Reliving Mallorca's Sea Of Experiences

Being an observer of matters Mallorcan can be potentially damaging to one's psychological well-being. One feels that one is constantly reliving a previous life or several lives. Haven't I, we, been here before? Once, twice or several times? What experiences have we had on the way that now come to be experienced once more? Can it be that we are tossed forever on a sea of experiences, washed ashore momentarily, only to be pulled back into the infinity of the sea and recycled by the waves of unrelenting repetition?

Right, well, enough of this flowery stuff. Let's get to the point. Hands up those of you who remember something called the "Sea of Experiences" (or "Mar de Experiencias" to give it its Spanish title)? You don't remember? Then let me remind you. This sea was launched in June last year. Mallorca's hoteliers were pretty pleased with it, as it was their idea. Along came the odd member of the regional government (though I'm unsure if the tourism minister was able to make it) and mayors from towns with a particular interest in tourism plus of course a whole load of hotel sorts. They all gathered at a golf club, were engrossed by the launch of the sea, had something to eat and then ... went home I suppose.

The "Sea of Experiences" is a document in which all aspects of off-season tourism activities are detailed. And it is a very detailed document, covering the usual suspects of golf, cycling, hiking, gastronomy, etc. At the time that the sea was launched, my reaction was ... "And?". I had rather hoped that the sea would contain some insights as to how it was going to break the vicious cycle of seasonality. It didn't. It was a document bursting with activities, names and addresses, routes for this and routes for that, and we are now being reminded of its existence.

The hoteliers had clearly found this document lurking in a drawer somewhere and thought it might be a good idea to bring it out in order to wave it in front of some other hoteliers and the man from Air Berlin who's now in charge of Spain and Portugal, Paul Verhagen. So, life was relived the other day. The sea of experiences was being experienced once again.

To be strictly accurate, the sea wasn't just sprung on the man from Air Berlin. He did have prior warning. So much so that Air Berlin will be participating in promoting the sea ("Ein Meer von Erfahrungen", one guesses), which is very nice of Air Berlin. It has shedloads of passengers who pore over the contents of its in-flight magazine plus further shedloads who subscribe to its e-magazine in addition to those who follow it on social media. Well over three million people, it would seem, and all of them likely targets for this array of out-of-season experiences in Mallorca.

Air Berlin may have been tinkering with its routes but it does account for some 50% of passenger traffic through Son Sant Joan in winter. It has had a special relationship with Mallorca that goes back to when it was founded in 1978 and it is the only airline which appears to be willing to make a great effort to bring people to Mallorca in winter.

Talking with the hoteliers and embarking on a campaign with them (the "Sea of Experiences") is intended, it is hoped, to address the all-too-familiar chicken and egg of airlines don't fly because hotels aren't open or hotels don't open because airlines don't fly. So the campaign would seem to be a positive step in the right direction, if only for German visitors.

The airlines do hold the key. But if they fly (and there is a wish to get other airlines on-board in a similar way to Air Berlin), they have to know that passengers will be flying to somewhere that is fully prepared to accommodate them.

The campaign sounds good, but are there not some fairly obvious points to be made? Air Berlin has been flying in winter to Mallorca for years. Yes, it has cut some of its winter routes but its flights have been and are numerous and regular. Has Air Berlin not been been promoting Mallorca previously? Where have those passengers who have been flying in winter been staying? In other words, for all the good intentions of the campaign, what will it achieve that Air Berlin hasn't already been achieving? Bring more German tourists is doubtless the answer. More but how many more? I wish them well.

The Next Big Thing: Winter tourism

So many are the initiatives, so many are the slogans that they become lost amidst their sheer welter. It's a good word "welter". Not one I have used that often, if at all. But I am making a note to be liberal with it in the future. Welter is, as my trusty OED informs me, "a state of general confusion" or "a disorderly mixture or contrast of beliefs, policies, etc.". It can also be a "big person or thing" (a colloquial use of unknown origin from the nineteenth century, if you must know). As a verb, welter can be "to roll or wallow or be washed about". Yep, it's a very good word indeed.

Because of this welter of initiatives and slogans (welter here meaning either of the first two quoted above), when another initiative or slogan comes along, one has to pause for a moment to wonder if it has in fact come along before. So it was with the announcement of a "sea of experiences", the slogan for an initiative that will, it is said (hoped), increase tourism in the low season, i.e. winter, by 10%. Sea of experiences? Where had I heard that before? Had I heard it before? I had. Last June. I had written about it under the heading "A Sea Of Clichés". Now I remembered. There had been a gathering of worthies, the outcome of which was a meaningless list of "experiences" that were already well known: golf, wine, gastronomy, I'll leave you to add all the rest as you will be familiar with them.

Nine months later, the sea of experiences has been washed up once more. Or is it that it is being washed about? Rolling and wallowing in the shallows of a state of general confusion? A disorderly mixture? The next big thing? Well, hardly the next big thing, unless you consider that experiences for contributing to an increase in off-season tourism which have been spoken about for a good thirty years constitute the next big thing. 

What does appear to be slightly different about the sea of experiences, now that it would seem to have come to the end of a nine-month gestation, is that one set of worthies has been cast adrift, lost in the vast sea of its inexperience around the Balearics. The government worthies. They were there nine months ago. But they were not there when the newly born sea of experiences was revealed to a cooing world: only the director of the Mallorcan hoteliers federation and two important people from Air Berlin.

Why no government representatives though? I'm not sure, but is Carlos on honeymoon, he having tied the knot with the lovely lady of Lourdes last weekend and toasted the occasion at a sushi reception, attended by various acolytes from the PP who wouldn't normally choose to be in the same room as him? Whatever, it isn't necessarily a bad thing that the government is not in attendance. In fact, it is probably quite a good thing when the next big thing is being announced.

And, my goodness, what a big thing it is, too. The sea of experiences has thus far spoken with a few bodegas, five golf courses and two yacht clubs. Phew! The sea is only in its infancy, the experiences troika said. Of course it is, it has only just been born, nine months after its conception last summer. It will grow into a healthy child, though, one trusts. And this growth will be assisted by leaflets to be distributed to hotels this summer and on Air Berlin flights and by information on websites. Tourists, thus far ignorant of anything other than the beach, will now know of the sea of experiences to be had in Mallorca during the winter, most of them on dry land. And those tourists who endure the dark, long days of winter, such as the Scandinavians, will suddenly realise that "the winter in Mallorca is practically like the summer in Scandinavia", says one of the Air Berlin people. So presumably, mostly everything is shut in Scandinavia in summer and everyone disappears for several months.

To be fair, it is worth giving it a go. Hats off. And if it means going it alone minus the government, then so be it. The government hasn't got any money, so let the hoteliers and let the airlines do it all for them. Someone has to. But herein lies the rub: the hub of one airline, Air Berlin.

The other day, a German journalist phoned me to speak about the British cycling "boom" and what it meant for Mallorca. A key issue, I suggested, was that of flights. Air Berlin, despite having cut its winter routes, still flies daily from several German airports to Palma through the winter (and not necessarily just one flight per day). It is an airline with a very strong association with the island. The same cannot be said for British airlines. 'Tis ever thus that flight availability holds the key. Perhaps, therefore, the sea of experience needs to bring the government back on board, but what good has this done in the past? A welter of initiatives. A state of general confusion. Wallowing. The next big thing?


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.