A peculiarity of Balearics legislation is that it isn't as legislative as it might appear. Laws are drafted, debated, red-drafted and then presented, approved and posted onto the Official Bulletin, but they do not end there. Indeed, this can be only the beginning of the process. This, at least, is what we have to accept is the case with Balearics tourism law. Approved in 2012, it seems that it was more of a consultative document than the real thing. Representatives of various tourism and business associations met tourism minister Jaime Martínez on Tuesday and they expressed their approval for the law, three years after it had been approved. Or so we had thought.
The key to all this lies with the word "regulation". This might seem to be synonymous with legislation, but it would appear that legislation needs to be regulated. Confused? You should be. The final and definitive contents of the 2012 law will be revealed next month, and to add to the confusion, we understand from minister Martínez that the 2012 (2015) law will in fact be the first regulated tourism law in the Balearics because the 1999 tourism law "did not develop regulations". Meaning what precisely?
Legislative lunacy aside, it might be noted that not all the associations who met with Martínez or had met with him during the process of regulating the legislation are in total agreement with the regulations. Most are, but then most will be getting what they want, like the hoteliers. Among these associations was APTUR, the one for the renting of tourist apartments (holiday lets). It is probably safe to assume that when April comes they will not be singing the law's praises.
The timing of this regulation has not gone unnoticed. Firstly, it will be issued just as the season gets underway and secondly, it will appear just weeks before the election. The timing is, therefore, both poor but also expedient - the PP is ensuring the law is fully regulated just in case it loses the election and some other lot discovers that the law hadn't been fully regulated and so applies different interpretations.
Martínez maintains that the industry has been willing to work towards achieving "consensus", but as he also says that the law marks commitments to quality and against "illegal supply and unfair competition", one would have to doubt that there is consensus. The holiday lets issue apart, it will be interesting to know exactly how fears of the non-hotel complementary sector have been addressed in respect, for example, of the so-called secondary activities in hotels which pose a direct competitive threat to the complementary sector. The chances are that they won't have been or this would have meant backtracking on what the 2012 law supposedly permitted and which has been taken as the green light by certain hotels: the Cursach BH Hotel being a prime example because its activities will be open to non-hotel guests, which is what secondary activities refer to.
Showing posts with label Secondary activities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Secondary activities. Show all posts
Friday, March 20, 2015
Wednesday, May 07, 2014
A Complement Of Complementary Offer
Some months after it was first spoken of, Mallorca's complementary offer of restaurants, attractions, clubs and other non-hotel businesses is to finally have one unified organisation. The "Confederación de Patronales Turísticas de Balears" will come into being on Friday. Its first president will be Antonio González, director of the Palma Aquarium and president of the association of tourist attractions (AMAT).
The significance of this new organisation shouldn't be underestimated. If the various sectors of the complementary offer combine, and do so in a co-ordinated and co-operative fashion, they will represent a major power block to rival that of the hotel lobby. Their coming-together will eliminate the fragmentation that currently exists among the complementary offer and create an altogether stronger mix than the diluted one that is at present shared out among other groupings.
There are bodies which represent the complementary offer, but the trouble is that there are simply so many of them. These other bodies, such as the restaurant division of CAEB, the Balearics business confederation, or the tourist businesses association Acotur, aren't about to be done away with, but the new confederation should be more powerful. It will, hopefully, not get mired in the sort of in-fighting which has afflicted CAEB recently. Indeed, its founding is partly in response to arguments that CAEB was too close to the hotel sector. It will also hopefully have more clout than Acotur, an association which appears to be little more than a Pepe Tirado one-man band that creates much publicity but not a lot else.
González is probably the right person to head this confederation. Since becoming president of AMAT over two years ago, he has made that association very much visible than it previously was, and he has had much to say that has resonated with most of the complementary offer. He has been particularly critical of all-inclusive hotels, for example.
On being named president in March 2012, González said that "at present the Mallorcan complementary offer does not have the importance or carry the weight that it should do". He saw the need not just for a more muscular tourist attractions association but also a powerful complementary offer association. He deserves credit for having pushed for the new confederation.
González says that it is not the intention for the confederation to be a "counter-power" to the hotels but for it to facilitate communication with the regional government. However, a counter-power is almost certainly what it will be, given that the complementary offer has so many issues which run counter to hotel activities and to government policy.
Moreover, he took over as president of AMAT at a time when the complementary offer was shafted by the hotels over the 2012 tourism law. There had been a form of accord between the two sides, one that was meant to have represented a unified front in discussions with the tourism ministry. The complementary offer was perhaps a bit naïve. It thought it was getting somewhere with the hotels in there having been tentative agreement for higher quality standards for all-inclusives (something which could have stopped some hotels offering AI). But when it came to a key part of the tourism law - the provision of so-called secondary activities inside hotels - the hoteliers bit the government's hand off and stuck two fingers up at the complementary offer. And little or nothing came to pass where AI was concerned, apart from the wholly ludicrous, unenforceable and largely irrelevant legislation which is supposed to prevent guests taking food and drink off hotel premises.
The secondary activities, by which one means the likes of restaurants, shows, concerts, etc. open to the general public, are now taking on greater significance. They also blur the lines between the hotels and the complementary offer and so potentially make the new confederation's task that bit more complicated. As an example, Cursach, which as a club owner is part of the complementary offer and a member of AMAT, is moving into hotel operations in Magalluf. It is doing so, thanks to the provision under the tourism law. Other businesses might also sense opportunities to become more intimately associated with hotels (Katmandu in Magalluf is another example).
But other businesses will not have opportunities - the Aquarium couldn't just be relocated to the grounds of a hotel, for instance. González's task will not be straightforward, but secondary activities are an issue which is potentially as important and divisive as all-inclusives or indeed holiday lets. The complementary offer has expressed its concerns over government policy on rentals. The new confederation, with its greater power, might just manage to get more of an ear of government on these.
The confederation's founding is long, long overdue, begging a question as to why it has taken so long. But, better late than never. Hopefully.
The significance of this new organisation shouldn't be underestimated. If the various sectors of the complementary offer combine, and do so in a co-ordinated and co-operative fashion, they will represent a major power block to rival that of the hotel lobby. Their coming-together will eliminate the fragmentation that currently exists among the complementary offer and create an altogether stronger mix than the diluted one that is at present shared out among other groupings.
There are bodies which represent the complementary offer, but the trouble is that there are simply so many of them. These other bodies, such as the restaurant division of CAEB, the Balearics business confederation, or the tourist businesses association Acotur, aren't about to be done away with, but the new confederation should be more powerful. It will, hopefully, not get mired in the sort of in-fighting which has afflicted CAEB recently. Indeed, its founding is partly in response to arguments that CAEB was too close to the hotel sector. It will also hopefully have more clout than Acotur, an association which appears to be little more than a Pepe Tirado one-man band that creates much publicity but not a lot else.
González is probably the right person to head this confederation. Since becoming president of AMAT over two years ago, he has made that association very much visible than it previously was, and he has had much to say that has resonated with most of the complementary offer. He has been particularly critical of all-inclusive hotels, for example.
On being named president in March 2012, González said that "at present the Mallorcan complementary offer does not have the importance or carry the weight that it should do". He saw the need not just for a more muscular tourist attractions association but also a powerful complementary offer association. He deserves credit for having pushed for the new confederation.
González says that it is not the intention for the confederation to be a "counter-power" to the hotels but for it to facilitate communication with the regional government. However, a counter-power is almost certainly what it will be, given that the complementary offer has so many issues which run counter to hotel activities and to government policy.
Moreover, he took over as president of AMAT at a time when the complementary offer was shafted by the hotels over the 2012 tourism law. There had been a form of accord between the two sides, one that was meant to have represented a unified front in discussions with the tourism ministry. The complementary offer was perhaps a bit naïve. It thought it was getting somewhere with the hotels in there having been tentative agreement for higher quality standards for all-inclusives (something which could have stopped some hotels offering AI). But when it came to a key part of the tourism law - the provision of so-called secondary activities inside hotels - the hoteliers bit the government's hand off and stuck two fingers up at the complementary offer. And little or nothing came to pass where AI was concerned, apart from the wholly ludicrous, unenforceable and largely irrelevant legislation which is supposed to prevent guests taking food and drink off hotel premises.
The secondary activities, by which one means the likes of restaurants, shows, concerts, etc. open to the general public, are now taking on greater significance. They also blur the lines between the hotels and the complementary offer and so potentially make the new confederation's task that bit more complicated. As an example, Cursach, which as a club owner is part of the complementary offer and a member of AMAT, is moving into hotel operations in Magalluf. It is doing so, thanks to the provision under the tourism law. Other businesses might also sense opportunities to become more intimately associated with hotels (Katmandu in Magalluf is another example).
But other businesses will not have opportunities - the Aquarium couldn't just be relocated to the grounds of a hotel, for instance. González's task will not be straightforward, but secondary activities are an issue which is potentially as important and divisive as all-inclusives or indeed holiday lets. The complementary offer has expressed its concerns over government policy on rentals. The new confederation, with its greater power, might just manage to get more of an ear of government on these.
The confederation's founding is long, long overdue, begging a question as to why it has taken so long. But, better late than never. Hopefully.
Monday, April 14, 2014
Ten Things That Changed Mallorca's Tourism
In celebrating twenty years of existence, the travel magazine "Hosteltur" has identified twenty words or terms which have defined tourism since 1994. These are terms which are applicable to tourism generally, so I have narrowed the parameters and considered themes which have been of fundamental importance to Mallorca since 1994.
1. All-inclusive. The origins of the all-inclusive can be argued about. They are normally attributed to Club Med and their expansion to complexes such as Sandals. While Club Med had been around on Mallorca since the 1950s, it hadn't been a significant player, and the all-inclusive, as we now know it, didn't become a feature of the tourism landscape until roughly twenty years ago, and even then it was limited largely to the north and east of the island. We all know about its diffusion since then and the extent to which it has disrupted the previously harmonious balance between hotel and complementary sectors.
2. Beach zoning. On 4 March 1994 the Balearic Government issued a decree which established criteria for what could happen and what couldn't happen on beaches and on which parts. Different zones were created, some of which had limits set as to space which could be used. Why does this make the list? Firstly, because there hadn't previously been such a system and secondly, and perhaps more importantly, it was a form of standardisation which removed improvisation and arguably also removed some of the fun that had been had on beaches.
3. Crisis. Mallorca has experienced previous economic hard times - the oil crisis in the 1970s and the recession of the early 1990s - but the crisis (still with us but not as bad as it had been) shook tourism in different ways, such as by cutting credit and making even more popular the cost appeal of the all-inclusive holiday.
4. EasyJet. It may seem remarkable that easyJet isn't even twenty years old yet: it was founded in 1995. By 1998 the airline was flying daily from Luton to Palma as part of its summer schedule (late March to late October). EasyJet and the other low-cost airlines were to be significant in increasing passenger traffic through Son Sant Joan and in putting an impetus behind independent travel to the detriment of the package holiday.
5. Euro. 1 January 1999 was when it happened; when suddenly everything in Mallorca became that much more expensive. This is the commonly held view, and one that has some justification. It removed the inconvenience of changing currency, but only for those tourists from countries which adopted it.
6. Internet. In 1994 the internet was still an unproven concept and was far from being in everyday use. How things have changed. The web has not just been a fundamental change, it has been a revolution. Tourism has been turned on its head. Bookings, information, recommendations ..., it gave the tourist-consumer a power he previously hadn't possessed.
7. Ley General Turística. 24 March 1999 was the day when the Balearics' first tourism law was approved. The more recent 2012 tourism law reinforced much of what was in this first law, including prohibitions on some types of private property as holiday accommodation. One of the mysteries that surrounds the holiday-lets argument is quite why anyone finds it a comparatively new argument. It has certainly existed since 1999, though in fact there was a law as long ago as 1984 which tackled the subject - the "ley sobre alojamientos extrahoteleros".
8. POOT. The Plan de la Oferta Turística de Mallorca was approved by decree on 6 April 1995. It was a plan that was of profound importance. Though there had been previous plans which sought to organise how land was used for tourism purposes, the POOT was the first time that hard-and-fast criteria had been adopted. Essentially what POOT does is to place limits on the amount of tourism development within municipal boundaries.
9. Secondary activities. This is the newest of the fundamental changes. Part of the 2012 tourism law, secondary activities allow hotels to offer activities to the general public (and so not just guests) which had previously been the domain of the non-hotel, complementary sector. They can include all manner of things - restaurants, shops, clubs, concerts to name but a few. It is early days but secondary activities are likely to disrupt even further the balance between the hotel and complementary sectors.
10. Sustainability. An at-times nebulous concept and one that seems more often to be used for marketing purposes than for practical ones, sustainability is supposed to strike a balance between the demands of tourism and those of the environment, resources and the local economy. One of the first conferences dedicated to the subject was held in 1995.
Space has permitted only ten themes. There are others, and perhaps you have your own suggestions as to ways in which Mallorca's tourism has been changed over the last 20 years.
1. All-inclusive. The origins of the all-inclusive can be argued about. They are normally attributed to Club Med and their expansion to complexes such as Sandals. While Club Med had been around on Mallorca since the 1950s, it hadn't been a significant player, and the all-inclusive, as we now know it, didn't become a feature of the tourism landscape until roughly twenty years ago, and even then it was limited largely to the north and east of the island. We all know about its diffusion since then and the extent to which it has disrupted the previously harmonious balance between hotel and complementary sectors.
2. Beach zoning. On 4 March 1994 the Balearic Government issued a decree which established criteria for what could happen and what couldn't happen on beaches and on which parts. Different zones were created, some of which had limits set as to space which could be used. Why does this make the list? Firstly, because there hadn't previously been such a system and secondly, and perhaps more importantly, it was a form of standardisation which removed improvisation and arguably also removed some of the fun that had been had on beaches.
3. Crisis. Mallorca has experienced previous economic hard times - the oil crisis in the 1970s and the recession of the early 1990s - but the crisis (still with us but not as bad as it had been) shook tourism in different ways, such as by cutting credit and making even more popular the cost appeal of the all-inclusive holiday.
4. EasyJet. It may seem remarkable that easyJet isn't even twenty years old yet: it was founded in 1995. By 1998 the airline was flying daily from Luton to Palma as part of its summer schedule (late March to late October). EasyJet and the other low-cost airlines were to be significant in increasing passenger traffic through Son Sant Joan and in putting an impetus behind independent travel to the detriment of the package holiday.
5. Euro. 1 January 1999 was when it happened; when suddenly everything in Mallorca became that much more expensive. This is the commonly held view, and one that has some justification. It removed the inconvenience of changing currency, but only for those tourists from countries which adopted it.
6. Internet. In 1994 the internet was still an unproven concept and was far from being in everyday use. How things have changed. The web has not just been a fundamental change, it has been a revolution. Tourism has been turned on its head. Bookings, information, recommendations ..., it gave the tourist-consumer a power he previously hadn't possessed.
7. Ley General Turística. 24 March 1999 was the day when the Balearics' first tourism law was approved. The more recent 2012 tourism law reinforced much of what was in this first law, including prohibitions on some types of private property as holiday accommodation. One of the mysteries that surrounds the holiday-lets argument is quite why anyone finds it a comparatively new argument. It has certainly existed since 1999, though in fact there was a law as long ago as 1984 which tackled the subject - the "ley sobre alojamientos extrahoteleros".
8. POOT. The Plan de la Oferta Turística de Mallorca was approved by decree on 6 April 1995. It was a plan that was of profound importance. Though there had been previous plans which sought to organise how land was used for tourism purposes, the POOT was the first time that hard-and-fast criteria had been adopted. Essentially what POOT does is to place limits on the amount of tourism development within municipal boundaries.
9. Secondary activities. This is the newest of the fundamental changes. Part of the 2012 tourism law, secondary activities allow hotels to offer activities to the general public (and so not just guests) which had previously been the domain of the non-hotel, complementary sector. They can include all manner of things - restaurants, shops, clubs, concerts to name but a few. It is early days but secondary activities are likely to disrupt even further the balance between the hotel and complementary sectors.
10. Sustainability. An at-times nebulous concept and one that seems more often to be used for marketing purposes than for practical ones, sustainability is supposed to strike a balance between the demands of tourism and those of the environment, resources and the local economy. One of the first conferences dedicated to the subject was held in 1995.
Space has permitted only ten themes. There are others, and perhaps you have your own suggestions as to ways in which Mallorca's tourism has been changed over the last 20 years.
Friday, October 05, 2012
With The Compliments Of The Complementary Sector
The complementary sector has completed the drafting of its complementary demands to be incorporated into the tourism law. With the aid of the Chamber of Commerce, these complementary demands will be dispatched forthwith (after Monday anyway) together no doubt with a pleasant note attached, offering the tourism ministry all the complementary sector's best compliments for the end of the tourism season.
In case you need a definition once again, here it is. The complementary sector is anything in a tourism style which isn't a hotel. It is the "them" of the us and them of the tourism industry. Or is it the "us"? Either would do, I suppose. As such, it is therefore bars, restaurants, clubs, attractions and anything else it might wish to complement itself with.
The complementary sector will doubtless be complimenting itself on a jolly good list of demands. They had been well signalled, and I have helped to signal them. Much though it will sound repetitious, it is probably worth repeating what they are and identifying what has since been added.
There are two aspects. One has to do with so-called secondary activities that hotels will be allowed to engage in; the other concerns all-inclusives. With regard to the latter, the complementary sector is persisting with its pointless demand that a hotel has to have a minimum of three stars in order to offer all-inclusive; it is pointless as there are so few hotels with fewer than three stars and they are meant to be phased out in any event. Less pointless is to try and stop the practice of the day's all-inclusive rate that some hotels offer. A minimum of three days stay is being called for in order that a guest can qualify for all-inclusive.
There is also a reminder that hotels will have to prevent guests leaving the premises with food and drink (a specific provision in the tourism law). While this is also pointless as it will make little or no difference in generating more business for bars and restaurants, the complementary sector is keen to ensure that if hotels fail to prevent guests taking some carry-outs they will get hammered with the fines that are stipulated under the law (and they fall into the category with the maximum sanction).
I am still at a loss to know how this measure is going to work in practice. What are the hotels to do? Man the exits with heavy security? Call the police if Joe All-Inclusive decides to go walkabout with a plastic glass of watered-down foaming lager? Make a citizen's arrest if Josephine All-Inclusive heads off to the beach with a soggy pizza shoved in her bikini top? It all sounds like more trouble than it's worth, and trouble one can well envisage when Joe All-Inclusive, tanked up on his lager, gives security a smack in the gob for trying to prevent him leaving the premises with plastic glass in hand.
The all-inclusive demands amount to very little, and as there is very little the complementary sector can do about all-inclusives, this isn't altogether surprising. But then there are the secondary activities, the likes of discos, restaurants open to anyone, i.e. not just to hotel guests. There is more for the complementary sector to get its teeth into here. It wants to ensure that these activities are only available when the hotel is actually open, so there would be no discos or restaurants in winter. It also wants to ensure that access to these secondary activities requires people to pass through hotel receptions. And why would they want them to do this?
Well, I can think of one reason, and it has Mallorca Rocks written all over it. The complementary sector also wants to limit the number of people who could attend a secondary activity event to 150% of the total number of hotel places. Put this together with entrance only through reception, and you come up with Mallorca Rocks or equivalents. A limit of numbers as is being demanded would make concerts less viable, while insisting that there is no separate entrance would lead to a logistical nightmare.
These demands sound as though they are a rewind to the objections raised against Mallorca Rocks and the discovery by the tourism ministry, once Carlos Delgado had got his feet under the ministerial table, that it could indeed permit concerts at the hotel despite it previously saying that it couldn't. There are attempts to settle some old scores, one fancies, and one also fancies they won't be settled in favour of the complementary sector.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
In case you need a definition once again, here it is. The complementary sector is anything in a tourism style which isn't a hotel. It is the "them" of the us and them of the tourism industry. Or is it the "us"? Either would do, I suppose. As such, it is therefore bars, restaurants, clubs, attractions and anything else it might wish to complement itself with.
The complementary sector will doubtless be complimenting itself on a jolly good list of demands. They had been well signalled, and I have helped to signal them. Much though it will sound repetitious, it is probably worth repeating what they are and identifying what has since been added.
There are two aspects. One has to do with so-called secondary activities that hotels will be allowed to engage in; the other concerns all-inclusives. With regard to the latter, the complementary sector is persisting with its pointless demand that a hotel has to have a minimum of three stars in order to offer all-inclusive; it is pointless as there are so few hotels with fewer than three stars and they are meant to be phased out in any event. Less pointless is to try and stop the practice of the day's all-inclusive rate that some hotels offer. A minimum of three days stay is being called for in order that a guest can qualify for all-inclusive.
There is also a reminder that hotels will have to prevent guests leaving the premises with food and drink (a specific provision in the tourism law). While this is also pointless as it will make little or no difference in generating more business for bars and restaurants, the complementary sector is keen to ensure that if hotels fail to prevent guests taking some carry-outs they will get hammered with the fines that are stipulated under the law (and they fall into the category with the maximum sanction).
I am still at a loss to know how this measure is going to work in practice. What are the hotels to do? Man the exits with heavy security? Call the police if Joe All-Inclusive decides to go walkabout with a plastic glass of watered-down foaming lager? Make a citizen's arrest if Josephine All-Inclusive heads off to the beach with a soggy pizza shoved in her bikini top? It all sounds like more trouble than it's worth, and trouble one can well envisage when Joe All-Inclusive, tanked up on his lager, gives security a smack in the gob for trying to prevent him leaving the premises with plastic glass in hand.
The all-inclusive demands amount to very little, and as there is very little the complementary sector can do about all-inclusives, this isn't altogether surprising. But then there are the secondary activities, the likes of discos, restaurants open to anyone, i.e. not just to hotel guests. There is more for the complementary sector to get its teeth into here. It wants to ensure that these activities are only available when the hotel is actually open, so there would be no discos or restaurants in winter. It also wants to ensure that access to these secondary activities requires people to pass through hotel receptions. And why would they want them to do this?
Well, I can think of one reason, and it has Mallorca Rocks written all over it. The complementary sector also wants to limit the number of people who could attend a secondary activity event to 150% of the total number of hotel places. Put this together with entrance only through reception, and you come up with Mallorca Rocks or equivalents. A limit of numbers as is being demanded would make concerts less viable, while insisting that there is no separate entrance would lead to a logistical nightmare.
These demands sound as though they are a rewind to the objections raised against Mallorca Rocks and the discovery by the tourism ministry, once Carlos Delgado had got his feet under the ministerial table, that it could indeed permit concerts at the hotel despite it previously saying that it couldn't. There are attempts to settle some old scores, one fancies, and one also fancies they won't be settled in favour of the complementary sector.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, September 13, 2012
The Un-Complementary Sector
Back in February I wrote about the hatchet having been buried in a war between Mallorca's hoteliers and the complementary sector. The two sides agreed to present a united front in making representations to the government prior to the final drafting of the new tourism law. I suggested at the time that though "the hatchet may have been buried, it (could) just as easily be dug up again". And I wasn't wrong.
It was difficult to understand quite what the complementary sector thought that it stood to gain by getting into bed with the hoteliers, other than to believe that by being nice the hoteliers would be nice in return as in, for instance, persuading the government not to allow them (the hoteliers, that is) to be able to introduce activities open to the general public that were the domain of the complementary sector. If it did believe this, then the complementary sector was incredibly stupid.
In February the hoteliers were making conciliatory noises by implying that the introduction of "secondary activities" (discos, restaurants, whatever) should be limited, but they didn't of course attempt to persuade the government to not allow them. So now the complementary offer finds itself having to try and get some limitations, the tourism law having been approved. It's a bit late but not perhaps too late.
The tourism law does still require that some meat is put on some bones. The complementary sector, comprising restaurants, clubs, attractions and travel agencies, is issuing proposals designed to limit some of the law's damage, as it applies to them. Another aspect of the law other than that regarding secondary activities in hotels which exercised the complementary sector back in February is that to do with all-inclusives. The law is quite vague where they are concerned, precise requirements for quality plans that hotels will be required to draw up not having yet been made clear.
The complementary sector knows that it has to live with all-inclusives but its hope is that requirements of the quality plans will be that tough that some hotels might be forced to abandon the all-inclusive offer. It's a hope but whether it will be anything more than a hope is another matter.
There is a need for such quality plans and for effective ones that hotels are made to implement. In my recent article "Holiday Let Hysteria" I spoke about a generally high standard of hotel stock in Mallorca. It is generally high but there are examples of where it isn't. The hoteliers federation argument against holiday lets falls down, and not for the first time, when it insists that private accommodation can be poor and so present a bad image of Mallorca while at the same time it neglects the examples of poor hotels and their bad image. Some are all-inclusive ghettoes, and we all know which they are. If the hoteliers federation doesn't, then I can help out by pointing its president in the direction of forums and social media which will inform her.
This lack of quality covers sub-standard accommodation, inadequate service provision, repetitious meals, low-grade drinks, lengthy queues. It is a lack of quality that has been known about for years, but what has been a typical government reaction? Under the last government, the then tourism minister Joana Barceló said that inspections had not revealed a lack of quality. God knows what the inspectors were doing or where they were going then.
Such governmental complacency is not entirely unexpected. Genuinely tough quality standards could result in Mallorca's all-inclusive stock being slashed significantly. Tour operators do not benefit from a lack of quality, but they still manage to sell holidays to all-inclusives which fall below standard, and neither they nor the government have a wish to see some hotels removed from the brochures. There are other things to think of such as selling seats on airlines and generating traffic through the airport.
The current government is making much of the new law's provisions for modernising obsolete hotel stock and for overall quality enhancements, but would it really be so insistent on quality for some all-inclusives that might mean they are withdrawn from brochures? I very much doubt it, just as I very much doubt that its inspections would be as rigorous as those it intends to make in order to stamp out illegal holiday accommodation.
The complementary offer might hope that the government will be tough but the complementary sector should look at itself. Only now is it really attempting to get its voice heard after years of ineffective lobbying and after its error in February. There was never any chance of the hatchet having been buried.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
It was difficult to understand quite what the complementary sector thought that it stood to gain by getting into bed with the hoteliers, other than to believe that by being nice the hoteliers would be nice in return as in, for instance, persuading the government not to allow them (the hoteliers, that is) to be able to introduce activities open to the general public that were the domain of the complementary sector. If it did believe this, then the complementary sector was incredibly stupid.
In February the hoteliers were making conciliatory noises by implying that the introduction of "secondary activities" (discos, restaurants, whatever) should be limited, but they didn't of course attempt to persuade the government to not allow them. So now the complementary offer finds itself having to try and get some limitations, the tourism law having been approved. It's a bit late but not perhaps too late.
The tourism law does still require that some meat is put on some bones. The complementary sector, comprising restaurants, clubs, attractions and travel agencies, is issuing proposals designed to limit some of the law's damage, as it applies to them. Another aspect of the law other than that regarding secondary activities in hotels which exercised the complementary sector back in February is that to do with all-inclusives. The law is quite vague where they are concerned, precise requirements for quality plans that hotels will be required to draw up not having yet been made clear.
The complementary sector knows that it has to live with all-inclusives but its hope is that requirements of the quality plans will be that tough that some hotels might be forced to abandon the all-inclusive offer. It's a hope but whether it will be anything more than a hope is another matter.
There is a need for such quality plans and for effective ones that hotels are made to implement. In my recent article "Holiday Let Hysteria" I spoke about a generally high standard of hotel stock in Mallorca. It is generally high but there are examples of where it isn't. The hoteliers federation argument against holiday lets falls down, and not for the first time, when it insists that private accommodation can be poor and so present a bad image of Mallorca while at the same time it neglects the examples of poor hotels and their bad image. Some are all-inclusive ghettoes, and we all know which they are. If the hoteliers federation doesn't, then I can help out by pointing its president in the direction of forums and social media which will inform her.
This lack of quality covers sub-standard accommodation, inadequate service provision, repetitious meals, low-grade drinks, lengthy queues. It is a lack of quality that has been known about for years, but what has been a typical government reaction? Under the last government, the then tourism minister Joana Barceló said that inspections had not revealed a lack of quality. God knows what the inspectors were doing or where they were going then.
Such governmental complacency is not entirely unexpected. Genuinely tough quality standards could result in Mallorca's all-inclusive stock being slashed significantly. Tour operators do not benefit from a lack of quality, but they still manage to sell holidays to all-inclusives which fall below standard, and neither they nor the government have a wish to see some hotels removed from the brochures. There are other things to think of such as selling seats on airlines and generating traffic through the airport.
The current government is making much of the new law's provisions for modernising obsolete hotel stock and for overall quality enhancements, but would it really be so insistent on quality for some all-inclusives that might mean they are withdrawn from brochures? I very much doubt it, just as I very much doubt that its inspections would be as rigorous as those it intends to make in order to stamp out illegal holiday accommodation.
The complementary offer might hope that the government will be tough but the complementary sector should look at itself. Only now is it really attempting to get its voice heard after years of ineffective lobbying and after its error in February. There was never any chance of the hatchet having been buried.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Welcome To The Hotel Mallorca
Two months ago I wrote a piece entitled "Burying The Hatchet". I concluded by suggesting that the hatchet could, despite having been buried, just as easily be dug up again. And so it has been.
In truth, the hatchet wasn't ever buried, not where Carlos Delgado was concerned at any rate. The peace that had broken out between hoteliers in the Balearics and the complementary offer was intended to demonstrate that these two warring factions could create a unified front in the tourism sector. Perhaps the complementary offer - the bars, restaurants, clubs and what have you - were hoping that by appearing to be on the same side as the all-dominating hotel sector, the real enemy where it was concerned, tourism minister Delgado, might look more favourably upon it.
The hatchet had been brandished because of that part of the new tourism law which plans to grant hotels the opportunity of providing secondary activities in their grounds. By secondary activities, one means pretty much anything that is currently offered outside these grounds, which would, and this has really caused the complementary offer to engage in its war dance, be open to the general public. The secondary activities are the domain of the complementary offer; the way things are going, or the way the new tourism bill is going, there won't be an offer that complements hotels for much longer.
While the complementary offer is putting its warpaint on in seeking to encircle the wagons of the tourism ministry, its hoped-for cavalry in the form of the hotel sector has clearly forgotten that it came to some sort of agreement with the bars and restaurants back in February. I didn't think this new-found friendship would last and nor indeed has it.
When it became clear that Sheriff Delgado was intent on crashing through the saloon doors of the nearest bar or restaurant and firing from both hips an inducement to the hotels of making available 30% of their areas to new activities designed to fill further the hotels' safes, it was an offer the hotels couldn't refuse. What were they supposed to do? Say thanks very much, but we would rather our friends from the complementary sector didn't have to concern themselves with such new competition? If the bars, restaurants and so on had believed this, then they had been labouring under a serious misapprehension that suddenly the hotels were being co-operative and altruistic. These are, after all, the same hotels that have spent the past however many years being distinctly unco-operative by going all-inclusive.
The hotels have of course bitten Delgado's hand off. They are attempting to appear to still be on speaking terms with the complementary sector by pointing out that it is only 30% of their areas that might become buffets, discos, rock concerts, sports facilities, and God knows what else. They also say that there will still be restrictions in place that limit their activities by comparison with less regulation elsewhere, such as in competitor tourist destinations. The complementary sector will doubtless be reassured. Or not.
And of course it isn't, which is why it has gone over Delgado's head and demanded to see the Marshall, i.e. President Bauzá, and tell him that his underling is about to break with years of tradition and with a balance of hotel and complementary offer that has existed since mass tourism first settled in the old wild west, east, south and north of Mallorca.
The hotels are being disingenuous. 30% can equate to an awful lot of passing trade attracted by a buffet at an absurdly low price which a hotel might, as an example, wish to offer. And the price could well be low, that much lower than an outside restaurant could offer, because to provide this buffet would require only minimal additional cost. And 30%, depending on how large a hotel is, can mean an awful lot of space and therefore an awful lot of customers who aren't staying at the hotel.
To make things even more ducky where the complementary offer is concerned is the fact that hotels are going to be given the go-ahead for staging beach parties through new beach clubs. Another foul is being called, especially by the outside club sector, and that good old stand-by of the environment is being invoked as a way of trying to prevent these parties. There will be damage to dunes and so on, a concern that had probably never occurred to the clubs previously but which now suits them to express.
This is the new tourism law, therefore. Its passage is still not guaranteed, but it is doubtful to get much more by way of re-drafting. And when it is passed, Mallorca becomes one big hotel. Welcome to the Hotel Mallorca, such a lovely place ... .
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
In truth, the hatchet wasn't ever buried, not where Carlos Delgado was concerned at any rate. The peace that had broken out between hoteliers in the Balearics and the complementary offer was intended to demonstrate that these two warring factions could create a unified front in the tourism sector. Perhaps the complementary offer - the bars, restaurants, clubs and what have you - were hoping that by appearing to be on the same side as the all-dominating hotel sector, the real enemy where it was concerned, tourism minister Delgado, might look more favourably upon it.
The hatchet had been brandished because of that part of the new tourism law which plans to grant hotels the opportunity of providing secondary activities in their grounds. By secondary activities, one means pretty much anything that is currently offered outside these grounds, which would, and this has really caused the complementary offer to engage in its war dance, be open to the general public. The secondary activities are the domain of the complementary offer; the way things are going, or the way the new tourism bill is going, there won't be an offer that complements hotels for much longer.
While the complementary offer is putting its warpaint on in seeking to encircle the wagons of the tourism ministry, its hoped-for cavalry in the form of the hotel sector has clearly forgotten that it came to some sort of agreement with the bars and restaurants back in February. I didn't think this new-found friendship would last and nor indeed has it.
When it became clear that Sheriff Delgado was intent on crashing through the saloon doors of the nearest bar or restaurant and firing from both hips an inducement to the hotels of making available 30% of their areas to new activities designed to fill further the hotels' safes, it was an offer the hotels couldn't refuse. What were they supposed to do? Say thanks very much, but we would rather our friends from the complementary sector didn't have to concern themselves with such new competition? If the bars, restaurants and so on had believed this, then they had been labouring under a serious misapprehension that suddenly the hotels were being co-operative and altruistic. These are, after all, the same hotels that have spent the past however many years being distinctly unco-operative by going all-inclusive.
The hotels have of course bitten Delgado's hand off. They are attempting to appear to still be on speaking terms with the complementary sector by pointing out that it is only 30% of their areas that might become buffets, discos, rock concerts, sports facilities, and God knows what else. They also say that there will still be restrictions in place that limit their activities by comparison with less regulation elsewhere, such as in competitor tourist destinations. The complementary sector will doubtless be reassured. Or not.
And of course it isn't, which is why it has gone over Delgado's head and demanded to see the Marshall, i.e. President Bauzá, and tell him that his underling is about to break with years of tradition and with a balance of hotel and complementary offer that has existed since mass tourism first settled in the old wild west, east, south and north of Mallorca.
The hotels are being disingenuous. 30% can equate to an awful lot of passing trade attracted by a buffet at an absurdly low price which a hotel might, as an example, wish to offer. And the price could well be low, that much lower than an outside restaurant could offer, because to provide this buffet would require only minimal additional cost. And 30%, depending on how large a hotel is, can mean an awful lot of space and therefore an awful lot of customers who aren't staying at the hotel.
To make things even more ducky where the complementary offer is concerned is the fact that hotels are going to be given the go-ahead for staging beach parties through new beach clubs. Another foul is being called, especially by the outside club sector, and that good old stand-by of the environment is being invoked as a way of trying to prevent these parties. There will be damage to dunes and so on, a concern that had probably never occurred to the clubs previously but which now suits them to express.
This is the new tourism law, therefore. Its passage is still not guaranteed, but it is doubtful to get much more by way of re-drafting. And when it is passed, Mallorca becomes one big hotel. Welcome to the Hotel Mallorca, such a lovely place ... .
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Complementary offer slams Balearics' tourism law
The complementary offer (bars, restaurants, nightclubs etc.) has criticised once again the changes to the Balearics' tourism law that will permit so-called secondary activities inside hotel grounds, i.e. those that are typically offered outside hotels. There are concerns with other aspects of the law as well, such as the organisation of beach parties.
The complementary offer and the hotels were meant some time ago to have arrived at some sort of accord in respect of the new law. This doesn't seem to have occurred, which probably comes as no great surprise.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
The complementary offer and the hotels were meant some time ago to have arrived at some sort of accord in respect of the new law. This doesn't seem to have occurred, which probably comes as no great surprise.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
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