Your Own Personal Sunbed

"Vorsprung durch Technik, as they say in Germany." Geoffrey Palmer's droll delivery told the story of the Schmitz, the Reinhards and the Müllers, who were driving to Spain on holiday. The moral of the story, or rather the punchline, was: "If you want to get on the beach before the Germans, you'd better buy an Audi 100."

Those were the days, eh: back in the 1980s when John Hegarty's agency BBH came up with the Audi ads. People used to go to the beach then. And they certainly took the trouble to get prime beach spots. I witnessed them in those distant days of actually having holidays. Six in the morning (I might have been coming in), and there they were, trooping off to the water's edge with their sun loungers. They may have been Germans. Sunbedsraum is not, however, and never has been a solely German form of holiday annexation. Still, it's all made for a good stereotype, and it made for a great advert.

People do still go to the beach, but it can seem a dreadfully passé thing to do when the hotel palace is awash with pools of various kinds and different attractions. Why bother heading out to sea for one of those offshore waterpark things, when there is an in-hotel version. Slides galore. Splash and more splash. It's small wonder that there is such a feverishly high demand and premium placed on the sun lounger, especially if this is a sun lounger that requires occupation by someone with an all-inclusive wristband. How awful. You've forked out for everything, only to discover that there is no sun lounger space. It's enough to make anyone lodge a claim for compensation: holiday totally ruined by Germans (or others) commandeering the sun loungers before dawn.

Of course, or so I'm led to believe, there are some rules on this at certain hotels. Or there is the official opening time for the great stampede. It's a few years ago now that someone posted a video that showed the great stampede in its frightening frenzy and, more importantly, how to avoid it. Chummy was staying at the Lagotel in Playa de Muro. He'd discovered a way into the pool area from the perimeter road. If you want to get a sun lounger by the pool before the Germans (or any other nationality), you'd better find a gap in the fence.

I'm not one of the I don't like hotels so therefore I want Airbnb brigade. I quite like hotels. But there are limits. Such as the pool. It has not been my fate to actually stay in a local all-inclusive, but work has demanded observation. Hell, sheer hell. Why anyone wishes to shoehorn him or herself (plus wristband) into a confined space next to others smelling of sweat and coconut is beyond me. Worse still is the mere act of entering the water. More sweat and coconut plus urine and God knows what else. Give me the beach and sea any day. I'm willing to chance my luck with the jellyfish. Unfortunately of course, the beach hasn't become so passé that it isn't subject to the similar need for shoehorning. That'll be saturation for you.

Holidays, some of them, are, when you think about it, distinctly odd. Social beings we humans may be, but we spend most of our existences craving and pursuing privacy and peace and quiet. What happens on holiday? Precisely the opposite. A sharing experience with a mass of humanity, some of it cavorting in the water while the pool aerobics instructor bellows orders and the PA blasts out The Merrymen and their Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot 1988 masterwork. Why?

Well, the answer to why is that an awful lot of people appear to enjoy this. But their enjoyment can be ruined because of the sun lounger shortage or pre-dawn raid. So, what have those nice people at Thomas Cook come up with? The sun lounger (aka sunbed) reservation system. Why had no one thought of this before? What a brilliant way to add a few more pounds or euros to the bottom line. For a mere 25 euros a week, you can "choose you favourite sunbed". Three hotels in the Canaries are to form part of a pilot project. If it works, then Thomas Cook will roll out the scheme to thirty hotels this summer.

Thomas Cook insist that this is all to do with the traditional holiday package being a thing of the past. "Tourists want customised products that better define their needs and lifestyles," says Thomas Cook's Chris Mottershead. Nonsense, they want to make sure they get a sunbed. It's part of the traditional holiday package. 

So there you are. For a price similar to the tourist tax for seven nights in a four star, you can get a sunbed with your name on it. Holidays. Don't you just love 'em.

Playing Hardball With Tour Operators

In a book published in 2011 entitled The British On Holiday, author Hazel Andrews wrote that in 1998 the head of the Palmanova-Magalluf hoteliers association had told her that the most important relationship in the resorts was that between hotels and tour operators and that the most important tour operator was Thomson.

Earlier this month, a Frontur report concerning international tourist movement into Spain revealed that slightly under 23 million tourists travelled with a tour operator on a holiday package. That is to say that in 2016 the percentage of holidaymakers relying exclusively on a tour operator was just short of 22%. Twenty years before, so a little time before Hazel Andrews spoke to the hoteliers' president, over 80% of holidaymakers booked packages with a tour operator.

A great deal has therefore happened in the past twenty years, one aspect of which is that Thomson, important or not as a provider of Magalluf tourists, is to be consigned to the brand waste bin.

Another obvious development since the late 1990s is the extent to which holidaymaker booking behaviour has altered. The package holiday's obituary has been written often enough, but - and bearing in mind also the significant increase in the number of tourists in the past twenty years - it remains resilient, not least if it is an all-inclusive one. Moreover, these are figures for Spain, to which low-cost airlines fly in abundance and where there is no shortage of alternative accommodation: alternative to hotels, that is. Other destinations aren't necessarily quite as easy as Spain is for the independent traveller.

The package holiday, for all the predictions of its demise, still holds a decent share of the market, decent enough for tour operators like Tui to snaffle up as many hotel beds as they can. There need be no tears being wept for the tour operators in this shifting scenario. They still exert great power and they still have massive offer to sell.

But can it be said, as it was in 1998, that the hotel-tour operator relationship remains the most important one, and not just in Magalluf and Palmanova? The Frontur figure of 22%, one suspects, is a good deal higher in resorts, so arguably it is, even though it won't be anything like the 80% of 1998. Tour operator power has thus been diminished, if only to a degree, and the scramble for beds (along with increased prices) that has been occurring just recently because of the elevated demand for Mallorca holidays demonstrates how the hotel-tour operator relationship has changed.

Historically, tour operators have always held the whip hand. Mallorca was almost solely reliant on foreign companies at the start of the boom, a fact that was dramatically exposed by the oil crisis of the 1970s and by the collapse of Court Line and Clarkson. This shock to the tourism industry was such that there was a determination to assert Mallorca's own power over it, but this never happened. The package holiday and its selling by foreign tour operators  just kept on getting stronger.

Given this strength, tour operators were able to keep control over prices. Although there have long been partnerships with hotel chains - direct ones in certain instances, such as between Tui and Riu - the tour operator was the more powerful partner. It could also dictate the type of offer. Few hotels have genuinely wanted to provide all-inclusive, because of the lower margins and the far lower possibilities for making add-on sales to clients. At the bottom end of the AI market, as a hotel manager once admitted to me, the hotel would have much rather been in a position to provide greater quality. But it couldn't. The quality was crap, and he recognised that it was.

Something else which has significantly altered the scene since the late 1990s is the level of competition, to which can be added the demands of a more critical and sophisticated holidaymaker. It is this context which goes a long way to explaining the apparent abandonment of Mallorca (and the Canaries) by Thomas Cook. While this has been greatly exaggerated, the tour operator is ditching a number of hotels as part of an overall strategy of moving up-market.

Thomas Cook has also taken into account the elevated prices being demanded by hotels. The relationship in terms of power has been disrupted by current circumstances, and while there seems to have been some glee among hoteliers as well as indifference to continuing relationships with certain markets, notably the British, the hoteliers are taking risks. There may not have been such statements in Mallorca, but in the Canaries the president of the hoteliers association has warned against "abuse" of prices. Some hoteliers may believe they can play hardball with tour operators. For the moment maybe they can. In the Canaries at least, there is concern about the harmful effect on the historical relationship.

Failure Of Transparency: Ironman

Ironman, the full version, will not be taking place in Alcudia next year. The roads of the island on the final Saturday of September will no longer be closed off. There will be many who are delighted at the news and just as many who will not be. There will still be the 70.3 Ironman in May, that's for certain, but the longer one has bitten the dust.

Alcudia town hall is at pains to point out that it isn't the body which has stopped the event. The rumours had been rife for several weeks that it wouldn't be taking place, and the town hall and the regional government had been in talks with the Ironman organisers, but to no avail. It will move away from Alcudia and, in all likelihood, be in Catalonia next year - Salou or Calella are in the running (so to speak), with the latter a particularly popular German resort.

The rumours had started more or less at the time the September Ironman took place. Thomas Cook, the main sponsor, was said to be considering pulling out. It has pulled out. It won't be sponsoring the May 70.3 Ironman either. A company called Nirvana, which is a UK event travel organiser, will be the May sponsor.

What has been odd in the reporting of the loss of the full Ironman is that there hasn't been any mention of the Thomas Cook pull-out. The town hall has said that it was unwilling to stump up 350,000 euros for the September event. Does this equate to the level of sponsorship required? This hasn't been stated, but mayor Toni Mir describes the sum as "astronomical" and tourism councillor Joan Vallori says that the town hall can't possibly part with such a large sum that will go to the organisers' bottom line.

No reason has been given for Thomas Cook ending its sponsorship. There may be nothing more to it than a normal review of sponsorship and a decision to discontinue. But one might have felt that there would be some sort of announcement. Instead, there's been nothing.

Reaction on social media has not been complimentary towards the Ironman organisers. Someone said on a forum that there was a "really poor message posted by IM on their Facebook page". On that page, comments are overwhelming in expressing upset at the fact that the full Ironman is not continuing in Alcudia. The event, the island and Alcudia are all praised. People find it hard to understand why it is stopping.

The Ironman organisers cop it for being a "money-making machine" and some people are clearly angry with them, not least because there hasn't been any explanation from them as to why the September race is discontinuing. Someone observes that Ironman is dropping the longer events because the shorter 70.3 attracts more participants (so therefore more money) and because the roads are closed for shorter periods of time.

This, the closure of roads and so the input from police and others, does raise a question about how much the staging of the event costs and who pays for it. The town hall was recently asked to say how much it spends, but does it know? The former mayor Coloma Terrassa, who has said that she felt greater effort could have been made to keep the September event, has also noted that she didn't know precisely what it cost.

The town hall had also raised the possibility of pushing the event back to October. This was mentioned a few weeks ago, the town hall suggesting that a later date would be better for a lengthening of the season. Might it also have been thinking that it would be less disruptive, if there are fewer other tourists in October?

The scrapping of the event raises all these questions, for which there are no clear answers. Terrassa, in a sense, is correct in what she says about more effort, given that the Ironman events have been shown to generate a great deal of income for hotels and other businesses. The sum that the town hall has declined to pay - whatever it was for exactly - might have been felt worthwhile if there were genuinely all the benefits (and I tend to the view that they are genuine). Nevertheless, it is a lot, especially when the town hall is being asked to explain what it spends.

But what of the regional government? Vallori notes that it has been involved in discussions, but how determined might it have been? And has reorganisation of sport had an impact? The Balearic Sports Foundation, which was previously under the combined tourism and sports ministry and is now located within the transparency and culture ministry, agreed, for the 2015 events, to pay Thomas Cook 75,000 euros to sponsor the two Ironmans. Is it now paying Nirvana for the one?

Have budgetary and also political influences played a part in the termination of the September event? Maybe they have, maybe they haven't, but it would be nice to get a thorough explanation regarding the September race from a ministry which deals with transparency. The same, though, can be said for Ironman. And there appear to be plenty of participants wanting an explanation.

The Slow Death Of The Holiday Brochure

It was one of those annually exciting times. Off you went to the travel agents and back you came with armfuls of brochures. Hours would then be devoted to poring over their contents. Families would come together to select their favoured destination and hotel. Groups of friends would argue over the merits of one place or another. Others had no intention of going anywhere. Brochures were the closest they got to velvety white sands, turquoise seas and hotels that may or may not have actually been built.

The holiday brochure has the feeling of the past. It is somehow symbolic of the days of Cliff Michelmore and Judith Chalmers; of the days of holiday innocence and inexperience. If the brochure said there was a sea view, then it was accepted that there would be. Only on arrival did the hotel turn out to be a mile from the coast with other hotels in the way blocking what little view there might have been.

Eventually, consumer law was to bring to an end the misrepresentation. Brochures became more reliable and they also became more exotic, as did the destinations on offer. No more was it a straight fight between Mallorca and the Costa Brava. This additional lavishness spawned greater sophistication and an endless supply of imagery and verbiage. Brochure talk and brochure views demanded velvety white sands, crystal clear waters, turquoise seas. There are those - and not just brochure writers - who insist on using such hackneyed descriptions. The brochure views, depending on the market segment, also required smiling, happy families splashing at a water's edge; couples looking at each other adoringly as the sun set and the wine glass was filled; and for the youth there were riotous scenes of wet t-shirt contests.

All this talk, all these views became clichés. Destinations were indistinguishable. What mattered was the standardised marketing: families were all like those in the brochures, the children never older than ten; the couples were firmly middle-class and well-heeled; youth was boisterous but never with its arse hanging out of its shorts. They could have been anywhere.

Somewhere along the line came emotion. This represented an upping of the touchstone stakes. Thomson's 2011 telly ad with the line "holidays are the most precious time of all" did this more brilliantly than ever: it was marketing genius. Against this background, far better conveyed by audiovisual media, the brochure started to become less and less relevant. Its uni-dimensionality, its absence of interactivity, its sheer antiquity was making it redundant.

And redundant is what it is due to be, at least where Tui and Thomas Cook are concerned. Both plan to phase out brochures by 2020. They have for some while cut back on their printing and distribution in any event. Cost has been one reason; the inflexible nature of print is another. A consumer world consumed by multimedia no longer responds to the brochure in the same way. The tourist-consumer wants prior experience of what holiday experiences can be expected. It is no longer sufficient to explain how many square metres a room might have. The tourist-consumers want to be able, for example, to see what this means, and rightly so: how many people can actually conceive what x amount of square metres really represents?

A form of virtual reality is now to replace the brochure. Tui will "digitise" some 600 agencies in the UK so that the consumer, courtesy of high-definitiion technology, can "live" the destinations that are being offered: resorts themselves as well as hotel interiors and exteriors. It all makes total sense to do so and to therefore dispense with the brochure. There is no need for the velvety-white sand written cliché; the actual cliché, its very existence, can be confirmed in a virtual environment. Brochure copywriters are to be made redundant, and not before time.

But anachronistic as the brochure may be, should it pass totally into tourist marketing history? Old technologies, old ways of doing things have stubborn habits of persisting and indeed of making comebacks. Think vinyl, for example. Downloads cannot aspire to match the mystery of the LP cover, the smell of the cover and the hugeness of 33 rpm. Newspapers have yet to succumb to the threat of the internet; likewise books have staved off the advances of Kindle. People, consumers continue to have a taste for the physical, and this isn't simply a generational thing; the young take to vinyl partly because of its curiosity, partly because of its sound, partly because of its aesthetics.

These, however, are products. A brochure is not. It sells a product. And for any business with a view on the bottom line, the cost of sales and ultimate profit will always outweigh a nostalgic hankering for paper. The brochure is going. How many will mourn its passing?

Tour Operators Unclear About The Tourist Tax

As we prepare for the July storm to break, the tourist tax is slowly finding its way into the travelling public's consciousness. Trip Advisor has been quite useful in this regard with the sharing of information pleasingly accurate. Less pleasing is a generally negative attitude towards the tax, which is hardly surprising.

Thomson, like Jet2, have been emailing clients to tell them about the tax, but from a quick glance at tour operator websites, the news of the tax doesn't feature prominently. Thomas Cook does at least have a full explanation, though one has to go to Travel Updates to find it listed as "sustainable tourism tax". What is revealing, though, is that Thomas Cook is unable to give totally certain information. This is because it doesn't have it. No one does. On "when and how to pay", it says that it is "likely" that travellers will have to pay when checking in at their accommodation. "The government haven't advised how this should be paid." A recommendation is made to take sufficient euros to cover the cost.

Thomas Cook also can't say whether the tax will apply if travellers arrive before 1 July and then stay beyond the introduction date of 1 July. Again, the recommendation is to have money just in case. As for "why do I have to pay?", Thomas Cook points out that the tax is specifically aimed at tourists, that it is a cost beyond its control. The tour operator accepts that the tax is "something you probably weren't expecting to pay and is sorry the government has decided to bring this in so quickly".

Whatever communications the tourism ministry is sending to the tour operators, they are clearly incomplete and partly this is the result of the tax having been rushed in. Thomas Cook is absolutely right in this regard, and it is more than just regrettable that the ministry (and government) is leaving even the major players, like the big tour operators, in the dark and unable to give complete information. The government's handling of the tax's introduction has been incompetent.

There have been some criticisms of tour operators. If they knew about the tax before, why did they not say anything earlier? It's true enough that the tour operators were well aware of the intention to bring in the tax. It was, for instance, given a good airing at London's Travel Market last November but had been spoken about more or less from the moment the new government took office in late June. In the tour operators' defence, though, until the tax was officially and definitively approved by parliament, it was difficult for them to say anything to their clients. The approval wasn't until the week before Easter, and it might be remembered that there was just a chance - right up until the last minute - that Podemos might have scuppered it.

Keep Helping Yourselves

So, to what should have been the surprise of no one, it has been discovered that the tourism ministry has no legal means by which it can ban self-service alcohol in the all-inclusive dens of iniquity in Magalluf. Why did anyone believe that it could be banned? What goes on inside hotels is a matter for hotels, unless there are specific proscriptions or regulations. Allowing the punters to help themselves to bottles of free vodka is one of them.

Still, you have to hand it to the town hall in Calvia for wishing to apply pressure in the movement towards tighter regulation of all-inclusives, something which is all but non-existent. Apropos the self-service alcohol, the ministry said that law regarding all-inclusives is "generic". It is generic to the extent that there is barely any mention of it in the tourism law.

What will Biel Barceló, the tourism minister, write into law regarding all-inclusive? Anything? Or is he too busy flying the flag of the eco-tax and encountering all those who wish to tear the flag down? To whom can now be added Thomas Cook. CEO Peter Frankhauser has gone further than Jet2's Steve Heapy in attacking the tax. He has left no room for doubt. "Tourists will stop coming to the Balearics if they have to pay one or two euros more a day."

Frankhauser and chairman of the Thomas Cook board, Frank Meysman, have been in Palma, explaining how the tour operator has invested 25 million euros into its "star destination" of Mallorca and praising the island for the qualities that make it the leading destination it is: safety, quality, taxation, variety of offer, sun and beach, and a positive price-to-quality ratio. Note the reference to taxation.

Tour operators lining up against the tax is nothing new. The minister who was responsible for the original eco-tax, Celesti Alomar, pointed out recently that there had been a concerted and co-ordinated effort that involved tour operators and hoteliers to undermine the old tax. It was as though he was surprised that there would have been anything other than an effort to stop it.

Someone else who has been speaking recently is the vice-president for real estate at Meliá Hotels International, Mark Hoddinott. In an extensive interview for "Hosteltur", a variety of topics were discussed, including all-inclusive and the nature of the non-hotel complementary offer in Magalluf. Hoddinott spoke of the urgent need to break a "vicious circle" by which bars don't invest in changing themselves or improving themselves because they don't believe there is the demand to do so, by which he was referring to the continuation of a customer profile that Hoddinott notes is changing, largely because Meliá is changing it.

It's chicken and egg of course. There has to be more of the up-market clientele, many of them not in all-inclusive, in order to convince bars to change. Or is that the bars have to first change in order to attract the clientele? Whichever way round it is, the Meliá vision does not include tables of all-inclusive self-service Rushkinoff. Or at least, you would imagine that it wouldn't.

Fly South This Winter

Summer's coming to an end and with the same inevitability of clocks going back there will be a wailing and gnashing of teeth across the island as Mallorca shuts down, the flights stop and the questions are asked why there is no winter tourism. There is one very simple reason. Much though we may get some unusually warm weather - the first week of November last year and for much of February, when Mallorca's weather is typically at its worst - there is just not the guarantee. Three hundred days of sun and all that, but it's the warmth of the sun that matters, and so the tourist, the tour operator and the airline head south for the winter. South means the Canary Islands, and the Canaries will be receiving more tourists than ever this winter. Between October and April, the number of airline seats available to the winter sunseeker will rise by over 10%; over half a million more than last winter. And these sunseekers will mostly be going from the UK and Germany, the two countries, you might be aware, which form Mallorca's largest tourism markets.

While the Canaries' tourism authorities were basking in this warm winter sun news, Thomas Cook was letting us know which were the four destinations which have the shortest flight times for winter sun (shortest from the UK, that is). Sadie Geoghegan, who appears to be Thomas Cook's blogger-in-chief, informed us on the tour operator's blog that the four are the Costa del Sol, Morocco, Tunisia and ... the Balearics. Which is a bit odd when you consider that Thomas Cook comes nowhere near the Balearics during the winter. Or is the company telling us something we don't know? Probably not. Sadie and marketing might need to speak to each other.

http://www.thomascook.com/blog/holidays/shortest-flights-warmest-places/

Too Risky: Thomas Cook

"Visitors don't need alcohol when they come to Egypt, they have enough of it at home."

The words are those of the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and they were spoken some days ago, around the time that the political wing of the brotherhood was taking around 50% of votes in Egypt's election. The Freedom and Justice Party is said to be moderate, but with a hardline Islamist party having also secured a reasonable level of votes, the results and the utterances might have even more impact on tourism to Egypt than the uprising against Mubarak did.

Egypt will still of course welcome tourism, but whether it is tourism that arrives able to expect a glass or several of cold beer or to stretch out on a beach in a bikini, time is about to tell. And Egypt is not the only country to move towards a more Islamist political complexion - Tunisia and Morocco have as well.

However this complexion is styled, there is no escaping the fact that tourism to these countries is going to be affected. For Mallorca, it again means good news, but given the interwoven nature of political change and the travel industry it isn't necessarily all good news. Why not? Thomas Cook.

Within the business world, there is a whole industry devoted to risk analysis. It is an industry that goes beyond the financial risks that the credit-ratings agencies deal in specifically. It takes in all manner of issues, such as the risk of turmoil and the threat to internal security. These, by extension, mean risks to anyone doing business in a country or even simply visiting it.

Though Egypt, along with other destinations, was stable for many years, it always came with a risk. The Arab spring was the manifestation of that longstanding risk, and the post-Mubarak era is a further manifestation as it gives rise to uncertainty. What most businesses want least of all, as do tourists, is uncertainty. But in Egypt, they now have it.

So where does Thomas Cook fit into this?

The financial troubles at the tour operator have been the headliner that has tended to relegate to the small print of the news columns the company's business strategy, and it has been one founded on a risk, that of placing an emphasis on the newer tourism markets - Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and Turkey.

A criticism that has been levelled at Thomas Cook by the hotel industry in Mallorca is that it turned its back to an extent on Mallorca and took business away from the island to the new markets. The reasoning lay, or so it is said, with Thomas Cook's belief that Spain was no longer "competitive", a position that has contrasted with that of its main rival, TUI, which has continued to look to develop the Mallorcan and Spanish markets.

Tourism is and remains a business that demands the minimisation of risk. This is true of most business, but tourism is a particular case; one in which financial prudence sits alongside an assessment of potential disruption and the loss of business. And of the "big two" tour operators, TUI has played it safer.

The accusation that Thomas Cook turned its back on Mallorca is rather unfair. For summer 2012, for instance, it has, through its UK operation alone, 35 hotels and/or apartments which are being marketed on its website under the Thomas Cook name or those of its divisions.

Nevertheless, what the company's strategy will now entail is unclear. As part of its new financing arrangements, it has to shed a whole load of hotels from its portfolio, and it is reckoned to look less than favourably on the three-star sector; quite a number of the 35 hotels are three-star.

This is just one question that is now exercising the thoughts of the Mallorcan and Spanish tourism industry, as is Thomas Cook's treatment of suppliers, for which you can probably read hotels, as it is the secretary general of the Spanish Confederation of Hotels and Tourist Accommodation who has spoken of poor treatment. He doesn't, though, believe that Thomas Cook having to lose a number of hotels over the next three years will be a problem as there will be other takers. But who? TUI?

One hopes sincerely that Thomas Cook emerges a stronger business from its current troubles. It needs to, or else the big two tour operators become the "Big One". And if the company ultimately renews its concentration on Mallorca and Spain, then Mallorca and Spain will emerge the stronger. The time for risk-taking has passed.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Don't Just Book It ...

Mr. Thomas Cook does not quite fit with the image of the current-day tourism industry. A follower of the Victorian temperance movement, Mr. Cook organised trips for fellow abstainers (or those who did in strict moderation). His first excursion was from Leicester to Loughborough, which must have been exciting.

Mr. Cook will probably have long been turning in his grave. Though by no means all the tourist descendants of the Loughborough excursionists are on the extreme binge-drinking wing of the tourism market, some are and are therefore very much not adherents to the concept of temperance, even if they knew the term or understood it; for example, Club 18-30 is part of Thomas Cook.

More than just the devils of drink, Mr. Cook would doubtless be alarmed to learn that his name is associated with a company that finds itself in dire financial straits. Moderation in everything, money matters included, would have been the Cook mantra.

The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, as a prominent Victorian didn't say in that he didn't first come up with the expression but most likely did declare it, repeatedly, from a pulpit of the times. And money has been the root of Thomas Cook's contemporary problems. It owes a mere one billion quid to lenders. Remarkably, only four years ago, the company could brag that it had nearly four hundred million sitting in the bank.

The tour operator has had a number of issues to confront, so its problems are not solely down to financial imprudence, but a lot of them are. A share buy-back and a series of acquisitions have helped to push the company to the brink. It is hanging on through the largesse of banks, which it hopes will continue to stump up around a hundred million a month, if current financing requirements persist.

One of Thomas Cook's more recent ventures into expansion was the protracted merger with Co-Operative Travel. Finally agreed to earlier this year by UK competition commissioners, the combined operation now finds itself having to plan the likely closure of some 200 travel agency shops.

The name which regularly crops up in discussions of Thomas Cook's troubles is that of its former chief executive who left in August: "Super Nova", Manny Fontenla-Novoa, often described as "colourful", which is shorthand for all sorts of things. Super Nova had raked in only 14.5 million quids worth of salary and shares in the four years prior to his somewhat sudden disappearance.

There is no small amount of schadenfreude among some elements of the Mallorcan tourism industry at both Thomas Cook's woes and the downfall of Super Nova. This stems, in part, from a dislike of the power that one of the Big Two tour operators wields, which can manifest itself in different ways, such as the way in which Thomas Cook decided that it would apply a so-called discount to hotels' invoices in late summer 2010; the discount was in fact a reduction by 5% on what was due.

The schadenfreude is misplaced, however. The power of the Big Two may not be liked by all, but the local tourism industry would be in a fine mess without them. So if the Big Two became the Big One, and Thomas Cook went under, where would the industry be then?

It's unlikely that this would happen. Thomas Cook does operate profitably. Special financing arrangements are normal in the winter period for tour operators, so there is nothing unusual in Thomas Cook seeking loans. The problem is the accumulated debt.

It is the uncertainty that its financial woes arouse that is troubling. Despite its operating profit and reassurances from the company, holidaymakers are likely to think twice about committing themselves to booking with a tour operator whose troubles are being given such a public airing. This may just slow down bookings to Mallorca for next season, while it might also be noted that a loss of consumer confidence caused by the Euro crisis has been one of the very recent and uncontrollable factors that have affected Thomas Cook.

In the circumstances, therefore, it wouldn't be surprising were holidaymakers disinclined to "book it " with Thomas Cook. Not just yet anyway. This might be good news for other tour operators, but, and schadenfreude notwithstanding, it isn't particularly good news for Mallorca.


* As a footnote to this. Here is another article that has failed to get through the Bulletin sensitivity test. "Manny" is a mate apparently.

** But as a second footnote. Having been apparently rejected, it then appeared, as it was all right after all. Most odd.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

New For Old: The all-inclusive mixed message

"Mallorca has worked as an example of tourism development except in the case of all-inclusive."

So says Michael Tenzer, a senior director of Thomas Cook. A different company director had suggested that the "battle for the all-inclusive" had ended. It would appear not to have; next year will witness a 10% increase in the number of places Thomas Cook offers which are all-inclusive. In the name of tourism development, one takes it, comes more all-inclusive.

When Herr Tenzer suggests all-inclusive underperformance, he is not talking solely about the volume of AI. There is also the issue of its quality. Never fear. There is always Joana Barceló and her tourism ministry quality inspectorate which has stepped up its scrutiny of the low-grade lager.

Whether the all-inclusive "battle" is over or still being waged, at the same time as Thomas Cook is announcing an increase in its AI offer, the research organisation, the Gadeso Foundation, is reporting that the so-called complementary offer (bars, restaurants etc.) appears "mortally wounded". Every battle has its victims.

It befits a victor to be magnanimous. Thomas Cook is due to roll out a project in Santa Ponsa in 2011 which is designed to take all-inclusive out of the confines of the hotel and onto the terraces of neighbouring bars and restaurants. It sounds a good idea, but how on earth is it supposed to work?

The notion of a sort of mixed all-inclusive whereby guests could go to nearby establishments and still benefit from brandishing their wristbands was flagged up back in March this year. A "nuevo concepto" of all-inclusive was how it was being branded. I understand that such a system already operates in a limited way in Playa de Palma, but there it involves hotels and outside restaurants within the same group of ownership. In March, the reaction to the new concept from the hotel federations, the association of small- to medium-sized businesses and restaurant associations was underwhelming. They couldn't see how it could be viable, given the complexity of administration.

Why is such a system being contemplated? The altruistic interpretation is that tour operators wish to help the mortally wounded bars and restaurants. I can break thee, but I can re-make thee. For all the lambasting of hotels that subscribe to the AI doctrine, it might be considered who have been driving it - the tour operators. One can also interpret the mixed AI as an admission of responsibility for problems that have arisen within the bar and restaurant sector.

A second interpretation is that the tour operators are acting as economic engineers, assuming leadership for establishing arrangements which benefit more than simply themselves and the hotels. Sound social responsibility perhaps, but one based on countering the endless moans of a complementary sector that has done precious little for itself in trying to combat the onward march of AI. If they, the bars and restaurants, can't do it for themselves, i.e. forge relationships with hotels and/or new products, then someone has to do it for them.

Then, however, there is the issue of quality. Anecdotes in resorts such as the AI-abundant Alcúdia or Can Picafort are legion when it comes to holidaymakers seeking out better food and drink than that served up in many an all-inclusive hotel. Notwithstanding Sra. Barceló's army of inspectors, perhaps there is a recognition that some hotels are simply incapable of providing good service. And this isn't totally their fault. They have to work within the constraints of their own economics.

And then there are the guests themselves. True, there are those who are totally disinclined to shift themselves from the poolside. It's the mentality that "Benidorm" captured so perfectly. "Why go outside, when it's all free?" It might remain "free" under the mixed AI arrangement, but it creates an impulse to step outside the hotel walls, even if it would be to just go across the street. There are though many AI guests who don't want to remain confined, and it is the recognition of this fact that speaks volumes for why Mallorca has not developed in terms of AI as Thomas Cook might have liked it to.

All-inclusive in Mallorca both works and doesn't work. And it doesn't work for the very simple reason that there is so much outside the hotel. Neither the island's resorts nor many of its hotels are designed with AI in mind. The symbiosis between the hotels and the outside bars and restaurants and their shared living space are fundamental to the ongoing success of Mallorca. Disrupt this relationship, wound it so badly, and you cease to have resorts. The new concept of AI is something of the old concept of mutual benefit that worked well for so many years dressed up in newspeak.

How this new concept could work, whether it could work is yet to be answered. The practicalities are not insignificant, and quite what benefits the bars and restaurants would derive, and which bars and restaurants would derive them, are open to question. But the concept deserves to be given a go. The experiences in Santa Ponsa in 2011 could be very important.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

The Power Game: Thomas Cook and its "discount"

The Balearic Government intends to "adjust" its agreements with Thomas Cook. It plans to do so in an act of solidarity with hoteliers facing the 5% "discount" on payments from the tour operator which was announced last month. The government's stance is hardly a surprise, given a need to support the all-powerful hotel lobby, but Joana Barceló, the tourism minister, has not been specific as to the exact nature of the "review of financial contributions to co-operative agreements" that the government has in place.

The action by Thomas Cook is not solely directed at Mallorca; it applies worldwide. Hotelier groups in the Caribbean have been joined by their counterparts in Spain in considering the taking of legal action against the tour operator, claiming breach of contract and abuse of market position. Travel industry lawyers believe that the cost of fighting legal cases could end up costing Thomas Cook more than it stands to gain from holding back the five per cent.

When the discount was announced, and it is meant to apply only to hotel bills for the August and September period, Thomas Cook said that opposition to the move "had been sorted out". Hardly.

Discount. Let's call a discount spade a deduction spade, shall we. It is one, according to the company, that is intended to make up for losses incurred as a result of the Icelandic ash cloud. The 5% applies to destinations served from the UK and not from Germany. German airspace was unaffected by the cloud?

There might be some sympathy for Thomas Cook, confronted as it was by the wholly unexpected, as it did incur significant losses because of the volcano. But losses were also incurred by others. They were all in it together. Weren't they? The answer to this question goes to the heart of the matter. It is the extent to which hotels - and governments - are partners in tourism. Or not.

The dynamics of the tourism supply chain have changed markedly. It was once the case that the hotels exerted the power over the tour operators. Not so now. It's a similar situation to that of the UK retail supply chain. Manufacturers and suppliers used to hold the upper hand over the retailers themselves. Not now they don't if they deal with the giant multiples such as Tesco. Partnership is an easy word to use, but it hides an unequal balance of power. The Co-operative Travel is likely to come to appreciate this through its merger with Thomas Cook. The reporting of this has to do with a further strengthening of Thomas Cook's position in a flat market and an improvement to what was an undervalued share price. Reporting about Thomas Cook, not the Co-op. There is always a dominant party in any merger.

Mallorca's hotels have had their prices squeezed. Realism in their price negotiations has been forced upon them by the economic climate and competition. No bad thing, you might think, but a further 5% cut understandably doesn't go down well. They have every right to contemplate legal redress, but they do so from a position of weakness. The big two tour operators hold the aces. And everyone knows they do.

TUI, for its part, has said that its UK division will not follow Thomas Cook's lead. It argues that the imposition of the cut does not "establish a good partnership" in the long-term. It's right to say so, but this doesn't obscure the fact that it, along with Thomas Cook, is what the game is all about. The big two just keep getting bigger and stronger. The Co-op merger is a case in point. For the tourist consumer, alarmed by the failures of smaller operators, the big two offer confidence, notwithstanding Thomas Cook's own recent financing issues.

One can but hope that the likes of Globus (Monarch and Cosmos) forge an increasingly strong third presence. A fourth, fifth or sixth significant player wouldn't go amiss either. But it's unlikely. Business theory was many years ago now speaking of the rule of four. Four dominant market players, created through the pursuit of economies of scale and the dreaded s-word of synergy brought about via acquisition. The theory wasn't completely accurate, as can be seen in the tourism industry.

There is a fear that hotels might suffer reprisals as a consequence of any action taken against Thomas Cook. This is overstating the situation and wouldn't be in the company's own interests. But the mere fact of the deduction affects not only any possible legal contract, it also affects the psychological contract between parties. The deduction is an expression of dominance and its reverse state of submissiveness, one from which the government also suffers. It can seek to pull the plug on co-operative marketing agreements, but would it? Cut. Nose. Spite. Face.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Oh Well (Or Not): Bienestar Activo and Ironman

Three months are a long time in tourism promotion. 20 June - "All Being Well". Now - all's not so well. Strategies are meant to be long-term, but not if they don't even get off the ground.

"Bienestar Activo" is - was - the brand name for a four-year strategic plan unveiled back in June. The plan was for the municipalities of Alcúdia, Muro and Santa Margalida, together with the local hotel associations and the tourism ministries at both central and local government levels, to promote various sporting activities in the resorts as a means of bolstering off-season tourism. The plan envisaged the spending of a tad under 4.5 million euros over the next four years. Annually, the central ministry would have provided 371,000 euros, a sum matched by the local ministry and also by the three town halls between them. The scheme has collapsed.

Soon after the plan was announced, I contacted the Alcúdia-Can Picafort hotel association, looking for an interview. There was an email exchange, Alcúdia's tourism councillor was also contacted, a date provisionally established, and then nothing. At the time I found this slightly strange. As it turns out, maybe it wasn't.

What I wanted to know was the exact nature of the plan, given that the activities - cycling, Nordic walking, hiking, canoeing - were already established. What was the 4.5 million meant to be spent on? I guess that I - we - will never find out. There are no funds to be forthcoming from the ministries.

There was some inkling as to how the money would have been doled out - in general. There were four, vague elements - organisation, specialisation of the destination (whatever that meant), improvement of competitiveness and marketing. But at the presentation which "launched" the project, amongst those attending - mayors, councillors and those as ever hoping for some benefit without actually putting their hands in their pockets, i.e. hoteliers and restaurant owners - there were no representatives of the ministries. The absence of government may tell a story. Had the ministries actually signed up to the whole thing? Or maybe they were going to, and then thought, as I had done, well, what is this all about? Those four aims seemed ill-defined; they may well also have been ill-conceived.

Of course, another explanation is more straightforward, namely government cuts, both nationally and local. Three months in tourism promotion isn't a long time when it is already known that money is tight, so much so that the tourism ministries at regional and central levels have been merged with others as a way of saving money. Was this plan ever a goer or was it just some sort of PR stunt, and a poor one at that, given that it was unclear what it actually entailed?

The mayors, explaining the plan's abandonment, say that they will look at it differently in the hope of bringing it back, which is probably a euphemism for saying that it will be quietly forgotten about. Maybe it should be. And maybe it would have been better had they never gone public, because this is a further embarrassment, certainly where Alcúdia is concerned, in terms of grandish tourism promotional schemes. The estación náutica concept has been quietly forgotten about, despite the fanfare that was blown when it surfaced a year and a half ago.

Fortunately for Alcúdia, something rather more concrete has emerged. Some good news with which to hopefully bury the less good news of the bienestar debacle. Thomas Cook and the regional tourism ministry have announced that an Ironman 70.3 triathlon is to be staged in Alcúdia on 14 May next year and also in 2012. Apart from some 2,500 anticipated competitors, the tour operator reckons the event will attract 20,000 visitors. I'm sceptical, but I'll bow to the company's knowledge. Nevertheless, the triathlon could well prove to be positive, and perhaps its potential does have something to do with the bienestar falling by the wayside. If you want to attract sports tourism, then better to go with a flagship-style event, rather than the vagueness of what was on offer. Relief for Alcúdia then, but what Muro and Santa Margalida make of it, who knows.

QUIZ -
"Oh Well"?


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Islands In The Stream

Oh for days of yore. Those Boxing Days of old when Fred Pontin would enjoin us to "book early" and the Warners would wander onto the screens looking like a trio of M.J.K. Smiths* grinning cheesily and with embarrassment. Those days of Clarkson - pre-Jeremy - when package holidays cost about a tenner before Clarkson became one of the first great holiday company collapses.

Nowadays there are few holiday companies to choose from, and what few there are make virtues of saturated, high-definition television to whisk the consumer off to azure seas and sandy, palm-lined beaches. And so First Choice and Thomas Cook decorate our holiday dreams with flat-screened exotica, and in the case of Thomas Cook they do so courtesy of ... the Redknapps. Yes, everyone, Jamie and Louise, the sub-Beckhams, the under-Coles of football-girl band marital marketing opportunity. No more the Warners, reminiscent of a 60s England cricketer with spectacles. Now we have the aspirations of "Hello"-style froth from waves gently caressing the shore, aimed at Royle Families gathered on the nation's sofas who would have more in mind the price of a lager and the savings to be made by going all-inclusive.

Why would you go anywhere that the Redknapps go? And if you were to, where - in Mallorca - would it be? A clue lies in an article Louise once penned for "The Mail On Sunday". Portals Nous. That's where. Portals Nous, home to the tippy-toppy-stilletoed, brown-wrinkly expat band of shallowness that the daily variety of "The Mail" exposed (even if there was some doubt cast as to the accuracy of that piece). Portals Nous is far removed from the everyday Mallorcan holiday experience, e.g. that of Magaluf, a point Mrs. Redknapp made: "I had a picture in my head that was, well, pretty inaccurate. Everyone has heard of Magaluf, and that's what I was expecting - a giant concrete resort with mile-upon-mile of tower blocks, noise and chaos". Jamie and his missus discovered the more "authentic" side of Mallorca - yep, Portals Nous, all luxury yachts and Jimmy Choos.

So when you don't just book it but Thomas Cook it to Mallorca and admire the Redknapps on golden beaches, it is to Portals Nous that you should be heading. It is to here, the über-celeb locations of the island, that the aspirations of the Thomas Cook Redknapped ad are calling you. Not that you will be able to book anything in Portals, as on the Thomas Cook website there is no mention of the place. Poor old Jamie and Louise. They have set themselves up for a good kicking - one on the shins by lumbering centre halfs in Jamie's case, or by Danny Baker on his radio show the other day or by one of the authors of http://advertsihate.blogspot.com**: "they (the Redknapps) are just like the sort of people you befriend over sun-parched bacon and eggs at Frank's Beachside Taverna before regretting it for the remaining thirteen nights".

'Arry's boy and Mrs. R are generic holiday - in Thomas Cook land - but by association they are specific, as in the Cook ad for the Balearics. Here is something that has been exercising some of the good people on the PuertoPollensa.com forum, as apparently the Menorca bit shows Puerto Pollensa. Could have fooled me - from what is streamed via the Cook site - but if eagle-eyed ad watchers make the mismatch it does suggest a certain sloppiness on the part of the production people. Nice one, the chap who spotted it.


* I have this recollection that there were indeed three Warners and that they all looked like the one-time England cricket captain, M.J.K. Smith, a bespectacled and rather gawky fellow. Have tried to find some google evidence of the Warners but none has cropped up.

** This is partly a Manchester journo called David Quinn who also has a site - http://www.wordsdept.co.uk - on which, among other things, you can read about the ten most awful people on television in 2009, one of whom - the number one in fact - is Michael McIntyre. Amen.


QUIZ
Today's title - a duo. And they were? And on which TV comedy-drama series was it performed and by which characters?

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

One More Time

Following on from yesterday ... . The central government's tourism ministry reckons that an increase in IVA (VAT) of one per cent (to 8%) for certain tourism-related activities (accommodation, transport and bars/restaurants) will have no effect on the number of tourists. It also reckons, as noted in "The Diario", that the average price of a hotel stay (one night presumably) will rise by a mere 50 centimos as a consequence. The secretary of state for tourism believes that the fact that the rise will not be implemented until 1 July next year (as would be the case for all categories of IVA, including the general rate) will act as an incentive for bookings prior to this date. While true, it's also a tad disingenuous, a case of looking for a benefit from something essentially negative. The government is possibly on firmer ground when it points out that the hotel sector has been the beneficiary of a vast amount of investment finance, though to what extent this is actually being exploited one doesn't really know.

The date for the rise in IVA is probably not coincidental. It will kick in at the start of the third financial quarter in Spain - IVA inputs and outputs are calculated each quarter and payments or credits issued accordingly. The third quarter covers, of course, the peak months of July and August.

The wider point, though, is the drip-drip effect of a tax rise. With complaints about prices having been given a good old airing everywhere this summer, you can bet your life that once it becomes known that there is to be an increase, the forums and all the rest will be full of even more damning Mallorca's so expensive propaganda. One per cent, in the scheme of things, does not amount to much, but it does add to a cumulative perceptual impression of price rises. The tourism ministry, not least the local one in Mallorca, should be paying heed to those complaints. Indeed, the president of the regional government has expressed his concern about the planned rise.

The response by the central government to the criticisms of the tax rise from the boss of Thomas Cook suggests, at least in part, that it has been stung into making a statement, with its tourism ministry, headed by Joan Mesquida, himself a former director general of the Guardia Civil and National Police (interesting career progression, but there you go), to the fore in issuing this response. The suggestion that he, Mesquida, was actually seeking to keep the 7% rate - one that came from the Spanish tourism promotion organisation, Turespaña - has been rebutted. The party line, so to speak, is being held. But it speaks volumes that the intervention by the head of the second largest tour operator should provoke a response. The true power in the tourism market resides with the tour operators. The tourism ministry, as the frontline contact with the tour operators, should be seeking to distance itself from the argument and looking to keep the operators sweet, but of course it can't and is so backed into a corner, even if officials might actually agree with Thomas Cook. It will be interesting to hear what TUI, as the leading operator, might have to say about all this.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - The splendidly-named chap from Thomas Cook made me think of Fontella Bass and Frankie Goes To Hollywood. Yes, I know I should get a life. Today's title - simply great; French house.

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Here Comes A Fontella-Super Nova

When a bigwig from the world's second largest tour operator makes a pronouncement, the Mallorcan tourist authorities, hoteliers, town halls should all take note, and in the case of the tourism minister, it looked as though he had been made to - with some force. Manny Fontenla-Novoa, chief executive of Thomas Cook came, spoke and put a dirty great VAT cat among the pigeons of the regional and national governments. In addressing hoteliers in Palma, he was clear that proposals for rises in IVA (VAT) were, shall we say, less than advisable. Damn right they are.

Governmental coffers are less than flush at present. Spain has been one of the countries worst affected by recession, and will - in all likelihood - be one of the last to limp out of it. To remedy the deficits the government is running, they have come up with increasing indirect taxation (IVA/VAT) as the solution. Badly though revenue may be needed, this could well be counterproductive. As far as the tourism industry is concerned - bearing in mind that in other countries, such as France, there has been a reduction in VAT as it is specifically applied to tourism - any increase is bound to push up prices. These are not necessarily the prices of holidays, but those that would be charged in the bars and restaurants and so on. At a time when spending is falling and when one hears all those stories about high or higher prices, a VAT increase is the last thing that's needed. To add to this picture of woe, Thomas Cook are saying that the level of all-inclusive packages is set to rise next year, by a factor of 20%. That's a perfectly believable increase. Furthermore, as noted in "The Bulletin", Fontenla-Novoa has reserved some criticism for the promotional spend by the Balearics authorities. It is around 30 per cent of what Egypt, for example, dishes out. The comparison is not entirely fair as Egypt is a country; the Balearics are not, you may have noticed. But we get his point, even if also Egypt is diverting massive resources to establishing its place as a tourist destination. Yet of course in this regard there is a pretty fundamental issue. If tourism is so important not only to the Balearics and to Spain as a whole, why is not more promotion undertaken and why are measures adopted that positively have a negative effect on tourism, to which we must now add an increase in IVA?

From today in "Talk Of The North", you will be able to read a thing I have written about the season. One point I make is to question the tourism authorities' belief that the summer tourism model - the bread and butter of tourism - is working ok. It clearly is not, and recession and the pound are not the only factors. Thomas Cook would seem to agree, and rather pertinent, I felt, was a probably unintentional photo that "The Bulletin" had of those at this meeting in Palma. But it was terrific - in the centre, Fontenla-Novoa, a tall man with an easy smile and one suggesting just a hint of superiority or of having made his point, to one side of him the head of Iberostar looking ever more fabulously like a long grey-haired Red Indian, and to the other, shorter than the Thomas Cook boss, Miquel Nadal, tourism minister, with an expression as though he's just been given a severe ticking-off in the head's study but is required to pose for the school photo.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - The Police, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXU8kCrRHJY. Today's title - why and therefore who?

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Smooth Operators

The positive soundings a few days ago that tourism will help to stave off recession in the Balearics may have been somewhat pre-emptory. Despite the Spanish Secretary of State for Tourism suggesting that there has already been an increase of 20% in sales for the coming year, the tour operators are begging to differ. One is inclined to take their word for it, rather than that which may just be political spin.

Word coming out of the World Travel Market in London this past week has not been reassuring. Thomas Cook is reporting a fall in British tourism sales to Mallorca of 15% (Menorca is worse at 24%), while TUI is giving similarly worrying figures - Mallorca down by 22%. The winter tourism, such as it is, is also taking a knock; the recession-hit German market, for instance, has cut back on its Mallorcan off-season.

The only bright spot in all this is that tourists may well be holding off and hoping for some better deals. There was a thing on "Five Live" the other day which said that TUI, in general, has increased its prices by around 12% while also reducing capacity. That TUI feels it can do this at a time of economic downturn is largely due to the failure of XL, which has taken out some 2 million seats in total. In other sectors where capacity is reduced, prices do not necessarily rise or rise as steeply. The tourism market, however, appears to operate by a different set of rules, and important among these is that, although times are tight, people will forego other purchases in order to ensure they have their two weeks in the sun. The person interviewed on the BBC said that sales were brisk, which may seem to contradict the soundings from TUI and Thomas Cook, but there could still be grounds for optimism in that travellers are taking their time, doing their research and then making the purchase. They may also be hoping that TUI decides that those price increases are not going to work, and are therefore waiting for offers.

While TUI may be hiking its prices, the hoteliers on the island are under great pressure to lower theirs, i.e. what they receive from the tour operators. Naturally enough, there is some resistance to this. But one of the more interesting aspects of this is that the hoteliers are "progressively abandoning" all-inclusive offers because of the "ridiculous" daily returns they receive (quotes from "The Diario"). Maybe the price pressures being applied are going to be good news in one respect - the removal of more all-inclusive places. This all does go to emphasise that it is not necessarily the hotels who are, or who have ever been, the driving force behind all-inclusive offers; it is, and has been, the tour operators. I know, for example, of one hotel in Puerto Alcúdia that basically told TUI to sling its hook when it was presented with a demand to move to all-inclusive. I also know of hotels which are all-inclusive, but which would much rather not be. And when one learns of the sort of amounts the hotels can actually receive from the tour operators, it is little surprise that what they then provide as service as part of the all-inclusive package can be so poor. They're just not making enough money out of it. So when one reads all those comments slagging off this and that hotel, just remember that it may be the tour operator who deserves the criticism and not the hotel.

Meanwhile also at the travel market, Balearic Government head, Francesc Antich, together with the minister for tourism, Miquel Nadal, have been trying to offer their own positive take on things, talking about the "opportunity" that the current difficulties offer. Well, always try and make a positive out of a negative, I guess, but they are banging on about modernisation and renovation, which are all well and good but don't actually address the short-term need. They are also mentioning - yet again - different types of tourism, but without, seemingly, putting any flesh on its scrawny bones. There is, though, one campaign to be implemented in that short-term, and if you happen to live in Manchester you will doubtless become aware of it. This coming spring there will be a programme entitled "Manchester discovers the Balearic Islands". This is presumably not some sort of Columbus expedition but an attempt to inform the good people of Manchester that the Balearics exist. Hmm, yes well, I'll have to mention that to friends of mine from Manchester who come to Mallorca each year.

Elsewhere, Antich has been presiding over the little club that is the Eurorregión Pirineos Mediterráneo (areas around this part of the Mediterranean). This rather curious self-help grouping has had its share of spats in the past, but at least now they seem to be as one in having a common perspective on tourism innovation. To this end, there is to be a centre of research and development based in the Balearics, the aim of which is to come up with "cutting-edge strategy and attractions" (says "The Bulletin"). Well I think we've been here before with all this tourism R&D stuff, whatever it might be. They talk about it but never make it clear what it is exactly. And as for attractions. Good. Just make sure they are large-scale and meaningful.

As an additional thought - the government has spoken, time and time again, about upping the quality of hotels and their service as part of an overall improvement of the islands' tourism offer. However, how can the hotels do this if they are being squeezed and pressurised when it comes to both prices and offering all-inclusive? Against this background, much as the hotels themselves may wish to upgrade and much as the government may harp on about it, it needs to born in mind that the real power in the tourism chain resides not with the hotels, not with the government, but with the tour operators. Ultimately you antagonise the tour operators at your potential peril. Without TUI and Thomas Cook, Mallorca has nothing. The government can do some gentle persuading, but it is largely impotent. It may be a harsh fact for the government to appreciate, but fact it is. Of course, neither TUI nor Thomas Cook would abandon Mallorca; it is far too important to them as well. But the balance of power lies with them. The hotels may be kicking, and good luck to them if they want to cut the all-inclusive, but they, too, must know who holds the whip hand.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Robert Palmer (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1S9Or_bEGQI). Today's title - pluralised; in the singular who did this tremendous song?

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