Mallorca has some pretty serious brands. To Marriott and Hilton are being added Hyatt and Virgin. What do these have in common? Apart from all being in the hotel business (which will be the case with Virgin), they are all foreign. Moreover, they are global brands. Their recognition takes them around the world.
The strength of a brand doesn't happen by accident. It isn't solely an achievement of clever marketers. There has to be considerable substance for a brand to be imbued with the consumer confidence and trust that stem from this recognition. And this substance is created by doing things well and innovatively: even the comparatively small things. Take Marriott, for example. With its acquisition of Starwood, it is poised to become the world's largest hotel concern. A giant of the travel and tourism industry, I can recall how - many years ago now - Marriott was pioneering the use of what would nowadays be referred to as to the exploitation of Big Data. Its innovation in data capture was such that it created personalised attention. The collection of client preferences was stored and then shaped into what would be presented to the client on his or her next stay.
Such detail, such service is what goes towards the establishment of the attributes that mark a great brand out from others. Too often, or so it can appear, it is the visuals of the brand that are believed to suffice. They do not; it is what lies behind the hotel facades, logos and advertising messages that matter.
Virgin is a very different case. It is a peculiar organisation in that it appears to be a vast conglomerate chewing away at more or less every available sector going. And yet its style has always been essentially decentralised. It is more like a franchise system, unified under a brand name that carries with it values that inspire confidence, rather than one massive and faceless entity.
To no small extent, the Virgin brand is an abstraction from the attributes assigned to its founder, but it would not have succeeded in the way that it has if these were all that it relied upon, and a clue to that success might be found in one word that Richard Branson has uttered in respect of ambitions for the Son Bunyola hotel: "best".
It might seem simplistic, but an aspiration for being the "best" is what impels businesses to seek and to attain brand superiority. The whole structure is designed with being the best or the best possible. And with this being-the-best come the ultimate aims of branding - customer loyalty and trust as well as profit, recognition and/or market leadership.
For all the success of Mallorca's home-grown, global hotel companies, none of them possess the same brand powers as a Marriott, a Hyatt, a Hilton or a Virgin. Up to a point, this is a question of scale. Meliá, as an example, may be big but it is dwarfed by others. But it, as with other Mallorcan hotel companies, were slow to appreciate the benefits of strong branding. This isn't just me saying so, they've all pretty much admitted as such.
As they play catch-up, and none better than Meliá, what might this mean for Mallorca? Superior brands of ever greater recognition, they should, they will have a rub-off effect on the island. But to what degree might these major hotel chains create a type of de facto brand for Mallorca? One that is cast in their collective image, this collective being a combination of the home-grown, leading hotel chains and the foreign ones, to which other names and brands - from the Middle and Far East - will follow.
Gabriel Escarrer of Meliá has spoken of the need for Mallorca and the Balearics to become an "elite" destination. This is one in which the global, "best" brands will succeed, but is it this process of re-branding that inspires so much resentment among some politicians and, so it would seem, the public at large? When Alberto Jarabo of Podemos opined that the hoteliers act against the best interests of Mallorca, a staggering 80%-plus agreed with him (according to one survey).
The politics of current tourism harbour philosophies opposed to fundamentals of strong branding. For Podemos, "sun and beach" is obsolete, when it is Mallorca's primary brand attribute. The tourist tax does nothing for loyalty developed over decades. Neither of these envisages a strategic vision of Mallorca as "best", only Mallorca as defined by specific political interests. The hoteliers, meanwhile, disconnected from this political process, follow their branding initiatives which ultimately make the island secondary: it is the brand and the loyalty to it which matters and not the destination.
Who will step up and argue for brand Mallorca? Perhaps no one, because while such tensions exist, there can never be a unified brand. Someone should talk to Branson.
Showing posts with label Sun and beach. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sun and beach. Show all posts
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Saturday, December 21, 2013
Urban Myth: Palma as an urban tourism destination
IPK International is a tourism consulting group. In keeping with other consultancies, it publishes various reports. One of these is the "ITB World Travel Trends Report 2013/2014", which has been produced in advance of the ITB Berlin travel and tourism fair in March next year, and a key finding of the report has to do with urban tourism, which has grown four times more quickly than sun and beach tourism since 2009 - up by 47%, if you want to know.
At the turn of the millennium, the European Commission produced a report of its own on the same theme. Entitled "Towards Quality Urban Tourism", the report took 15 case studies of European cities in promoting a concept called integrated quality management for urban tourist destinations. This IQM concept was and is a familiar enough box of tools to anyone with some knowledge of the principles of quality management that have been knocking around corporations since the late 1970s.
One of the 15 case studies was Malaga. It was the one Spanish city included in the report. In May this year, there was yet another report, one produced by Exceltur, the Spanish alliance for touristic excellence. "UrbanTUR 2012" was a "monitor of touristic competitiveness of Spanish urban destinations". Malaga was ranked sixth out of the 20 destinations which were considered. In October, figures from the Spanish national statistics office revealed that in the first nine months of this year Malaga had been the Spanish city which had enjoyed the highest increase in the level of urban tourism - up by 6%.
Malaga isn't particularly special in how it has applied quality principles to its tourism. It, as with many other cities and indeed quite small towns in Spain, follows quality principles known as SICTED, an "integrated system of touristic quality in destination". Palma does as well, and so indeed do smaller places like Alcúdia. But Malaga had been, as noted in the European Commission's report of 2000, one of the first movers in establishing a comprehensive plan of action for its tourism. Though only sixth in the UrbanTUR rankings, it has some serious hitters ahead of it - Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Seville and San Sebastian. Behind it, though, are the likes of Santiago de Compostela, Granada and Bilbao.
Of the twenty cities in those UrbanTUR rankings, Palma wasn't one of them. It didn't qualify for inclusion because it was impossible to separate values derived from sun and beach tourism, i.e. that of Playa de Palma. The report's organisers are looking at developing a methodology which will enable values of Palma's urban tourism alone to be calculated, but for the meantime, in official rankings, Palma doesn't feature as an urban tourism destination.
Yet, Malaga has sun and beach tourism as well. So too does Barcelona. What is it, therefore, which permits their inclusion as an urban tourism destination and not Palma's? Perhaps it is because sun and beach is that much more important, relatively speaking, to Palma than to these other cities. Or perhaps it is a matter of perception - that of visitors and of the city's authorities.
Malaga, despite its having beaches, has far more of a reputation and therefore perception as a city than as a beach destination. Its tourism is, as a consequence, much more clearly of an urban nature and more focused on this. It has certain obvious claims to fame and selling points to attract the urban tourist; it is, for example, the birthplace of Picasso. Cities like Madrid, Santiago, Granada are all obviously urban tourist destinations and all have strong attractions. Barcelona, even with its beaches, is known as an urban destination, famed for Gaudi and all that.
Palma, on the other hand, is far less recognisable as an urban tourism destination. Playa de Palma is one reason why it isn't. Another, though, is that it doesn't have the strength of attraction of, say, a Barcelona or even a Malaga. If you disagree with this statement, then ask yourself a question: what is it about Palma that is in any way unique or that makes it stand out as an urban tourism destination?
Destination duality - that of urban and sun and beach - should, in theory, be an advantage. The best of both worlds can be had. But maybe it is in fact a drawback, because there is an unevenness between the two. One dominates the other. In Palma, which of the two dominates? In tourist perception terms and perhaps also in the perception of people of Palma itself, it is sun and beach.
The growth in urban tourism that the ITB report has referred to, helped by, among other things, an increase in the popularity of short city breaks and business and conference tourism, suggests that Palma is on the right lines in the way it is now being promoted as an all-year destination. But the city does face a big challenge. It is the one of perception, and as such, Palma's ambitions for non-sun and beach tourism are a metaphor for Mallorca as a whole. The perception of the island is one of sun and beach and not the rest. And as for this rest, the ITB report has something else to say: rural and nature tourism has slumped by 10%.
At the turn of the millennium, the European Commission produced a report of its own on the same theme. Entitled "Towards Quality Urban Tourism", the report took 15 case studies of European cities in promoting a concept called integrated quality management for urban tourist destinations. This IQM concept was and is a familiar enough box of tools to anyone with some knowledge of the principles of quality management that have been knocking around corporations since the late 1970s.
One of the 15 case studies was Malaga. It was the one Spanish city included in the report. In May this year, there was yet another report, one produced by Exceltur, the Spanish alliance for touristic excellence. "UrbanTUR 2012" was a "monitor of touristic competitiveness of Spanish urban destinations". Malaga was ranked sixth out of the 20 destinations which were considered. In October, figures from the Spanish national statistics office revealed that in the first nine months of this year Malaga had been the Spanish city which had enjoyed the highest increase in the level of urban tourism - up by 6%.
Malaga isn't particularly special in how it has applied quality principles to its tourism. It, as with many other cities and indeed quite small towns in Spain, follows quality principles known as SICTED, an "integrated system of touristic quality in destination". Palma does as well, and so indeed do smaller places like Alcúdia. But Malaga had been, as noted in the European Commission's report of 2000, one of the first movers in establishing a comprehensive plan of action for its tourism. Though only sixth in the UrbanTUR rankings, it has some serious hitters ahead of it - Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia, Seville and San Sebastian. Behind it, though, are the likes of Santiago de Compostela, Granada and Bilbao.
Of the twenty cities in those UrbanTUR rankings, Palma wasn't one of them. It didn't qualify for inclusion because it was impossible to separate values derived from sun and beach tourism, i.e. that of Playa de Palma. The report's organisers are looking at developing a methodology which will enable values of Palma's urban tourism alone to be calculated, but for the meantime, in official rankings, Palma doesn't feature as an urban tourism destination.
Yet, Malaga has sun and beach tourism as well. So too does Barcelona. What is it, therefore, which permits their inclusion as an urban tourism destination and not Palma's? Perhaps it is because sun and beach is that much more important, relatively speaking, to Palma than to these other cities. Or perhaps it is a matter of perception - that of visitors and of the city's authorities.
Malaga, despite its having beaches, has far more of a reputation and therefore perception as a city than as a beach destination. Its tourism is, as a consequence, much more clearly of an urban nature and more focused on this. It has certain obvious claims to fame and selling points to attract the urban tourist; it is, for example, the birthplace of Picasso. Cities like Madrid, Santiago, Granada are all obviously urban tourist destinations and all have strong attractions. Barcelona, even with its beaches, is known as an urban destination, famed for Gaudi and all that.
Palma, on the other hand, is far less recognisable as an urban tourism destination. Playa de Palma is one reason why it isn't. Another, though, is that it doesn't have the strength of attraction of, say, a Barcelona or even a Malaga. If you disagree with this statement, then ask yourself a question: what is it about Palma that is in any way unique or that makes it stand out as an urban tourism destination?
Destination duality - that of urban and sun and beach - should, in theory, be an advantage. The best of both worlds can be had. But maybe it is in fact a drawback, because there is an unevenness between the two. One dominates the other. In Palma, which of the two dominates? In tourist perception terms and perhaps also in the perception of people of Palma itself, it is sun and beach.
The growth in urban tourism that the ITB report has referred to, helped by, among other things, an increase in the popularity of short city breaks and business and conference tourism, suggests that Palma is on the right lines in the way it is now being promoted as an all-year destination. But the city does face a big challenge. It is the one of perception, and as such, Palma's ambitions for non-sun and beach tourism are a metaphor for Mallorca as a whole. The perception of the island is one of sun and beach and not the rest. And as for this rest, the ITB report has something else to say: rural and nature tourism has slumped by 10%.
Monday, October 08, 2012
One Day, There Really Won't Be Autumn
Autumn is a strange season in Mallorca. Officially it exists but also doesn't exist. Meteorologically it is a reality, but for tourism it isn't. The tourism summer endures until the end of October, and then winter starts. There is nothing in between and nothing in between winter and summer. Mallorca, a land with no autumn and no spring.
Autumn can't be ignored though. Its evidence is all around and in particular in the way that its weather wraps around you. Its heat is discomforting and disorientating, a vaporous clamminess like a giant pink-paraffin heater. It rises from the dampness of the heavy dews, clings to the early-morning mists hanging over the wetlands and is suspended and static unless winds chase it away. This oily radiator warmth mixes with the watery atmosphere and gives birth to seasonal nuisances - the mosquitoes and the flies; always the flies, the scourge of autumn, only seconds away from invading your legs, hands, ears or nose, the moment you settle down on a terrace.
The heat is still sufficient for the beach, yet this is where the disorientation lies, along with a guilt factor. Should one really be going to the beach now that it is October? Isn't the beach something for July and August? How does one cope with autumn's heat as it doesn't feel quite right to cope with it in the same way as in summer?
The tourists don't struggle with this quandary. They carry on with bare flesh intent regardless, beach bound and unaware of a Mallorcan tradition that once the temperature dips below thirty it is time to get the cardy out of the wardrobe (where it will have been going musty over summer and so needs several washes and applications of apple-fragrance conditioner to restore it to wearing order). Otherwise, the most noticeable change in tourist behaviour and demeanour is the proliferation of ageing knobbly knees and backpacks, along with the incessant sound of Nordic Walking poles clunking against tarmac.
The October should-you-go-to-the-beach, shouldn't-you-go-to-the-beach dilemma is going to be resolved over the next few years. Well, it may take more than a few, but some time in the future the Mallorcan summer will encroach into winter. Hotels will not need to close at the end of October, flights will continue long into November, bars will stay open and no one will know how to cope with employment contracts that never normally extend beyond 31 October (if the employee is lucky).
Climate change is going to change the Mallorcan late season, so much so that the number of days that it will be possible, without any sense of disorientation or guilt, for one to be able to enjoy the beach and the sun in autumn will have doubled from around 30 at present to at least 60. I hadn't been aware that an official number of days that one can enjoy sun and beach in autumn had ever been calculated, but thanks to the meteorology department at the Universitat de les Illes Balears, I now do. And it is this department which says the autumn sun and beach days are set to increase by 100%. There won't be an autumn at all, it would seem.
If this is the case, the sooner a doubling occurs the better. If the Mallorcan summer also does a backwards encroachment into a Mallorcan winter, i.e. into March and April, as well as its forwards one at the end of the season, then there will be eight or nine months of season. Brilliant.
Unfortunately, we can't just immediately forget about having to arrange winter in Mallorca programmes and having to complain about lack of flights and lack of hotels being open. The meteorology people say it will be 2094 before 30 days become 60 days.
So, for the time being, we are left with what we have. Hotels starting to close, restaurants starting to close, newspaper and whitewash being gathered to cover windows and terrace glass doors, seasonal employees waving their goodbyes and bidding tearful farewells, the summer's workforce putting their documents together and trooping off to the dole office in the probably forlorn pursuit of some benefit, the piling up of wood, the worry that benign autumn weather will suddenly go pear-shaped and rip roofs off, and the dilemmas - beach or not, duvet or not, long trousers or not.
Autumn is a strange season and a strange time, but one of its least strange aspects is the consequence of the weather, bedding, and clothing dilemmas and of being too slow in responding to chillier evenings and mornings. Colds. And thanks very much, autumn, my sore throat is now coming along nicely.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Autumn can't be ignored though. Its evidence is all around and in particular in the way that its weather wraps around you. Its heat is discomforting and disorientating, a vaporous clamminess like a giant pink-paraffin heater. It rises from the dampness of the heavy dews, clings to the early-morning mists hanging over the wetlands and is suspended and static unless winds chase it away. This oily radiator warmth mixes with the watery atmosphere and gives birth to seasonal nuisances - the mosquitoes and the flies; always the flies, the scourge of autumn, only seconds away from invading your legs, hands, ears or nose, the moment you settle down on a terrace.
The heat is still sufficient for the beach, yet this is where the disorientation lies, along with a guilt factor. Should one really be going to the beach now that it is October? Isn't the beach something for July and August? How does one cope with autumn's heat as it doesn't feel quite right to cope with it in the same way as in summer?
The tourists don't struggle with this quandary. They carry on with bare flesh intent regardless, beach bound and unaware of a Mallorcan tradition that once the temperature dips below thirty it is time to get the cardy out of the wardrobe (where it will have been going musty over summer and so needs several washes and applications of apple-fragrance conditioner to restore it to wearing order). Otherwise, the most noticeable change in tourist behaviour and demeanour is the proliferation of ageing knobbly knees and backpacks, along with the incessant sound of Nordic Walking poles clunking against tarmac.
The October should-you-go-to-the-beach, shouldn't-you-go-to-the-beach dilemma is going to be resolved over the next few years. Well, it may take more than a few, but some time in the future the Mallorcan summer will encroach into winter. Hotels will not need to close at the end of October, flights will continue long into November, bars will stay open and no one will know how to cope with employment contracts that never normally extend beyond 31 October (if the employee is lucky).
Climate change is going to change the Mallorcan late season, so much so that the number of days that it will be possible, without any sense of disorientation or guilt, for one to be able to enjoy the beach and the sun in autumn will have doubled from around 30 at present to at least 60. I hadn't been aware that an official number of days that one can enjoy sun and beach in autumn had ever been calculated, but thanks to the meteorology department at the Universitat de les Illes Balears, I now do. And it is this department which says the autumn sun and beach days are set to increase by 100%. There won't be an autumn at all, it would seem.
If this is the case, the sooner a doubling occurs the better. If the Mallorcan summer also does a backwards encroachment into a Mallorcan winter, i.e. into March and April, as well as its forwards one at the end of the season, then there will be eight or nine months of season. Brilliant.
Unfortunately, we can't just immediately forget about having to arrange winter in Mallorca programmes and having to complain about lack of flights and lack of hotels being open. The meteorology people say it will be 2094 before 30 days become 60 days.
So, for the time being, we are left with what we have. Hotels starting to close, restaurants starting to close, newspaper and whitewash being gathered to cover windows and terrace glass doors, seasonal employees waving their goodbyes and bidding tearful farewells, the summer's workforce putting their documents together and trooping off to the dole office in the probably forlorn pursuit of some benefit, the piling up of wood, the worry that benign autumn weather will suddenly go pear-shaped and rip roofs off, and the dilemmas - beach or not, duvet or not, long trousers or not.
Autumn is a strange season and a strange time, but one of its least strange aspects is the consequence of the weather, bedding, and clothing dilemmas and of being too slow in responding to chillier evenings and mornings. Colds. And thanks very much, autumn, my sore throat is now coming along nicely.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, June 05, 2011
Rubbish Weather
"It has gone beyond the joke stage to one where it is now a bit serious. The fifth weekend in succession that has been washed out."
"This is getting to be a nightmare. This morning, another storm, another deluge. No end in sight."
"And so, after all the rubbish weather comes the hot stuff."
These are quotes from what I wrote on 9 June, 11 June and 23 June, 2008. The weather had been awful for most of May and for three weeks into June. It can happen.
And when it happens, there are always the questions raised as to what the hell anyone can do to pass the time. Even if you can find something, it doesn't compensate. There is nothing more miserable than being on holiday, in a place where the sun is always meant to shine, and the sun does anything but.
"Sun and beach." "Sol y playa." What Mallorca built its reputation on. Not on rain and no beach. When the weather is as naff as it can be, there are other inevitabilities, in addition to the questions as to what can be done. One such is that people feel sorry for tourists who have to put up with the lousy weather, an experience made worse if they happen to listen into Test Match Special and hear Aggers describing a perfect and warm summer's afternoon at Lord's and the sound of leather on willow.
It is this feeling sorry, however, that is the lie to another inevitability, that of "ah, but it's still better than being in England". No, it isn't. It is many times worse, and the simple expression of sorrow on behalf of benighted tourists emphasises firstly how much worse it is and how much visitors do only come for one thing. The sun. And for a second thing. The beach.
The fact that there isn't anything to do also emphasises the whole ethos of Mallorca, its whole purpose. Because the weather is not normally naff, there is no real point in creating alternatives to the sun and beach. This, in itself, says all you need to know about how pointless all the talk of "alternative" tourism really is. Get a bad spell of weather, and the whole point of Mallorca goes out of the window, or down a drain, assuming it isn't blocked by sheer volume of water.
And the degree to which visitors, either already arrived or about to, consult every available weather internet site to try and seek some reassurance tells you all you need to know about why they are in Mallorca or on their way. Sun. Sun and beach.
While bad experiences at a hotel can deter a tourist coming to Mallorca again in the future, so also can the weather. One can be controlled, the other can't be. But in truth, there is probably only one month of the year that you can be reasonably certain about. And that's July. Even in July, however, it can misbehave; it did for a while last year. To decide to not come again, because the weather was rubbish, is, therefore, somewhat irrational. You can't predict it. You can consult all you like the previous years' records and they could still steer you in the wrong direction. I could, for example, say that January is one of the best months of the year, because it often is, but then it could turn out to be freezing cold and chucking it down.
There is nothing so certain as the uncertain, and that is the weather.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
"This is getting to be a nightmare. This morning, another storm, another deluge. No end in sight."
"And so, after all the rubbish weather comes the hot stuff."
These are quotes from what I wrote on 9 June, 11 June and 23 June, 2008. The weather had been awful for most of May and for three weeks into June. It can happen.
And when it happens, there are always the questions raised as to what the hell anyone can do to pass the time. Even if you can find something, it doesn't compensate. There is nothing more miserable than being on holiday, in a place where the sun is always meant to shine, and the sun does anything but.
"Sun and beach." "Sol y playa." What Mallorca built its reputation on. Not on rain and no beach. When the weather is as naff as it can be, there are other inevitabilities, in addition to the questions as to what can be done. One such is that people feel sorry for tourists who have to put up with the lousy weather, an experience made worse if they happen to listen into Test Match Special and hear Aggers describing a perfect and warm summer's afternoon at Lord's and the sound of leather on willow.
It is this feeling sorry, however, that is the lie to another inevitability, that of "ah, but it's still better than being in England". No, it isn't. It is many times worse, and the simple expression of sorrow on behalf of benighted tourists emphasises firstly how much worse it is and how much visitors do only come for one thing. The sun. And for a second thing. The beach.
The fact that there isn't anything to do also emphasises the whole ethos of Mallorca, its whole purpose. Because the weather is not normally naff, there is no real point in creating alternatives to the sun and beach. This, in itself, says all you need to know about how pointless all the talk of "alternative" tourism really is. Get a bad spell of weather, and the whole point of Mallorca goes out of the window, or down a drain, assuming it isn't blocked by sheer volume of water.
And the degree to which visitors, either already arrived or about to, consult every available weather internet site to try and seek some reassurance tells you all you need to know about why they are in Mallorca or on their way. Sun. Sun and beach.
While bad experiences at a hotel can deter a tourist coming to Mallorca again in the future, so also can the weather. One can be controlled, the other can't be. But in truth, there is probably only one month of the year that you can be reasonably certain about. And that's July. Even in July, however, it can misbehave; it did for a while last year. To decide to not come again, because the weather was rubbish, is, therefore, somewhat irrational. You can't predict it. You can consult all you like the previous years' records and they could still steer you in the wrong direction. I could, for example, say that January is one of the best months of the year, because it often is, but then it could turn out to be freezing cold and chucking it down.
There is nothing so certain as the uncertain, and that is the weather.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
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