The specialist tourism and travel press in Spain has followed the pattern of the country's tourism development. If Mallorca can be said to have led that development, then Mallorca has also been responsible for driving the media which reports and comments on it. Two of the leading titles started the ball rolling, and they are both based in Palma - Preferente, which came first in 1991, and Hosteltur, which followed three years later.
The latter has since assumed the more prominent role. Its paper and digital presence is more advanced than Preferente. But while it doesn't shy away from including critical journalism, it doesn't tend to go at subjects in quite the way that Preferente does. Take away the reporting of developments, and much of what is left is critical comment, sometimes highly.
It has been the only real source, and bear in mind its Mallorcan base, to follow closely the Air Europa residents' discounts fraud case. Air Europa (Globalia) is of course also based in Mallorca. This hasn't influenced Preferente. The case crops up regularly and still does. While other media have given the impression of wanting to give the case a wide berth and not touch it with a barge-pole, Preferente has waded in. Just as it does on other issues to do with Air Europa. A week or so ago, it ripped to shreds its management.
This week it's gone for the jugular again. In one piece it has targeted Antonio Catalan, the president of AC Hotels by Marriott. Calling him a "sneak", it takes some delight in his comeuppance at having levelled accusations at two other hotel groups - Meliá and NH - over the outsourcing of chambermaid employment, only to find that AC is now facing similar accusations. Perhaps the most damning point of this article is to describe him as "one of the three tourism businesspeople in our country with the most verbal incontinence". As for the other two, it doesn't say, but a guess can be made regarding at least one of them.
The second article attacks the Balearic president, Francina Armengol. It accuses her of having lied on three separate occasions to the head of Iberostar, Miquel Fluxá. The first of these occasions was on 17 December 2014 when, accompanied by other leading hoteliers, Fluxá was told by Armengol (who at that time wasn't yet president) that it was "in her hands" to not apply the tourist tax.
I recall having referred to this meeting myself two years ago, and it informed what I and others believed to be the case with Armengol and PSOE: that she and the party would not be in favour of the tax, especially as the old ecotax had been a factor in a previous PSOE-led administration having been ejected from power.
Fluxá doesn't escape criticism - he's described as "glamorous, funny but naive ... in dealings with the political caste" - but there is more flak going Armengol's way. She is, the article states, a "compulsive liar, just like most of her species". She is then branded as having similar traits to her partners in government (Més and Podemos): hatred of the Partido Popular, pan-Catalanist, in favour of independence and being against mass tourism.
A conclusion the article draws is that the "lie" of December 2014 achieved what she had been seeking: that the hoteliers wouldn't get involved in a fight against her during the campaign for the regional election. The hoteliers were by that stage resigned to the fact that the PP would lose the election and so were hoping that they could rely on Armengol and PSOE not to allow others, such as Més, to disrupt their interests.
One of the other "lies" was in November last year when she apparently suggested that it would be appropriate to wait until the results of the general election before "redirecting the tourist reins". She was seemingly referring to Més more than Podemos and implying that there might be some change; Biel Barceló of Més had been the tourism minister for around five months by then. There was no change.
Is this attack on Armengol justified? Possibly so in respect of the December 2014 meeting, but the article does overlook the fact that Armengol and PSOE have been trying to rein in some of the more extreme attitudes towards tourism. Moreover, Barceló hasn't shown himself to be quite the demon that the article implies. There are elements in Més who are hostile towards tourism in a similar fashion to Podemos, but Barceló isn't one of them. Yes, he's all for the tourist tax and may well press for an increase to the tax in 2018, but to suggest that he is anti-tourist is not how I view him.
Still, it's good to know that there is a thriving and critical press and one willing to express itself independently.
Showing posts with label Preferente. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Preferente. Show all posts
Saturday, December 10, 2016
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Listening Without Prejudice: Tourism journalism
Javier Mato is a journalist who contributes to the Spanish tourism and travel magazine, "Preferente". He has penned a short opinion piece for the website under the heading "Waiting for Podemos". As is common with websites there was a facility to comment on the article, and as is also common the comments missed the point. Mato was not acting as an advocate for Podemos, as two suggested. A third corrected them and rightly suggested that they hadn't read what he had written.
Mato's article was a stinging attack on the recent tourism decree in the Balearics. Or rather, it was a stinging attack on elements of this decree which had nothing to do with tourism, such as the change to building regulations to allow the Rafa Nadal tennis centre to go ahead and the legitimisation of land on which Son Espases hospital is built. Mato went on to suggest that the decree may as well include provisions for school heating and aspects of education. He was being ironic. As he was in concluding that "these shameless acts which destroy all logic" take away what credibility remains of "our political class" and so open the door to Podemos.
Rather than address the point that Javier was making, commenters wandered into tangential territory. It happens all the time. And there are two key reasons why it does. One is that the article isn't read properly (or is read in a way to suit a particular agenda). Two is that commenters aren't really that interested in the article, only in highlighting their own prejudices, opinions and solutions, even if the latter might be half-baked, impractical, sometimes self-serving and self-promotional or fail to appreciate wider issues (of legislation, for instance).
Hence, we get comments of the following variety (not untypical through the good offices of the "Majorca Daily Bulletin" and its Facebook page): Mallorcans don't know what they're doing when it comes to tourism; Mallorcans don't like foreigners; Mallorcans don't and won't listen to what anyone from outside Mallorca might have to say.
I find such generalisations ungracious to say the least, and just who are these "Mallorcans" anyway? They are rarely specified, if ever. They are, it would appear, some amorphous mass of non-intelligent life form. Of course they know nothing about tourism, which is why Mallorca has provided some of the world's leading hotel chains, which is why Mallorca has exported its tourism know-how, which is why Mallorca was the birthplace of tourism. If by Mallorcans we mean politicians, then there may well be credibility to the claim, but otherwise there is not. Mallorcans don't like foreigners? I treat such a view as some kind of reverse xenophobia. It may have some cultural legitimacy on account of insularity, but it would be a dislike reserved as much for mainland Spaniards as it is for people from other countries, while if one takes this as safeguarding interests, then which nation (or island) can truly be said to be any different? And what of not listening to foreigners? Do the "Mallorcans" not listen to Peter Long of TUI, to Stefan Pichler, the CEO of Air Berlin, to Natalia Vorobieva, the CEO of Russia's leading tour operator, Natalie Tours? I would suggest that they listen very closely.
And they certainly listen when news, opinions and reports presented by journalists from overseas are good or bad. They might circle the wagons when Magalluf hits the headlines, but they certainly don't ignore what is said, and when there is, by comparison, a glowing tribute, they readily and naturally acknowledge it. But when it comes to listening, how much attention is paid to the Mallorcans' own journalists? Javier Mato was making a political point, but "Preferente" as well as the better-known "Hosteltur" magazine are reference points for tourism opinion-making. They are Spain's leading tourism publications, and they are both published in Mallorca. Coincidence? No. Mallorca gave the world tourism as we have come to know it, and so it has maintained a journalistic tradition in tourism that goes back to the turn of the last century when it was journalists, notably Miquel dels Sants Oliver, who created the vision for what was to become tourism as we now know it.
Too little attention may be paid to journalists. Wrongly so. The "Mallorcans", in this instance the regional tourism ministry, love journalists who contribute to the tourism promotion strategy of having them write nice things about Mallorca and the Balearics, but they should listen just as attentively to what else they have to say. In a year when the 150th anniversary of Sants Oliver's birth is being commemorated, it would be appropriate were they to be. But then, whatever they might say, there will still be those who choose to read what they want to, even if it is not what was being said, and to self-indulge their own agendas.
Mato's article was a stinging attack on the recent tourism decree in the Balearics. Or rather, it was a stinging attack on elements of this decree which had nothing to do with tourism, such as the change to building regulations to allow the Rafa Nadal tennis centre to go ahead and the legitimisation of land on which Son Espases hospital is built. Mato went on to suggest that the decree may as well include provisions for school heating and aspects of education. He was being ironic. As he was in concluding that "these shameless acts which destroy all logic" take away what credibility remains of "our political class" and so open the door to Podemos.
Rather than address the point that Javier was making, commenters wandered into tangential territory. It happens all the time. And there are two key reasons why it does. One is that the article isn't read properly (or is read in a way to suit a particular agenda). Two is that commenters aren't really that interested in the article, only in highlighting their own prejudices, opinions and solutions, even if the latter might be half-baked, impractical, sometimes self-serving and self-promotional or fail to appreciate wider issues (of legislation, for instance).
Hence, we get comments of the following variety (not untypical through the good offices of the "Majorca Daily Bulletin" and its Facebook page): Mallorcans don't know what they're doing when it comes to tourism; Mallorcans don't like foreigners; Mallorcans don't and won't listen to what anyone from outside Mallorca might have to say.
I find such generalisations ungracious to say the least, and just who are these "Mallorcans" anyway? They are rarely specified, if ever. They are, it would appear, some amorphous mass of non-intelligent life form. Of course they know nothing about tourism, which is why Mallorca has provided some of the world's leading hotel chains, which is why Mallorca has exported its tourism know-how, which is why Mallorca was the birthplace of tourism. If by Mallorcans we mean politicians, then there may well be credibility to the claim, but otherwise there is not. Mallorcans don't like foreigners? I treat such a view as some kind of reverse xenophobia. It may have some cultural legitimacy on account of insularity, but it would be a dislike reserved as much for mainland Spaniards as it is for people from other countries, while if one takes this as safeguarding interests, then which nation (or island) can truly be said to be any different? And what of not listening to foreigners? Do the "Mallorcans" not listen to Peter Long of TUI, to Stefan Pichler, the CEO of Air Berlin, to Natalia Vorobieva, the CEO of Russia's leading tour operator, Natalie Tours? I would suggest that they listen very closely.
And they certainly listen when news, opinions and reports presented by journalists from overseas are good or bad. They might circle the wagons when Magalluf hits the headlines, but they certainly don't ignore what is said, and when there is, by comparison, a glowing tribute, they readily and naturally acknowledge it. But when it comes to listening, how much attention is paid to the Mallorcans' own journalists? Javier Mato was making a political point, but "Preferente" as well as the better-known "Hosteltur" magazine are reference points for tourism opinion-making. They are Spain's leading tourism publications, and they are both published in Mallorca. Coincidence? No. Mallorca gave the world tourism as we have come to know it, and so it has maintained a journalistic tradition in tourism that goes back to the turn of the last century when it was journalists, notably Miquel dels Sants Oliver, who created the vision for what was to become tourism as we now know it.
Too little attention may be paid to journalists. Wrongly so. The "Mallorcans", in this instance the regional tourism ministry, love journalists who contribute to the tourism promotion strategy of having them write nice things about Mallorca and the Balearics, but they should listen just as attentively to what else they have to say. In a year when the 150th anniversary of Sants Oliver's birth is being commemorated, it would be appropriate were they to be. But then, whatever they might say, there will still be those who choose to read what they want to, even if it is not what was being said, and to self-indulge their own agendas.
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