the highest number of people on the islands at one time: 1,890,426. The total, regular population of the islands is 1,113,114. The total number of hotel places in the Balearics (and this is a liberal estimate) is in the region of 370,000. Even allowing for temporary workers, cruise passengers and others, this meant that at the height of summer, there was a population of some 400,000 people who were not staying in hotels. So - and this is the obvious question - where were they staying? They couldn't all have been with friends.
Of course, there are plenty of legal holiday lets (the villas and other houses), but these can't explain all of the shortfall. There isn't, as far as I am aware, an accurate answer, but there is a hint of an answer in the monthly figures issued by national government. Extrapolating from these and on the basis of an average length of stay of 6.8 days (a figure from the ImagineTourism consultancy), there were, on 10 August last year, at least 100,000 people staying in rented or "other" type of accommodation (excluding their own or family properties or with friends); significantly more in fact, as this extrapolation has its own shortfall.
I would challenge the government to refute this number and challenge it also to explain where it believes all the islands' tourists should be staying. I would also challenge the hotel industry to explain how this can be unfair competition (one of its usual arguments) when it isn't in a position to meet total demand. And one further challenge to government. Try stop talking about "illegal accommodation", try stop implying criminality when few owners wish to act illegally, and try instead talking about making the illegal legal.
Menorca's business federation may have been late in speaking out, but at least it has had the courage to do so. It's about time others did as well.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, August 07, 2011
The Hornblower Effect?: Film and tourism
An old friend of mine used to return after months away on location and relate stories of derring-do and actors behaving badly. He was the producer of the "Hornblower" series of films, a highly successful franchise, to use an Americanism, and one that used a series of locations around Europe. The fifth film in the series, which aired in 2001, was mostly filmed in Menorca.
You can still find references to "where Hornblower was shot" on websites to do with Menorca. But what was the enduring benefit to the island of the film's location? Was there a "Hornblower" effect?
Perhaps there was, but if there was in tourism terms, it was shortlived. Menorca has spent the years since then confirming its position as the Balearics basket case. The island may still derive some kudos from "Mutiny" having been filmed there, but it has been worn away along with the memory of the film itself.
The relationship between film location and tourism is one I've considered before ("Lights, Camera, Inaction", 21 March). And the issue is cropping up again thanks to a burst of excitement surrounding the possibility that Mallorca might be a location for the filming of David Mitchell's "Cloud Atlas" (Tom Hanks, Halle Berry).
Note that I say "a location" and not the "the location". The distinction is important not just in terms of the use of the indefinite as opposed to the definite article. It is also important because, though the filming might indeed bring benefits, these would be as nothing compared with those which would be derived were it to be filmed almost entirely in Mallorca.
The most obvious example of a location benefiting in tourism terms from a film, as I mentioned in the previous article, was that of New Zealand and the publicity it attracted because of "Lord Of The Rings". The setting of Tolkien's trilogy was so well known that no one could have been mistaken into thinking they were really looking at Middle Earth and not at a land of sheep and rugby players.
The point is that, with a single location, the connection can be made and made very forcibly. With multiple locations, the connection is far less strong, to an extent that it may carry little or no force. Yes, a location could be promoted as having featured in a particular film, but it would rather depend on the prominence given to the location and to the extent to which it would be evident.
One site in Mallorca that is being mentioned is Sa Calobra. The problem is that unless you know what you're looking for, you wouldn't necessarily know what you were looking at. A dirty great arrow doesn't suddenly appear over Tom Hanks' head pointing to Sa Calobra with an accompanying legend announcing "Sa Calobra, part of the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Tramuntana mountains".
The fact that Sa Calobra, on the coastal periphery of the mountain range, is in the running does raise the spectre of what happened when there was talk of the island of Cabrera being used for filming ("Betsy And The Emperor"). The environment ministry vetoed it because of the island's sensitive ecology. The Tramuntana are more robust but they are also ecologically protected. One can already hear the sounds of the enviro lobby preparing their complaints were there to be film crews trampling over the countryside.
This is premature though. No agreement has been reached as to the location. Croatia is another place that is up for the gig apparently.
But assuming Mallorca were to be chosen, what benefits other than to tourism might follow? One might be that to the island's film industry. Yet would producers from Hollywood and elsewhere suddenly descend on Mallorca with all manner of blockbusters to be filmed? Only if the locations are what they want. "Cloud Atlas" might help in putting Mallorca more on the location map, but you might be surprised to learn that film companies, producers, location managers and whoever are already well aware of the island's locations. As indeed they are of those in pretty much any part of the world you care to mention.
Location databases, full of thousands of images, exist for all sorts of places. They exist to promote the locations but also to aid the decision-making of producers from foreign lands. Palma Pictures, for example, has a database of some 30,000 images.
"Cloud Atlas" would be a feather in Mallorca's cap, but the benefits can be overestimated. A single-location blockbuster is what would really bring about the benefits, but, and notwithstanding the fact that the Hornblower films were made for TV and were not Hollywood, never forget the lack of the Hornblower effect in Menorca.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
A comment about this article has been sent by an anonymous correspondent. The reason I ask for comments to be sent by email is that very often they are anonymous. Some anonymous comments I will post, some I will not. Into this second category falls the comment about this article which suggests that there is something "malitious" (sic) about it, though quite what escapes me. It is an article about what benefits might be derived from film locations; nothing more.
You can still find references to "where Hornblower was shot" on websites to do with Menorca. But what was the enduring benefit to the island of the film's location? Was there a "Hornblower" effect?
Perhaps there was, but if there was in tourism terms, it was shortlived. Menorca has spent the years since then confirming its position as the Balearics basket case. The island may still derive some kudos from "Mutiny" having been filmed there, but it has been worn away along with the memory of the film itself.
The relationship between film location and tourism is one I've considered before ("Lights, Camera, Inaction", 21 March). And the issue is cropping up again thanks to a burst of excitement surrounding the possibility that Mallorca might be a location for the filming of David Mitchell's "Cloud Atlas" (Tom Hanks, Halle Berry).
Note that I say "a location" and not the "the location". The distinction is important not just in terms of the use of the indefinite as opposed to the definite article. It is also important because, though the filming might indeed bring benefits, these would be as nothing compared with those which would be derived were it to be filmed almost entirely in Mallorca.
The most obvious example of a location benefiting in tourism terms from a film, as I mentioned in the previous article, was that of New Zealand and the publicity it attracted because of "Lord Of The Rings". The setting of Tolkien's trilogy was so well known that no one could have been mistaken into thinking they were really looking at Middle Earth and not at a land of sheep and rugby players.
The point is that, with a single location, the connection can be made and made very forcibly. With multiple locations, the connection is far less strong, to an extent that it may carry little or no force. Yes, a location could be promoted as having featured in a particular film, but it would rather depend on the prominence given to the location and to the extent to which it would be evident.
One site in Mallorca that is being mentioned is Sa Calobra. The problem is that unless you know what you're looking for, you wouldn't necessarily know what you were looking at. A dirty great arrow doesn't suddenly appear over Tom Hanks' head pointing to Sa Calobra with an accompanying legend announcing "Sa Calobra, part of the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Tramuntana mountains".
The fact that Sa Calobra, on the coastal periphery of the mountain range, is in the running does raise the spectre of what happened when there was talk of the island of Cabrera being used for filming ("Betsy And The Emperor"). The environment ministry vetoed it because of the island's sensitive ecology. The Tramuntana are more robust but they are also ecologically protected. One can already hear the sounds of the enviro lobby preparing their complaints were there to be film crews trampling over the countryside.
This is premature though. No agreement has been reached as to the location. Croatia is another place that is up for the gig apparently.
But assuming Mallorca were to be chosen, what benefits other than to tourism might follow? One might be that to the island's film industry. Yet would producers from Hollywood and elsewhere suddenly descend on Mallorca with all manner of blockbusters to be filmed? Only if the locations are what they want. "Cloud Atlas" might help in putting Mallorca more on the location map, but you might be surprised to learn that film companies, producers, location managers and whoever are already well aware of the island's locations. As indeed they are of those in pretty much any part of the world you care to mention.
Location databases, full of thousands of images, exist for all sorts of places. They exist to promote the locations but also to aid the decision-making of producers from foreign lands. Palma Pictures, for example, has a database of some 30,000 images.
"Cloud Atlas" would be a feather in Mallorca's cap, but the benefits can be overestimated. A single-location blockbuster is what would really bring about the benefits, but, and notwithstanding the fact that the Hornblower films were made for TV and were not Hollywood, never forget the lack of the Hornblower effect in Menorca.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
A comment about this article has been sent by an anonymous correspondent. The reason I ask for comments to be sent by email is that very often they are anonymous. Some anonymous comments I will post, some I will not. Into this second category falls the comment about this article which suggests that there is something "malitious" (sic) about it, though quite what escapes me. It is an article about what benefits might be derived from film locations; nothing more.
Monday, August 01, 2011
MALLORCA TODAY - Small earthquake in Menorca
An earthquake measuring 2.7 on the Richter scale hit the north of Menorca yesterday morning. It caused no damage and was barely noticeable, and sea levels were unaffected.
For an article on earthquakes in Mallorca, go to http://alcudiapollensa.blogspot.com/2011/03/earthmovers-quakes-in-mallorca.html
For an article on earthquakes in Mallorca, go to http://alcudiapollensa.blogspot.com/2011/03/earthmovers-quakes-in-mallorca.html
Monday, March 28, 2011
We'll Fight Them On The Beach Restaurants
So, here was an interesting little thing that caught my eye. In "The Bulletin" on Sunday. The headline was "Menorca fights all-inclusive tourist offer". The short news item said that the "Council of Menorca" (was) fighting back against the all-inclusive offer by setting up an online scheme where(by) visitors planning to come to the island can survey local restaurants giving meals at a special price, and calculate their expenses in advance."
What a very good idea, thought I. Visitors would also be able, the piece continued, to compare costs against that of an all-inclusive offer. Intrigued, I went in search of the website. I was intrigued not just by what seemed a good idea but also by the surprise of it. Why was I surprised? Well, would an island council, Menorca's or any other, actually be presenting something that might be seen to undermine its hotels? Yes, it wants to boost its restaurants and other businesses, and no, the councils aren't necessarily in cahoots with the hotels as such, but "fighting back" against AI? Was it really doing this?
Disappointingly, it isn't doing this. On the "Menorca Full Experience" site, the introduction says that we (tourists) want to know in advance costs of various things and that we have a problem with budgeting for lunches and dinners. Nowhere is there any mention of all-inclusives. Might this be for a reason other than letting tourists make some cost comparison, as in all-inclusives will soon be a thing of the past?
The island's tourism minister, Lázaro Criado, said, when the site was launched at the start of March, that "we understand that all-inclusive is not the agreed strategy for the long term in Menorca, although it can prove useful in the short term". Just like Mallorca, then. If anyone can decipher what the minister means (and it is hard to believe what he appears to mean), answers on a postcard with a picture of one of the participating restaurants, assuming you can find one of them.
The idea behind the site is that restaurants are listed, along with their menus, and a discount price is offered on production of a voucher that can be printed out. Fair enough. But hardly new. A slight problem with what there is on the website at present is that there are very few restaurants participating. How many? Three. Yes, three. In the whole of Menorca. In certain sections of cuisine and in certain "urbanisations", there are none listed. One presumes it's all early days.
This website has nothing to do with all-inclusives, but everything to do with promoting local gastronomy, all three restaurants' worth of it. There's nothing wrong with such promotion, while it would indeed have been a surprise had there been some sort of cost-comparison measures being presented, which there aren't. One can of course do one's own cost comparison, by schlepping through all manner of websites to get to the comparison, but you won't get it by "falling in love" with Menorca, the claim of the tourism board's site.
Giving some advance information about what it might cost to eat out is not, in itself, a completely bad idea. It is one of the questions holidaymakers ask all the time, along with how much does a pint cost and what's the weather like. The trouble is that the answers to them are of the string variety. How long is a piece of it? The weather you can be reasonably sure of, in July for example, but not in September. As for the costs of eating out, one man's meat is another man's pizza, as indeed one man's Burger King is another man's typical Mallorcan (or Menorcan) cuisine in a romantic, beach-side setting. It's not comparing eggs with eggs, or a fried egg with a rasher of bacon with quail's eggs and smoked salmon.
Calculating the holiday budget in advance, by sizing up less than a handful of restaurants' menus, with or without discounts, does rather overlook the increasing trend for the holidaymaker to have pretty much a set budget to spend, regardless of advance price information or discounts. And while a discount here or there might be tempting, it won't be if it means trekking across an entire island in search of it. To be of any real value, discounts have to be clustered in an area close to the holidaymaker, but if enough establishments offer them then the offer itself becomes standard and thus loses its capacity to incentivise.
As for a cost comparison between all-inclusives and a mix of accommodation and eating-out, it could well be that one can make a case for the latter working out cheaper. Again, it does all rather depend. But even this overlooks a crucial ingredient in the all-inclusive's favour, which is its sheer convenience. Holidaymakers should be more adventurous, but many have lost the capacity for adventure-seeking because they are handed everything on a paper plate, together with the poolside, plastic knife and fork.
Menorca is not fighting back. It is not fighting the all-inclusive on the beaches, as only one of the three restaurants is indeed a beach restaurant. Criado also reckoned that "with this formula (that of the website, whatever this formula actually is) we wish to respond specifically to the demand for all-inclusive in Menorca". If so, when why not say so. On the website. There again, all-inclusive is not for the long term, says Sr. Criado. Who's he trying to kid?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
What a very good idea, thought I. Visitors would also be able, the piece continued, to compare costs against that of an all-inclusive offer. Intrigued, I went in search of the website. I was intrigued not just by what seemed a good idea but also by the surprise of it. Why was I surprised? Well, would an island council, Menorca's or any other, actually be presenting something that might be seen to undermine its hotels? Yes, it wants to boost its restaurants and other businesses, and no, the councils aren't necessarily in cahoots with the hotels as such, but "fighting back" against AI? Was it really doing this?
Disappointingly, it isn't doing this. On the "Menorca Full Experience" site, the introduction says that we (tourists) want to know in advance costs of various things and that we have a problem with budgeting for lunches and dinners. Nowhere is there any mention of all-inclusives. Might this be for a reason other than letting tourists make some cost comparison, as in all-inclusives will soon be a thing of the past?
The island's tourism minister, Lázaro Criado, said, when the site was launched at the start of March, that "we understand that all-inclusive is not the agreed strategy for the long term in Menorca, although it can prove useful in the short term". Just like Mallorca, then. If anyone can decipher what the minister means (and it is hard to believe what he appears to mean), answers on a postcard with a picture of one of the participating restaurants, assuming you can find one of them.
The idea behind the site is that restaurants are listed, along with their menus, and a discount price is offered on production of a voucher that can be printed out. Fair enough. But hardly new. A slight problem with what there is on the website at present is that there are very few restaurants participating. How many? Three. Yes, three. In the whole of Menorca. In certain sections of cuisine and in certain "urbanisations", there are none listed. One presumes it's all early days.
This website has nothing to do with all-inclusives, but everything to do with promoting local gastronomy, all three restaurants' worth of it. There's nothing wrong with such promotion, while it would indeed have been a surprise had there been some sort of cost-comparison measures being presented, which there aren't. One can of course do one's own cost comparison, by schlepping through all manner of websites to get to the comparison, but you won't get it by "falling in love" with Menorca, the claim of the tourism board's site.
Giving some advance information about what it might cost to eat out is not, in itself, a completely bad idea. It is one of the questions holidaymakers ask all the time, along with how much does a pint cost and what's the weather like. The trouble is that the answers to them are of the string variety. How long is a piece of it? The weather you can be reasonably sure of, in July for example, but not in September. As for the costs of eating out, one man's meat is another man's pizza, as indeed one man's Burger King is another man's typical Mallorcan (or Menorcan) cuisine in a romantic, beach-side setting. It's not comparing eggs with eggs, or a fried egg with a rasher of bacon with quail's eggs and smoked salmon.
Calculating the holiday budget in advance, by sizing up less than a handful of restaurants' menus, with or without discounts, does rather overlook the increasing trend for the holidaymaker to have pretty much a set budget to spend, regardless of advance price information or discounts. And while a discount here or there might be tempting, it won't be if it means trekking across an entire island in search of it. To be of any real value, discounts have to be clustered in an area close to the holidaymaker, but if enough establishments offer them then the offer itself becomes standard and thus loses its capacity to incentivise.
As for a cost comparison between all-inclusives and a mix of accommodation and eating-out, it could well be that one can make a case for the latter working out cheaper. Again, it does all rather depend. But even this overlooks a crucial ingredient in the all-inclusive's favour, which is its sheer convenience. Holidaymakers should be more adventurous, but many have lost the capacity for adventure-seeking because they are handed everything on a paper plate, together with the poolside, plastic knife and fork.
Menorca is not fighting back. It is not fighting the all-inclusive on the beaches, as only one of the three restaurants is indeed a beach restaurant. Criado also reckoned that "with this formula (that of the website, whatever this formula actually is) we wish to respond specifically to the demand for all-inclusive in Menorca". If so, when why not say so. On the website. There again, all-inclusive is not for the long term, says Sr. Criado. Who's he trying to kid?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Monday, February 01, 2010
Happiness - Mallorca tourism promotion
How to win tourists and influence people. Smiling, happy people having fun. It starts at the top of the tourism trade and filters down, reminiscent of days when there was so much more of a personal touch, barbecues on beaches and even the local Guardia coming along and joining in. So recalls ... . So recalls someone who needs to win tourists and influence people. Smiling, happy person. There, on the front page of yesterday's "Bulletin". A sullen Frank Langella as Nixon? No, this is the head of the Mallorca tourist board. Smiling, happy person, winning tourists and influencing people. Why oh why use a photo of someone who looks so terminally hacked off?
Pedro Iriondo, president of the Balearics travel agents association and founder of the agency Viajes Kontiki in 1974, became head of the tourism board at the end of last year. He has been a member of the board's ruling committee for several years and had been its vice-president since 2005. Here he was, granting an interview, which unfortunately says little that we don't already know: why don't the shops open in Palma on a Sunday; the competition that is Turkey and Egypt; the reliance upon tourism in Mallorca; the need to exploit golf and other niches, such as nautical tourism; and the need to work closely with tour operators. I'm sure that Sr. Iriondo has some fine ideas, but the interview was thoroughly depressing; a re-hash of what we know to be the case and a distinct sense of the impotent. Take all-inclusives. He doesn't approve, but accepts that there has been a market change. What we already know, and what we already know cannot be put back into the bottle. What we already know, that it is the tour operators who hold the whip-hand.
Iriondo has taken over from Alvaro Middelmann as president of what is known as the Fomento del Turismo. While referred to as the Mallorca Tourist Board, it is a private, non-governmental body. The promotion of Mallorca and the Balearics, via the government, is handled by the tourism institute IBATUR. The board is thus, as it says on its website, "a forum where everyone in tourism on the island can come and debate important issues, policies and decide on a future tourism strategy". It continues by referring to the need for "forward thinking, consensual solutions for our future", and by "our" one takes this to mean the island's whole tourism industry. The Fomento can lay claim to being the oldest tourist board in Europe. It is, therefore, a body of some not inconsiderable significance and influence. But in its, if you like, mission statement, one comes back to an issue regarding who or which bodies actually drive "future tourism strategy". Is it the government or the private sector? And if it is the latter, then which parts of it?
At the conclusion of the interview, Iriondo says that "we've go to sort out our prices, provide better quality and revive the personal touch". Fine. But where does the impulse come from to do so and how can these things be done? In the interview, he refers to the fact that it is difficult to provide good product at low cost, unlike some competitor countries, to the fact that the personal touch has been lost because of the expansion in size of hotels, and to the know-how of Mallorca's hotel groups - several of which can be credited with having high quality, yet which are also, through the export of know-how and their own international ambitions, contributing to the development of competitor destinations. Take a look, for instance, at the Iberostar site and its five-star Bellis complex in Turkey. But to come back to where that impulse might come from, it is worth taking account of the composition of the tourism board's ruling body - three major hotel chains as well as the association of hotel chains, the associations for yacht clubs, golf courses and restaurants, a bank, a car-hire firm ... one could go on. If that lot can't sort something out, then who can.
Mallorca, and the Balearics, have experienced difficult times in the past, and the Fomento has acted in the past to revive the island's tourism at times of recession. So it has something of a track record, but Sr. Iriondo believes that the current recession is "different" to previous ones, impacting hard on employment and the tourism industry as a whole and highlighting the economic reliance on tourism. He sees the need for more and more promotion, yet the promotional budget - the government's - has been reduced.
It all, I'm afraid, does add to that rather depressing image. Forward thinking, consensual strategies. Indeed. But rather than an appraisal of what we know, it might be nice to learn what we don't - those strategies in other words, and who exactly is going to implement them.
"The Bulletin" also reported on the launch of ABC Menorca (Association of British Companies Menorca). This really does look like something potentially quite impressive and of significance, certainly given the array of organisations and individuals who were present at the launch. Despite the scepticism referred to the other day, this body does seem, within terms of its British-market remit, to have broad support from other business groups and indeed at governmental level. It is a very different beast to the association that sprang out of Calvia at the end of 2008. But it has one important similarity, in that it is evidence of people taking an interest, becoming involved and looking to do their best for businesses. It should be applauded, and if it crosses into Mallorca, then it could also prove to be a force for good.
QUIZ
Yesterday: For example, Pentangle, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFGRnUzfOEI. Today's title: "Happiness". Brilliant, a blog favourite band, some say duo. Oh, and it's not Ken Dodd.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Pedro Iriondo, president of the Balearics travel agents association and founder of the agency Viajes Kontiki in 1974, became head of the tourism board at the end of last year. He has been a member of the board's ruling committee for several years and had been its vice-president since 2005. Here he was, granting an interview, which unfortunately says little that we don't already know: why don't the shops open in Palma on a Sunday; the competition that is Turkey and Egypt; the reliance upon tourism in Mallorca; the need to exploit golf and other niches, such as nautical tourism; and the need to work closely with tour operators. I'm sure that Sr. Iriondo has some fine ideas, but the interview was thoroughly depressing; a re-hash of what we know to be the case and a distinct sense of the impotent. Take all-inclusives. He doesn't approve, but accepts that there has been a market change. What we already know, and what we already know cannot be put back into the bottle. What we already know, that it is the tour operators who hold the whip-hand.
Iriondo has taken over from Alvaro Middelmann as president of what is known as the Fomento del Turismo. While referred to as the Mallorca Tourist Board, it is a private, non-governmental body. The promotion of Mallorca and the Balearics, via the government, is handled by the tourism institute IBATUR. The board is thus, as it says on its website, "a forum where everyone in tourism on the island can come and debate important issues, policies and decide on a future tourism strategy". It continues by referring to the need for "forward thinking, consensual solutions for our future", and by "our" one takes this to mean the island's whole tourism industry. The Fomento can lay claim to being the oldest tourist board in Europe. It is, therefore, a body of some not inconsiderable significance and influence. But in its, if you like, mission statement, one comes back to an issue regarding who or which bodies actually drive "future tourism strategy". Is it the government or the private sector? And if it is the latter, then which parts of it?
At the conclusion of the interview, Iriondo says that "we've go to sort out our prices, provide better quality and revive the personal touch". Fine. But where does the impulse come from to do so and how can these things be done? In the interview, he refers to the fact that it is difficult to provide good product at low cost, unlike some competitor countries, to the fact that the personal touch has been lost because of the expansion in size of hotels, and to the know-how of Mallorca's hotel groups - several of which can be credited with having high quality, yet which are also, through the export of know-how and their own international ambitions, contributing to the development of competitor destinations. Take a look, for instance, at the Iberostar site and its five-star Bellis complex in Turkey. But to come back to where that impulse might come from, it is worth taking account of the composition of the tourism board's ruling body - three major hotel chains as well as the association of hotel chains, the associations for yacht clubs, golf courses and restaurants, a bank, a car-hire firm ... one could go on. If that lot can't sort something out, then who can.
Mallorca, and the Balearics, have experienced difficult times in the past, and the Fomento has acted in the past to revive the island's tourism at times of recession. So it has something of a track record, but Sr. Iriondo believes that the current recession is "different" to previous ones, impacting hard on employment and the tourism industry as a whole and highlighting the economic reliance on tourism. He sees the need for more and more promotion, yet the promotional budget - the government's - has been reduced.
It all, I'm afraid, does add to that rather depressing image. Forward thinking, consensual strategies. Indeed. But rather than an appraisal of what we know, it might be nice to learn what we don't - those strategies in other words, and who exactly is going to implement them.
"The Bulletin" also reported on the launch of ABC Menorca (Association of British Companies Menorca). This really does look like something potentially quite impressive and of significance, certainly given the array of organisations and individuals who were present at the launch. Despite the scepticism referred to the other day, this body does seem, within terms of its British-market remit, to have broad support from other business groups and indeed at governmental level. It is a very different beast to the association that sprang out of Calvia at the end of 2008. But it has one important similarity, in that it is evidence of people taking an interest, becoming involved and looking to do their best for businesses. It should be applauded, and if it crosses into Mallorca, then it could also prove to be a force for good.
QUIZ
Yesterday: For example, Pentangle, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFGRnUzfOEI. Today's title: "Happiness". Brilliant, a blog favourite band, some say duo. Oh, and it's not Ken Dodd.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Windy - British business associations
Associations. Always associations. They are hardly novel, yet "The Bulletin" describes an association formed in Menorca as being just that: "a novel way of beating the recession". This is ABC Menorca, the Association of British Companies Menorca. It will work with other associations, with the Council of Menorca, look to expand into Mallorca and, perhaps crucially, be a member of the Balearic Business Confederation. Though styled, clearly, as an association for British-run businesses, the intention is that any business with British clients could join.
Here we go again - perhaps. Towards the end of 2008 there was a fair amount of publicity for a British and Irish business association formed in Calvia; I spoke about it here, even met a couple of the prime movers. It never got off the ground, a problem - as I understood it - being some relatively small funding from the Council of Mallorca that was not forthcoming. This association also seemed, to me, to be not so far removed from ESRA in that it had a social and charitable agenda; one with a solely business focus would be, well, more focussed.
An association - such as that being formed in Menorca - seems a good idea, but as it is open to any business with a British interest and were it to embrace, in a significant fashion, Menorcan-run businesses and businesses owned by other nationalities, then how different would it be to other business associations? In a comment by the paper's editor, we are told that Mallorca needs a similar association, one that could "advise local authorities on the best way to help the British market". This, seemingly, would be the difference, though quite what this means isn't stated.
There is a risk. It was one expressed to me by a British business owner when that Calvia-based association was around; namely that indigenous Spanish businesses would see it as a threat which could cause polarisation and antagonism. A generally held view, among many British owners, is that it is better to keep their heads down and get on with running their businesses. When, last summer, I spoke with British bar owners in Alcúdia who were expressing their concerns as to various issues in the resort, they did not want to be identified. To do so might, in their view, have exposed them to, how can one put it, some comeback.
It is the need to be running businesses that is a further obstacle to such an association. Most owners have little interest outside of their own affairs; they also have little time to devote to something like an association. It is revealing to note in the report that businesses currently involved are in the real estate and nautical sectors; businesses, in other words, of a more professional level of organisation than your average bar, which might be able to give time to an outside body.
Where I would agree with "The Bulletin" is in the observation that there are British businesspeople with good ideas (to help Mallorca), but who lack a direct link to the authorities - mainly the tourism ones - that might enable these ideas to be expressed. Perhaps the Menorca association, or an equivalent in Mallorca, might be a conduit to facilitate this. But then, there are any number of bodies - at town or island level - which could, were they inclined to do so, invite or co-opt representatives of British businesses and the British market onto committees to offer their ideas. One has to ask why they don't. Maybe the suggestion has never been made, or maybe those authorities would rather not listen. Yes, there almost certainly are good ideas to be offered, and this association may well indeed prove to be the way of making them heard. We'll see.
As a footnote. The paper's report refers to a launch on Friday, yet a report of the association's first meeting dates back to the start of June last year. Maybe there's a re-launch. The paper also did not go into detail as to the people behind the association, other than mentioning the name of Colin Guanaria. Who he? The founder of Bonnin Sanso, the estate agency. A serious player, in other words, and one who does - or should - give confidence that this association could indeed be a force, despite any misgivings outlined above.
QUIZ
Yesterday: Chuck Berry, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4TyR492qSs. Today: well, it is "Windy" - very much so at the moment - but what's the song's link to associations?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Here we go again - perhaps. Towards the end of 2008 there was a fair amount of publicity for a British and Irish business association formed in Calvia; I spoke about it here, even met a couple of the prime movers. It never got off the ground, a problem - as I understood it - being some relatively small funding from the Council of Mallorca that was not forthcoming. This association also seemed, to me, to be not so far removed from ESRA in that it had a social and charitable agenda; one with a solely business focus would be, well, more focussed.
An association - such as that being formed in Menorca - seems a good idea, but as it is open to any business with a British interest and were it to embrace, in a significant fashion, Menorcan-run businesses and businesses owned by other nationalities, then how different would it be to other business associations? In a comment by the paper's editor, we are told that Mallorca needs a similar association, one that could "advise local authorities on the best way to help the British market". This, seemingly, would be the difference, though quite what this means isn't stated.
There is a risk. It was one expressed to me by a British business owner when that Calvia-based association was around; namely that indigenous Spanish businesses would see it as a threat which could cause polarisation and antagonism. A generally held view, among many British owners, is that it is better to keep their heads down and get on with running their businesses. When, last summer, I spoke with British bar owners in Alcúdia who were expressing their concerns as to various issues in the resort, they did not want to be identified. To do so might, in their view, have exposed them to, how can one put it, some comeback.
It is the need to be running businesses that is a further obstacle to such an association. Most owners have little interest outside of their own affairs; they also have little time to devote to something like an association. It is revealing to note in the report that businesses currently involved are in the real estate and nautical sectors; businesses, in other words, of a more professional level of organisation than your average bar, which might be able to give time to an outside body.
Where I would agree with "The Bulletin" is in the observation that there are British businesspeople with good ideas (to help Mallorca), but who lack a direct link to the authorities - mainly the tourism ones - that might enable these ideas to be expressed. Perhaps the Menorca association, or an equivalent in Mallorca, might be a conduit to facilitate this. But then, there are any number of bodies - at town or island level - which could, were they inclined to do so, invite or co-opt representatives of British businesses and the British market onto committees to offer their ideas. One has to ask why they don't. Maybe the suggestion has never been made, or maybe those authorities would rather not listen. Yes, there almost certainly are good ideas to be offered, and this association may well indeed prove to be the way of making them heard. We'll see.
As a footnote. The paper's report refers to a launch on Friday, yet a report of the association's first meeting dates back to the start of June last year. Maybe there's a re-launch. The paper also did not go into detail as to the people behind the association, other than mentioning the name of Colin Guanaria. Who he? The founder of Bonnin Sanso, the estate agency. A serious player, in other words, and one who does - or should - give confidence that this association could indeed be a force, despite any misgivings outlined above.
QUIZ
Yesterday: Chuck Berry, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4TyR492qSs. Today: well, it is "Windy" - very much so at the moment - but what's the song's link to associations?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Lovely Day
It dawned a lovely day. The mist of this November morning was the mist of an English Indian summer postponed for a month or so; summer in winter arrives later here and lingers much longer. The chill of the early morning, though, gives rise to uncertainty. What to wear exactly? A sweater or sweatshirt definitely, but a coat, too? And how might it be in the café? Interiors everywhere soon lose any of that heat of summertime.
So on a Sunday morning - wintertime and the living is easy - I intend to meet Jake from the El Laberinto maze at Café Dallas in Playa de Muro. It's about the only place you will find open. Except it's closed, as it's Sunday. We head off to Puerto Alcúdia and to Kroxan. Jake was raised in the Balearics. I'd never given the meaning of the café's name any attention. He had not been before. A Mallorcan corruption of croissant, he'll be bound. It could be. I'd only thought of it in terms of a Police song - "Kroxan, you don't have to wear that dress tonight".
Every post-season, it seems, Jake and I meet for a coffee and develop ideas for something or other. These something or others have been variously grandiose or small beer. What they have in common is that they remain ideas. It's the problem when someone has a hundred ideas a minute as does Jake. But among other things, I mention that association, the one of British and Irish businesses and residents, and say the organisers are interested in contacts in Menorca. Of course there are far fewer expats actually in Menorca, but a point he makes is interesting - that, apart from the retired expats, the Menorca-based Brits tend to all be a part of the community. Maybe it's just because there are fewer of them in Menorca, but by comparison many Brits in Mallorca live in a bubble, a bubble of, I suppose you could call it, expatishness. A bubble. I'd never thought of it like that, but it's a good description. Coming from a Menorquín Brit with a business in both Mallorca and Menorca, it had a degree of authority.
There are those, like Jake, who, because they have grown up here, are difficult to categorise. They are British, but not. They are totally integrated in that the languages pose no barriers and nor do the social mores. They can see Mallorca and the Mallorcans as it is and as they are, without a certain jaundiced, unappreciative perspective or, on the other hand, one that is so gushing as to ignore the differences that exist. But the fact that Mallorca has a relatively large expatriate population, whereas Menorca does not, does tend to emphasise a point I have made before; that the very existence of that relatively large population makes it easy to sidestep a more complete embracing of the local community and its society. Fewer other expats means there is more incentive to do otherwise. It's an obvious point, I guess, but it is still a pertinent aspect of the non-socialisation of many an expatriate who shrouds him or herself in a bubble of Britishness.
After the coffee on this lovely day, it was back to the terrace. Wintertime and the living is easy. The sun is now very warm. It's heading towards the middle of November, and what is the temperature? Twenty degrees? Feels like it's higher. Reading the papers. First the sweatshirt is discarded. A couple of minutes later, it's no good, off come the trainers and socks. A couple more minutes, you give up; and it's down to just shorts once again. There seems something absurd about this. Nip inside and the house is like an ice-box, and yet why would you put on any heating when it's summer outside? I've been thinking of establishing a lounge on the terrace, but then there would be the problem of when it chucks it down and the terrace roof leaks.
But sitting on the terrace, reading the papers, some things come and join you. Flies. The flies want to read the football reports as well. Either they come and crawl over Arsenal versus Man U or sit on your head or try and get into your ear. Flies can make a lovely day, wintertime and the living less easy, as can the mosquitoes that take to coming out in the afternoons. And then, what's that? It's a full-on great big bumble bee. It's a shock to see one. Bumble bees and wasps you hardly ever encounter. There was this thing a few days ago about a "plague" of bees in a street in Inca, which turned out to be the result of a colony kept by one of the neighbours. Bees tend to confine themselves to the countryside, so it said in the newspaper report. Maybe that's why you tend not to see them around much. But with all the plantlife in gardens it is surprising. And bees are apparently in danger. We should all be worried. Vince Cable, he of the two brains of the Liberal Democrats, raised the matter a while ago in the House of Commons. Remarkable man, Cable. Not only can he, at a stroke, prescribe solutions for the world's economy, he can probably also recite the complete works of Shakespeare backwards and carry a torch for the humble bee, and he does this seemingly very green Liberal Democrat thing without sporting a beard or sandals - in the House at any rate. The point is though that we are running out of bees. And their reduced numbers threaten the entire world's eco-system. Not enough pollination, you see. So bees, do come and join the flies in reading the papers. Maybe the flies will piss off if you are around as well. And the more you are around, the more it will still be a lovely day, and the more wintertime and the living will be easy.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - "Sister Ray" by Velvet Underground and also Joy Division (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdlcNt2lR_o). Today's title - "when I wake up in the morning, love ..."
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
So on a Sunday morning - wintertime and the living is easy - I intend to meet Jake from the El Laberinto maze at Café Dallas in Playa de Muro. It's about the only place you will find open. Except it's closed, as it's Sunday. We head off to Puerto Alcúdia and to Kroxan. Jake was raised in the Balearics. I'd never given the meaning of the café's name any attention. He had not been before. A Mallorcan corruption of croissant, he'll be bound. It could be. I'd only thought of it in terms of a Police song - "Kroxan, you don't have to wear that dress tonight".
Every post-season, it seems, Jake and I meet for a coffee and develop ideas for something or other. These something or others have been variously grandiose or small beer. What they have in common is that they remain ideas. It's the problem when someone has a hundred ideas a minute as does Jake. But among other things, I mention that association, the one of British and Irish businesses and residents, and say the organisers are interested in contacts in Menorca. Of course there are far fewer expats actually in Menorca, but a point he makes is interesting - that, apart from the retired expats, the Menorca-based Brits tend to all be a part of the community. Maybe it's just because there are fewer of them in Menorca, but by comparison many Brits in Mallorca live in a bubble, a bubble of, I suppose you could call it, expatishness. A bubble. I'd never thought of it like that, but it's a good description. Coming from a Menorquín Brit with a business in both Mallorca and Menorca, it had a degree of authority.
There are those, like Jake, who, because they have grown up here, are difficult to categorise. They are British, but not. They are totally integrated in that the languages pose no barriers and nor do the social mores. They can see Mallorca and the Mallorcans as it is and as they are, without a certain jaundiced, unappreciative perspective or, on the other hand, one that is so gushing as to ignore the differences that exist. But the fact that Mallorca has a relatively large expatriate population, whereas Menorca does not, does tend to emphasise a point I have made before; that the very existence of that relatively large population makes it easy to sidestep a more complete embracing of the local community and its society. Fewer other expats means there is more incentive to do otherwise. It's an obvious point, I guess, but it is still a pertinent aspect of the non-socialisation of many an expatriate who shrouds him or herself in a bubble of Britishness.
After the coffee on this lovely day, it was back to the terrace. Wintertime and the living is easy. The sun is now very warm. It's heading towards the middle of November, and what is the temperature? Twenty degrees? Feels like it's higher. Reading the papers. First the sweatshirt is discarded. A couple of minutes later, it's no good, off come the trainers and socks. A couple more minutes, you give up; and it's down to just shorts once again. There seems something absurd about this. Nip inside and the house is like an ice-box, and yet why would you put on any heating when it's summer outside? I've been thinking of establishing a lounge on the terrace, but then there would be the problem of when it chucks it down and the terrace roof leaks.
But sitting on the terrace, reading the papers, some things come and join you. Flies. The flies want to read the football reports as well. Either they come and crawl over Arsenal versus Man U or sit on your head or try and get into your ear. Flies can make a lovely day, wintertime and the living less easy, as can the mosquitoes that take to coming out in the afternoons. And then, what's that? It's a full-on great big bumble bee. It's a shock to see one. Bumble bees and wasps you hardly ever encounter. There was this thing a few days ago about a "plague" of bees in a street in Inca, which turned out to be the result of a colony kept by one of the neighbours. Bees tend to confine themselves to the countryside, so it said in the newspaper report. Maybe that's why you tend not to see them around much. But with all the plantlife in gardens it is surprising. And bees are apparently in danger. We should all be worried. Vince Cable, he of the two brains of the Liberal Democrats, raised the matter a while ago in the House of Commons. Remarkable man, Cable. Not only can he, at a stroke, prescribe solutions for the world's economy, he can probably also recite the complete works of Shakespeare backwards and carry a torch for the humble bee, and he does this seemingly very green Liberal Democrat thing without sporting a beard or sandals - in the House at any rate. The point is though that we are running out of bees. And their reduced numbers threaten the entire world's eco-system. Not enough pollination, you see. So bees, do come and join the flies in reading the papers. Maybe the flies will piss off if you are around as well. And the more you are around, the more it will still be a lovely day, and the more wintertime and the living will be easy.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - "Sister Ray" by Velvet Underground and also Joy Division (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdlcNt2lR_o). Today's title - "when I wake up in the morning, love ..."
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Saturday, February 02, 2008
Sometimes My Tries
The Six Nations Rugby tournament may have kicked off today, and for those of a fifteen-man sport bent now residing in Mallorca, the bars will have been full for England and Wales. But there is other rugby in Mallorca, not least in Alcúdia which boasts its own team – Corsaris. Today saw the visit of Menorca in a match as part of the small Balearic league.
Rugby is not a major sport in Spain, but it has its place and the sport is growing in popularity. The national side is one that hovers on the periphery of the international game, trying and failing to make the World Cup finals and get a sound thrashing at the hands of the major sides – Portugal did make the last finals and there was concern that New Zealand would not only stuff them but put one or two players into hospital. In the end, no one suffered more than a loss of pride at the scoreline.
Local rugby is not the preserve of the expat, it is not an excuse for overweight British hoorays to wheeze and pant around a field in some embarrassing veterans game and then get bladdered afterwards. It is altogether more serious than that, and it is played by a mix of Mallorcans, Spaniards, Italians, south Americans and, yes, British. And they take it seriously. The standard on display today in the game between Alcúdia and Menorca was not high, but individually there are some good players, and the tackling was keen – all credit to them on a bone-hard pitch. The seven-team league has been running for some five years, and the developments, especially on the playing side, are already there to be seen. Alcúdia were thumped by Menorca last time around. Today it was a respectable loss by 22 to 3, Menorca a smaller but quicker side scoring four tries with one conversion to a penalty for Alcúdia. Menorca’s stand-out player was Martín the scrum-half who wouldn’t disgrace good junior club rugby in the UK. And I suppose I should also mention the Menorca number 8, Jake Boas, he of the El Laberinto maze. Well, he did make one good break!
QUIZ
Yesterday – The Seekers. Today’s title – a line that continues “are outside the lines”; brilliant gospel-influenced R&B song of recent vintage.
Rugby is not a major sport in Spain, but it has its place and the sport is growing in popularity. The national side is one that hovers on the periphery of the international game, trying and failing to make the World Cup finals and get a sound thrashing at the hands of the major sides – Portugal did make the last finals and there was concern that New Zealand would not only stuff them but put one or two players into hospital. In the end, no one suffered more than a loss of pride at the scoreline.
Local rugby is not the preserve of the expat, it is not an excuse for overweight British hoorays to wheeze and pant around a field in some embarrassing veterans game and then get bladdered afterwards. It is altogether more serious than that, and it is played by a mix of Mallorcans, Spaniards, Italians, south Americans and, yes, British. And they take it seriously. The standard on display today in the game between Alcúdia and Menorca was not high, but individually there are some good players, and the tackling was keen – all credit to them on a bone-hard pitch. The seven-team league has been running for some five years, and the developments, especially on the playing side, are already there to be seen. Alcúdia were thumped by Menorca last time around. Today it was a respectable loss by 22 to 3, Menorca a smaller but quicker side scoring four tries with one conversion to a penalty for Alcúdia. Menorca’s stand-out player was Martín the scrum-half who wouldn’t disgrace good junior club rugby in the UK. And I suppose I should also mention the Menorca number 8, Jake Boas, he of the El Laberinto maze. Well, he did make one good break!
QUIZ
Yesterday – The Seekers. Today’s title – a line that continues “are outside the lines”; brilliant gospel-influenced R&B song of recent vintage.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
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