A Week Of Living Scandalously

There can never have been a week like the one we have lived through; and if you thought it was all over, it most certainly isn't. Forget transport strikes and holidaymakers trapped at the airport, forget the eco-tax, forget the Icelandic ash cloud, forget the Palmanova bombing. In public relations terms, Mallorca has been brought to its knees, gagging on a short video that has become the butt of jokes and manna from heaven for the media. It has been a week of accusation and incomprehension. The "Majorca Daily Bulletin", as an example, has been accused of keeping alive a story that some consider no longer newsworthy. How can it possibly be no longer newsworthy when the British red tops and even broadsheets are all over the story like an unpleasant rash brought on by a sexually transmitted disease? Those who might prefer there to be no more news are as culpable as the island's institutions have been historically in willing bad news away and in hiding their heads in velvety white sands replete with images of happy families with buckets and spades. This time, it won't go away; there are those who would happily use those spades to bury Magalluf, if not the whole of Mallorca. It has become a story that has spun out of control, certainly out of control of the island's tourism chiefs and Calvia town hall. One that is so out of control that there is now the absurd notion that there could be legal proceedings - not in Mallorca, note - on the grounds of a sexual assault.

The incomprehension has been staggering. The moral outrage does not comprehend a web-based, smartphoned society that thinks nothing of sexting, the suck-and-blow selfie and the exhibitionist home porn movie. The "star" of the Magalluf video may be being cast as a victim, but she found herself on a cast list as infinitely wide as the internet. The response by government has likewise been uncomprehending. The national secretary of state for tourism, Isabel Borrego (and a Mallorcan, to boot), spoke of the need for "awareness". Awareness of what exactly? And how is this awareness to be raised? By a campaign that will cost the equivalent of one-fifth of the total annual tourism promotion budget for the Balearics. It will be waged by means of newspaper announcements and will so be ignored or, if it is seen, will be treated with laughing disdain by its intended audience. The incomprehension is such that the very technology which permitted the video's dissemination is being ignored. And why is it? Because of the inertia of a regional government tourism ministry that does not have this technology at its disposal. It does not cost half a million euros to plaster messages across social media and thus engage more readily and more credibly with that intended audience.

The incomprehension has even come from a body as sensible as Médicos del Mundo. While it rightly observed that the video was not evidence of an "isolated incident" (which regional tourism minister Martínez reckoned), it then went on to attack political double standards, those which, on the one hand, allow Magalluf to be promoted for drunkenness and promiscuity but which, on the other, see prostitutes "harassed and detained with a rigour that the authorities do not apply to the promoters of the degradation in parts of Magalluf". The doctors are, to be blunt, wrong. But at least they have served to remind us all and hopefully Calvia and the regional government that it is the mugger-prostitutes who form the real scandal of Magalluf and not a stupid little video which diverts attention and worryingly gives an excuse for it to not be tackled in any meaningful way.

Does Anybody Really Know ... ?

What does one really know about the hotels? In the northern zone from Can Picafort to Pollensa, how many of them are there? 200 perhaps. The community lives alongside all this real estate, but for many they are a mystery. They are also the source of rumour, misinformation, untruths. Why? Because no one really knows about them. Sure, plenty of local people work in the hotels but even then what do they know. The huge hotels, such as Bellevue, are the stuff of Victorian novels - strange things go on, so one is led to believe, and they are shrouded in secrecy. Dare to enter a hotel in January and one could almost expect to find a mad Miss Havisham clad in shawls.

In my immediate area are Iberostars, a Viva, Alcúdia Pins and the luxury five-stars of the Palace de Muro and Parc Natural. Pleasure palaces all, occupying huge amounts of land, home to the transient tourist; impenetrable and aloof. The hotels are physically part of the community and communities but they are also not a part thereof. They themselves are transient, coming alive for a period and then lying still for the off-season, save for refurbishment. In winter the hotels have a brooding and almost sinister presence in a redundant landscape of imagined post-apocalyptic nothingness. They are part of the community but a community of summer strangers, and one of their choosing.

Were it not for the hotels, there would be no community or at least not as we know it, Jim. The communities have been built on hotels, none more so than Can Picafort and the tourism ghetto around The Mile. They are inescapable and omnipresent yet at the same time remote. They are local industry but they do not shape the sub-conscious of the community as would the factory of the factory town, as did the steelworks or the mine; they are in a permanent state of neutral indifference. They caused the communities but indulge them only insofar as the patronage of employment is extended.

When the BBC spoke with that director from Bellevue the other day, it was a rare example of a hotel being unveiled, if only very partially. Bellevue, perhaps more than any other single hotel in the area, holds an iconic position. I have said before that its status has long since gone beyond the confines of the complex; Bellevue is Alcúdia in the minds of many. It is for this reason that it has a responsibility to the wider community, yet it is not alone in holding such responsibility.

The hotels can well argue that they pay their contributions and create employment so why should they feel any need to engage more with their towns. It's a hard-nosed business position. The hotels' communication is with only a part of their constituency, with only some elements of their stakeholders if you like - customers and tour operators primarily. The immediate constituency, the community, save for its elected members at the town halls, is overlooked. What does only really know about them?

It isn't that one looks for some additional benevolence or philanthropy, gratifying though this might be. One looks for a community perspective. It is not as though the hotels are owned by distant multinational colossi; the hotel groups are Spanish, Mallorcan and even local to the towns. One might feel, therefore, that the hotels would see themselves as representatives of their communities, but to what extent do they? Just as the town halls seem ill-equipped to monitor what is said about the towns in various media, especially the internet, so - one suspects - are the hotels. Not in all cases; I know of instances where individuals at certain hotels do pay attention. But generally I would doubt it. The point though should not be lost; criticism of a hotel equates to criticism of the resort, certainly in the minds of many customers. It is this criticism that also informs the local community; informs and mis-informs as there is no mechanism to counter it.

When a group of traders in Can Picafort sought to bring an anti-competitive case against hotels operating on an all-inclusive basis, it was indicative of the degree to which the hotels and the community had split apart. When have the hotels ever sought to explain their policies or to adopt local public relations to at least try and mitigate the consequences of such policies? The communities have a right to know. If a hotel switches to all-inclusive, as happens, then of course it has an impact. But the local businesses are usually the last to know. By the same token, if a hotel reverts back to, say, half-board, this also has an impact. So much of this though is transmitted as rumour because the hotels do not engage with the communities. The hotels should be more transparent. They should be clear as to the scale of their various board offers, as to the real levels of occupancy. They should talk more to their communities. But they won't because they are a part of the community but also not a part.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Status Quo. No, sorry, you want a youtube, go look. Today's title - the rest of this title goes "what time is it"; which big American act (mainly the '70s) that dropped a public transport reference from its name?

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Streets Of Your Town

As promised, more on the tourist offices being out of touch. Perhaps I should define what I mean here. By out of touch, the tourism people don't know what the tourist really experiences or thinks. It's not altogether surprising. The main contacts between the tourist and the tourism department take place in the tourist office, a place of information gathering by the tourist rather than one of investigation or information probing by the tourist authorities. Apart from this, there is no real contact. Well as though some of the people in the tourist offices may speak different languages, these offices are not necessarily conducive to some lengthy discussion regarding what the tourist really thinks about a place or what he is concerned about. In Puerto Pollensa, I have seen a questionnaire knocking around, but how much this is acted upon I don't know. Surveys can often act as cosmetic exercises.

But to come to Alcúdia. I have spoken with the town hall, in the form of the tourism department, about things like the scratch-card operations, about the state of the bridges and canals and about drugs. Let's take the latter. It came as something of a surprise that the lucky-lucky men are a front-line conduit for the sale of Class-A and other drugs. Yet, anyone who knows, knows that drugs are available from them, and have been for the last ten years; perhaps longer. Puerto Pollensa is not much different. The tourist officials do not know what goes on on the streets of their towns; well in Alcúdia anyway. Moreover, there is no monitoring system of what is said, for instance about Alcúdia. That letter to "The Bulletin" about the scratch-card operations. How did the town hall get to know about it? How do you think?

There is a mass of information about what tourists think about a place, be it Alcúdia, Pollensa, wherever. A mass of it on the internet, and yet there is no systematic observation of this by the tourist offices. Partly perhaps it's a language issue, but only partly. They can find native speakers easily enough if they have the will. You may ask, well why should they go looking for this information. For one very good reason. That is their business - tourists. To overlook the information diminishes the public relations aspect of their work. Commercial businesses some years ago established complaints management systems; complaints are one of the best sources of finding out what a consumer really thinks. And acting upon them is one of the best ways of creating good PR. Even without a formal complaints (or praise) management system, the tourist offices should be delving into all those forums and sites in which people discuss anything from mosquitoes to hotels to scratch cards to the price of a beer. This all matters, or it should do.

One fancies that the town halls might be a bit taken aback were they to see what is said about their resorts; they would also be pleased by much of it as well. But the ease with which people can post pretty much what they like about a resort should be something for which there is, at least, a monitoring capability. Most review sites are remote; they don't have a particular interest in any resort in whatever country. They exist for sounding-off and compliment in not necessarily equal measure. And so much information, much of it mis-information, flies around the internet unchallenged and unknown to the tourist authorities. One almost wonders if they haven't deferred to the websites, but only when there is local representation, such as with myself or with Martin at the estimable puertopollensa.com, might they get some on-the-ground feedback.

There is a distance between the town and the resort and the tourist. The hotel often takes the surrogate role of the town, and for this reason the hotel has a responsibility to the town in which it is located; it is the resort's representative, or it should be. But more often than not, it is not. The hotel is a business, first and foremost; its local community responsibility, and it's the same for the tour operators, may not be the first thing on its agenda, if at all.

I have a suggestion. In Alcúdia, they are willing to spend money on what are little more than prestige services - the beach WiFi zone is one. Useful it may be, but there are different ways in which the tourist can be served. Different cost category granted but cost nonetheless; take some of this money that goes on the prestigious and some of the money that is wasted on things like the Can Ramis debacle, and create an on-street tourism patrol. On foot, not on scooters. Walking. Teams of two, clearly identifiable, along the Mile, around the port, on the beach. Tourism help and assistance teams. Preferably, these teams would be people who know ... know what is going on. Not police but with easy communications to the police. Not there to shop people or bars or those whose sound limiters might be a bit wonky, but to assist the tourist and be the visible sign of the resort - on the streets. In part, this idea comes from my own experience with those who see the t-shirt (for the website) and stop and ask.

Public relations, close contact to the tourist and therefore to the consumer, for that is what the tourist is - he is a consumer of the resort. He deserves more.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - By hook or by crook; it was "The Prisoner". Today's title - one of this blog's favourites; Australian from the late '80s.

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The Public Gets What The Public Wants?

Overhearing a confused conversation in a newsagents as to what was going on at the Hospital d’Alcúdia and what it all meant, I went into the hospital to see what information was available. Looked around, expected some notice or perhaps some sheets of a “dear patient, it is with regret that we have to inform you” variety. Nothing.

This has been a PR disaster for the hospital managers. The denials were one thing, but now that the decision has been taken to close the hospital, they should have set in motion a communications plan. Perhaps they yet will, but to this point the handling of the affair has demonstrated a disregard for the local community, and not just in Alcúdia but also in Pollensa, Sa Pobla, Can Picafort and other towns which have relied on the hospital.

The Juaneda group will doubtless point to the advantages of shifting everything to Muro. Fair enough. However, it is neglecting not only the “hearts and minds” psychology of the consumer but also its own role in the community. For most businesses, there is a degree of social and community responsibility in what they do, no more so than in the provision of heath care. Must do better.


PR of a different sort. “Euro Weekly” leads on the crackdown in Calvia on the work of those who tout for bars etc.: they are comically referred to as PRs. In Magaluf and other parts of Calvia, bars will be liable to hefty fines if they use them. In a way, this is good. The PRs, sometimes quite aggressive, jack-the-lad Brits looking for an excuse for a summer in the sun, can be a real nuisance. They operate mainly or exclusively on a commission basis, and can be found in many resorts. In Alcúdia, the actions of the PRs can be a source of irritation. They are to be found along The Mile, but do also pop up in the port and in Playa de Muro.

But to damn all PRs would be unfair. There are some I know who are in a sense “professionals”. They have been at the PR game for years, are good at what they do, have amusing lines in banter and form a part, if you like, of the “local colour”. Not all are as they are portrayed, the female PRs in particular who for the most part are cheerful and charming. The problem lies with the occasional aggression and with the numbers of PRs – it is the cumulative effect that irritates as much anything else. It is seemingly inevitable that if one bar has a PR, the next bar will want one, and so it goes on. But not always. In at least one part of The Mile, the bar operators have agreed amongst themselves that none of them will operate PRs. Self-regulation in other words. Perhaps this, or a code of practice amongst bar and restaurant owners is the solution, though this would fail if the likely-lad PRs have to drag tourists kicking and screaming into a bar to secure their only source of income, i.e. a commission. If the PRs were to be outlawed, I wonder what difference it would really make. In some cases they must surely be counter-productive if they hack tourists off so much. Were there to be none, then all the bars would be on a level playing-field and have to look to more subtle forms of promotion than hassling some poor visitor and his family.

I don’t wish to see the PRs banned, but I suspect it will occur on a wider scale than just in Calvia. Because of some bad apples, the whole PR produce is likely to fail.


QUIZ
Yesterday – Bonnie Tyler. Today’s title – I’ve made a question out of this line from which song? Huge English act of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.

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