This was a year in which Ikea found itself involved in a Spanish general election, there were arguments over the use of "a" or "e", beaches were targeted by sellers on eBay and beach towels had the attention of environmentalists.
Whatever one might think of Podemos, they know how to do things differently. They "borrowed" the Ikea catalogue for their June election campaign. Prominent members of the party were to be found on a white Vilmar chair (Pablo Iglesias), by a Hemnes desk (Iñigo Errejón), with a PS 2002 watering can (Balearic leader Alberto Jarabo). Each image carried a message from the Podemos manifesto. Ikea stressed that it had nothing whatsoever to do with the campaign, though privately may have felt that it was pretty good promotion.
Toponymy (the study of place names) loomed large on the agenda. While Palma was engrossed (or not) in discussions regarding its name (Palma or Palma de Mallorca), Calvia was considering the rival claims of Paguera and Peguera. Here was a genuine vowel controversy. It had always been Pag, it was said, until the town hall introduced Peg in the 1980s. The current town hall was determined to ensure that Peg it was and will be. Toponymy experts were being consulted. The Peg camp were able to point to the derivation from "pega" for pine sap. The Pag-ists were unimpressed, and they included the hoteliers who were equally determined to use Paguera.
Calvia spent much of the summer informing us how well new ordinance and policing arrangements were going in stamping out crime (mostly petty) and bad behaviour. This was all very well, but the information rarely informed anyone about the most serious issues, such as actions against the so-called prostitutes of Magalluf and Santa Ponsa. Instead, there were stories such as the major success in confiscating 79 coconuts, 24 pineapples and 23 watermelons that had been destined for sale on beaches. In isolation, this was fair enough, but reaction to this success was inevitable: they can seize fruit but they can't do anything about the prostitutes.
Meanwhile, there was outrage when it was discovered that tiny pieces of beach (pebbles and sand) were being flogged on eBay. A German was offering bags containing bits of Sa Calobra beach for 5.90 euros. The regional environment ministry said such "extraction" could not be tolerated, though pointed out that it was a matter for the Costas Authority. There were also packets with Camp de Mar and Sant Elm beaches. The mayor of Andratx said that there would be "investigations".
Outrage was even greater when occupants of superyachts took over, "occupied" and "privatised" a beach on the island of Cabrera. Towels, beds and tents were installed by crew members. It was the equivalent of a "beach club", claimed environmentalists GOB. Action was demanded. Fines had to be issued, but once more the regional ministry suggested it was a matter for the Costas, who were being invited to intervene in other similar "occupations", such as by Russian oligarchs moving in on beaches and employing security personnel to keep the riff-raff away.
Towels were in great abundance on the beach in El Molinar a week or so after Cabrera had been invaded. A Portuguese performance artist by the name of Hugo Israel placed fifteen large towels on the beach and then sat in a chair sunning himself in typical tourist mode as a form of protest against tourist "saturation" and in defence of the island's environment and sustainability that were being harmed by excessive tourism. The stunt attracted a good deal of publicity, but for some, Hugo represented a growing "saturation" of protesters against saturation. And what was a Portuguese doing, staging a protest? Was he not a tourist? Where environmentalists were concerned, however, there were no objections to his "occupation" of the beach.
Back in Calvia they were getting agitated by the return of "Geordie Shore" to film in Magalluf; they having been the town hall, the tourism ministry and local businesses. There was no permission to film in public areas, they shouted, and to so contribute to a programme that would be "harmful to the image of Magalluf, Calvia and Mallorca" at a time when everyone was collaborating on pushing "quality tourism". Well, not quite everyone, as Geordie Shore were able to film in non-public areas, such as a party boat.
While Calvia was defending the good name of Magalluf and media sensation-seekers were finding there was now thin sensationalist gruel to be had in Maga, the authorities in Madrid and Barcelona were being confronted by the problem of hard-core pornography being filmed in the streets. Barcelona insisted that having sex in the streets was prohibited, but Madrid was less explicit (so to speak). Unless tripods were being used for filming, it seemed unable to stop it.
So for once, Magalluf was not sin city. And that was odd in itself.
Showing posts with label Superyachts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Superyachts. Show all posts
Thursday, December 29, 2016
Wednesday, September 07, 2016
The Vandals Of The Sea
There are statements which are made that come back to bite those who make them. In the case of Margarita Dahlberg, the president of the Balearic association of nautical businesses and industries, it bit rather more suddenly than is usually the case. No sooner had she declared, apropos the abundance of superyachts, that "the quality of waters, coves and anchorage in the Balearics is unbeatable" than this quality was in some way responsible for the takeover of a beach by the users of superyachts.
I make no apology for quoting her again - it merits being repeated for the right and the wrong reasons - or for looking at the superyacht issue again. Coming towards the end of what has been a weird summer for Mallorca during which regular tourists have at times appeared to have been excoriated for no better reason than being here, we now have a very different take on the saturation/sustainability theme.
An element of the regular tourist class is lambasted for essentially not having any class. Or a great deal of money, if any. This class without quality, variously characterised as drunk and/or with no interest beyond the confines of a low-grade all-inclusive, needs eradicating. Not my words; those of politicians. By eliminating inferior hotels, the class without quality will disappear. This is the logic of the argument, albeit one could challenge the logic.
The superyacht brings with it a totally different class of tourist. Loaded, it splashes out on hiring a yacht and rampages through Palma stores buying everything in sight. Joy is unconfined. This is quality tourism par excellence. More, please.
Just as the lower end of the tourist food chain does not deserve to be castigated as a whole and branded as being without quality, so the upper end does not merit being styled as being filthy rich and not giving a monkey's. But both lower and upper share something in common. Within their ranks they have some vandalistic and anti-social tendencies, but the lower end will not share with its upper counterpart the vandalism at sea: it can't afford a yacht.
The nautical industry, or more accurately nautical tourism, does a great deal of good, but it harbours within its midst those elements who show a total lack of regard for their environment: not land, except where certain beaches are concerned, but sea and what is unseen that lies on the seabed.
It would be nice to believe that recreational users of the sea - and commercial providers of recreational use - would be highly responsible. One would hope that those based here, who live here would understand the need for responsibility and what possible damage that can be caused; one hopes, though the practice might not always follow. Increasingly, there are measures to help marine conservation. The reserves are a positive development. They have assisted with bringing about a more controlled environment for diving and fishing, while the latest government legislation should with any luck deter party boats from entering reserves.
But whatever is done, there are those who thumb their noses or who are simply plain ignorant. Among them might be included pirate charter operators or those boat owners whose lack of responsibility leads to rubbish being tossed into the sea.
The reserves are important for the posidonia sea grass, but they can't all be policed effectively and nor can other waters. Posidonia is all around the Balearics. It can't all be spared the unthinking intervention of man and in particular man's anchors. It is here we come back to Margarita Dahlberg's potentially unfortunate words. One of the greatest acts of marine vandalism is that caused by anchors. They rip the sea grass away. It dies. Or if it recovers, this can take years.
The enormous sea grass meadow between Ibiza and Formentera that was discovered some ten years ago is said to be the largest "living" organism in the world. It could have been there for at least one hundred millennia. Within three years, researchers were suggesting that parts of this meadow had been reduced by almost a half. No one is currently sure of its status.
The principal culprit is the anchor. With superyachts an anchor can weigh getting up to a quarter of a ton, and then there are the chains. There are great numbers of vessels operating between Ibiza and Formentera, just as there are in other parts of the Balearics. Not all are of course superyachts, but lighter anchors can and do also cause harm.
Here's a different saturation and an aspect of quality tourism, vandalising the marine environment. The killing of sea grass is not some environmentalist's scare-mongering, and with the loss goes the posidonia's mitigating effects on CO2 and its role in protecting the coasts from erosion. This brand of quality tourism is contributing to an unseen environmental disaster. Where's sustainability when you need it?
I make no apology for quoting her again - it merits being repeated for the right and the wrong reasons - or for looking at the superyacht issue again. Coming towards the end of what has been a weird summer for Mallorca during which regular tourists have at times appeared to have been excoriated for no better reason than being here, we now have a very different take on the saturation/sustainability theme.
An element of the regular tourist class is lambasted for essentially not having any class. Or a great deal of money, if any. This class without quality, variously characterised as drunk and/or with no interest beyond the confines of a low-grade all-inclusive, needs eradicating. Not my words; those of politicians. By eliminating inferior hotels, the class without quality will disappear. This is the logic of the argument, albeit one could challenge the logic.
The superyacht brings with it a totally different class of tourist. Loaded, it splashes out on hiring a yacht and rampages through Palma stores buying everything in sight. Joy is unconfined. This is quality tourism par excellence. More, please.
Just as the lower end of the tourist food chain does not deserve to be castigated as a whole and branded as being without quality, so the upper end does not merit being styled as being filthy rich and not giving a monkey's. But both lower and upper share something in common. Within their ranks they have some vandalistic and anti-social tendencies, but the lower end will not share with its upper counterpart the vandalism at sea: it can't afford a yacht.
The nautical industry, or more accurately nautical tourism, does a great deal of good, but it harbours within its midst those elements who show a total lack of regard for their environment: not land, except where certain beaches are concerned, but sea and what is unseen that lies on the seabed.
It would be nice to believe that recreational users of the sea - and commercial providers of recreational use - would be highly responsible. One would hope that those based here, who live here would understand the need for responsibility and what possible damage that can be caused; one hopes, though the practice might not always follow. Increasingly, there are measures to help marine conservation. The reserves are a positive development. They have assisted with bringing about a more controlled environment for diving and fishing, while the latest government legislation should with any luck deter party boats from entering reserves.
But whatever is done, there are those who thumb their noses or who are simply plain ignorant. Among them might be included pirate charter operators or those boat owners whose lack of responsibility leads to rubbish being tossed into the sea.
The reserves are important for the posidonia sea grass, but they can't all be policed effectively and nor can other waters. Posidonia is all around the Balearics. It can't all be spared the unthinking intervention of man and in particular man's anchors. It is here we come back to Margarita Dahlberg's potentially unfortunate words. One of the greatest acts of marine vandalism is that caused by anchors. They rip the sea grass away. It dies. Or if it recovers, this can take years.
The enormous sea grass meadow between Ibiza and Formentera that was discovered some ten years ago is said to be the largest "living" organism in the world. It could have been there for at least one hundred millennia. Within three years, researchers were suggesting that parts of this meadow had been reduced by almost a half. No one is currently sure of its status.
The principal culprit is the anchor. With superyachts an anchor can weigh getting up to a quarter of a ton, and then there are the chains. There are great numbers of vessels operating between Ibiza and Formentera, just as there are in other parts of the Balearics. Not all are of course superyachts, but lighter anchors can and do also cause harm.
Here's a different saturation and an aspect of quality tourism, vandalising the marine environment. The killing of sea grass is not some environmentalist's scare-mongering, and with the loss goes the posidonia's mitigating effects on CO2 and its role in protecting the coasts from erosion. This brand of quality tourism is contributing to an unseen environmental disaster. Where's sustainability when you need it?
Wednesday, August 31, 2016
Throwing Sand: Invasion Of The Superyachts
"Arrogant ostentation of the super-rich." "These people think they rule the world." "Louts, go home."
The first two of these quotes were words spoken by local people. The third was a slogan on a banner. They didn't come from Mallorca but from Sardinia. They were expressed eight years ago. I had quoted them then under a piece entitled "Careful What You Wish For".
Mallorca has and has had a reputation for being what cliché and convention require calling a millionaire's playground. However, the noughts now need amending: billionaire rather than mere millionaire. For the latter, and even for those who have failed to acquire six noughts to their names, comparatively modest displays of wealth can be found bobbing up and down on Balearic waters at any time during summer. And why not. Here is a bedrock market for the nautical industry. Here is aspiration afloat. There's nothing wrong with it. Mostly, it's all good, save perhaps for the odd sea-grass meadow that is ripped by an anchor or for the garbage that is nonchalantly tossed overboard.
This bedrock market is not in the same stratosphere as the super league. The quotes from eight years ago are echoing. Will there be a barrage of wet sand hurled in the general direction of the super league's exclusive membership? There was in Sardinia. Locals took aim at Flavio Briatore and the dinghies which were disgorging his entourage. Beach invasion Italian style. Now it's beach invasion Mallorcan style. Flavio is not among the invaders, but just as in Sardinia there are the Russians. And there are others, such as Hamdan bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, fourth son of the founder of the United Arab Emirates. He and the up to sixty invited ones have been occupying 142 metres of sea. To put that into context, it is two-thirds the maximum length of cruise ship that Alcudia's port can accommodate. Modest it is not.
Photos of the "privatisation" of a beach in Cabrera have stirred up some outrage. Among those who have taken issue is the bio-outraged director general for biodiversity, Caterina Amengual. The agents of the environment ministry will be pressing for sanctions. Even if they can in fact be applied, they may as well save themselves the cost of administering the sanctions' process. It would probably equate to more than the slightly less than one thousand euros that could be charged. When you're hiring a superyacht for 65 grand a day, this would hardly represent a deterrent.
The usual suspects have been mobilised. GOB says that there can be no repeat of the "beach club" of Cabrera being mounted elsewhere (or even in Cabrera once more). Eco-nationalists Més are demanding that competences of the national Costas Authority are directly devolved in order to prevent similar "privatisation". And then what? Increase the fines to around two grand?
While the poor everyday tourist - and he or she is in penury compared with the superyachting fraternity - is slagged off for having the audacity for saturating the island (mainly Palma), here is this brigade of invaders who are held in thrall (both they and the floating palacetes) by an element of Mallorcan society which delights at its obscene ostentation and at its purchasing capacity; one that allows it to hoover up the contents of emporia along the Born and Jaume III and still have some spare change to hand over for a beachside luxury villa replete with helipad and Olympic-sized pool.
But should these invaders be the recipients of opprobrium? In the case of the odd Russian oligarch taking over beach space and employing goons to keep the riff-raff away (are they tooled up, do you suppose?), then most definitely yes. In general, however, they are a consequence of being careless in what is wished for. There may indeed be wealth to be distributed and all-year jobs to be had - not to be sniffed at, it should be said - but this is the extreme end of the search for the Holy Grail of quality tourism. It is a mainly anti-social class utterly divorced from mainstream Mallorca but one perhaps inadvertently coveted by the island's left-wing. The political left (and right, it should be pointed out) sees virtue only in "quality" tourists, thus excluding a common, working element that might be deemed more characteristic of socialist principles.
What about the everyday Mallorcan? Bombarded with a news diet of touristic saturation, he or she now has to contend with images of a Balinese poolside having been deposited on a beach in the protected nature park of Cabrera. He or she could be forgiven for believing that the island(s) are being irretrievably lost to foreign empires that are on the one hand all-inclusive and on the other all-exclusive. Might there be a barrage of wet sand? Bet they'd fine them more than a grand if there was.
Index for August 2016
Cala San Vicente - 21 August 2016
Education failings in Mallorca - 10 August 2016
Holi colour festivals - 19 August 2016
Holiday compensation claims - 24 August 2016
Holiday rentals' legislation - 13 August 2016
Innovation and technology in Mallorca - 26 August 2016
José Hila in Palma - 5 August 2016
Low Cost Travel Group - 6 August 2016
Low-quality tourism and accommodation - 2 August 2016, 12 August 2016
Mallorca nationalism - 18 August 2016
Mallorca plain and Lloret - 7 August 2016
Mariano Rajoy and government - 22 August 2016, 30 August 2016
Més, Emaya and Palma - 14 August 2016
Moors and Christians, Pollensa - 1 August 2016
Partido Popular and language - 16 August 2016
Plaça Espanya - 9 August 2016
Police corruption and politicians - 25 August 2016, 29 August 2016
Royal family in Mallorca - 8 August 2016
Sant Joan and the seven sins demons - 28 August 2016
Sant Roc - 15 August 2016
Shopping centres - 4 August 2016
Sineu's Much fiesta - 11 August 2016
Superyachts and use of beaches - 31 August 2016
Sustainable tourism awards - 23 August 2016
Tourism sustainability - 27 August 2016
Tourist satisfaction - 3 August 2016
Tourist saturation / overcrowding - 17 August 2016, 20 August 2016
The first two of these quotes were words spoken by local people. The third was a slogan on a banner. They didn't come from Mallorca but from Sardinia. They were expressed eight years ago. I had quoted them then under a piece entitled "Careful What You Wish For".
Mallorca has and has had a reputation for being what cliché and convention require calling a millionaire's playground. However, the noughts now need amending: billionaire rather than mere millionaire. For the latter, and even for those who have failed to acquire six noughts to their names, comparatively modest displays of wealth can be found bobbing up and down on Balearic waters at any time during summer. And why not. Here is a bedrock market for the nautical industry. Here is aspiration afloat. There's nothing wrong with it. Mostly, it's all good, save perhaps for the odd sea-grass meadow that is ripped by an anchor or for the garbage that is nonchalantly tossed overboard.
This bedrock market is not in the same stratosphere as the super league. The quotes from eight years ago are echoing. Will there be a barrage of wet sand hurled in the general direction of the super league's exclusive membership? There was in Sardinia. Locals took aim at Flavio Briatore and the dinghies which were disgorging his entourage. Beach invasion Italian style. Now it's beach invasion Mallorcan style. Flavio is not among the invaders, but just as in Sardinia there are the Russians. And there are others, such as Hamdan bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, fourth son of the founder of the United Arab Emirates. He and the up to sixty invited ones have been occupying 142 metres of sea. To put that into context, it is two-thirds the maximum length of cruise ship that Alcudia's port can accommodate. Modest it is not.
Photos of the "privatisation" of a beach in Cabrera have stirred up some outrage. Among those who have taken issue is the bio-outraged director general for biodiversity, Caterina Amengual. The agents of the environment ministry will be pressing for sanctions. Even if they can in fact be applied, they may as well save themselves the cost of administering the sanctions' process. It would probably equate to more than the slightly less than one thousand euros that could be charged. When you're hiring a superyacht for 65 grand a day, this would hardly represent a deterrent.
The usual suspects have been mobilised. GOB says that there can be no repeat of the "beach club" of Cabrera being mounted elsewhere (or even in Cabrera once more). Eco-nationalists Més are demanding that competences of the national Costas Authority are directly devolved in order to prevent similar "privatisation". And then what? Increase the fines to around two grand?
While the poor everyday tourist - and he or she is in penury compared with the superyachting fraternity - is slagged off for having the audacity for saturating the island (mainly Palma), here is this brigade of invaders who are held in thrall (both they and the floating palacetes) by an element of Mallorcan society which delights at its obscene ostentation and at its purchasing capacity; one that allows it to hoover up the contents of emporia along the Born and Jaume III and still have some spare change to hand over for a beachside luxury villa replete with helipad and Olympic-sized pool.
But should these invaders be the recipients of opprobrium? In the case of the odd Russian oligarch taking over beach space and employing goons to keep the riff-raff away (are they tooled up, do you suppose?), then most definitely yes. In general, however, they are a consequence of being careless in what is wished for. There may indeed be wealth to be distributed and all-year jobs to be had - not to be sniffed at, it should be said - but this is the extreme end of the search for the Holy Grail of quality tourism. It is a mainly anti-social class utterly divorced from mainstream Mallorca but one perhaps inadvertently coveted by the island's left-wing. The political left (and right, it should be pointed out) sees virtue only in "quality" tourists, thus excluding a common, working element that might be deemed more characteristic of socialist principles.
What about the everyday Mallorcan? Bombarded with a news diet of touristic saturation, he or she now has to contend with images of a Balinese poolside having been deposited on a beach in the protected nature park of Cabrera. He or she could be forgiven for believing that the island(s) are being irretrievably lost to foreign empires that are on the one hand all-inclusive and on the other all-exclusive. Might there be a barrage of wet sand? Bet they'd fine them more than a grand if there was.
Index for August 2016
Cala San Vicente - 21 August 2016
Education failings in Mallorca - 10 August 2016
Holi colour festivals - 19 August 2016
Holiday compensation claims - 24 August 2016
Holiday rentals' legislation - 13 August 2016
Innovation and technology in Mallorca - 26 August 2016
José Hila in Palma - 5 August 2016
Low Cost Travel Group - 6 August 2016
Low-quality tourism and accommodation - 2 August 2016, 12 August 2016
Mallorca nationalism - 18 August 2016
Mallorca plain and Lloret - 7 August 2016
Mariano Rajoy and government - 22 August 2016, 30 August 2016
Més, Emaya and Palma - 14 August 2016
Moors and Christians, Pollensa - 1 August 2016
Partido Popular and language - 16 August 2016
Plaça Espanya - 9 August 2016
Police corruption and politicians - 25 August 2016, 29 August 2016
Royal family in Mallorca - 8 August 2016
Sant Joan and the seven sins demons - 28 August 2016
Sant Roc - 15 August 2016
Shopping centres - 4 August 2016
Sineu's Much fiesta - 11 August 2016
Superyachts and use of beaches - 31 August 2016
Sustainable tourism awards - 23 August 2016
Tourism sustainability - 27 August 2016
Tourist satisfaction - 3 August 2016
Tourist saturation / overcrowding - 17 August 2016, 20 August 2016
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