J.R. Is No Longer Dead

So, it was all a dream. Pammy's woken up, Bobby's appeared from the shower, and J.R. is heading off to join the barons of the PP by becoming tourism minister. The intriguing within the PP is the very stuff of "Dallas" minus the oil that J.R. so determinedly sought to deny the Balearics when his nemesis Cliff Barnes (aka José Manuel Soria) was in charge of both energy and tourism.

José Ramón Bauzá, for it is he, has his eye on a cabinet post and on leading the Balearics and Spain to ever greater touristic glory. There are just a few problems with his ambition. One is that Super Mariano has yet to be reconfirmed as president (sometimes referred to as prime minister). By this time next week, however, he may have been, as the socialist-lite element has got its way in sanctioning his investiture. The second problem is that there isn't a specific post for a tourism minister. Yet. But the bookies are placing odds on Mazza turning over one hundred years of history on its head and creating just such a post. Amidst this speculation, therefore, re-enter J.R., who mostly everyone (in the Balearics) had assumed and had hoped was politically interred.

However, away from Palma, J.R. has been conducting a one-man PR campaign, turning up on chat shows. Why would he be doing that? To prove to everyone that he was never dead in the first place. A seat in the Senate has provided sufficient warmth to prevent political rigor mortis from setting in. J.R. is back, and he wants tourism.

But then one gets to the third problem. Much as though J.R. may have been on a charm offensive, he remains thoroughly detested. The PP in the Balearics (many of them) are aghast at the prospect of him rising like a Phoenix of tourism from the ashes of the purge that exiled him to Madrid. And if his own party would not give his tourism ambitions houseroom, then you can be certain that Francina and chums will be even more determined to ensure that he never darkens their agreements for government change.

Could you imagine it? Bauzá at tourism. First thing he'd do would be to seek a change to the statutes of autonomy to ensure that tourist taxes would be banned. He couldn't actually do this, but then J.R. was never one for allowing procedure of a legalistic type to get in his way. Anyone remember the decree for trilingual teaching? A court said one thing (the government hadn't followed procedure), J.R. and his cabinet said we'll see about that and ushered in an emergency decree.

Eco-nationalist Mésite Balearic tourism minister Biel Barceló has declared that J.R. as national tourism minister would be disastrous for the Balearics. "As president (of the Balearics) he did not defend the interests of the islands." Which of course he didn't, as in, for example, not asking Mazza for the state investments which should have flowed in a Balearic direction. And why not? Well, J.R. was the original golden boy of Mazza's austerity. He did all he could to keep pally with Mariano until Soria got in the way and wanted to start digging for oil in the bay of Palma.

J.R. went gunning for Soria and for his job, relations with national HQ deteriorated, got even worse when a different golden boy - Mateo Isern - was being eased out by the intrigues of Bauzá and José María Rodríguez, and finally got so bad that Madrid was only too happy for the PP in the Balearics to stick the boot in. Thus the PP nationally was able to breathe a sigh of relief. Hence one comes to the fourth problem. Bauzá for tourism minister? No chance.

A Tourism Minister At Long Last?

Spain ranks second and third in the world in terms of two key indicators of tourism performance. The country generates the second highest amount of revenue from tourism (the USA is top) and it receives the third greatest number of international tourists (behind France and the USA). The total contribution of tourism to the economy is around 11% of GDP, and the benefits that growth in tourism bring are reflected in additional employment in various sectors. CaixaBank research suggests that a one per cent rise in tourism GDP leads to 2,200 new jobs in the commercial sector, 10,400 further jobs in the hotel and catering industry, 800 more in agriculture and 680 in construction.

Exceltur, the alliance for touristic excellence, suggests that tourism growth in 2016 will be by one per cent above the general figure for national economic growth of 3.4%. Tourism typically does outperform the economy as a whole. This is one reason why it has been so important in bringing about economic recovery, while it shouldn't be overlooked that without tourism's contribution during the years of crisis Spain would have been in a far greater mess than it was.

It is a sector of strategic importance. While tourism as an industry is very robust, it can be shaken - as one has seen in other destinations. Neighbouring France, the world leader in terms of tourist arrivals, has seen those arrivals slump markedly because of terrorist incidents.

Having a minister responsible for tourism wouldn't prevent terrorist attacks, but if God forbid there were any, then having a minister in place, with a position around the cabinet table, might help in bolstering confidence in this strategic industry. Threats as much as opportunities should mean that Spain has a tourism minister.

One of the odd aspects of the extremely odd situation that has surrounded the national government for several months is that if ministers have to leave their post (even in an acting capacity) for whatever reason, they are not replaced. This happened with José Manuel Soria. After he resigned in April because his name had appeared in the Panama Papers, his entire portfolio was handed over to Luis de Guindos. He, in an acting function, is currently responsible for economic affairs and competitiveness (which he previously had been) and for industry, energy and tourism, the three oddly assembled elements in the Soria portfolio. De Guindos may be very capable (although the FT once suggested that he wasn't), but not even he can do justice to five briefs at the same time. He'll be thankful that tourism has been chugging along so nicely and not been needing any intervention.

While one mentions potential threats, there are also the opportunities and the current strengths of Spain's tourism. Too often, it has seemed, tourism has been taken for granted. This has been the case nationally and regionally. Complacency in the Balearics over decades has meant that economic diversification has never seriously been addressed and nor has the harmful impact of tourism seasonality. Nationally, there isn't the same level of dependence, but this doesn't diminish strategic importance. And at a time of strength, now is the time to reinforce this strength and to build an even more competitive industry, one recognised by a third performance indicator as being the most competitive tourism industry in the world.

Spain has never had a minister dedicated solely to tourism. As a government portfolio, tourism first appeared in 1905. It was part of the development ministry, which is where it stayed until the 1950s when tourism combined with "information". Since then, it has been moved around or even removed. The demand for a dedicated minister has existed since about as long as Spain's tourism boom started, and now there is a very strong rumour circulating that such a minister is about to be created.

If Mariano Rajoy is finally approved once more as prime minister, the signs are that he will increase the number of ministers, and one of these will be a tourism minister. For the first time, therefore, someone with responsibility for tourism and tourism alone will have a seat at cabinet. The industry is preparing to throw the confetti and uncork the champagne.

With the rumours getting stronger - the Spanish travel press are spreading them, as are mainstream newspapers - so the speculation starts. Who might be this tourism minister? It's a bit like guessing who'll be the new England football manager. Pundits are offering their thoughts, and one name which is towards the top of the list is that of Mallorcan Simón Pedro Barceló, co-president of the Barceló hotel group, an independent director on the board of airports authority Aena, and someone with very close links to the PP.

So, not only might there well be a tourism minister, he might also be Mallorcan. As a hotelier, that would doubtless put a few political noses out of joint here. But whoever it might be, a minister is long overdue.

Qué Soria, Soria

Spanish politicians do wish to have their holiday cake and eat it, too. There we have been, over the summer, hearing moans about Dave and his encouragement of Brits to stay in Britain and enjoy the world's most miserable climate, much therefore to the chagrin of Balearics politicians and the Balearics tourism industry, and what happens? The Spanish tourism minister, José Manuel Soria, has been telling Spaniards that they should do likewise, as in go on holiday in Spain rather of course than fly off to the flooded beaches of Britain.

Soria hasn't only recommended a Spanish "staycation" (I'm not sure how one would say this in Spanish; "estanciacaciones" perhaps) for this summer, he has said that the Spanish should always take their holidays in Spain. His words haven't exactly gone down well. Who is he to be telling people where they should or shouldn't go on holiday has been a typical response.

Soria, who I might remind you comes from the Canaries, has gone on to say that the 57 million foreign tourists who travel to Spain on holiday clearly cannot be wrong. What is wrong are the 13.1 million holidays abroad undertaken by Spaniards.

One of the more extraordinary aspects of Soria's requirement of his fellow countrypeople to display vacational patriotism, stay in Spain and thus solve the economic crisis, is that he can't understand why Spaniards would wish to head off to parts of the globe where they will encounter mosquitoes and temperatures that can exceed 35 degrees.

I don't know, are there no mosquitoes in the Canaries? Maybe there aren't. But there sure as hell are mosquitoes in Mallorca. Vast numbers of them. And there are temperatures that can exceed 35 degrees, which I would imagine is the case in the Canaries as well, especially on La Gomera. What on earth is Soria talking about? Does he not know that parts of Spain can get very hot and that there are mosquitoes?

Rather than Mallorca, what he may have in mind are destinations such as Cuba and the All-Inclusive Republic of Dominica. South America, a broad definition for Spanish tourism statistics purposes as it does include Central America and the Caribbean, received over one million Spanish holidaymakers last year. Outside of Europe, it is the most popular area of the world with the Spanish, but then this is hardly that surprising, given the connections between Spain and Latin America.

In fact, Spaniards don't necessarily disappear to places that are vastly different to Spain. France is the most popular country for Spanish tourists, followed by Portugal and then Italy, each of which may or may not conform with Soria's bewilderment with travelling to parts of the world with mosquitoes and 35 plus degrees.

It doesn't inspire huge amounts of confidence when a politician who is meant to be in charge of tourism can fail to appreciate that his own country has insects and weather conditions the same as others on whose dry land Spaniards should never set foot. There again, one knows all about politicians from islands with strong tourism traditions who come out with some old pony about tourism. Do not forget that President Bauzá, before he became president, identified the Baltics as a major area of tourist competition to Mallorca. Maybe he meant the Balkans.  But then Bauzá did confess to once having had a mental lapse in the course of a radio interview. Remarkably, he still became president.

Soria might be exonerated because he isn't only minister for tourism. Industry is part of his portfolio as well. Yet, as industry minister (and indeed as tourism minister), he would know that these stinking-hot, mosquito-infested hell holes that Spaniards insist on going to have become popular with goodly amounts of Spanish industrial help, not least from the hotel industry. It is one of the great ironies of Mallorcan tourism that its leading hotel chains should have been to the fore in exporting tourism technology and know-how to as well as in investing heavily in destinations such as Dominica.

Perhaps therefore, rather than discouraging Spaniards to travel, they should be encouraged to travel more and so support the only part of the country's industrial might (sic) that has been doing anything meaningful for the past decade or more.

Whether encouraging or discouraging, another extraordinary aspect of what Soria had to say is that he said it in the middle of August, by which time everyone was on holiday anyway. Mind you, there was the thing about "always" holidaying in Spain. And always it had better be, because always is going to mean always as Spain slips slowly into the Mediterranean and Atlantic of economic oblivion.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

The Real Carlos Delgado?

So, after all the talk, the new tourism minister for the Balearics is indeed a professional. A professional politician. Regardless of whatever agreement Carlos Delgado and José Ramón Bauzá are meant to have cooked up at the time of the Partido Popular leadership election in 2010, for Delgado not to have been named as tourism minister would have raised serious questions as to unity within the PP; the unity of the party's right-wing that is.

Bauzá could not have afforded not to have appointed Delgado to tourism. But despite the politicking behind the appointment, Bauzá may well have chosen wisely, even though one suspects his hands were tied.

The good thing about Delgado is that you know what you are getting. He has been clear and honest enough about his ambitions and his attitudes. Some of his pronouncements on matters unrelated to tourism have caused disquiet, most obviously the language thing, but on tourism his instincts seem entirely appropriate and forward-thinking.

The surprise has been, therefore, why there was opposition to his appointment. This surfaced in March when he spoke about his ambition to be tourism minister, and it came from hoteliers. The fear then was that Delgado would clash with the hoteliers, though it was never made clear as to quite why, which led to a conclusion that it was largely personal.

The appointment made, the hoteliers, in the form of the Mallorcan hotel federation, have now come out and said that they look upon the appointment very positively. But the federation always says this. It had plenty of opportunity to do so while the tourism ministry door was revolving during the Antich administration; whether it believed what it was saying or not. It's known as being diplomatic.

One of Mallorca's leading hoteliers, Gabriel Escarrer, the president of Meliá Hotels International, has issued a glowing assessment of Delgado. The right noises are being made, therefore, but behind them you wonder as to the degree to which they are designed to influence Delgado. He has a reputation of being his own man, and there is one issue, barely mentioned in despatches at present, that the good free-marketer Delgado will have to contend with - that of the confusion surrounding the holiday-let industry and the hoteliers' hostility towards it.

This aside, most of what Delgado has said and is saying should be music to the ears of the hoteliers and others in the tourism industry. Creating theme parks, allowing for condohotels, reducing IVA; they are all positive. But his market liberalism has not played well with everyone. His declaration that he will make the general tourism law more flexible in order to permit concerts at hotels is a clear shot across the bows of Acotur, the tourist business association, and others that have opposed the Mallorca Rocks hotel in Magalluf, and a pop also at the association's hounding of Calvia town hall for having granted the hotel licences for the concerts.

The controversy that has surrounded Mallorca Rocks is symbolic of what Delgado represents. Market conservatism is not a concept he adheres to. Acotur has brought criticism upon itself by opposing innovation and new business; it has cast itself as being reactionary and the defender of the status quo. If Delgado can break the shackles of such conservatism and vested interests, then he could well prove to be the tourism minister that Mallorca has been crying out for.

Much is being made of the fact that Delgado, as former mayor of Calvia, is the right man for the job because he has been mayor of a municipality with such a strong tourism economy. The argument doesn't necessarily follow. When Miguel Ferrer, the then mayor of Alcúdia, became tourism minister, the same thing was said. This smacked of a rationalisation for an appointment that owed more to Buggins's turn than to credentials for the job. Delgado is different in that he has been intimately involved with Calvia's tourism in a way that Ferrer wasn't in Alcúdia, but what actually has he done? PSOE, for instance, suggests that tourism initiatives in the town have been non-existent.

And this is the worry with Delgado. For all his instincts, for all his pronouncements, for all his challenge to forces of market illiberalism and for all his new best friends among the hoteliers, does his publicity outweigh the reality? We are about to find out.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Open House: The holiday-lets nonsense

There was an open letter the other day to "The Bulletin" from the boss of a UK holiday-let company. It was addressed to the tourism minister, was not without merit and has, seemingly, attracted support, to the extent that the same writer is now wanting to form some sort of pressure group. It was, as you would realise from the nature of the company, about the lunatic situation regarding holiday lets. Fair enough, and a fair way of generating publicity, you might imagine, but let's not be cynical.

The open letter is a familiar enough technique. One of the most famous was Zola's "J'accuse". It acquired fame not only because of the accusations made but also because of Zola's standing and influence in France. And it is this, standing and influence, that makes the open letter powerful. Moreover, the fact that it might actually be read by those for whom it is intended, makes it doubly powerful, which was the case with "J'accuse". Zola had to flee to England.

I had heard of neither the author of the letter nor of his company until the letter appeared. No Zola, in other words. It might have been considered rather self-serving. Yet, it was a reasonable letter, one that expressed well the frustrations surrounding the confused holiday-let situation and the antagonism shown towards a sector of the tourism industry in Mallorca that has enormous potential for good. I might not go along with the technique of the open letter - and don't - but the sentiments cannot really be faulted.

The problem is though, has the intended recipient - the tourism minister - read it. Will she read it? If the answer is no, then what was the point of it? Even if she has, or does, would she be likely to respond? Doubtful. But were she to respond, what would she say? Thanks, but no thanks, or something along those lines.

You have to go back to June last year to get a real handle on this. On 19 June ("But You Can't Come In"), I reported on the agreement between the Balearic Government, business (hoteliers) and unions to tackle the principal problems with tourism, one of which was - so they reckoned - illegal holiday lets. And many holiday lets are illegal, because there is no mechanism to make them legal, which is how the government seems to want it. It is government strategy to outlaw as much of the holiday-let business as it can. It is also government wish to pursue ever greater standards in hotel stock. It should not be forgotten that, of the leading Mallorcan companies, several are hotel chains; they are extremely powerful. They are also highly organised and represented on all manner of tourism bodies. The holiday-let sector, on the other hand, is not organised, lacks representation, has no lobbying power, is fragmented. When the press come calling to ask for reactions to the appointment of the latest tourism minister (and they've had to do this a few times over not so many months), to whom do they talk? The holiday-let business? Of course not. It is to the hotel associations, those who always seem to express their full confidence in a new minister. They express confidence, not because they necessarily have any, but because they want they want to establish who wears the tourism trousers, and to let ministers know who not to antagonise. Get a campaign going for holiday lets, get a tourism minister listening, sympathetic even, and what do you reckon would happen? "Now then, Sra. Barceló, a little word in your shell-like over this holiday-let nonsense ..."

Try starting a campaign if you are some small holiday-let business from the UK or another foreign country, and where do you reckon this will get you? Foreign companies can exert pressure, if they are powerful, the tour operators most obviously. And maybe it is these, the likes of TUI and Thomas Cook, who should be the real recipients of the open letter, for they want a flourishing holiday-let market as much as they want to be able to extract every last concession from the hoteliers. They also want to sell flights.

Joana Barceló will take precisely no notice of this "campaign", because it would be politically unwise for her to do so. But if there is to be an open letter to her, then rather than "The Bulletin", try the Spanish press. She might then read it.

I am, however, not unsupportive of the letter and of the writer, because he has done what the paper singularly failed to do when the tourism minister was interviewed, namely ask what the hell she's going to do about holiday lets, other than place them outside the law. It is an issue that affects many and is important in the context of the total tourism scene; one also that is regularly aired in the paper - by letter-writers. But why does it fall to a letter-writer to raise the subject or to start a campaign?


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Swing Lowe - Vicious Sid And Real Mallorca

Sid Lowe. Not a stranger to a bit of controversy and not a stranger to this blog, as any of you will know who recall the ding-dong he caused when he drew attention to an advert in which the Spanish basketball team made "slitty-eyed" gestures at the time of the Beijing Olympics (18 August, 2008: Basket Case). Now it's the turn of Real Mallorca. The club has apparently sent him a letter expressing its indignation (so it is said in "The Bulletin") following something he wrote on his "Guardian" blog, which would probably not have caused much of a fuss had it not been picked up by the Spanish media.

Lowe, for those of you who don't know, is a journo based in Madrid and has made a career out of taking the rise out of Spanish football and sport. He is also a football commentator on Spanish TV, but he is of course British, and it is this - being British - that one suspects people don't like, some Real Mallorca supporters and officials, that is. There has also been a touch of lost in translation as well as selective reading of Lowe's piece in which he called Real Mallorca "rubbish" and sub-headed the piece by saying that "Real Mallorca are badly run, financially constricted and have a shoddy team". None of this is inaccurate, though he goes on to qualify this by looking at the recent farcical ownership fandango and by heaping praise on coach Gregorio Manzano for getting a team of average players to perform as well as it is - to fifth position in La Liga. In response to one of only, from what I can see, two comments taking him to task, he also qualifies the use of the word "rubbish", one that is typically used in throwaway terms by English speakers. He also said that the club has "no fans", which he then explains in the comments exchange; the club has a poor attendance record, which is undeniable.

It does all seem to boil down to who you are and where you write. Go back to the title of that previous blog entry about Lowe. "Basket Case" is a term I have used on more than one occasion to also describe Real Mallorca. Lowe's article is not a million miles away from stuff I have said about Real Mallorca, especially in respect of the ownership nonsense, the lack of money, the level of debt and the fans - I still find it hard to understand how the only La Liga club in Mallorca cannot regularly fill its stadium, one with a capacity of some 25,000. Actually I do understand, because many Mallorcans follow Barça or even one of the Madrid teams.

The mention in "The Bulletin" described Lowe's piece as "inflamatory" (sic - there is an "m" missing). It was nothing of the sort, and many Mallorca fans would probably agree with much of what he wrote. Indeed many have said much the same thing, especially with regard to the damage to the club's reputation caused by the likes of Grande, Davidson and the Martí family.

Read Sid Lowe's article here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/dec/07/mallorca-managerial-magic-sid-lowe


Ferrer's first interview
Rubbish, nonsense, the Spanish have a word that can mean both - "tonterías". It was a word used by new tourism minister Miquel Ferrer during his first press engagements. Politicians should not be wasting time on nonsense was how the interview in "The Diario" was headlined. It was, unfortunately, an uninformative piece. It lacked bite. There needed to have been more grilling of Ferrer and his qualification for the post, while the issue of the all-inclusive was ignored. Ferrer believes that 2010 will see an improvement in the tourism market, that there is an excellent marketing plan in place and that the Rafa Nadal promotional campaign will be continued. Good for the still Alcúdia mayor. The coming season should indeed be better (one would hope), but as for the marketing and the promotion ... ?


The popular Popular
A poll suggests that, were an election for the regional government to be held now, the Partido Popular would be returned with a majority. "The Bulletin" points out that this would be despite the party being implicated in corruption cases, most obviously that involving former president Matas. Though the turn-out would, in all likelihood, be low, perhaps an indication of voter disaffection caused by the various political scandals, the fact that the PP might regain power probably says more about what really matters to the electorate. As ever, "it's the economy, stupid", and may well reflect attitudes towards the central socialist government as much as those towards the regional socialist-led coalition.


QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Alan Rickman, Sheriff of Nottingham, "Robin Hood, Prince of Thieves".

(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)