In the eighteenth century it was of significant enough strategic importance that it meant a British admiral being executed for failing to "do his utmost" to prevent the French taking it. A three-nation tussle, with Spain the third, ensured that control was periodically passed. Ultimately though, the importance was not so great. The bargaining chip of Menorca was minor compared with the jackpot of Gibraltar. Spain was allowed to have it: Menorca, the minor island.
For a time Menorca had been flagged up on the Mediterranean geopolitical map. With the signing of the Treaty of Amiens in 1802 it obtained a sense of comparative normality, marked with a legacy of European powers' ambitions in the form of infrastructure and borrowed language: English lurks within the Menorquín tongue. Its burden, in a way, lies with toponymy. It has been saddled with the title of being minor. Geographically it obviously is. But culturally it has been made aware of its place. The major island to its south has always dominated.
They say that it is the oldest island in the Balearics, with a geological history starting some 410 million years ago. Some also say it is the oldest in civilisation terms. Maybe, maybe not. Archaeologists and anthropologists will argue that case until the final herd of autochthonous cows is brought home and provides the raw material of its famous cheese, though the cows are arguably less famed than the hens. Menorca's capital has (perhaps) given the world a generic product: mayonnaise. Not even Palma can boast that.
The minor island naturally attracts fewer tourists than the major island. And the stress is very much on the fewer. According to numbers in the Balearic Tourism Agency's yearbook, the total number of tourists in 2016 was 1,440,036; Mallorca received just under eleven million. This total shows a very different profile in terms of country of origin. The Spanish and the British accounted for very similar proportions of the tourist total - both around the 36% mark (523,216 in the case of the British, fewer than a thousand more than the Spanish). British representation in Mallorca was 21%; Spanish only 11%. By way of further comparison, Menorca's total visitor number in 2016 was only 48% of that of Ibiza and Formentera combined.
Menorca doesn't shout its existence or have it shouted on its behalf. There are no salacious headlines. There is no Magalluf or Playa de Palma. There are no tribes of international DJs flocking to its shores as they do to Ibiza's. Menorca is easy to overlook, which will be why many of the 1.44 million like it, one imagines. But being overlooked can mean being forgotten.
Towards the end of January 2012, Spanair ceased operations. By April of that year the president of the island's hoteliers association, Ashome, was holding talks with the Balearic government about the airline's "disappearance". He said at the time that Menorca had been all but cut off from Madrid because of Spanair's collapse. Other airlines were to take up the slack but they were attracted mostly by that 36% of Spanish tourism, mostly all of it crammed into three to four months in the summer. Did the talks with the government achieve anything? Well, no.
In percentage if not real terms, Menorca has higher hotel occupancy than Mallorca in October. The island's small-scale tourism does quite well from its October trade trade. So the collapse of Monarch is going to make a significant difference. The airline was more important to Menorca than it was to Mallorca: the second highest carrier from the UK and the seventh highest in all. Ashome reckons that the collapse will leave an economic hole of at least 800,000 euros, to which some more will be added because hotels haven't yet quantified the losses.
This may not sound like a vast amount, but for the island's October business it is still something of a disaster. An airline going bust isn't a natural phenomenon, but an airline - one as important as Monarch was to Menorca - is a source of general economic well-being. When Mallorca's potato fields are flooded, the calls for aid go out and there are worries about exports and Mallorca's balance of trade. Does Menorca not deserve a slight consideration because of manmade wreckage? All that one hears from the Balearic government is "concern" at the Monarch demise, and this is despite the transport minister, Marc Pons, being Menorcan.
The government hasn't as yet come to a definitive decision on the doubling of the tourist tax in winter. Més in Menorca has called for a freezing because the island can do with all the help it can get in the off-season. There should be a decision to freeze the tax, even if it is just for Menorca alone. Were there to be, then it might demonstrate more than just the easily expressed "concern". Menorca is too easily forgotten.
Showing posts with label Tourism economy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tourism economy. Show all posts
Friday, October 13, 2017
Sunday, July 12, 2009
Blue Hotel
Mallorcan hoteliers gathered in a restaurant in Puerto Portals to discuss the current situation in respect of the island's tourism, says "The Diario". I wonder what they ate. Humble pie for any that had been saying things would be ok-ish this season.
The word to come out of the meeting was that things, far from being ok-ish, are catastrophic. Seemingly, only one part of Mallorca is enjoying more than 90% occupancy, and that is Soller. Elsewhere there are reports of figures of barely 40 or 50%. Not that this elsewhere is defined. It does all rather depend: there are hotels, e.g. in Puerto Alcúdia, that are full, but presumably those which are far from full. The hope of last-minute bookings seems illusory, and the back end of the season is looking poor, with hotels suggesting that they will close at the end of September. The hotels are having to lower prices and want to revive the notion of offering condos as a means of avoiding going belly-up.
Might there be an element of some special pleading in all this? The hotels are never slow to voice their views, often with justification, such as with regard to the new application of the coasts law in Alcúdia and Muro. Arguably they form the single most powerful lobby in Mallorca, again with justification; it is they who help to drive the island's economy. But these figures have a precedent. Try last year. In Alcúdia there were reports of 40% occupancy at one well-known hotel, another had provision for under 60% at the end of July. Soller is unrepresentative; it is not a town and resort that has an abundance of mass-style hotel stock. It also has a rather different tourism profile to the likes of Alcúdia. Therein probably lies a story.
The question is to what extent these lower figures are simply a result of current economic times or a trend. One only needs to go back to 2007 which was, allegedly, a record year to believe that a bounce in the economies of Europe will return occupancy figures to the status quo. But one also has the niggling suspicion that figures which have been declared until now have not always been completely accurate. That the hoteliers are talking again of condos and also of a change in use - to living accommodation (for which, presumably, one can read privately owned apartments) - leads one to surmise that perhaps they recognise that there has been an underlying trend, and one, moreover, caused by over-supply. Much as one hears that there are too many bars, restaurants and all the rest, it is just as appropriate to suggest that there are too many hotels. Indeed this very point has been made to me where the hotels of Playa de Muro are concerned. That some hotels are not even opening this summer supports the fact that demand is down this year, but it is also indicative of too great a supply.
Against this background, it is small wonder that hotels seek to compensate for a fall in the number of places being taken up by increasing offers of an all-inclusive or a "plus" basis in order to generate greater occupancy and more additional revenues that might otherwise find their way into the tills of local bars and restaurants. It is quite understandable, and one does have some sympathy. The hotels represent colossal investment. To have them under-utilised or less than totally productive means a diminishing return on that investment, which in turn results in a cut in employment opportunities. The hotels, collectively, are hugely significant in terms of their being creators of jobs. Idle stock has an impact in terms of jobs. But so also would a change of use. Where we seem to be going, if these latest statements from the hoteliers can be taken at face value, is towards a contraction in the tourism industry - at least in the short term. One of the potential ironies of, for example, converting hotels to apartments is that there would be increased pressure to permit holiday lets, something which galls the hotels to the extent that they are the strongest voice in pushing the government to act against private rentals. They are, however, misguided in this. Local tourism needs a mix in types of accommodation, not just hotels. Perhaps the hoteliers are, inadvertently, seeking to promote this; or maybe they actually realise the importance of such a mix but don't want to admit it.
If contraction is the conclusion, then there needs to be some serious planning for it, and pretty damn quick. Criticism for the regional government came from the meeting of the hoteliers, albeit from representatives of the Partido Popular, but it may not be misplaced. What this season is showing, and really it should not have been necessary, is that an over-reliance on one industry, and one industry, moreover, that has over-supply, cannot sustain the local economy in the longer term. The time to act is now. Sadly, one hears only the snores of inertia, the back-slapping of complacency and the sounds of spin of government and others missing the point, as with the announcement that seasonality (low winter tourism) is the "principal problem" facing the island's tourism economic model. It is spin because they know - or should know - they have a far more serious problem; the hoteliers' announcement adds force to the fact that it is the main summer season which is the problem.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - U2, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2WIglVo9KY. Today's title - probably had this before, so here it is again ...
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
The word to come out of the meeting was that things, far from being ok-ish, are catastrophic. Seemingly, only one part of Mallorca is enjoying more than 90% occupancy, and that is Soller. Elsewhere there are reports of figures of barely 40 or 50%. Not that this elsewhere is defined. It does all rather depend: there are hotels, e.g. in Puerto Alcúdia, that are full, but presumably those which are far from full. The hope of last-minute bookings seems illusory, and the back end of the season is looking poor, with hotels suggesting that they will close at the end of September. The hotels are having to lower prices and want to revive the notion of offering condos as a means of avoiding going belly-up.
Might there be an element of some special pleading in all this? The hotels are never slow to voice their views, often with justification, such as with regard to the new application of the coasts law in Alcúdia and Muro. Arguably they form the single most powerful lobby in Mallorca, again with justification; it is they who help to drive the island's economy. But these figures have a precedent. Try last year. In Alcúdia there were reports of 40% occupancy at one well-known hotel, another had provision for under 60% at the end of July. Soller is unrepresentative; it is not a town and resort that has an abundance of mass-style hotel stock. It also has a rather different tourism profile to the likes of Alcúdia. Therein probably lies a story.
The question is to what extent these lower figures are simply a result of current economic times or a trend. One only needs to go back to 2007 which was, allegedly, a record year to believe that a bounce in the economies of Europe will return occupancy figures to the status quo. But one also has the niggling suspicion that figures which have been declared until now have not always been completely accurate. That the hoteliers are talking again of condos and also of a change in use - to living accommodation (for which, presumably, one can read privately owned apartments) - leads one to surmise that perhaps they recognise that there has been an underlying trend, and one, moreover, caused by over-supply. Much as one hears that there are too many bars, restaurants and all the rest, it is just as appropriate to suggest that there are too many hotels. Indeed this very point has been made to me where the hotels of Playa de Muro are concerned. That some hotels are not even opening this summer supports the fact that demand is down this year, but it is also indicative of too great a supply.
Against this background, it is small wonder that hotels seek to compensate for a fall in the number of places being taken up by increasing offers of an all-inclusive or a "plus" basis in order to generate greater occupancy and more additional revenues that might otherwise find their way into the tills of local bars and restaurants. It is quite understandable, and one does have some sympathy. The hotels represent colossal investment. To have them under-utilised or less than totally productive means a diminishing return on that investment, which in turn results in a cut in employment opportunities. The hotels, collectively, are hugely significant in terms of their being creators of jobs. Idle stock has an impact in terms of jobs. But so also would a change of use. Where we seem to be going, if these latest statements from the hoteliers can be taken at face value, is towards a contraction in the tourism industry - at least in the short term. One of the potential ironies of, for example, converting hotels to apartments is that there would be increased pressure to permit holiday lets, something which galls the hotels to the extent that they are the strongest voice in pushing the government to act against private rentals. They are, however, misguided in this. Local tourism needs a mix in types of accommodation, not just hotels. Perhaps the hoteliers are, inadvertently, seeking to promote this; or maybe they actually realise the importance of such a mix but don't want to admit it.
If contraction is the conclusion, then there needs to be some serious planning for it, and pretty damn quick. Criticism for the regional government came from the meeting of the hoteliers, albeit from representatives of the Partido Popular, but it may not be misplaced. What this season is showing, and really it should not have been necessary, is that an over-reliance on one industry, and one industry, moreover, that has over-supply, cannot sustain the local economy in the longer term. The time to act is now. Sadly, one hears only the snores of inertia, the back-slapping of complacency and the sounds of spin of government and others missing the point, as with the announcement that seasonality (low winter tourism) is the "principal problem" facing the island's tourism economic model. It is spin because they know - or should know - they have a far more serious problem; the hoteliers' announcement adds force to the fact that it is the main summer season which is the problem.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - U2, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2WIglVo9KY. Today's title - probably had this before, so here it is again ...
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
