Always Take The Weather With You

The British are obsessed with the weather. The Spanish are obsessed with the weather. Which statement is true and which statement is false? Answer: both are true, as would be the case for the Germans, the French, or the Maasai of the Serengeti. As far as the latter are concerned, their obsession probably doesn't manifest itself in quite the same way. They aren't umbilically connected to digital technology and obsessed to such an extent that the merest hint of weather demands that they attempt to break the internet.

There has been some weather in Mallorca in the past few days. There always is weather of course - you can't really avoid it, and that has nothing to do with obsessing over it - but there is weather and there is weather. Or perhaps one should say that there is the consequence of weather as much as there is the force or action of weather. Hence and for example, we have been regaled with images of submerged cars. One uses the word "regaled" advisedly. It means to provide entertainment or simply to entertain. Are cars submerged on a flooded road entertaining? Seemingly so.

To return to nationalities' relative meteorological obsessions, this recent burst of weather has been notable for its cross-cultural consensus. Spanish (Mallorcan) media outlets have posted their images and videos of cars in water and have been greeted with rapturous volumes of likes, wows, loves, sad faces, and angries. The full range of emoticon emotions has been shared by a nationality which is supposedly less obsessed with weather than the British. We can most definitely put that notion to bed: an obsession is for cultural sharing, especially if it can be done digitally and involve the result of 100 plus litres per square metre of rainfall.

The dramatic evidence of heavy weather is in contrast with the consequence of prolonged, unchanging weather. This can be and is equally dramatic and a great deal more concerning, but it is not as requiring of immediate hits on the share button. The drought, which the environment ministry will doubtless insist is still at pre-alert levels despite the cars up to their bonnets in wet stuff, has produced endless images of barren stretches of former reservoir and levels so low that a car would struggle to get water to cover its wheels.

What of course is missing is the drama and so therefore all the mobile phones frantically capturing still and moving images of weather and uploading them for an enthralled internet community to respond with "OMG" and an accompanying like, wow (choose as applicable, or not).

Weather in Mallorca, where most are concerned, would be 30-plus celsius, a blue sky and a gentle turquoise sea lapping onto velvety white sand. It's the difference which counts and what might seem unusual or unexpected. Take snow. There's snow in Mallorca? Oddly enough, there is. It may still be waiting to produce a repeat of 1956, but if and when it does, the internet will be broken for certain.

The interest (obsession) with weather has grown exponentially in line with digital technology. This didn't exist in 1956, was most certainly not universally available in 1990 when there was that much weather that Alcudia's City of Lakes became the City of THE Lake, or sufficiently diffused when the hurricane of 2001 occurred and flattened whole pine woods. Even the tornado of 2007 predated the mass adoption of social networks.

Weather is thus a product of technology that fascinates even if the weather event is of no consequence, such as when the Puig Major gets a covering of snow. So technologically-driven is it that it produces an incessant bombardment of non-weather images, such as the here is a photo of some sea and some sun, followed by another photo of similar sea and similar sun. Wow, like, love, share. Non-weather is the typical dish served up by the webcam for its devotees. Here is a not terribly clear image of a cloud in the sky. Goodness, look at that. A cloud. There can be few more pointless exercises known to mankind than to stare at what a webcam is looking at for more than five seconds (if that, or indeed at all). But mankind deals in pointless exercises. If not, there wouldn't be any "X Factor" or the current England cricket team.

An obsession? Totally. Come rain, come shine, come hail, come snow, come wind, it is all there courtesy of technology. Once captured, it whizzes around the world in a frenzy of sharing. We are all Meteo men, women and children, assisted by Meteo cats and dogs (assuming they themselves aren't raining) and other members of the animal community to be digitally found experiencing weather. We can always take the weather with us. It's on our mobiles. Wow, like, sad face. Share.

Twits Of Twitter: Partido Popular

If your party suffers a calamitous election defeat, it is to be expected that there will be a period of bloodletting. Calm, rational review rarely follows calamity. Instead, knives are sharpened, bodies are left. From fractiousness come factions, fighting over the bones of a disintegrated entity. Putting the monster back together again takes time. The wounds are too profound for there to be rapid reparatory surgery.

Nevertheless, if Mariano Rajoy and central office had allowed otherwise, the Partido Popular in the Balearics might now be on the path to recovery. Central office did not allow. The regional party would have to wait until the PP nationally was subjected to its own calamitous humiliation. Only then would the Balearics PP be permitted to cleanse itself of the soiling of its factionalism, to definitively wave its dirty underwear for public view, to get it out of the way, to elect a new leader.

That might have been the theory, but as the general election of 20-D increasingly appears to have heralded another election (26-J in all likelihood), the practice has proved to be different. The PP in the Balearics is still in leadership limbo, unable to move on. When might it be allowed to have its regional congress and elect its leader? Who can say?

It is now getting on for a year since José Ramón Bauzá's PP suffered defeat by the fourteen cuts of seats that it lost in the Balearic parliament. No sooner was it dawning on the party that it had just suffered its worst ever election performance than the battle lines were being drawn and the trenches dug. A phony war prior to the election - former PP mayors, such as those of Alaro and Pollensa, had already jumped ship and abandoned the autocratic Bauzá - became total war, and at the head of the rebel troops was the environment and agriculture minister, Biel Company.

At one time it had appeared as if Company was likely to get a clear run at being the party's next leader. But with the special congress delayed and delayed, there has been ample time for the factions - far from simmering down - to become more and more agitated. And among the agitators has been Bauzá. Far from having accepted being exiled to the Senate with his tail between his legs, he has been doing his best to stir things. His charge that the party lacked direction did not go down well, the implication of this having been that it was not going in the direction that he had taken it.

Modern party warfare now plays out on different fields of battle, one of these being social media. And it has been on Twitter and Facebook where the Company and Bauzá factions have been engaged in skirmishes. At the heart of this were messages on both networks from one Pilar Bauzá Díaz. She had, for instance, placed the blame for the loss of PP votes on the former president, while exchanging views with, among others, the former director of Balearic ports and airports, Antonio Deudero (a Bauzá man). She also praised the work of Biel Company - "the best agriculture minister of all time".

It might be noted that José Ramón's full name is Bauzá Díaz. But Pilar of that name was unrelated to him. She was in fact Company's wife. Her fake account was exposed when she, by error, used her own name. So against this background, Company laid into Bauzá at a PP general meeting last week. If he, the former president, was going after him (Company), then he would go after Bauzá. Company was furious at what he saw as a deliberate leaking of these social media exchanges by Bauzá's personal secretary in the Senate to the mainstream media. The only problem being of course that it was all out there in the public domain anyway, and his wife had mistakenly blown her own trolling cover.

The general secretary of the PP, the party's nominal and temporary leader, Miquel Vidal, has sought to draw a line under the affair. No action will be taken, and it's being put down to the fact that people get "angry" from time to time, and that it was all an "internal" matter. Which may be fair enough, but Company, adding that he will neither forgive nor forget the supposed leak, has suffered - one would have to think - a great deal of damage. You would also have to think that he was aware of his wife's fake account (for which he did apologise).

The time that it is taking in getting around to elect a new leader is only making matters worse for the PP, and this twittish use of Twitter highlights the fact. When they do finally get round to an election, the matter will not be ignored. Meanwhile, and as the PP tears itself apart, it's supposed to be the main opposition.

Lousy Review, Less Pay

Once upon a time, employees would be assessed only by their managers. This was the traditional performance appraisal, an often worthless exercise if, as happened to me on one occasion, it was conducted over a lunch at which the boss, a couple of pre-lunch G&Ts on board followed by a whole bottle of wine to himself, forgot why we were having lunch.

Other systems of appraisal were introduced. There was the upward feedback. Staff could assess the manager, a process which had inherent risks. If Employee A didn't like Manager B, then Manager B could well get a bum assessment. But the purveyors of appraisal systems would insist that these systems would filter out such subjectivity without ever truly convincing everyone that they did, and this was also the case when so-called 360-degree feedback became popular. Anyone could have his or her say. Customers, suppliers, colleagues: they could all have a pop.

These systems weren't of course a free-for-all. Bias was ironed out as much as possible. They wouldn't have been effective or have become as widespread as they did had they just been means of expressing dislike. But they were something of a culture shock for employees or managers who were to discover that there were a number of "stakeholders" whose assessment of performance fell some way short of how the employee or manager would have assessed his or her own performance.

These broader systems of appraisal were all part of a wider culture shock, that of changes to organisations' culture and their ways of doing things. By subjecting personnel to closer scrutiny by these different stakeholders, performance would improve and do so in line with new cultures that were more open to the needs of customers and others.

Into this appraisal mix came technology, and now there is the technology of social media. Customers can have their say like never before, and certain businesses are embracing this customer voice in their assessment of individuals' performance. Comments on Trip Advisor and similar websites are now being used to determine just how much people get paid.

Since the explosion of social media and review and comments' sites in particular, a whole industry of online reputation management has grown up. ReviewPro is one of the leading examples of this monitoring, and its Spanish division works with a whole host of hotel chains. Look at its clients and very familiar names appear: Meliá, Iberostar, Viva and so on.

Meliá is said to be one of the pioneers of using customer comments as part of a quality system through which performance can be measured and remuneration adjusted. Variable pay is partially determined on the basis of these comments; variable pay meaning performance pay, i.e. meeting and exceeding personal and company performance targets. At Meliá, this pay can apparently equate to as much as 20% of overall remuneration, so there is a strong incentive for management to ensure that customer satisfaction is high and also to respond in a thoughtful fashion to any negative comments.

The underlying philosophy is or should be obvious. Customers are at the heart of everything Meliá does, as is the case with any hotel chain. But how well this philosophy is understood by other chains or within Mallorca's tourism industry as a whole is open to some debate. Even among the clients that ReviewPro has, there are individual hotels which are part of certain chains that receive numerous negative comments and little or no response from management.

From surveys that Trip Advisor has done, it has been shown that responding to comments, both negative and positive, is as powerful as the comment itself. Yet, too often there are no responses and when there are they are standard ones issued not by, say, the hotel's director but by someone with a vague public relations job title. 

As with any system of appraisal, using online comments is probably not foolproof. There is greater scope through social media for biased or malicious assessments than there ever was with more traditional appraisal methods. There is also the potential, once it becomes widely known that pay is directly being influenced, for online blackmail, something which does already occur. But then this is something for devisers of systems to take account of.  

In principle, using customer comments is a very good tool for chains to not just monitor management and hotel performance but also to improve it as part of ongoing quality management systems. It should, therefore, be far more widely adopted by the Mallorcan tourism industry which, despite criticisms of standards, is using other methods to improve quality, the SICTED system of quality being one of them.

But there are limits to how useful such a tool is. Many negative comments stem not from poor management at specific hotels but from a lack of investment by chains which leave hotels open to such negativity.

Defending Loyalty To Mallorca

April Rinne is a name that probably won't mean anything to you. She is the chief strategy officer for something called Collaborative Lab, "the leading source of expertise for companies and governments that want to embrace the collaborative economy". Among other things, she is a "young global leader" at the World Economic Forum and has been an adviser to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. She has, says her biog, "illustrated her thought leadership" in various publications. Thought leadership? What on earth is that?

Depending on your perspective, Rinne is either one of those infuriating Americans who come along on a regular basis and appear to invent entire alternative universes of business and marketing replete with jargonese and gurudom or a crystal-clear visionary of a brave new future world. Whatever your perspective, these are universes or worlds remote from the man or woman booking holidays to Mallorca. They appear divorced from everyday realities but sometimes they can be important, and what April Rinne deals in is important.

The notion of the collaborative or sharing economy is simple enough. You have something to share - let's say it's an apartment that you own - and someone wants to take up your offer. This is an economy that has always been with us, but technology has vastly expanded its potential, so much so that - at its most extreme -what you might have to share can be shared with anyone from anywhere. Middlemen cease to exist. All that is needed is a facilitator, a third party which enables the sharer to be in touch with his or her potential market. This is the world of P2P, peer to peer or people to people. This is the world of Airbnb property sharing, Uber car sharing and many others.

Rinne has made an observation which sums up the rise of P2P. It has taken Airbnb, the world's leading internet portal for tourist property rental, just six years to reach a level of users (customers) that Hilton needed over 90 years to attain. It is a stark observation of the battle between hotels and private accommodation that is going on across the globe and so not just in Mallorca, and it is a battle which, despite moves to legislate, appears to be one that the hotels cannot win. Rinne believes that the onslaught from the likes of Airbnb has only just begun.

Confronted with this competition - typically decried by the hoteliers as "unfair" - how can hotels fight back? A clue as to how they can lies with understanding the appeal of P2P and the apparent shifts in consumer thinking and behaviour, in particular those of the so-called Millennial generation. Tourism, according to accepted P2P wisdom, is about personalisation, about "experiences", about contact with local people in destinations. It is the depersonalised nature of hotels which turns the traveller on to a P2P "experience" and which also deters those Millennials who supposedly are also interested principally in experiences.

Of course, much of this sounds and often is marketing gobbledegook, but there is nevertheless a good deal of truth about depersonalisation and especially that which comes with the package holiday. This said, hotels have woken up to the need for greater personalisation and also to the need for "experiences". Many can't help telling potential clients about the experiences that await them or shoehorning them in to brand sloganising. And it is this branding which holds the key for hotels and, more importantly, tour operators.

Experiences and personalisation have become the hotelier and tour operator zeitgeist as has the need for branding and so brand loyalty, but in emphasising the brand, tour operators and indeed some hotel chains shift the focus away from the destination. What is being sold, therefore, is the brand, and where it is located is secondary. A consequence is that loyalty to the destination, be it Mallorca, its individual resorts is potentially loosened. And experiences and personalisation for the P2P traveller can also undermine specific destinations. These travellers place a premium on the social-media aspect of sharing information and recommendations. If they are for somewhere other than Mallorca, then so be it.

The importance of these trends can be over-exaggerated. The traditional package holiday, for instance, and despite repeated reports of its death, is not about to disappear any time soon. But they are trends which cannot be ignored and so make it imperative that Mallorca acts to confirm and reinforce tourist loyalty to it.

There was a statement the other day that the "summer sells itself". Well yes, it does, but to believe, against the background of these trends, that "selling" is not required is wrongheaded. It is needed as never before, and so Mallorca needs its own assault, one it is currently failing to deliver, that of loyalty building through social media. And, moreover, it is an assault that needs to embrace, not deny, the P2P revolution.

All The Fun Of The Tourism Fair

The Fitur tourism fair in Madrid was deemed a great success on account of a record turnout of 225,000 visitors. But its success can be measured in other ways, such as the massive following the fair attracted on social networks. While much of this will have been related to Fitur-specific events, not all of it will have been. There will have been exposure for destinations like Mallorca as well. The travel trade fair has always been the place for networking, contact-making and deal-making but now it isn't necessary to actually be there; it's all available through social media. Of course, it still does help to be able to do things face-to-face rather than via "Facetime", and for those who have wondered whether the regional tourism ministry ever talks to airlines and tour operators (which it does in any event), Fitur and other travel fairs provide the evidence: all the big players and not so big players gather.

The ministry does, with some justification, get criticised for its emphasis on travel fairs to the virtual exclusion of all other promotional means; its promotion budget is heavily geared towards fairs. If all that was happening was that some potential tourist was wandering onto the stand, then the criticism would be even more valid. But this, the public's participation in fairs, is only a part of what is happening. There is now a vast public which is being spoken to because of the innovations that fairs have introduced in recent years. One of these is the presence of bloggers. There were over 400 accredited bloggers from 20 countries at Fitur, and what they do is blog not only about the fair but also about what exhibitors are offering. The Balearics tourism ministry devotes part of its promotion budget to just these social media intermediaries. Their role may seem somewhat obscure, while social media, as a means of promotion, may seem to lack excitement when compared with the pizzazz of an expensive television advert, but they are representative of ways in which promotion has altered. They channel opinion, reviews and recommendations to the contemporary social media-savvy tourist, and it is acknowledged and understood that communication that is far more intimate than any advert (be it film or print) and which is review and recommendation-based is now the prime source of tourist decision-making.


All the news coming out of Fitur was positive for Mallorca and for the Balearics, even if the actual level of good news seemed to vary. On domestic Spanish tourism, for example, at one point there was talk of an increase between 10% and 15% this summer. Then it went up to 25%. It's difficult to understand how a forecast can fluctuate so significantly in the space of two days, but whoever said that such forecasting was an exact science?

The domestic market is one of the three main tourist markets, along with the British and the German, that Mallorca depends upon, and it has, fairly obviously, been in the doldrums for a few years. There was some recovery last year, but this is expected to be very much more significant in 2015. The forecast comes with a cautionary word or two, though. Spaniards have acquired sufficient confidence to throw off the shackles which were stopping them travelling on holiday, but they aren't necessarily going to be spending any more. This confidence, however, would be dented were there to be some return to economic uncertainty this year.

An interesting point about the domestic market is that less than a third of it stays in hotels. This isn't a recent phenomenon brought about by the increased availability of private accommodation. It's how it has tended to be.

The other two main markets are both expected to show strong growth in 2015. Sales campaigns in both Britain and Germany are said to be surpassing expectations. And to add to this positive news is the belief that the season will be longer this year with more hotels opening in March (and so in time for Easter in early April). For the British market, Jet2 is to begin operations by the end of March.

While this is all very positive, we will find out just how well-founded the optimism really is. Last year, there was at one time talk of an exceptional spring, only for this talk to turn to despair; May was a poor month, certainly for the hoteliers.

A Generation Of Misunderstanding

It would have been twenty-five years ago, a generation ago. I was invited onto a working party reporting to the European Commission. The subject was what was then referred to in broad terms as electronic publishing. We knew about the internet, we knew (vaguely) about what was about to come - the world wide web - we knew about database publishing and we knew about how different nets (networks) had been functioning primarily for military and academic purposes. What we didn't know and nor did the Commission was where this might all lead in terms not just of publishing but also information provision.

The working party was not unique in having an environment in which a certain tension existed. At my company this was called, because it suited the organisation's politics, creative tension, when in reality it was purely tension. On the one side were the strategists, the marketers, the businesspeople. On the other side were the technology buffs. At that time, it is perhaps fair to say, the techies looked down on their counterparts. They understood the gobbledegook. The business side didn't. The result was usually argument rather than proposal or action.

I was a non-technologist in search of a technologically understandable (possibly) organisational business model. Certain things had led me to where I was at that time in terms of thinking. One, from a few years before, had been a boss's insistence that I familiarise myself with Edward de Bono and lateral thought. Another was meeting someone called Peter Schwartz, nowadays referred to as a "futurist", then the head of scenario planning with Royal Dutch Shell. Schwartz dealt with what-ifs on a grand scale. Little was not possible, if you only applied your thoughts to it.

There were other influences, such as what Jan Carlzon had implanted as CEO of the Scandinavian Airlines System, i.e. an organisational pyramid with the customer at its peak, and any amount of case-study research from Harvard and elsewhere into the application and diffusion of then recent innovations in applied technology - the PC, the Mac, the digital watch, the Sony Walkman.  

What if Carlzon's pyramid was adapted? It could still be the customer on top of the pyramid, but who was the customer? Or rather, who would be the customer? Would the customer be more than this? A user perhaps. The term user had little currency at that time, but it was there nevertheless. The nets which ultimately led Tim Berners-Lee to the web had users. PCs had users. What if there was a wholesale shift of values within society, towards greater technology acceptance and use? Advances had in the few years before suggested there might be.

This was the essence of the model. It wasn't one which foresaw technological developments or their rapidity, but it was one to form the bones onto which the flesh of those developments might be grafted, and a generation on, it is pretty much how technology now is. The intensity has increased enormously of course, but organisations of all types have come to understand that the user sits on top of the pyramid and is there to be served. Or maybe one should say that some organisations understand this model.

Something else that would have been hard to foretell was just how much societal values were to alter. There might have been a clue from the bulletin boards which pre-dated the web and the forums which sprang up once it was established. But it needed a game-changer, and that was Amazon, not because of its original book delivery service but because of the facility for user review. It was Amazon which popularised the notion of user opinion on the web; readers in its case. From this came all manner of opinion, recommendations and criticisms. The genie was out of the bottle and it has proved to be unstoppable in the ways in which information is shared and sought after. It is now hard to conceive of a time when a fundamental shift in society's values in its use and acceptance of technology might even have been questioned.

All this leads to the present day and to Mallorca and to its tourism. Some organisations get it. The regional government doesn't. Where are the users (the tourists) in its model? Heaven knows. They are not recognised by there being the means for information sharing - through official channels of social media. They are not recognised by there being an appreciation of the latest leap in societal values, namely the whole culture of sharing and the technological applications which enable this, the P2P phenomenon which is proving to be a further game-changer.  The government is oblivious to the user, to his or her values. It is beholden to those who might say that they have the user (customer) at the top of their pyramids: the tour operators who shove product at the customer and call it a brand in the hope that a loyalty is created which itself is questionable in a user-led society that has outsmarted the conventions of business; and also to the hoteliers, latecomers to product as branding, but safeguarding and indeed reinforcing a model in which the hotel is the tourist experience in an age when "experiences" have taken on an alternative meaning, enabled by sharing, which goes way beyond the confines of the hotel campus.

It is as though the last twenty-five years haven't happened. A generation ago the tourist was fed limited information that did his or her thinking. The tourist was constrained in his or her outlook by the boundaries of non-technological society. This is not how it now is. The tourist is a flexible user in conversation with others - peers if you like - who are not part of a still rigid tourism model. Twenty-five years on, and it is not understood who it is who drives an organisation. The user.

Talking Shop: Tourism forum

The great and good of Mallorcan tourism gathered this week to talk about tourism. Talking shop at this talking shop at the Nixe Palace were, among others, senior representatives of Air Berlin, Globalia, Grupotel, Garden Hotels, Soller's Jumeirah, Melía, Palma 365, Barceló, the attractions association, Festival Park, shipping companies, banks, car-hire agencies ... . The whole tourism world and its wife were in Cala Major for Foro Turismo+.

So, what did the great and good have to say for themselves? There was a fair old amount of management-marketing semantic jargon, such as the need for "paradigm shifts" in terms of market segmentation to tackle the problem of seasonality (i.e. no tourists in winter) and in how the so-called complementary offer is perceived and perceives itself. This non-hotel sector now has to think of itself as the "specialised offer". Therefore, let's say, if you are a British bar, you must become specialised. Erm, isn't specialising in serving a British market already specialised? Or am I missing something? Just as, for instance, the aquarium specialises in being an aquarium.

New technologies were high on the agenda. They can enable paradigm shifts apparently. Rather than the gobbledegook, why not simply call a tweet a tweet? Mercifully, someone did. The point was made that a tweet can have more effect than an advertising campaign. Hallelujah, and with all due immodesty, they must have read what I have been saying for an age. Social media are so much part of the game now that the continuing and lamentable inability of the tourism ministry, tourism agency and others to get their social media acts together should be something drawing serious scrutiny of those in high places in these bodies. And talking of which, I am hearing that there are more rumblings within the ministry, where internal politicking under Martínez is pushing people to seek transfers.

The tourism agency - in paradigm shift mode itself - revealed that Mallorca and the Balearics need to make clear what makes the islands different. Such difference, beyond the summer tourism of sun and beach, is essential in promoting the segments of culture, gastronomy, blah, blah. Again, sorry, I've said this myself on many an occasion. These guys can talk to each other and state the bleeding obvious, but when and how are they going to effect this "difference"? The rest of the Med is pitching for the same off-season market with the same off-season products. There has to be a uniqueness and a supporting marketing campaign in order to establish this difference, whatever this might be, and therein lies the rub. There may well not be any difference.

The future, if there is one, for off-season tourism lies with sports. This is how Thomas Cook sees things at any rate. It has had success with its Ironman sponsorship, and this points a way forward. Possibly it does, but neither of the Ironmans in Alcúdia takes place in the off-season. They couldn't do because there wouldn't be the flights available. Or the hotels open. And were they to, it might unfortunately turn out to be the case that the weather decides to play tricks, churning up the sea or blowing a gale and rain into the faces of runners and cyclists. Nevertheless, off-season sports tourism requires, among other things, more golf courses. Again, maybe it does, but more golf courses run up against innumerable obstacles. Think Son Bacó in Campos (now being spoken about for the first time in some years), Son Bosc in Muro or Son Saletes in Sencelles. The fingers of doom belonging to GOB, to environmental reports, to island planning laws, to the impossibilities of political consensus point at each of them and are wagged with a telling "no".

Talking shop is a wonderful thing. One day they might just find that the shop is closed for business for good.


Index for October 2014

Airplane history in Mallorca - 30 October 2014
Airport privatisation - 17 October 2014
Alcúdia Fair - 4 October 2014
Balearics and state budget - 5 October 2014
Caja Madrid black cards - 16 October 2014
Calvia con Futuro - 19 October 2014
Can Picafort - 1 October 2014
Coronation Street in Mallorca - 13 October 2014
Croatia 365 vs. Palma 365 - 7 October 2014
Geographic centre of Mallorca - 14 October 2014
Halloween - 26 October 2014
Henry Waring and Albufera - 21 October 2014
Holiday lets: easing of regulations - 24 October 2014
Inca fairs - 18 October 2014
Insults - 25 October 2014
Mallorca's history in Catalan - 23 October 2014
Masonry - 28 October 2014
Operación Púnica and PP corruption - 29 October 2014
Podemos and future uncertainty - 6 October 2014
Podemos and UKIP - 15 October 2014
Processionary caterpillar spraying - 8 October 2014
Son Castelló industrial estate - 27 October 2014
Torrente 5 and Bert films - 2 October 2014
Tourism forum - 31 October 2014
Tourism organisation pre-regional government - 9 October 2014
Tourism planning and improvisation - 22 October 2014
Tourism promotion transferred to island councils - 20 October 2014
Transhotel - 10 October 2014
Trilingual teaching - 12 October 2014
Velodromes in Mallorca - 11 October 2014
Winter flights - 3 October 2014

365 In A Croatian Style

You are about to read a promotional feature for Croatia. I have, therefore, to apologise in advance for any offence that this might cause, but as, for the purposes of research and appreciation of what the competition does, I am one of 1,323,186 people who - as of 6 October - like the "Love Croatia" Facebook page, I feel it is only right to share with you the promotion for what is a key competitor to Mallorca.

Since the start of October, this Facebook page has added a video for the island of Hvar and eight other posts replete with spectacular photography that has been supplied officially and by visitors both direct to the page and through a linked Instagram page. What does one get from these nine posts alone? Well, for example, if you are looking for what to do in October, you can link to the official website which will tell you about Croatia 365, all-year round Croatia. This tells you that the country is "rich in natural beauty and well-preserved cultural heritage, specifically by its diversity". It goes on to inform you that you can "take a ride by bike where, long ago, Roman legions walked". You can check out destinations for culture, biking, outdoor, health and wellness, meetings and incentives and wine and gastronomy.

With a different post, you could have supplied your own words to complete the following: "Visiting Croatia was ...". I gave up checking the hundreds of comments after the first loads of "magical", "dream", "heaven on earth" and what have you, some of them with further photos.

The first post for October was another one to remind you about the possibilities which exist all year, a link to "Croatia 365, Experience Croatia all year round". This project, "Croatia 365", was launched in the summer by the country's tourism ministry. The purpose of the project is, naturally enough, to bring tourists in "once the summer sun has gone". The focus of the project is the six elements I list above - culture, biking, etc. - and in addition to improving facilities and activities in order to meet the project's objectives, there will be (and now is) an intensive marketing campaign, as might be noted through the "Love Croatia" Facebook page. As part of this project, twenty-two destinations within the country have guaranteed that at least 50% of all tourism and restaurant facilities will stay open.

One can't directly compare Croatia with Mallorca for one obvious reason - Croatia is a country - yet in terms of tourism, it wasn't at one time so dissimilar in that it was a part of a larger country. Yugoslavia, though it never created or really craved mass tourism, was in the 1950s far more open than Spain was to foreign tourists. So there was a long history of tourism development for Croatia to draw on once it became independent and once the wars that followed the break-up of Yugoslavia ceased.

At one stage in the late 1980s, total tourist arrivals to Croatia were over ten million per annum. At their lowest, in 1992, they were a little over two million. There was a hell of a lot of recovery and catch-up to be done, and it took until 2006 for the ten million barrier to be broken again. Between 2011 and 2013, the growth was significant; three million more tourists within the space of three years. The annual total is now over 14 million (roughly what the Balearics as a whole receive).

Croatia is a vastly bigger place than Mallorca, so again a direct comparison between the two is questionable. However, the Mallorcan tourism industry recognises Croatia for what it is: a direct competitor. And if you look at what the Croatia 365 project wants to achieve, you will find that it is remarkably similar to what Mallorca covets by way of all-year tourism; culture, cycling, meetings, they're the same.

There is a very meaningful comparison between the two when it comes to promotion. Mallorca's direct competitor on the Adriatic has its official Facebook page, churning out daily posts with recommendations, photos, videos and visitor comments and feedback. This is linked to the official website where there is of course a great deal more information. And Croatia now has a 365 campaign. Launched only three months ago, it is taking off thanks to social media in a way that a 365 campaign in Mallorca is not and has not. Palma's.

The foundation that oversees Palma 365 is to pay 48,000 euros apiece to a UK and a German PR company. The main purpose is for these PR companies to get press coverage. Which is all well and good, but has it gone unnoticed that there are different media out there? 1,323,186 people. Croatia, where 365 means 365 or where at least there is "an intensive marketing campaign". Who's playing catch-up now?

Damage Prevention: Magalluf and social media

Who would have thought it? Gentlemanly, former England cricket captain Andrew Strauss caught using the c-word to describe Kevin Pietersen. Strauss felt the need to issue an immediate and unreserved apology, though maybe he had nothing to apologise for. He thought he was off air. His mistake was in not knowing that there was a broadcast feed via a Fox Sports app in Australia.

Little that is nowadays said or done is not subject to being brought to the public's attention. Society, in whatever form, has become its own broadcaster. In this multi-connected, networked, voyeuristic world, there can be no room for naïvité. Strauss's bigger mistake was that he was naïve.

Such is the potential for embarrassment that media management should be shifting its emphasis. This management should be about anticipation, about damage prevention, rather than reaction and damage limitation. Nowadays, a media "crisis" can arise frequently and at random; the Murphy's Law for the technological world - what can go wrong will go wrong and will be on everyone's phone. It is naïve to believe that all damage can be prevented, but the need now is to at least try to prevent it. And accepting that it is impossible to prevent all damage, then mechanisms need to be in place to ensure adequate, appropriate and swift responses. Strauss's response was all three. He now surely understands what networked society means.

Amidst all the debate and arguments about the Magalluf video, there is one very important point which stands out. Peter Newey on the Facebook page of "The Bulletin" made it very well: "the only thing that is new is the technology that enables people to video such goings-on and then send them out to watch on their phones". Absolutely. Otherwise, and as many other commentators have observed, there was nothing new. Such goings-on have been going on for years. It's just that they didn't end up on What's App. But now that one has, there are others, and there will doubtless be more. Like happy-slappy copycatism bred filmed-on-phone beatings, there will be happy slappers applying further blows to a reputation that can barely go much lower.

The surprise about the Magalluf video is that there should be any surprise that one of that variety has found its way into the public domain. Technology being as it is, goings-on of this sort having been as common for so many years as they have, it was all but inevitable that one day the public would know and would be able to join in with the voyeurism. So inevitable that it might have been predicted.

You cannot plan for every eventuality. It is ridiculous to suggest that you can. But there are means of damage prevention, when you know all too well the potential sources of damage: the sources that have been goings-on for years and about which nothing has been done. Blame the bar-crawl organisers all that you will, but they are merely the product of historical inaction, of a failure to prevent damage. This failure has finally caught up with Magalluf. Technology has exposed the failure to prevent the damage; its Carnage, if you like. This technology will not go away. If more damage is not to be caused, then the sources of technology's appetite for recording, filming and broadcasting have to be made to go away.

The responses from officialdom to the video, those of outrage and of investigations, will include no admissions of failings, both past and present, no apologies for the abrogations of responsibility by different bodies; the town hall is by no means the only one. Yet, the warning signs were so clearly there. From the broadcast media to informal social media there has been a short but predictable step, one that is more graphic and salacious than the established media, but one that has pandered to the prurient appetite of this media and also of the internet user. When the BBC's Stacey Dooley documentary featured a similar scene, among its various other negative images, the reaction was to condemn the BBC. Even someone like Pepe Tirado of Acotur, a critic of so much that is wrong in Magalluf, leapt to the defence of Magalluf and echoed the condemnation. It may have been Magalluf, but it was our Magalluf, our Mallorcan Magalluf. No one else's. And certainly not one for a foreign broadcaster to be poking its nose into.

But of course it isn't a Mallorcan Magalluf. It is everyone's. And technology makes it so. There may have been some naïvité surrounding the BBC documentary, but there is absolutely no place for naïvité in networked society; social media can wreak havoc, can cause carnage.

The damage is done, but more damage has to now be prevented, and its sources - all of them - eliminated. 

Just A Game Of Futbol: McDonald's in Australia

The football World Cup is almost upon us. Advertising by official sponsors of the tournament has already arrived, and not everyone is happy with it. McDonald's, presumably in the absence of any Brazilian restaurants, is the official restaurant of the tournament. To mark this involvement, the burger giant is taking the radical step of temporarily dispensing with its usual french-fries dispenser. New designs will take the place of the traditional box and will come with a mobile app game, to boot.

This dramatic departure from tradition is all about communicating with Millennials, says McDonald's senior director of global marketing. This is a generation which loves art, unique customisation and McDonald's french fries. Does it really. The senior executive vice-president global chief brand officer of McDonald's (which is a hell of  a long job title) says that it's all about "bringing fun, innovative programming to our customers and celebrating our shared love of futbol".

Whatever you say, Misters senior director of global marketing and senior executive vice-president global chief brand officer, but wait one moment. What is it that we all have a shared love of? Football? No, futbol. That's what it says in the quote I have lifted from adage.com. Spain has come to dominate world football, and it would now appear that the Spanish language has taken over and turned football into futbol. Or maybe it only has done in McDonald's-land. (There should, some of you might appreciate, be an accent over the u, but let's not get too pedantic.)

But hang on another moment, does the non-appearance of the accent, if only in the adage.com article, imply something more political? The word is identical in Catalan except for one important difference. There is no accent. Well, well. Its absence almost certainly doesn't imply anything political, but in these linguistically-fraught and correct times, one can't be too careful. Just as one can't be too careful about the type of image one wishes to portray in an advert. Which brings me to the spot of unhappiness.

Down under in Australia, McDonald's, in good Aussie tradition of giving any name some matey version, is known as Macca, which is not to confuse it with a one-time bass player from Liverpool who, in the dim distant past, was once any good. And Macca, as it states on its Aussie website, is "kicking off with an exciting line-up that'll be sure to score goals with your tastebuds". Kicking off the World Cup, that is, with a quite lamentable string of football clichés. Sorry, futbol clichés.

Macca has a series of TV ads. They are to promote World Cup specials for different countries. There are only a few countries for which there is a Macca special - Bosnia-Herzegovina, for example, doesn't appear to merit one - but of the few countries, the Spanish entry has caused a bit of a fuss. It's that cliché thing again, this time as in clichéd national stereotyping.

The ad is for the Spain Brekkie Wrap, a delicious-looking item that features sausage, scrambled egg and ketchup. It is only fifteen seconds long, but the ad manages to pack in as many clichés as are possible in such a short period of time. In the ad there are two what one guesses are futbol commentators. Commentator one announces the delicious contents before breaking into "olé, olé, olé" and inspiring commentator two, till then sour-faced and bearing a striking resemblance to Saddam Hussein with a matador's hat on, to become animated, stick a rose in his mouth and mime the playing of a flamenco guitar.

While one might conclude that the ad's crime is in being rotten as opposed to being offensive, commentators who have posted on McDonald's España Facebook page are in no doubt that it is both rotten and offensive. "Is anyone going to do something about it? Can we sink any lower?" "Are you not ashamed? Spain, its culture, people and products deserve respect." "The advert is demeaning to Spanish and Hispanic culture. Then there's the sandwich. Two shitty sausages masquerading as chorizos with scrambled egg without seasoning. This is a Spanish sandwich?" "The advert is a disgrace. It ridicules us."

At least one poster points out that the ad is not intended for broadcast in Spain and so says that it is not offensive just ignorant. But his is the only comment with a moderate opinion among the others. The strength of these opinions, not that they are likely to have any impact, do serve to remind us all, including McDonald's, that we live in a joined-up world. What's good for Australia is not good for Spain, and moreover, the Spanish are going to find out and have done.

The World Cup, the global game, the global media of social networks. If only it were just a game of futbol.

Tramuntana Is Number One

You can't or shouldn't take Trip Advisor at its word. Not for its rankings lists certainly. "Best restaurants" in a given a resort are often laughable. They become best not because they are but because someone has been clever in driving reviews. But sometimes these rankings do bear some semblance of a connection with reality. What is the number one attraction in Mallorca out of 221? If you guessed Pirates you would be wrong. It's number two, says Trip Advisor. At number one, and it is really quite heartening to find it at number one, is the Tramuntana mountain range.

The consortium which promotes the mountains and which was tasked with doing so following the declaration of the Tramuntana as a World Heritage Site has launched a website. About time, too, you might think. The declaration was made in 2011. Very little in promotional terms seems to have happened since. Better late than never, though.

The website is reasonable enough, and so it should be at a cost of 21 grand. It has a good amount of information and the English section, for once, seems to have actually been written in English and not passed through a Google Translate mangle or been Spanglished by a non-native speaker. It's reasonable in the worthy-but-dull sense of reasonable. Plenty of information, plenty of pictures, but no multimedia, interactivity or social media. This would probably cost too much.

Thanks to the press announcement of the site's launch, I knew of its existence and so went in search of it. I entered "Serra Tramuntana", and it was there in Google, though it might be confused with another website with the .eu suffix. The official one is .net. The first thing that occurred to me, though, was whether an English search would get to the site so easily. Its title is Catalan - Serra de Tramuntana - so would "Tramuntana mountains" work? They do. Very well. That's a big plus.

It was when checking that this English search was satisfactory that I noticed the fifth entry on the Google page. It was for the Serra de Tramuntana in Trip Advisor. Five of five stars, the abstract said, and on going into Trip Advisor, I found there were indeed five of five stars. Out of 196 reviews, 163 rated as excellent and 32 as very good. Not a hint of criticism, unless one considers a not-for-fainthearted warning for the route (by car) as being a criticism (which it isn't).

It is mightily reassuring and just a little surprising to find the Tramuntana at number one. It is reassuring in different ways. One very much doubts that someone is hard at it getting visitors to post positive reviews. They are, one has to presume, absolutely genuine and totally unsolicited. As such, it is an example of how one might hope that Trip Advisor would normally work but doesn't. There's nothing wrong at all in positive reviews being solicited - it's good business to do so because Trip Advisor is very powerful - but this can result in something of a credibility issue. We're back to some of those so-called "best restaurants".

A second way in which there is reassurance lies with the fact that the mountains are a natural attraction. Obviously they are. But the term attraction - in tourism circles - tends to mean something which isn't natural. We can all name some of them, and I would do, but to do so might imply a criticism when none is intended. It is the, shall we say, artificial attractions and the association that is made with them as "attractions" which makes the number-one position of the Tramuntana that much more surprising. Trip Advisor is hardly scientific, but occasionally it can be quite revealing, and this is one occasion. For all that Mallorca has its commercial tourist attractions, one that isn't commercial on account of it simply being there and that is ranked number one should tell a story. Mallorca's natural heritage is clearly appreciated and perhaps more so than might be thought.

The mountains can be enjoyed at any time of the year. I know how popular the excursion during the summer season is. As part of the island tour, it is probably the single most popular excursion that the island has to offer. But clearly, the mountains don't have to be enjoyed only during the summer season, and so one comes back, almost inevitably, to the theme of off-season tourism.

The hope with the World Heritage Site declaration was that this would lead to inroads being made into the absent off-season tourism through the promotion of the Tramuntana. With the website, at least there is some tangible evidence of this promotion, and with the Trip Advisor number-one ranking, there is evidence also of how impressed visitors are with the mountains.

Sometimes when number-one rankings are given, the relevant business or authority makes a point of saying so. Is anyone saying anything about the Tramuntana? This brings one back to the website. Because it seems to have neglected social media, there is no link to Trip Advisor and certainly no announcement of the ranking. A trick is being missed. Promotion isn't simply a case of spending twenty thousand euros on a website. One would have hoped that this would have been realised by now. Tramuntana. Number one on Trip Advisor.

* The web address is http://www.serradetramuntana.net

The Day Of The Millennial: Future tourism

Baby boomers, Generation X, now Millennials, marketing and social researchers love to categorise generations. They have certain attitudes, aspirations, lifestyles and values (both moral and financial). They become niches but in fact giant niches of global proportions, entire movements in terms of how they think and behave.

David Burstein is 24. He is the author of "Fast Future: How the Millennial Generation is Shaping Our World". Note his age. He is a Millennial. He is part of a generation which is giving a completely new meaning to the club of 18-30. The Millennials.

Mark Zuckerberg, a co-founder of Facebook, was born in 1984. He is at the upper-age limit, therefore, of the Millennial generation, and he, along with some who aren't Millennials, e.g. those who founded Twitter, has been a major influence in shaping the Millennial generation and so in shaping "our world". The Millennials are taking over. They will take over. They will be the most important generation, more so than the baby boomers. Millennial thinking will change the world forever.

Burstein, in a presentation for TEDxNYU (Technology, Entertainment, Design at New York University), compared the arrival of the Millennial generation and the primarily technological elements that are influencing it with the breakthrough at the start of the last century, one that saw the development of the automobile, the airplane and the harnessing of electricity help to bring about a greater democratisation of society and cultural change. The Millennial generation represents a time of fundamental shift, similar to that at the start of the last century, not just in terms of the use of technology and the pace of technological change but also in terms of what Burstein calls "social software"; how people interact and how this shift is affecting businesses and political systems as well as society. 

Certain characteristics of the Millennials are well understood. It is the generation which has totally embraced web and mobile technologies. It is totally connected online and through the smartphone. It shares, it apps, it is driven by technologies and innovations, such as that which Mark Zuckerberg unleashed on the world. But as with any generation, its characteristics are only really understood if practicalities are understood, and one of these is the impact on tourism.

It almost goes without saying that technology is important to the Millennial tourist. For this reason, and as part of what is now an ongoing debate within the Mallorcan and Spanish tourism industry, offers such as free wifi become essential and no longer a nice little extra. Both before and during their travels, Millennials make extensive use of social media. It is what his or her peer group says and posts and recommends which influences and guides his or her decisions. No player in the tourist industry can any longer afford to ignore social media, but unfortunately many still do or pay it too little attention.

Burstein has offered various thoughts as to how the Millennial tourist behaves. He or she looks to travel for the experience. He or she isn't necessarily attracted by ostentatious luxury. He or she customises the holiday, thus making the package less relevant. And to Burstein's thoughts can be added those from consultants (BCG - Boston Consulting Group) who say that the Millennial tends to book travel on a more last-minute basis than other generations and that, in five to ten years time, the Millennial will have become the dominant demographic in terms of travel spending.

This is all of course a tremendous generalisation, and there is one ingredient which appears to be missing: what happens when the Millennials start having families, and how will this affect their travel and holidaying behaviour? But I'm not inclined to dismiss Burstein's or BCG's ideas. Quite the contrary. As a student of Mallorca's tourism history, I can see a parallel with what Burstein says of the quantum leap at the start of the last century with what happened to Mallorca's tourism. It started, in that a framework was established to exploit and to understand what at that time was not understandable and highly uncertain. It took a long time for potential to be realised but Mallorca, in 1905, was right at the forefront of looking to the future.

If there is indeed to be a fundamental shift, then it is advisable that everyone gets their heads around what it might mean. Seeing the future, especially one that will develop as rapidly as it will because of technological advances, is far from easy. But, as with my vision of the Mallorcan "super all-inclusive", connected by technology which branches out of the current confines of a hotel complex and forms a mini-resort in its own right, it is time for there to be a serious debate as to the shape of Mallorca's tourism over the next twenty years.

Unbelievable Remedies: Magalluf

Incidents centred on Magalluf's Punta Ballena have decreased considerably. Thus spake a newspaper report of 15 August. "Great evils" require "grand remedies", it was said. These great evils were implied rather than defined and they were hyperbole; the committing of great evils in modern-day Mallorca is a rare occurrence.

But never let it be said that exaggerated words cannot exaggerate situations. This is why there is such a thing as exaggeration. Its purpose is distortion or disproportion. From great evils do grand or great remedies come. The greater the evil, the grander the remedy and so therefore the greater the rejoicing at deliverance from evil.

The grand remedies (equally disproportionate insofar as there can be such a thing as an equal measure of disproportion) can be counted. Counted on fewer than the total number of fingers on both hands. Take away the thumbs and you have the numerical value of the remedies. Eight. Eight local police officers. The magnificent seven plus one. Incidents have decreased considerably.

It would be nice to believe that Punta Ballena has been or is being delivered from evil. Or evils. Nice to believe, but there are plenty of unbelievers. Decreased considerably? Depends. The report's evils were related to the great drunken unwashed. The lesser of evils in that remedies are less grand. They don't have to be super-grand where youthful tourists who are off their faces are concerned. It is, nevertheless, reasonable to ask why the not so grand remedy of a few more cops to tackle the lagering, Jägerbombing, shot-shooting, laughing-gassing invasion force took as long as it did to occur to anyone. Not, or so it would seem, that the eight make a great deal of difference. Despite what the considerable-decrease report suggests to the contrary.

Four days before this report, Javier Pierotti posted again on his "Magaluf Caos" blog. His video with this post was as troubling as the one he had originally posted of a driver trapped by a mob along the strip. It would take far too long to summarise what Javier said in his entry for 11 August, but if you go to the bottom of it, you will see that, in addition to Calvia town hall, he has sent his complaint to television and other media organisations in Spain as well as to the Spanish Government, the Interior Ministry, police agencies, the regional government in the Balearics, the courts in Palma, the Attorney-General, the British Consulate and the Complaints Office of the European Community.

Four days later came the report in the local press. Not about Javier's complaint but about incidents having decreased considerably, a considerable decrease that appears at variance with what is being said by those who aren't in positions of authority. The considerable-decrease report, moreover, did not mention the problems of prostitutes, looky-looky men and violence. There are plenty of people who have mentioned them. Before and since the report of 15 August. Are these the greater evils; greater because they go un-decreased?

Javier Pierotti does not seek to attach blame to the local police. Others do. It is wise that I don't repeat some of the things said on social media, but from what is said, there is clear frustration and anger in Magalluf. The police are one target for this discontent but the greater one is the body politic, in particular that which, to paraphrase some of the sentiments, lies inert in a bunker in Calvia.

What happens in Mallorca stays in Mallorca. It's a ridiculous saying because nothing can stay in Mallorca any longer. The reactions to Stacey Dooley (and to "Bild" on Playa de Palma) were absurd for various reasons, one of which was that they neglected the fact that conventional media are only one part of the story. Through social media, nothing stays in Mallorca. Regular on-the-spot reports by those who have not taken the media shilling and who have no axe to grind other than that they have had it with all the problems are constantly reinforced and added to: hourly, daily, weekly. They too can be prone to exaggeration or distortion. They can be and often are far more accusatory than conventional media. There may be exaggerations, but why would people who work and live in Magalluf invent things? They stand to lose, which is why they draw attention to what they see as inertia and indifference. And why when, four days after Javier Pierotti* posted that he had notified who he had notified, the report of incidents decreasing considerably was greeted with disbelief.


* http://javierpierotti.blogspot.com.es/2013/08/magaluf-caos-ii.html

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Things Go Better With Coke: Spain's marketing

Spain has a strong association with Coca-Cola. So strong that it has been claimed that the drink was a Spanish invention. The great-great uncle of Juanjo Mica, of the town of Ayelo, was the inventor, says Juanjo. He took his syrup to the US in 1884, won a prize at a fair, and so was born Coke. It's a nice story, but it is, alas for Juanjo and for Spain, just one of many competing stories as to the originator of the secret recipe. The usual one involves John Pemberton of Atlanta.

A more definite association is one that was announced a few days ago. Coca-Cola is to advise Turespaña, the national tourism promotion agency, on a grand marketing plan to promote the Spanish tourist brand. When the news of this first became public, it was all over Twitter, complaints being made that Turespaña had not entered an open bidding process for such advice. The tweeting complainants had nothing to complain about. Coca-Cola, a company widely regarded as having one of the best marketing organisations in the world as well as one of the world's strongest and most recognisable brands, had offered to advise Turespaña for free.

I guess there is no such thing as a free can of Coke, but on the face of it, this is hugely positive news and is made more positive by the fact that, rather than engage some consultancy firm which would expect to be paid a small fortune and which might deal in the more theoretical, here is a company which deals squarely with the practical and has been doing so for years. There are few companies in the world better equipped to advise on marketing.

To be critical, one could argue that Turespaña, whose reason for being is to market Spain as a tourist destination, should be capable of doing this without advice. But apart from it being foolish to look a marketing gift horse in the mouth, it is also foolish not to tap into knowledge and to recognise that there may be others who can improve what is already being done. I applaud Turespaña for their humility.

Why have Coca-Cola made this offer? The company, so says the director of Turespaña's institute of tourism, Manuel Butler, wants to help the Spanish economy. Altruistic consultancy, it would appear. The cynic might suggest that Coca-Cola would be bound to be interested in helping the economy in order to boost sales. Maybe so, but there would be nothing wrong with it wishing this; the arrangement sounds like it's win-win.

Coca-Cola is, though, currently engaged in a charm offensive, one sparked by accusations that it contributes to the problem of childhood obesity. Coke is just one sugary drink that is going to be banned in New York from restaurants, cinemas and stadiums, and the company is now airing adverts in the US, designed to raise awareness of the need for exercise to combat the calories in all sorts of food and drink. Childhood obesity in Spain has become a matter of increasing concern, so there may be some public relations mileage to be gained by Coca-Cola, but this doesn't appear to have played much part, if any, in the formulation of the arrangement.

The announcement of Coca-Cola's involvement coincided with a preview of Turespaña's grand marketing plan at the Fitur trade fair. Based on preliminary work that included over 18,500 interviews in 17 countries, the plan has six key objectives, such as the geographical diversification of the markets which send tourists to Spain. Coca-Cola, a global brand, knows all about different markets, but where the company may be of particular value is in developing the use of social media. Coca-Cola, as with other forms of marketing, is a world leader in understanding how to harness the power of social media.

Julián Villanueva, associate professor of marketing at the IESE Business School, has written a case study of Coca-Cola Spain's use of social media. The case study is one which, among other things, enables a greater understanding of the cultural mindset of social media, of measuring the effectiveness of social media investment and of the need to evolve brands as part of the dynamic nature of social media communications.

My guess would be that it is the use of social media that is at the heart of the association with Turespaña. I have been critical of the way in which social networks have been used until now (not least by Balearics tourism agencies), and so having access to a leader in their application makes great sense. Things with Spain's tourism marketing are about to go very much better.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Sharing Your Dinner: Food and social media

Some New York restaurants are banning diners from taking photos of plates of food and from using flash photography. Among the reasons for instituting this ban are the distractions caused to other diners from flashes and the fact that the photos may not do justice to the chef's grand creations. The assumption with the latter is that the photos will, within a flash of flash, be plastered over social media: "foodstagramming" with Instagram.

There are other reasons why a diner should be less than rapid in whipping out the phone and snapping away. The diner who, for example, insists on getting up from the table and framing the shot is likely to look like a complete berk, but is there a wider issue we need to consider? That berkdom has taken hold on a universal scale. Why is there such a need to take photos of every damn thing we encounter?

In social media land, photomania is all part of a newly discovered human trait of sharing. It is sharing of the remote variety, not just because of the mode of communication but also because it doesn't involve sharing anything of any value. Sharing, caring social networkers will happily share a photo of a plate of steak and chips, but what else would they share? How about their home? Their wife? Their oxen? Or their neighbour's oxen? Or their well-endowed bank account? Social networking is sharing-lite, sharing that assuages conscience for otherwise not sharing, sharing for the typically and normally selfish, which is quite understandable. I mean, I'm not about to share my bank account with anyone else, even if it were well-endowed.

Social media have tapped into the latent, dormant human characteristic of displaying sociability via sharing. They are a get-out clause for the hoggish and offer a hands-off amelioration for selfishness, but by the same token they are equatable to other definitions of selfishness - egotism and narcissism. Or just plain and simple showing-off and braggadocio. Which brings us to food.

"Oh look, here I am in a Michelin-starred restaurant and this is the plate of minimalist, vastly overpriced, nouveau nosh that has set me back 70 quid." Even such self-deprecation cannot disguise the fact of the Michelin-starred restaurant. I'm here; you're not. Lol. Of course, it would be unlikely that the caring, sharing foodstagrammer would stoop to self-deprecation, because this would undermine one of the principal reasons for foodstagramming. The showing-off.

Not all of it is. Some of it is even justifiable, though to be honest, I can't think of a terribly good justification, other, I suppose, than it possibly being good publicity for the restaurant. But if it is good publicity, and not all restaurant owners are as against photography as some in New York, then how about they give a discount on the bill? Why should I, you or anyone potentially increase a restaurant's custom without getting something by way of return?

There is, though, the other side of all this foodstagramming. The downside side. "Oh look, here I am in Restaurant X with this pile of shit that they reckon is going to cost me 20 quid. They can reckon it, but I ain't paying. Would you?" Cue comments such as "no bloody fear" plus several recommendations and curious likes of the unliked. Oh, and some sharing.

And what of the potential for malevolence? The strategically placed dog turd next to the sausage, for instance. "If you don't give me a free meal, this goes straight to Trip Advisor, sucker." This would be an extreme case, I'd grant you, but there are those who might well contemplate scraping up the remains of Fido's dinner from the street and placing it by the rasher of bacon.

Scams that tourists try on in Mallorca's restaurants and bars are legendary. There really ought to be a manual that the tourism ministry compiles and hands out to all owners, just in case they haven't fallen foul of one of the many. And now, foodstagramming can be added to the manual. For every genuinely altruistic sharer of pork wrapped in cabbage, for every egotistical, five-starrer sharer with a serving of gold-encrusted lobster with hoopoe vomit sauce infused with nitroglycerin, there will be the snidey, pikey bill-non-payer who comes into an establishment with a bag of tricks with which to pull a trick and impregnate a potato with it.

Sharing? Don't just ban photos in bars and restaurants. Ban the phones.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Love Croatia: More Mallorcan marketing failure

ABTA's decision to not stage its annual convention in Mallorca next year is surprising insofar as the intention to return two years after the emergency relocation to Mallorca in 2011 had been signalled at last year's convention. But, and lest anyone forgets this, there are plenty of other destinations that ABTA can choose from, just as there are plenty of other destinations that tourists can choose from.

From a personal point of view, the decision is disappointing. While there are plenty who look upon an ABTA gathering as one big photo opportunity, it is - for those who can be bothered - an occasion to learn about what is happening in the world of travel and specifically about what is at the cutting edge.

Tourism and travel are nothing without good marketing. While most within the travel industry would understand this, a perception persists that marketing equals something specific - the glossy approach, the magazine, the expensive advert, the hyperbole of a clichéd article or brochure description. This is the glamour part of a supposedly glamour industry. There is a place for glamour, unquestionably there is, but there is also marketing which is as important if not more so - it is the geeky, nerdish part: the systems, the operations, the technology.

Last year's convention was dominated by technology: by the use of social media, apps, voice recognition, search facilities, you name it. For the technology savvy or the gadget freak, it was convention heaven. For the technology indifferent or technology sceptic, it was hell on Mallorcan earth.

When it comes to technology, there are those who get it and those who don't. As a consequence, prejudices and assumptions are created depending upon which of the technology poles one is connected to: the positive or the negative. The result is that tourism marketing is either technology-driven and little else or it is technology passive, if that. The truth, of course, lies somewhere between the two poles.

One example of this is the use of mobile apps. At one extreme, there is a view which suggests that apps are the only game in tourism marketing town; at the other, there is no view - apps may as well be invisible. Neither view is correct. All the technologies that have sprung up in recent years have created a sub-category of one of the 4Ps of marketing; promotion has its own marketing mix of a multitude of media, none of which can be neglected.

But many of these media, if not neglected, are nevertheless treated less than well. Moreover, a lack of appreciation as to what these different media can do creates a marketing disadvantage, and it is not as if this appreciation needs to be marketing rocket science.

Take Facebook. ABTA is going to stage its convention in Croatia next year. It is one of the destinations that is a key competitor for Mallorca (some would say its biggest). As a simple experiment, I typed "Croatia Facebook" into Google and then typed in "Mallorca Facebook" and "Majorca Facebook". Try it yourselves if you want, but if not let me tell you that the first Google entry for Croatia led to a "Love Croatia" Facebook page; 788,634 likes for the "official" Facebook page of Croatia. The Mallorca ones? The results offer absolutely nothing similar; they are fragmented and inconsequential, and fragmented is unfortunately a synonym for Mallorcan tourism marketing.

Four Pillars, the UK hotel group, has just issued the results of a survey into the use of social media. This found, among other things, that 52% of Facebook users said that friends' photos had inspired their holiday choice. It also found, and so confirming previous research which has pointed to the diminishing importance of established media, that 92% "trusted" recommendations above all other forms of advertising (only 47% "trust" TV, magazine or newspaper ads). 

This survey emphasises the importance of Facebook and of review sites such as Trip Advisor. These social media have supplanted conventional websites and established print and broadcast media as the main means of travel and tourism communication. It's the reality. There can be no scepticism any longer. Yet in Mallorca, there is a lousy and outmoded web presence provided by tourism authorities (and others) who should know better by now. There is an absence of an official and coherent use of social media and an apparent absence of anyone directing tourism marketing who appears to appreciate them.

ABTA knows all about technology and all about the importance of media technologies for today's tourism. It has decided to give Mallorca a miss next year. But in preferring Croatia, there may be more to the decision than it simply being a case of Buggins's turn. 788,634 people can't be wrong.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Open Systems: Town halls' e-government

With some fanfare, Alcúdia town hall has launched a separate website, described as one of the most advanced in Spain and designed to bring the town hall administration closer to the people. It is a system to show current and past activities and procedures engaged in by the town hall and to allow for certain bits of bureaucracy to be conducted online, such as registering change of address and requesting reservations of the public way (e.g. for specific events, one presumes).

At a cost of 330,000 euros, the system is bound to raise some questions as to whether it is a wise spend in these economically tough times, but it is confirmation that Alcúdia is wanting to be closer to the people (its words) and to be more open, as evidenced previously by an in-depth study of the town hall's financial situation over the past few years. 

For all this, being a system that is one of the most advanced in Spain doesn't say a great deal about how well town halls engage with their citizens. I would like to be able to explain more about what the system is, but unfortunately, and despite the system having been announced to the local media, it isn't working (or wasn't yesterday). The impression, though, is that it is no more than might be considered normal communication practice by a local authority.

Transparency, accountability and openness form the accepted mantra by which local authorities should operate. A common accusation levelled at Mallorca's local authorities is that their affairs aren't transparent, while a further one charges the public service as a whole with having been slow to embrace modern technologies in order that day-to-day matters can be performed via the internet.

The perception, however, is probably some way short of the truth. There have been notable advances by Mallorca's public authorities in making the internet a means of making people's lives easier, but when it comes to openness in revealing financial affairs the accusation is more valid.

An assumption might be made that local authorities here have dragged their heels in being more transparent and being more up-to-date in the way that they communicate information. But in supposedly more open Britain, it isn't necessarily the case that local councils are that brilliant at exposing their financial affairs to public scrutiny, despite demands having been placed on them by the substantial figure of Eric Pickles, the local government secretary.

The financial requirements to provide good "e-government" in the form of online information systems for the citizenship can be a constraint, both in Britain and in Spain, and Alcúdia's system highlights the sort of cost that is required. Culturally, it is probably fair to say that the Spanish mentality veers towards a lack of transparency, while it is also fair to say that local authorities have often had good (and less than legitimate) reasons to keep their affairs under wraps, but such lack of openness is not universal. The organisation Transparency International has conducted a survey of provincial governments across Spain and a few have extremely high levels of openness. The Council of Mallorca isn't one of them but it does manage to score more than a 50% threshold of transparency, considered the minimum to qualify as being transparent, but it only just manages to exceed 50% in being ranked sixteenth out of 45 administrations.

Culture, as much as funding wherewithal, is the key to more open local government in Mallorca together with the political will to be more open. National government hopes to introduce greater transparency at all levels of government through a new law, but it has been criticised for being half-hearted. The political will, therefore, is more one that is shown at specific local levels, and in Alcúdia it does appear to exist.

Mostly all town hall politicians are well aware of the need for greater transparency, and many of them have placed themselves more in the firing-line by being on Facebook and other social networks. A good case in point as to how social media can swiftly change a town hall decision was that of the secretarial appointment of Nora Tugores by Pollensa's mayor Tomeu Cifre; opposition politicians went into immediate overdrive on Facebook in attacking the appointment, and it was revoked within a matter of days.

The social media, therefore, are playing an important role in creating a cultural shift towards an appreciation of openness by town halls in Mallorca. Indeed, it might not be an exaggeration to suggest that social media are and will be instrumental in limiting the potential for less than acceptable behaviour by local politicians.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Make Mine An Estrella

What a video. If you haven't seen the Estrella Damm commercial, then why haven't you? Get on YouTube now, and watch it. It is the best promotional video since Thomson's brilliant "Time For A Holiday" ad for this summer was launched last year, and the Estrella one was shot on Mallorca, unlike Thomson's.

I say promotional video, but it isn't a promotional video for Mallorca. Not officially at any rate. It is a promotion for Estrella Damm beer. I don't know what sort of impact these commercials have on Estrella sales (the commercials are now an annual and much anticipated event), but if nothing else, an immense amount of gratitude should be extended to the Catalonian brewery; the 2012 video does more in terms of Mallorcan promotion than any advert that has ever been the product of governmental control.

Remember the cheesy Nadal-on-a-boat thing? The soundtrack which sounded like it was by The Corrs? Predictable and unimaginative it was. The Estrella video isn't. It tells a story and manages simultaneously to capture all manner of facets of Mallorca that are not confined to its locations (in and around Banyalbufar, it would appear).

The Nadal thing was a total and utter waste of money, a video created in the misguided belief that celebrity sells, when it doesn't. What does sell is emotion, and Estrella's video, like Thomson's, has this by the bucket-load, not sentimentally as was the case with the Thomson ad, but more subliminally. It is charming and a creative work of art of which Estrella, and its agency, should be extremely proud.

While Estrella will anticipate a boost to beer sales, the video is about far more than selling. Estrella has caused something of a sensation with its annual ads. The anticipation of their release matches the anticipation of where they are to be shot and what they will be about. When it was known that Estrella would be coming to Mallorca to shoot this year's video, there was a huge buzz, and the buzz that surrounds the videos extends all the way across the social media spectrum. Estrella goes viral via Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.

For Estrella Damm, it is primarily about image and brand awareness and brand enhancement. The video is not solely youthful but mainly it is. The brewery has been astute in cultivating a hip image, one that can be clearly seen on its website. Here, there are examples of bold bottle design and of associations with youth culture and music - Lana Del Ray, Dizzee Rascal, The Chemical Brothers, they all find their way into the Estrella orbit, along with, for an older market, the Human League and Roxy Music. Posters for music events, such as that staged at the old brewery in 2010 and which featured Belle and Sebastian, are retro in a style reminiscent of the 1930s; the one for the 2010 event looks as though a giant young woman has replaced King Kong.

It is very, very clever marketing, and its cleverness, innovation, image creation, brand enhancement, use of internet and social media contrasts massively with the staid approach of official Mallorcan and Balearic promotion. Tired, uninspiring websites, an apparent indifference to social media, a lack of innovation. Amidst all the debate about what should be promoted about Mallorca, e.g. for boosting winter tourism, it is all too easy to forget about how it should be promoted. Instead of the introspective and formulaic approach that is normally adopted, a leaf out of the Estrella book should be taken.

Estrella's advertising campaign is apparently costing 2.5 million euros, and its advert is to be aired for the first time in the UK this year (I'm not sure if it is the whole video or a cut-down version or whether it might just be for cinemas). This isn't a huge amount, but it's rather more than the Balearic Government has at its disposal. Yet, if a similar buzz could be created by an advert that is official promotion for Mallorca, the costs of production and advertising would all be worthwhile. The Estrella video is not just an advert, it is an event; this is the cleverness of it, a cleverness that has eluded those responsible for official tourism promotions.

Still, the Balearic Government will doubtless be grateful to Estrella for doing its job for them. Maybe in fact the video is an example of tourism privatisation. And why not? That there are some beer bottles being handed around, well fine. Beer is drunk on holiday, it is very much part of a holiday. Let Estrella do Mallorca's advertising for it, and one thing's for sure, it would do an altogether more effective job than has been the case up to now.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

The Pressure Of Tourism Recommendation

Another day, another barometer. The barometer used to be a contraption hanging on the wall in your great aunt's house that was intended to measure something to do with weather. Next to it would hang a piece of old seaweed, and consulting a combination of the two would lead to the conclusion that it was about to snow or to be 80 degrees (in old money). It was a de rigueur wall adornment for great aunts' houses, a device employed not solely as a means of weather forecasting but as a guide to the daily arthritis bulletin and as a way of keeping small children quiet while they stood and stared at the damn thing in the hope that its gauge might move.

The barometer has been updated for the modern marketing era. It is now what used to be called a survey. And in keeping with modern times, the barometer has gone European. The European Commission's "Eurobarometer" not only has 27 member-state points on its changing-conditions compass it also has those for wannabe EU members, for couldn't-care-less, not-about-to-be EU members (Norway) and for members that have no chance of being members as they are not European (Israel).

The thirty-four member and non-member states have been surveyed - sorry, barometered - as to what their people think about tourism. The Commission does this each year, which is good of them, and no one of course takes any notice of the results. Oddly though, the 2012 barometer might just demand slightly more attention than usual.

Most of it is almost totally pointless, as in, for example, the discovery that 48% of respondents the length and breadth of the European Union and other parts of Europe as well as parts that aren't Europe go on holiday for rest and recreation. Well, not entirely pointless, as what are the other 52% doing?

You will be able to amaze your friends with the knowledge, as I am being good enough to tell you, that the Czechs, with a huge 65% of the vote, come in at number one in saying that natural features, including weather, would make them revisit the same holiday destination. This is a full 7% lead over the Dutch in second place. Coming in tailed off in this category are the people of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. A lousy 24% rated natural features, which makes one wonder what would entice a Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonian to go on holiday anywhere. Or perhaps they mistook the Eurobarometer question for the Eurovision Song Contest and gave the answer as "Serbia".

Reassuring for Spain and therefore Mallorca among all this barometering is that Spain is the most visited country. And given that the Brits are so important to the local tourism industry, it might be noted the UK is Eurobarometer champion in the quality of accommodation as a reason for revisiting a destination category. 48% of Brits are happy with accommodation, while the Estonians are the least happy, a miserly 12%.

Where the Eurobarometer does get interesting, and trust me that it does, is the bit about how holidaymakers come to make decisions about where to go on holiday and what influences this decision. What do you think? A TV ad perhaps? A magazine article? Both do, but to nothing like the degree that you might think. The most important influence is personal recommendation. 52% of respondents are swayed by the views of friends, colleagues or relatives. A mere 7% are influenced by either a TV ad or by something in a magazine or guidebook.

If this isn't a persuasive case for the power of word of mouth over other forms of promotion, it would be hard to know what it is. And it is the combination of word of mouth and technology that makes for a powerful means of tourism selling. We're back of course to social media and to how they are defined.

40% of respondents also say that an internet site influenced them. Of this 40%, you can be pretty sure that Trip Advisor or something similar was one of these sites. It differs from the obvious social media, but Trip Advisor is very much a part of broader social marketing via the internet or mobiles. And its recommendations are from those who travellers don't know personally (as are its recommendations to avoid a destination).

The conclusion from this is clear. Forget the expensive TV ads. When it comes to tourism promotion, harness the power of word of mouth and the media which enable it. This is the barometer of the change in how holidays are chosen. And it is a change across the whole of Europe.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Conversations With Tourists: Social media

At the end of January last year in an article entitled "The Importance Of Being Erstwhile", I wrote about the resignation of Mar Guerrero, the then director of the Balearics Tourism Agency. Guerrero was greatly respected and her stock rose on account of her having done something most odd - resigning because, in her words (or at least an approximate translation thereof), she didn't wish to pull the wool over people's eyes. A point of principle. You don't get much of that in Mallorcan public life.

When suggestions are made that tourism ministers should be tourism professionals, they overlook the fact that those charged with truly implementing tourism strategies are professionals. Some of them are even quite good or very good. Guerrero was one of the latter. Her departure came as no great surprise, as the job wasn't quite as it said on the tin, but it was a departure that the former government and former tourism minister Joana Barceló could have ill-afforded.

There is no point in now dwelling on the past, but the present and immediate future are far less rosy in tourism promotion terms than they were when Guerrero felt it necessary to resign over how funds were being allocated. At least there were funds then. Now they have all but dried up.

It is against this background of promotional parsimony that what Guerrero had to say in a recent interview** should be considered carefully. Talking of the need for a reinvention of Mallorcan tourism, she was very clear as to one aspect of such a reinvention - the mode of marketing.

If one takes a quote from this interview, you will begin to appreciate where she is coming from. "Every day you could find ways of interacting with your target (market). A website is not now sufficient for being competitive." She was talking about the role of evolving technologies in tourism promotion. It was music to the ears. Mine at any rate. I have made similar points many times.

Social media have created the possibility to maintain a regular conversation with customers - tourists in this instance. This is a conversation in which the customer (and indeed others) are participants in the marketing process. Tourists are not marketed to so much as they are marketing with those who provide the social media. The thinking is totally different, but the thinking, promotionally and technologically in Mallorca, is largely stuck in the dark ages. Stuck in the past with websites stuck up that are essentially uninteresting, not interactive, passive and passé.

Sure, there is information to be derived, but that's not the point. Conversations through social media go way beyond the merely informative. They engage with tourists, they involve them, they show respect to them by making them a part of the promotional process. These conversations break down the "them-and-us" barriers of traditional marketing.

Not everyone is of course a Facebook, Twitter or other social media user. But neither is everyone surfing the internet or watching a telly ad. The reach may be lower, but it is a reach that is arguably far more valuable because of the bonding that occurs through social media. There is an inherently greater trust to the relationship, and it is one that can have a hard-edged commercial element to it; ways of up-selling and cross-selling, in addition to initial selling, are very much flavour of the moment among various actors in the tourism industry. And social media can be one of these ways.

The potential power of social media makes it even more inexplicable to understand why somewhere like Llucmajor, abandoning its tourism board, has also seemingly allowed its Facebook page to fall into abeyance. The point needs to be reiterated. It is not expensive to operate social media, even if it is necessary to engage those with a whole range of linguistic skills.

But an apparent inability to appreciate the role of new technologies in tourism promotion stems, one suspects, from the contrariness of social media's sexiness. They are sexy in that they are of the now, but they are not sexy in the same way as a telly ad with a celeb is. The dark-ages marketing mindset in Mallorca has been one founded on the egos of those in positions of authority who can sense some stardust being rubbed off by rubbing shoulders with a Nadal or a Schiffer and spending a fortune on advertising of questionable effectiveness.

The reinvention of Mallorca is not just a case of what is offered, it is how it is offered. To this end, all levels of the tourism industry should have social media strategies. And if they haven't, they should get them pretty damn quick.

** The full interview: Diario de Mallorca


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.