“I think it’s better to have those drinking ghettoes, Playa de Palma and Magalluf, where people go, rather than these intellectual types of tourists who tramp over everything in their search for the untouched bit, the original Mallorcan, and the residential tourists, who buy up property, buy a car, usually two, swimming pools, and want gardens with plants and grass like at home but that need water.”
Who said this? It might surprise you to learn that it was a spokesperson for the environmentalists GOB. These are the words of Gerard Hau, quoted from an article in The Guardian in May last year. They are words which encapsulate themes of recent days and weeks and point to different extremes of Mallorca's tourism. At one end of the spectrum is the low-grade drunken tourism and its vandalistic in-resort tendencies. At the other is the high-spending luxury class and its own vandalism of the countryside. Within the context of the furore over the holiday rentals' legislation, residential tourism in the countryside has been largely ignored, and by residential tourism one means second homes that are both for rent and just for use by owners.
Among their objections to the legislation, Podemos were determined to put an end to a savaging of the countryside in the pursuit of the up-market rental. Ideologically, one would expect them to, but otherwise they are on the same page as Gerard Hau. He, however, was going at the issue from a different perspective. At the time he was quoted, Mallorca was in the grip of drought (or at least near-drought). His concern was resources: water, in this instance.
The Hau thesis, coloured by an unnecessarily all-embracing pejorative attitude towards tourists of the mass who go to the principal resorts (only some of these tourists are drunks; the vast majority are not), echoes the philosophy enshrined in the so-called Benidorm Effect. Establish areas of high-density tourism and they are very much more efficient in terms of resource use. Spread tourism with little control into low-density or virtually uninhabited areas, and the resource use is highly inefficient.
For Podemos, there is an obsession with eliminating provisions in law that the Partido Popular introduced in 2012. The Delgado Law (the 2012 tourism act) facilitated touristic development on rustic land: the territory which doesn't have a satisfactory translation in English. Rural is inadequate. But whether from a politically ideological perspective or from economic or environmental perspectives, the arguments about countryside tourism, about drunken tourism, about holiday rentals in general all arrive at the same point. What does Mallorca want from its tourism? And what overall strategy is there for this?
The simple answer to the first question is the vague notion of quality. The word is so loose and woolly as to be meaningless. And who, let's face it, ever advocates tourism without quality?
There are degrees and grades of quality. It has long been known that in Mallorca there is a type of tourism I have described in the past as social-services tourism. This isn't anything to do with the winter, sometimes subsidised tourism for senior citizens. It has to do with the tourism that is provided with a social service by the island. It commonly pitches up in an all-inclusive, extracts the social service benefits on offer, and then disappears, quite probably clutching a false claim form. The net result for Mallorca is a loss.
The evidence of this type of tourism has existed in rigorous academic research for almost thirty years. The drunken tourism of today's headlines is the inheritor of the past. All that time - thirty years at least - and it still has the capacity to shock politicians (and others) out of their complacency.
The degrees of quality are such that the principal tourism market sector - the family - can be stigmatised for being insufficiently wealthy. This is not a social-services or drunken category, it is a normal, regular segment of the market which might choose an all-inclusive on economic grounds. If the offer is there, then why on Earth shouldn't it? There may not be enormous splashing of cash, but there are none of the behavioural negatives that are dogging Gerard Hau's "drinking ghettoes".
More than ever, the current arguments reinforce the fact that there is so little coherence in terms of a strategic approach. The rentals' legislation highlights this. There should of course be some greater liberalisation. Not a free-for-all but regulation that recognises market dynamics and, yes, can generally permit a tourism of "quality".
But political flip-flopping, competing ideologies and competing favouritism (be it to hoteliers, the environment, whatever) erect constant barriers while at the same time shifting the sands of regulation without adequate regard for joined-up strategy. The arguments, one fears, will be the same thirty years from now.
Showing posts with label Tourism strategy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tourism strategy. Show all posts
Saturday, July 22, 2017
Tuesday, August 11, 2015
Who Are Fiestas For?
In the late 1960s, a leaflet was produced to promote the Cossier folk dancers of Algaida. This was a curious time for Mallorca and its traditions, the Franco regime appearing disinterested in them and preferring instead to make them subordinate to standardised tradtions of Spain. Flamenco and so on, therefore became the symbols of tradition in the resorts. Apparent disinterest was compounded by migration. Workers moved to the coasts, so when it came time for the annual fiestas back in the village, any number of them could no longer attend. The old traditions began to wane.
The perception of disinterest wasn't an entirely accurate one though. While initially, at the start of the tourism boom, traditions and fiestas in Mallorca were paid little attention to, there was a gradual appreciation that they might actually have some benefit for tourism. A landmark decision in this regard, where Mallorca was concerned, was the declaration of Sa Pobla's Sant Antoni fiestas as being in the national tourist interest. This was in 1966. Sant Antoni does of course take place in January, but even back then, there was a realisation that tourism had to break out of a seasonal pattern. It was why, for example, the regime made "tourism days" mandatory towards the end of September: the season in the early years more or less stopped once schools in Britain and Germany had gone back.
The Algaida Cossiers had something in common with the Sa Pobla fiesta, and they still do. They dance during the summer fiestas of Sant Jaume, but they also appear at exactly the same time in January, when Algaida honours its winter patron, Sant Honorat. So, by the late 1960s the Fomento del Turismo, the Mallorca Tourism Board, was assisting in the promotion of the Cossiers, which also meant that the fiestas themselves were being promoted.
If you go right back in time to the start of organised tourism development with the formation of the tourism board in 1905, you will find that fiestas and fairs were among promotional efforts. Though these were specifically for Palma, which made perfect sense given the undeveloped nature of the island, the tourism potential was being explored.
Come into the present, and two years ago the town hall in Algaida published its strategy for tourism. All municipalities in Mallorca had been told by the tourism ministry that they had to have one. Though Carlos Delgado, the minister who insisted on this, took his fair share of criticism, the order that was sent out to the town halls was a sensible one. For the first time, an attempt was being made at some form of unified strategy for the whole island, a strategy based on the importance of tourism for each and every part of Mallorca.
Algaida, a town with very little actual tourism in the sense of having tourism accommodation, focused its strategy on a variety of elements, one of which was the dance of the Cossiers and so the fiestas of Sant Jaume and Sant Honorat. If you go to the town's tourism website - www.visitalgaida.com - you will discover a fairly decent effort at promotion, included in which are the fiestas, the Cossiers and indeed the Algaida fair.
The point about Algaida is that it is a typical inland village which is easy to overlook. The same can be said for several other villages (or towns, if you prefer). Take Vilafranca de Bonany or Sant Joan for instance. They are quite near to Algaida, but both suffer as they are off the main Palma-Manacor road. It might also be said that they suffer because neither has immediately obvious tourism interest. Except of course that they do, and one interest is that of fiestas and fairs. Vilafranca, adhering to the command for a tourism strategic plan, wants to push its melon fair in early September. Sant Joan, by its very name, has an obvious association with the fiestas of Sant Joan - John the Baptist - in June and August (one for his birth, one for his death). Neither town has gone as far as Algaida has in promoting fiestas, but both have an appreciation of the potential tourism benefit.
The title of this article asks who the fiestas are for. Fundamentally, they are for the local people. There has, though, been some disquiet expressed at the possibility of village fiestas being the target for tourists. But in one way or another, they always have been. It would be most unlikely, even with stronger promotion, that the village fiestas would ever be flooded with tourists, as it would need excursions' operators to do so, and they, with the odd exception, don't bother. To suggest, however, that these village fiestas are not for tourists would be wrong. The tourism value was recognised over a hundred years ago, it was understood by the Franco regime, and it has now, strategically, also been recognised.
The perception of disinterest wasn't an entirely accurate one though. While initially, at the start of the tourism boom, traditions and fiestas in Mallorca were paid little attention to, there was a gradual appreciation that they might actually have some benefit for tourism. A landmark decision in this regard, where Mallorca was concerned, was the declaration of Sa Pobla's Sant Antoni fiestas as being in the national tourist interest. This was in 1966. Sant Antoni does of course take place in January, but even back then, there was a realisation that tourism had to break out of a seasonal pattern. It was why, for example, the regime made "tourism days" mandatory towards the end of September: the season in the early years more or less stopped once schools in Britain and Germany had gone back.
The Algaida Cossiers had something in common with the Sa Pobla fiesta, and they still do. They dance during the summer fiestas of Sant Jaume, but they also appear at exactly the same time in January, when Algaida honours its winter patron, Sant Honorat. So, by the late 1960s the Fomento del Turismo, the Mallorca Tourism Board, was assisting in the promotion of the Cossiers, which also meant that the fiestas themselves were being promoted.
If you go right back in time to the start of organised tourism development with the formation of the tourism board in 1905, you will find that fiestas and fairs were among promotional efforts. Though these were specifically for Palma, which made perfect sense given the undeveloped nature of the island, the tourism potential was being explored.
Come into the present, and two years ago the town hall in Algaida published its strategy for tourism. All municipalities in Mallorca had been told by the tourism ministry that they had to have one. Though Carlos Delgado, the minister who insisted on this, took his fair share of criticism, the order that was sent out to the town halls was a sensible one. For the first time, an attempt was being made at some form of unified strategy for the whole island, a strategy based on the importance of tourism for each and every part of Mallorca.
Algaida, a town with very little actual tourism in the sense of having tourism accommodation, focused its strategy on a variety of elements, one of which was the dance of the Cossiers and so the fiestas of Sant Jaume and Sant Honorat. If you go to the town's tourism website - www.visitalgaida.com - you will discover a fairly decent effort at promotion, included in which are the fiestas, the Cossiers and indeed the Algaida fair.
The point about Algaida is that it is a typical inland village which is easy to overlook. The same can be said for several other villages (or towns, if you prefer). Take Vilafranca de Bonany or Sant Joan for instance. They are quite near to Algaida, but both suffer as they are off the main Palma-Manacor road. It might also be said that they suffer because neither has immediately obvious tourism interest. Except of course that they do, and one interest is that of fiestas and fairs. Vilafranca, adhering to the command for a tourism strategic plan, wants to push its melon fair in early September. Sant Joan, by its very name, has an obvious association with the fiestas of Sant Joan - John the Baptist - in June and August (one for his birth, one for his death). Neither town has gone as far as Algaida has in promoting fiestas, but both have an appreciation of the potential tourism benefit.
The title of this article asks who the fiestas are for. Fundamentally, they are for the local people. There has, though, been some disquiet expressed at the possibility of village fiestas being the target for tourists. But in one way or another, they always have been. It would be most unlikely, even with stronger promotion, that the village fiestas would ever be flooded with tourists, as it would need excursions' operators to do so, and they, with the odd exception, don't bother. To suggest, however, that these village fiestas are not for tourists would be wrong. The tourism value was recognised over a hundred years ago, it was understood by the Franco regime, and it has now, strategically, also been recognised.
Thursday, January 15, 2015
The Giant Pumpkin Of Tourism
"The biggest fruit in the world." This was a headline on the BBC website's home page. The fruit was a pumpkin, a fruit in which I do not for one moment pretend to be an expert but which holds an affection because of the annual pumpkin-growing contest that is judged at Muro's autumn fair. In the US, pumpkins are as much as three or four times the size of anything a Mallorcan grower can aspire to: the giants pumpkins of America dwarf the giants of Muro.
No one would claim that giant pumpkins at a fair in a small rural town are in themselves going to make a difference to Mallorca's tourism, but the BBC's pumpkin article had a very clear touristic element. This wasn't contained in the article itself. It was the banner at the top of the article. "Visit Croatia. Share Croatia," it read. It had been placed on behalf of the Croatian National Tourist Board. These banners can be somewhat hit or miss in respect of where they might appear and so therefore who might see them, but this randomness notwithstanding, the banner spoke volumes. The difference between Croatia's tourism promotion and Mallorca's was stark. Croatia is active in a way that Mallorca most definitely isn't. Were Mallorca active, there might have been some appeal in a banner for the island featuring at the top of the pumpkin article. Not, as I say, because the pumpkin fair would have thousands of tourists beating a path to Muro but because it is indicative of an often batty, alternative Mallorca the regional government would so love the world to know about and yet which it fails so abjectly in informing.
Croatia is arguably the European champion of tourism promotion. It gets web promotion in a way that Mallorca mystifyingly doesn't, or as yet hasn't seen fit to genuinely embrace. The word "share" in the banner says much. Croatia's social-media presence is enormous, while Mallorca's is not; it is a giant pumpkin-sized approach versus a seedling. I have railed often enough against Mallorca's poor social-media activity and so wonder if the baffling lack of presence is indicative of a wider issue.
One senses that Mallorca's tourism is at a crossroads. A strategic desire is for the up-market, but is there truly an acceptance of such an exclusive market to the exclusion of others? Is, therefore, an incoherent approach to web promotion a manifestation of this uncertainty? Technology and marketing are combined in ways they never have been before, yet neither appears to have a clearly defined role. What does Mallorca want from web technology and what does it really want by way of its tourism market?
Neither the government nor the tourism industry can neglect the past. Despite an aloofness (a misguided one) that has been shown by some in Mallorca towards the current-day concept of low cost, it was precisely this - low cost - on which the island's modern-era tourism was based. The term is an invention from the 1990s, but Mallorca grew as a consequence of cheap-as-chips tourism for the masses and spawned some of the resort hideousness that the government would also so love to get to grips with. This was tourism of the giant-pumpkin variety. The larger the pumpkin, the less taste it has. Mallorca reaped what it had sown: a massive fruit comprising 98% water, little substance and little taste.
This has of course changed over the years, but Mallorca is still faced with the giant-pumpkin conundrum. How does it add vastly more starch and sugar of a quality, up-market style while year after year still planting the seeds for massive-sized production? How can it, when vertically integrated tour operators have to sell on volume to meet airline, airport and hotel obligations or when far too many hotels (which would need a miracle of investment) will remain for the high percentage of tourists who represent the water content or when too many jobs rely on the island's benevolence in providing a form of tourism social services for visitors whose actual contribution to the economy is otherwise negligible or often negative?
Croatia has grasped the promotional nettle because its government has taken the lead. In Mallorca the government does not lead. It trusts in the private sector to do its thinking and doing. President Bauzá said a year ago that his government had spent nothing on its tourism policy because it was in the hands of the private sector, which is all well and good, but while there is a giant pumpkin to be filled, the private sector of hotels and tour operators will do so in whichever way suits it, the result being, in the absence of clear leadership, strategy and web promotion, a fruit of a different variety - a lemon.
No one would claim that giant pumpkins at a fair in a small rural town are in themselves going to make a difference to Mallorca's tourism, but the BBC's pumpkin article had a very clear touristic element. This wasn't contained in the article itself. It was the banner at the top of the article. "Visit Croatia. Share Croatia," it read. It had been placed on behalf of the Croatian National Tourist Board. These banners can be somewhat hit or miss in respect of where they might appear and so therefore who might see them, but this randomness notwithstanding, the banner spoke volumes. The difference between Croatia's tourism promotion and Mallorca's was stark. Croatia is active in a way that Mallorca most definitely isn't. Were Mallorca active, there might have been some appeal in a banner for the island featuring at the top of the pumpkin article. Not, as I say, because the pumpkin fair would have thousands of tourists beating a path to Muro but because it is indicative of an often batty, alternative Mallorca the regional government would so love the world to know about and yet which it fails so abjectly in informing.
Croatia is arguably the European champion of tourism promotion. It gets web promotion in a way that Mallorca mystifyingly doesn't, or as yet hasn't seen fit to genuinely embrace. The word "share" in the banner says much. Croatia's social-media presence is enormous, while Mallorca's is not; it is a giant pumpkin-sized approach versus a seedling. I have railed often enough against Mallorca's poor social-media activity and so wonder if the baffling lack of presence is indicative of a wider issue.
One senses that Mallorca's tourism is at a crossroads. A strategic desire is for the up-market, but is there truly an acceptance of such an exclusive market to the exclusion of others? Is, therefore, an incoherent approach to web promotion a manifestation of this uncertainty? Technology and marketing are combined in ways they never have been before, yet neither appears to have a clearly defined role. What does Mallorca want from web technology and what does it really want by way of its tourism market?
Neither the government nor the tourism industry can neglect the past. Despite an aloofness (a misguided one) that has been shown by some in Mallorca towards the current-day concept of low cost, it was precisely this - low cost - on which the island's modern-era tourism was based. The term is an invention from the 1990s, but Mallorca grew as a consequence of cheap-as-chips tourism for the masses and spawned some of the resort hideousness that the government would also so love to get to grips with. This was tourism of the giant-pumpkin variety. The larger the pumpkin, the less taste it has. Mallorca reaped what it had sown: a massive fruit comprising 98% water, little substance and little taste.
This has of course changed over the years, but Mallorca is still faced with the giant-pumpkin conundrum. How does it add vastly more starch and sugar of a quality, up-market style while year after year still planting the seeds for massive-sized production? How can it, when vertically integrated tour operators have to sell on volume to meet airline, airport and hotel obligations or when far too many hotels (which would need a miracle of investment) will remain for the high percentage of tourists who represent the water content or when too many jobs rely on the island's benevolence in providing a form of tourism social services for visitors whose actual contribution to the economy is otherwise negligible or often negative?
Croatia has grasped the promotional nettle because its government has taken the lead. In Mallorca the government does not lead. It trusts in the private sector to do its thinking and doing. President Bauzá said a year ago that his government had spent nothing on its tourism policy because it was in the hands of the private sector, which is all well and good, but while there is a giant pumpkin to be filled, the private sector of hotels and tour operators will do so in whichever way suits it, the result being, in the absence of clear leadership, strategy and web promotion, a fruit of a different variety - a lemon.
Monday, November 21, 2011
State Of Independence: Tourism strategy
There was one revealing quote from the interview with Esteve Bardolet* (“The Bulletin”, 20 November). Well, two, but I’ll come to the second later. Bardolet, one of the rare people it is worth listening to regarding Mallorca’s tourism, said, in the context of working with the Mallorcan Tourist Board: “I was totally independent. Neither I nor anyone in my family had any business interests in the world of tourism, so I was able to be totally impartial”.
Totally independent, totally impartial. This is not how you would normally describe different players in Mallorca’s tourism industry. The Mallorcan Tourist Board would claim to be independent, but it isn’t, given that it comprises representatives with their own specific interests, and this, pretty much, was what Bardolet was implying.
An independent and impartial perspective on the tourism industry is almost impossible to achieve. In theory, the government should have such a perspective, but it is beholden to powerful voices from within the industry. Think for a moment about how, before the regional elections in May, the hotels were saying that they didn’t want Carlos Delgado as tourism minister. He might just have proven to be a bit too independent of mind. Now, however, all is sweetness and light, and the hotels are having the industry served up to them on a plate. “A word in your shell-like, Carlos,” might well have been words whispered in a quiet corner of the tourism ministry, along with “side”, “knowing”, “bread” and “buttered”.
The government, perhaps recognising the impossibility of being immune to influences from the industry, is trying instead to involve all sectors of the industry, bringing the various associations as well as airlines and tour operators into the tourism agency. It’s a bold move and one that makes a lot of sense, as a collective is formed of those who understand the tourism industry. The trouble is that they understand it in their terms. Whatever good words airlines or tour operators may utter, they do not consider Mallorca in isolation. They ultimately do what is good for them. If that includes Mallorca, then fine. If not, well, that’s business.
Bringing together the great and good of the tourism business world does not automatically mean that everyone sings from the same hymn sheet or that noses aren’t put out of joint. Palma town hall, in doing something similar to the tourism agency, has managed to dislocate restaurant snouts, but what the restaurants are really upset about by being excluded is the fact that they can’t voice their own interests.
Meanwhile, there is the government’s interdepartmental tourism committee. I have long advocated that, in the government’s organisational structure, tourism should be at the top of the pyramid, if only notionally, and that other departments function in a support capacity. This committee goes some way to achieving this. While it may not result in independence or impartiality, it may just prevent the sort of governmental turf wars breaking out that have been detrimental to the interests of the tourism industry.
There was no better example of this than during the last administration. Faced with his government collapsing, Antich handed out key posts to the Mallorcan socialists. One of them, environment, resulted straightaway and with total predictability in the paralysing of the Muro golf course. It wasn’t the government as such which stopped the development, it was one department. But Antich was in no position to argue.
Not having coalition partners that require pandering to does help, but government departments have a tendency to work to their own agendas, neglecting the common good. The government’s committee will not eradicate this and nor will it remove the influences that specific departments are subject to from outside government, but it’s a start.
What would really make a difference would be were tourism given a true dose of independent thought, a meeting of minds with the sort of impartiality that Bardolet has displayed. A tourism technocracy, if you like. And more than just impartiality, there might also be some realism, which is where that second quote comes in. Though Bardolet suggested that the north European market needed to be looked to in the winter (though isn’t it already?), he said: “the winters, I fear, will never work”.
Is this just defeatism? Possibly, but possibly it is an understanding, which is what Bardolet has in abundance. Facile prescriptions for Mallorca’s winter tourism that emanate from all quarters, issued through a myopic insularity and parochialism and through constant reinforcement of a groupthink style, often fail to take realism into account. It’s a painful truth, but Bardolet may just be right. We could do with more such independent thought.
* Bardolet is a former vice-president of the Mallorcan Tourist Board and was awarded a gold medal last week in recognition of his contribution to tourism.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Totally independent, totally impartial. This is not how you would normally describe different players in Mallorca’s tourism industry. The Mallorcan Tourist Board would claim to be independent, but it isn’t, given that it comprises representatives with their own specific interests, and this, pretty much, was what Bardolet was implying.
An independent and impartial perspective on the tourism industry is almost impossible to achieve. In theory, the government should have such a perspective, but it is beholden to powerful voices from within the industry. Think for a moment about how, before the regional elections in May, the hotels were saying that they didn’t want Carlos Delgado as tourism minister. He might just have proven to be a bit too independent of mind. Now, however, all is sweetness and light, and the hotels are having the industry served up to them on a plate. “A word in your shell-like, Carlos,” might well have been words whispered in a quiet corner of the tourism ministry, along with “side”, “knowing”, “bread” and “buttered”.
The government, perhaps recognising the impossibility of being immune to influences from the industry, is trying instead to involve all sectors of the industry, bringing the various associations as well as airlines and tour operators into the tourism agency. It’s a bold move and one that makes a lot of sense, as a collective is formed of those who understand the tourism industry. The trouble is that they understand it in their terms. Whatever good words airlines or tour operators may utter, they do not consider Mallorca in isolation. They ultimately do what is good for them. If that includes Mallorca, then fine. If not, well, that’s business.
Bringing together the great and good of the tourism business world does not automatically mean that everyone sings from the same hymn sheet or that noses aren’t put out of joint. Palma town hall, in doing something similar to the tourism agency, has managed to dislocate restaurant snouts, but what the restaurants are really upset about by being excluded is the fact that they can’t voice their own interests.
Meanwhile, there is the government’s interdepartmental tourism committee. I have long advocated that, in the government’s organisational structure, tourism should be at the top of the pyramid, if only notionally, and that other departments function in a support capacity. This committee goes some way to achieving this. While it may not result in independence or impartiality, it may just prevent the sort of governmental turf wars breaking out that have been detrimental to the interests of the tourism industry.
There was no better example of this than during the last administration. Faced with his government collapsing, Antich handed out key posts to the Mallorcan socialists. One of them, environment, resulted straightaway and with total predictability in the paralysing of the Muro golf course. It wasn’t the government as such which stopped the development, it was one department. But Antich was in no position to argue.
Not having coalition partners that require pandering to does help, but government departments have a tendency to work to their own agendas, neglecting the common good. The government’s committee will not eradicate this and nor will it remove the influences that specific departments are subject to from outside government, but it’s a start.
What would really make a difference would be were tourism given a true dose of independent thought, a meeting of minds with the sort of impartiality that Bardolet has displayed. A tourism technocracy, if you like. And more than just impartiality, there might also be some realism, which is where that second quote comes in. Though Bardolet suggested that the north European market needed to be looked to in the winter (though isn’t it already?), he said: “the winters, I fear, will never work”.
Is this just defeatism? Possibly, but possibly it is an understanding, which is what Bardolet has in abundance. Facile prescriptions for Mallorca’s winter tourism that emanate from all quarters, issued through a myopic insularity and parochialism and through constant reinforcement of a groupthink style, often fail to take realism into account. It’s a painful truth, but Bardolet may just be right. We could do with more such independent thought.
* Bardolet is a former vice-president of the Mallorcan Tourist Board and was awarded a gold medal last week in recognition of his contribution to tourism.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Cutting Down To Size: Tourism strategy
The rarity with which anyone in the tourism industry utters some common sense demands that, when it is uttered, attention should be paid. The president of the Mallorcan Hoteliers Federation, as reported in "The Bulletin" (15 December), has called for the elimination of obsolete tourism accommodation and for the avoidance of duplication in tourism promotion. The federation is drawing up a strategic plan in which both these aspects feature. Praise be that someone, anyone, might apply some strategic thinking to Mallorca's tourism.
Without spelling it out in so many words, the logic of the federation's wish to eliminate outdated hotels and to regenerate tourism areas is that there would be a reduction in the number of hotels. This might sound like turkeys proposing and then voting firmly in favour of Christmas, but the hotels are suffering from a lack of stuffing and from what there is, which is all onion and no sage. The wisdom of chasing numbers at the expense of profitability has been exposed as being as pointless as filling the Christmas plate with Brussels sprouts no one wants; the trimmings need to be cut and made more edible.
The words of the federation's president deserve to be slowly chewed over and digested. "The problem with the approach to the tourist industry ... is that hoteliers, backed by the regional government, (have) been too keen on getting large numbers to the islands without creating a proper pricing structure". There are too many hotels, there is too much supply and there are relatively too high a number of tourists that generate insufficient revenue.
It's a drum that I seem to have been banging for an age. Perhaps the penny is dropping along with the profitability that goes with a percentage of tourism which is worth very little or nothing at all. The case for a strategy based on lower numbers, on improved quality of hotel and on a higher-worth tourist seems overwhelming.
What this doesn't mean is an end to mass tourism. It would be folly were it to. What it does mean is an altogether sharper focus on tourism which is less like a social service and more one of excellent service for a more demanding tourist.
It is a strategy that is not without its problems. Eliminating obsolete hotel stock and not replacing it requires a means of compensation, which is why the hoteliers have previously called for legal means by which hotels can be pulled. Upgrading stock means more than just the limited provisions of the "decreto Nadal"; it means fewer bureaucratic hoops through which hotels have to jump in order to re-develop and also means integrated approaches to resort development of the sort that has collapsed in Playa de Palma.
It is a strategy that also requires the government to rid itself of its obsession with numbers. Who cares if Mallorca slips down the tourism numbers league table. The goal difference in terms of tourism value is far more important than what's shown in the points column, that of tourism volume. Inevitably though, fewer tourists mean fewer employees; that is a political obstacle.
Another is fewer passengers passing through the airport. Central government may have inadvertently hit upon a solution. By proposing the privatisation of airports, the central government has shifted the goalposts of co-management of Palma airport by the regional government which is now up in arms at the suggestion, so long has it sought its share of the management and of the revenue that would go with it. One of the determinants of this co-management was that defined levels of passenger traffic should be achieved. Privatisation would put an end to this need, as co-management would be kicked into touch. What it wouldn't do necessarily is put an end to the need for numbers passing through the airport; landing, handling charges and so on would remain paramount for private operators.
Despite the obstacles, the hoteliers federation is right, but whether its strategy can resolve the apparent incompatibility between the numbers and the right sort of tourism (which is the incompatibility as things stand), who can tell.
The federation is also right when it comes to duplication of tourism promotion. Why are both the government and the Council of Mallorca involved in this? The Council now has more responsibilities for administering tourism, so why not just hand it the whole tourism responsibility? There again, why was this administration responsibility transferred from regional government? What really is the point of the Council of Mallorca when it comes to tourism promotion or indeed anything?
That it takes the private sector in the form of the hoteliers to try and drive strategy is telling. The government has failed to do so. A succession of tourism ministers have failed. One of them, Ferrer, did at least speak of the need for "boldness" when he assumed office, but he had no opportunity to demonstrate what this meant, as he was out of office in under two months. Otherwise, the words of the tourism ministry have too often trotted out the mantra of "alternative" tourism (gastronomy, culture, blah, blah) to the point at which you despair of it ever getting to grips with the fundamentals of summer tourism. A strategy? Yep, it would be nice.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Without spelling it out in so many words, the logic of the federation's wish to eliminate outdated hotels and to regenerate tourism areas is that there would be a reduction in the number of hotels. This might sound like turkeys proposing and then voting firmly in favour of Christmas, but the hotels are suffering from a lack of stuffing and from what there is, which is all onion and no sage. The wisdom of chasing numbers at the expense of profitability has been exposed as being as pointless as filling the Christmas plate with Brussels sprouts no one wants; the trimmings need to be cut and made more edible.
The words of the federation's president deserve to be slowly chewed over and digested. "The problem with the approach to the tourist industry ... is that hoteliers, backed by the regional government, (have) been too keen on getting large numbers to the islands without creating a proper pricing structure". There are too many hotels, there is too much supply and there are relatively too high a number of tourists that generate insufficient revenue.
It's a drum that I seem to have been banging for an age. Perhaps the penny is dropping along with the profitability that goes with a percentage of tourism which is worth very little or nothing at all. The case for a strategy based on lower numbers, on improved quality of hotel and on a higher-worth tourist seems overwhelming.
What this doesn't mean is an end to mass tourism. It would be folly were it to. What it does mean is an altogether sharper focus on tourism which is less like a social service and more one of excellent service for a more demanding tourist.
It is a strategy that is not without its problems. Eliminating obsolete hotel stock and not replacing it requires a means of compensation, which is why the hoteliers have previously called for legal means by which hotels can be pulled. Upgrading stock means more than just the limited provisions of the "decreto Nadal"; it means fewer bureaucratic hoops through which hotels have to jump in order to re-develop and also means integrated approaches to resort development of the sort that has collapsed in Playa de Palma.
It is a strategy that also requires the government to rid itself of its obsession with numbers. Who cares if Mallorca slips down the tourism numbers league table. The goal difference in terms of tourism value is far more important than what's shown in the points column, that of tourism volume. Inevitably though, fewer tourists mean fewer employees; that is a political obstacle.
Another is fewer passengers passing through the airport. Central government may have inadvertently hit upon a solution. By proposing the privatisation of airports, the central government has shifted the goalposts of co-management of Palma airport by the regional government which is now up in arms at the suggestion, so long has it sought its share of the management and of the revenue that would go with it. One of the determinants of this co-management was that defined levels of passenger traffic should be achieved. Privatisation would put an end to this need, as co-management would be kicked into touch. What it wouldn't do necessarily is put an end to the need for numbers passing through the airport; landing, handling charges and so on would remain paramount for private operators.
Despite the obstacles, the hoteliers federation is right, but whether its strategy can resolve the apparent incompatibility between the numbers and the right sort of tourism (which is the incompatibility as things stand), who can tell.
The federation is also right when it comes to duplication of tourism promotion. Why are both the government and the Council of Mallorca involved in this? The Council now has more responsibilities for administering tourism, so why not just hand it the whole tourism responsibility? There again, why was this administration responsibility transferred from regional government? What really is the point of the Council of Mallorca when it comes to tourism promotion or indeed anything?
That it takes the private sector in the form of the hoteliers to try and drive strategy is telling. The government has failed to do so. A succession of tourism ministers have failed. One of them, Ferrer, did at least speak of the need for "boldness" when he assumed office, but he had no opportunity to demonstrate what this meant, as he was out of office in under two months. Otherwise, the words of the tourism ministry have too often trotted out the mantra of "alternative" tourism (gastronomy, culture, blah, blah) to the point at which you despair of it ever getting to grips with the fundamentals of summer tourism. A strategy? Yep, it would be nice.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, September 05, 2010
Of No Value: Tourism that doesn't count
If you were a business chief executive and you sanctioned the payment of a "lagola" to an MBA-toting consultant, you might find yourself on gardening leave and to later be in receipt of your own lagola as compensation for your profligacy. A lagola, incidentally, is a pejorative term for eight hundred thousand euros or so (La Gola, the cost of converting a stagnant wetland and vandalised scrubland into a stagnant wetland and vandalised scrubland with a car park, OED).
You might remain in your post were it not for the fact that the consultant had cut and paste research from the internet dating back twenty years to comply with his commission - namely a cost-benefit analysis of your least valuable customers. The saving grace might be what he had discovered, assuming you had taken any notice.
I've made this up. There is no chief executive and there is no consultant. But there is a tourism minister (in fact there have been any number just recently) and any number of advisors and organisations. The tourism minister is probably only on a tenth-lagola, if that, but if she is worth the money then she might do her own bit of cutting and pasting.
In 1990 a researcher at Palma university published a paper on income from tourism. In it he showed, via cost-benefit analysis, that ten per cent of tourists spent very little, so little that they caused a "negative addition to the net social benefit of tourist activity". In other words, it cost the Balearics more to have them on the islands than was taken as a benefit.
This was twenty years ago, in the days before all-inclusives. Ten years later, the same researcher published another document in which he and a colleague pointed out that "the average expenditure per tourist ... diminished in the '80s and the beginning of the '90s". The worries about tourism spend are nothing new; they've been around for a generation or more.
In 2006 other researchers at the university presented a paper which examined the impact of all-inclusives. They revealed that over a three-year period from 2002 to 2004, the percentage of tourists opting for all-inclusive had risen from 9.58% to 16.32%. They also showed the average spend of tourists in different types of accommodation in 2004, figures taken from the same research organisation which recently released numbers showing an increase in tourism spend in July this year. This, in terms of euros per day, was 23.20, over a third less than that of the next lowest-spending group (those on half board) and under a half of the highest-spending sectors - those purchasing transport only to the islands and those opting for bed and breakfast.
We've moved on since then. Given the increase in all-inclusives, especially those at the economy end of the market, and also given a highly conservative estimation of a 0.5 percentage point increase year on year, 20% of tourists are now of no value. It's almost certainly higher. The increase in all-inclusive since 2004 has been marked. No one is exactly sure because of the numbers who upgrade to all-inclusive on arrival, but it is at least double.
You come back to that chief executive, for which read the tourism minister. It is her responsibility, as with a CEO, to form strategy. To be fair, there has been a lot of talk about tourism strategy over the years, which is part of the problem. Much of it has been talk only. We are no nearer a strategy than we have ever been. If that 10% is indeed now 20% or higher, then why bother with them? Design a strategy that excludes them.
There are reasons why not. One is a form of altruism. Just as higher education has been deemed a "right", then so also is a holiday, a foreign holiday, a right, in the sense that a right equates to being a necessity, which is how the foreign holiday is now defined. Low income should not debar people from taking a holiday; of course it shouldn't. But how far can any destination or country be expected to take this notion of social responsibility when the generosity is not being reciprocated? Come to our island, use our resources, and spend nothing. Ingrates.
The other reasons revolve around the same numbers game as that which gives rise to the tourism spend statistics - the volume of tourists and, in particular, the volume of tourists passing through the airport in Palma. Cut that 20% out and the total numbers would slip under the nine million mark (those coming to Mallorca on an annual basis). Psychologically and politically, it would be hard to accept. The airport needs as many passengers as possible: a) to justify the costs of its development and expansion and b) in order to meet traffic numbers that will guarantee that local politicians can get their hands on managing the airport. Then there are the strategies of others - airlines and tour operators, neither of which are unduly concerned so long as they stay profitable.
You can't arrive at a sensible strategy when you have competing needs. But that research needs to be revisited and revised. If it means a slimmed-down tourism market, then so be it, so long as the rump market does make a positive rather than a negative contribution. The problem, as ever, is what the all-inclusives will bring. You can spend all the lagolas you like, but if no one bothers to even go take a look, then what's the point.
Eugeni Aguiló Perez, "An Estimation Of the Social Income of Tourism", Papers of the Spanish Economy, 1990.
Catalina Juaneda Sampol and Eugeni Aguiló Perez, "Tourist Expenditure Determinants in a Cross-Section Data Model", Annals of Tourism Research, Vol 27, No 3, 2000.
Joaquín Alegre and Llorenç Pou, "The All-Inclusive Tourism Package: An analysis of its economic implications in the case of the Balearic Islands", University of the Balearic Islands, March 2006.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
You might remain in your post were it not for the fact that the consultant had cut and paste research from the internet dating back twenty years to comply with his commission - namely a cost-benefit analysis of your least valuable customers. The saving grace might be what he had discovered, assuming you had taken any notice.
I've made this up. There is no chief executive and there is no consultant. But there is a tourism minister (in fact there have been any number just recently) and any number of advisors and organisations. The tourism minister is probably only on a tenth-lagola, if that, but if she is worth the money then she might do her own bit of cutting and pasting.
In 1990 a researcher at Palma university published a paper on income from tourism. In it he showed, via cost-benefit analysis, that ten per cent of tourists spent very little, so little that they caused a "negative addition to the net social benefit of tourist activity". In other words, it cost the Balearics more to have them on the islands than was taken as a benefit.
This was twenty years ago, in the days before all-inclusives. Ten years later, the same researcher published another document in which he and a colleague pointed out that "the average expenditure per tourist ... diminished in the '80s and the beginning of the '90s". The worries about tourism spend are nothing new; they've been around for a generation or more.
In 2006 other researchers at the university presented a paper which examined the impact of all-inclusives. They revealed that over a three-year period from 2002 to 2004, the percentage of tourists opting for all-inclusive had risen from 9.58% to 16.32%. They also showed the average spend of tourists in different types of accommodation in 2004, figures taken from the same research organisation which recently released numbers showing an increase in tourism spend in July this year. This, in terms of euros per day, was 23.20, over a third less than that of the next lowest-spending group (those on half board) and under a half of the highest-spending sectors - those purchasing transport only to the islands and those opting for bed and breakfast.
We've moved on since then. Given the increase in all-inclusives, especially those at the economy end of the market, and also given a highly conservative estimation of a 0.5 percentage point increase year on year, 20% of tourists are now of no value. It's almost certainly higher. The increase in all-inclusive since 2004 has been marked. No one is exactly sure because of the numbers who upgrade to all-inclusive on arrival, but it is at least double.
You come back to that chief executive, for which read the tourism minister. It is her responsibility, as with a CEO, to form strategy. To be fair, there has been a lot of talk about tourism strategy over the years, which is part of the problem. Much of it has been talk only. We are no nearer a strategy than we have ever been. If that 10% is indeed now 20% or higher, then why bother with them? Design a strategy that excludes them.
There are reasons why not. One is a form of altruism. Just as higher education has been deemed a "right", then so also is a holiday, a foreign holiday, a right, in the sense that a right equates to being a necessity, which is how the foreign holiday is now defined. Low income should not debar people from taking a holiday; of course it shouldn't. But how far can any destination or country be expected to take this notion of social responsibility when the generosity is not being reciprocated? Come to our island, use our resources, and spend nothing. Ingrates.
The other reasons revolve around the same numbers game as that which gives rise to the tourism spend statistics - the volume of tourists and, in particular, the volume of tourists passing through the airport in Palma. Cut that 20% out and the total numbers would slip under the nine million mark (those coming to Mallorca on an annual basis). Psychologically and politically, it would be hard to accept. The airport needs as many passengers as possible: a) to justify the costs of its development and expansion and b) in order to meet traffic numbers that will guarantee that local politicians can get their hands on managing the airport. Then there are the strategies of others - airlines and tour operators, neither of which are unduly concerned so long as they stay profitable.
You can't arrive at a sensible strategy when you have competing needs. But that research needs to be revisited and revised. If it means a slimmed-down tourism market, then so be it, so long as the rump market does make a positive rather than a negative contribution. The problem, as ever, is what the all-inclusives will bring. You can spend all the lagolas you like, but if no one bothers to even go take a look, then what's the point.
Eugeni Aguiló Perez, "An Estimation Of the Social Income of Tourism", Papers of the Spanish Economy, 1990.
Catalina Juaneda Sampol and Eugeni Aguiló Perez, "Tourist Expenditure Determinants in a Cross-Section Data Model", Annals of Tourism Research, Vol 27, No 3, 2000.
Joaquín Alegre and Llorenç Pou, "The All-Inclusive Tourism Package: An analysis of its economic implications in the case of the Balearic Islands", University of the Balearic Islands, March 2006.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Monday, November 30, 2009
On The Banks Of The River Nile
The Balearics may still be the leader when it comes to Mediterranean holidays, but this position is under threat. Tell us something we didn't know, and "The Diario" did just that yesterday, but it set out quite why this threat exists.
Turkey, Egypt, Croatia - these are the three countries that most exercise the minds of Balearics tourism authorities, or they should be. The competition they represent is now well-understood, but it is still a relatively recent phenomenon. Yet, this very recency has been one of the things that have caught the Balearics on the hop. The catch-up that has been played in these countries has been swift. In the case of Croatia, it has occurred in a short period since the turmoil that was the former Yugoslavia. I went on holiday to Croatia in 1984. I say "Croatia". You didn't refer to it as such back then; it was still Yugoslavia, and it was crap. We stayed on a holiday complex which had some what could only be described as "communist" elements: a vast refectory that served inedible food and a so-called entertainment building which didn't have any - entertainment that is, except for morose local youths looking to pick fights. The beach did not exist. One stretched out on what was like a car park, a series of huge concrete slabs from which one walked down steps into the sea. It was popular with Germans who could drive there, and there were even holidaymakers from the old communist bloc - Hungarians most obviously. The complex was soulless, what there was by way of bars, restaurants and shops was of a poor standard. The best thing about it was that you could buy reasonably good fresh food and have your own barbecues, because you certainly didn't want to be dining out. Oh, and it was incredibly cheap.
But that was 25 years ago. The war intervened, and then Croatia undertook its tourism birth, while Turkey and Egypt began to plan more aggressively for the future.
Though both Turkey and Egypt have experienced slight falls in the number of tourists this year, the decline has not been as great as that in the Balearics. The islands still hold their dominant position, but they are in retreat, faced with the competition of the eastern Med. This competition is founded on new and often superior hotel stock and cheapness. There is also a bit of unfair competitive advantage. Governments can subsidise an industry in a way that the Spanish cannot, unless they wish to bring down the wrath of Brussels on their heads. These governments can also influence exchange rates - to their benefit - in ways that Euroland Spain cannot.
"The Diario" itemises the pros and cons of the Balearics and of its competitors. The paper admits that the so-called "complementary offer" (i.e. bars and restaurants etc.) is costly, but it is also vastly superior to that available in the competitor destinations. However, it is the hotel element that speaks volumes. The current-day holidaymaker seems less interested in that complementary offer. Egypt and Turkey may suffer from inferior infrastructures, but what do these matter when the holidaymaker can stay in relative luxury on an all-inclusive basis? Outside bars and restaurants hold less appeal for a growing number of tourists, and so it also is in Mallorca where the all-inclusive offer has had to increase in response to what is happening elsewhere but where the hotels are not always as good.
There are cons in Egypt and Turkey in terms of, for example, terrorism, but this is a more questionable card to play following the summer bombs in Mallorca. There are cons in terms of low-quality bars and restaurants, but this is a questionable card to play if the holidaymaker isn't interested. There are cons in terms of limited travel possibilities, which constitute one definite pro for Mallorca which is better served by air and sea and which is also closer for northern Europeans. There are pros in terms of government intervention; the Turkish government supported financially an 18% shareholding in Air Berlin by the Turkish airline Pegasus, thus, at a stroke, opening up a wider German market to the Turkish Riviera. There are pros in terms of governmental priority; tourism is the industry in the eastern Med and responsibilities of those at the heads of government reflect this. I suggested a while ago that the Balearics president should also be the tourism minister. Maybe I was right to have done so.
In Mallorca and the Balearics, they continue to bang on about the strength of the brand (Balearics, erroneously), about professionalism, about sustainable environments, blah, blah, but much of it is whistling in the dark. It will continue to be so not only because of the growing competition but also - a point "The Diario" neglects to make - because there are too many competing self-interests in Mallorca, be these in government, within associations or in the tourism sector. The eastern Med countries are far more single-minded, far more focused on an overarching strategy led by government. They, the Turks, the Egyptians, the Croats, have adopted coherent and intelligent strategies of competition, and it is these, more than anything, that they have used to challenge Mallorca and the Balearics, because similar strategies, if they really exist, are obscured from view.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Larry Grayson. If you must - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20hgQa-mkVQ. Today's title - at the risk of the blog becoming a tribute to Camden's finest, it's them again.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Index for November 2009
Albufereta - 9 November 2009
All-inclusives - 7 November 2009, 16 November 2009
Artà and Manacor rural tourism - 19 November 2009
Being Mallorcan - 24 November 2009
Blogs - 1 November 2009
Cabrera, filming on - 9 November 2009
Café Playero Club demolished - 22 November 2009
Can Picafort in winter - 26 November 2009
Catalonia football team - 3 November 2009
Christmas decorations and illuminations - 28 November 2009
Christopher Columbus - 4 November 2009
Competition from Croatia, Egypt and Turkey - 30 November 2009
Corruption in Spain, political - 20 November 2009
Cultural tourism - 27 November 2009
East German tourists in 1990 - 2 November 2009
English speaking in the Balearics - 14 November 2009
Environment minister - 5 November 2009, 9 November 2009, 21 November 2009
ESRA mediaeval fayre - 23 November 2009
Expats Alcúdia v. Pollensa - 23 November 2009
Expats criminals and drunks? - 10 November 2009
Expats victims of fraud - 16 November 2009, 17 November 2009
Golf course policy - 12 November 2009
Holidays abroad - 5 November 2009
Jaume Matas corruption case - 13 November 2009, 14 November 2009
John Hirst, Gilher Inc - 16 November 2009, 17 November 2009, 24 November 2009
Jolly Roger car boot sale - 23 November 2009
Menorca suspends tourism promotion - 19 November 2009
Mobile phone registration - 10 November 2009
Muro and Muro church - 25 November 2009
Nautical tourism: Club de Producto náutico - 21 November 2009
November in Mallorca - 7 November 2009
Pollensa Fair 2009 - 15 November 2009
Puerto Pollensa: improvement to frontline - 20 November 2009
Puerto Pollensa to Pollensa pavement - 21 November 2009
Real Mallorca - 12 November 2009, 14 November 2009, 18 November 2009, 22 November 2009
Sant Sebastià fiesta, Palma - 14 November 2009, 18 November 2009
Television, Mallorca and - 4 November 2009
Temperatures in bars, Spanish Government's law on - 29 November 2009
Tourism economics - 16 November 2009
Tourism promotion - 8 November 2009, 11 November 2009, 19 November 2009, 21 November 2009
TUI prices - 7 November 2009
Valencia demonstration against corruption - 3 November 2009
Turkey, Egypt, Croatia - these are the three countries that most exercise the minds of Balearics tourism authorities, or they should be. The competition they represent is now well-understood, but it is still a relatively recent phenomenon. Yet, this very recency has been one of the things that have caught the Balearics on the hop. The catch-up that has been played in these countries has been swift. In the case of Croatia, it has occurred in a short period since the turmoil that was the former Yugoslavia. I went on holiday to Croatia in 1984. I say "Croatia". You didn't refer to it as such back then; it was still Yugoslavia, and it was crap. We stayed on a holiday complex which had some what could only be described as "communist" elements: a vast refectory that served inedible food and a so-called entertainment building which didn't have any - entertainment that is, except for morose local youths looking to pick fights. The beach did not exist. One stretched out on what was like a car park, a series of huge concrete slabs from which one walked down steps into the sea. It was popular with Germans who could drive there, and there were even holidaymakers from the old communist bloc - Hungarians most obviously. The complex was soulless, what there was by way of bars, restaurants and shops was of a poor standard. The best thing about it was that you could buy reasonably good fresh food and have your own barbecues, because you certainly didn't want to be dining out. Oh, and it was incredibly cheap.
But that was 25 years ago. The war intervened, and then Croatia undertook its tourism birth, while Turkey and Egypt began to plan more aggressively for the future.
Though both Turkey and Egypt have experienced slight falls in the number of tourists this year, the decline has not been as great as that in the Balearics. The islands still hold their dominant position, but they are in retreat, faced with the competition of the eastern Med. This competition is founded on new and often superior hotel stock and cheapness. There is also a bit of unfair competitive advantage. Governments can subsidise an industry in a way that the Spanish cannot, unless they wish to bring down the wrath of Brussels on their heads. These governments can also influence exchange rates - to their benefit - in ways that Euroland Spain cannot.
"The Diario" itemises the pros and cons of the Balearics and of its competitors. The paper admits that the so-called "complementary offer" (i.e. bars and restaurants etc.) is costly, but it is also vastly superior to that available in the competitor destinations. However, it is the hotel element that speaks volumes. The current-day holidaymaker seems less interested in that complementary offer. Egypt and Turkey may suffer from inferior infrastructures, but what do these matter when the holidaymaker can stay in relative luxury on an all-inclusive basis? Outside bars and restaurants hold less appeal for a growing number of tourists, and so it also is in Mallorca where the all-inclusive offer has had to increase in response to what is happening elsewhere but where the hotels are not always as good.
There are cons in Egypt and Turkey in terms of, for example, terrorism, but this is a more questionable card to play following the summer bombs in Mallorca. There are cons in terms of low-quality bars and restaurants, but this is a questionable card to play if the holidaymaker isn't interested. There are cons in terms of limited travel possibilities, which constitute one definite pro for Mallorca which is better served by air and sea and which is also closer for northern Europeans. There are pros in terms of government intervention; the Turkish government supported financially an 18% shareholding in Air Berlin by the Turkish airline Pegasus, thus, at a stroke, opening up a wider German market to the Turkish Riviera. There are pros in terms of governmental priority; tourism is the industry in the eastern Med and responsibilities of those at the heads of government reflect this. I suggested a while ago that the Balearics president should also be the tourism minister. Maybe I was right to have done so.
In Mallorca and the Balearics, they continue to bang on about the strength of the brand (Balearics, erroneously), about professionalism, about sustainable environments, blah, blah, but much of it is whistling in the dark. It will continue to be so not only because of the growing competition but also - a point "The Diario" neglects to make - because there are too many competing self-interests in Mallorca, be these in government, within associations or in the tourism sector. The eastern Med countries are far more single-minded, far more focused on an overarching strategy led by government. They, the Turks, the Egyptians, the Croats, have adopted coherent and intelligent strategies of competition, and it is these, more than anything, that they have used to challenge Mallorca and the Balearics, because similar strategies, if they really exist, are obscured from view.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - Larry Grayson. If you must - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20hgQa-mkVQ. Today's title - at the risk of the blog becoming a tribute to Camden's finest, it's them again.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Index for November 2009
Albufereta - 9 November 2009
All-inclusives - 7 November 2009, 16 November 2009
Artà and Manacor rural tourism - 19 November 2009
Being Mallorcan - 24 November 2009
Blogs - 1 November 2009
Cabrera, filming on - 9 November 2009
Café Playero Club demolished - 22 November 2009
Can Picafort in winter - 26 November 2009
Catalonia football team - 3 November 2009
Christmas decorations and illuminations - 28 November 2009
Christopher Columbus - 4 November 2009
Competition from Croatia, Egypt and Turkey - 30 November 2009
Corruption in Spain, political - 20 November 2009
Cultural tourism - 27 November 2009
East German tourists in 1990 - 2 November 2009
English speaking in the Balearics - 14 November 2009
Environment minister - 5 November 2009, 9 November 2009, 21 November 2009
ESRA mediaeval fayre - 23 November 2009
Expats Alcúdia v. Pollensa - 23 November 2009
Expats criminals and drunks? - 10 November 2009
Expats victims of fraud - 16 November 2009, 17 November 2009
Golf course policy - 12 November 2009
Holidays abroad - 5 November 2009
Jaume Matas corruption case - 13 November 2009, 14 November 2009
John Hirst, Gilher Inc - 16 November 2009, 17 November 2009, 24 November 2009
Jolly Roger car boot sale - 23 November 2009
Menorca suspends tourism promotion - 19 November 2009
Mobile phone registration - 10 November 2009
Muro and Muro church - 25 November 2009
Nautical tourism: Club de Producto náutico - 21 November 2009
November in Mallorca - 7 November 2009
Pollensa Fair 2009 - 15 November 2009
Puerto Pollensa: improvement to frontline - 20 November 2009
Puerto Pollensa to Pollensa pavement - 21 November 2009
Real Mallorca - 12 November 2009, 14 November 2009, 18 November 2009, 22 November 2009
Sant Sebastià fiesta, Palma - 14 November 2009, 18 November 2009
Television, Mallorca and - 4 November 2009
Temperatures in bars, Spanish Government's law on - 29 November 2009
Tourism economics - 16 November 2009
Tourism promotion - 8 November 2009, 11 November 2009, 19 November 2009, 21 November 2009
TUI prices - 7 November 2009
Valencia demonstration against corruption - 3 November 2009
Saturday, March 07, 2009
I've Been Learning To Drive
I should of course have mentioned, as a follow-up to 10 February, Mirror Man, that Sara passed her driving theory test. This is not bad going as you have to stump up for two tests as standard, on the basis that they expect you to fail first time what is considered to be the most difficult theory tests in Europe. Which does all rather make you wonder what happens between the theory and being let loose on the road. It does rather depend as to what theory; it could, after all, be theory as to how to be a complete and utter tosser when it comes to actually taking a vehicle on the road. If that is the case, then there are many who have indeed been able to translate theory into practice.
Anyway, now that she no longer needs the books, I have taken temporary possession in order to delve into the strange world of Spanish driving. The "learning to drive" book (and there is indeed an English version) suggests, with its front cover, a liberating experience of youth and activity. Five early-twenty-somethings in front of what may be a Golf, are all smiling, having been able to fathom out the contents of what is, in truth, a book of almost total incomprehensibility, and have taken to the road in order to drive to wherever it is one has to drive in order to play football and go skateboarding. And the reason I say that is that, of the five, one has a football and one has a skateboard, and so one has to draw the conclusion that driving is a means to an end, the end being football or skateboarding (and not of course going clubbing, getting rat arsed, off your face and crashing into high-kerbed islands in the centre of the main road that runs alongside the beach in Puerto Alcúdia).
It would be impossible to do full justice to the 200-odd pages of "learning to drive, playing football and going skateboarding", so let me choose but one example of the mysteries of Spanish driving for the time being. Now, you must realise that the book uses the verb "accord" liberally and not wholly accurately and therefore descends into tortuous prose as in - "drivers should drive with extreme caution when approaching the vicinity of crossings, always being prepared to stop to accord precedents to pedestrians". Yep, of course.
It goes on: "Motorists should not gesture to pedestrians to cross the road and should only use recognised signs to convey to pedestrians that they are according them right of way, such as brake lights to indicate the fact that they are slowing down and stopping". So, what this means is that you shouldn't, under any circumstance, it would seem, wave your hand, for example, in a manner that indicates that the pedestrian might cross the road. And the reason why not is that the pedestrian must walk to the back of your car to see if your brake lights are on, and then, and only then, will the pedestrian realise that he or she has been accorded precedent to cross the road. Or something like that. And it just goes to show how important it is that your brake lights are functioning properly, because if no drivers' lights were working properly, no pedestrians would ever cross roads. So keep those brake lights working!
The Inca plan
In the scheme of tourism things in the northern reaches of Mallorca, you would have to say that Inca fails to register other than as a place you pass en route to Alcúdia or Pollensa or as the town with that big market and those leather shops you get hauled off to on a Thursday. Well, the town hall wants to change all that, having put together a "strategic plan" for tourism development of a commercial and gastronomic nature. Oh dear. The words strategic and plan together bring me out in a cold sweat, induced by management bollocks-speak. And I can speak about management bollocks-speak with great authority, trust me on this. I have been working, for a while, on my own theory of what provisionally I call "the theory of the edifice of complete and utter shit", of which management speak is one major constituent. The past year of economic destruction has tended to help me in constructing this theory. Keep watching.
Anyway, I don't wish to debunk Inca's brave attempt at becoming a tourist destination. I'm sure that there are many cultural routes - which is one of their things - as well as fine cooking and shopping that will have tourists flocking to the town. Actually, I'm not sure about that, but good luck to them anyway and to the idea of a museum of hunting. Astonishingly, the town hall is saying that it wishes to open a tourist office: astonishing that there isn't one already, especially given those tourists who are dragged around the town on a Thursday as part of Inca excursionism. And can I just ask? I have seen this word - excursionism - used on more than one occasion recently. As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't exist. Can someone please confirm or deny this as I am unable to sleep.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - D-D-D-David Bowie, and from some US TV thing - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chUolMjZyHc. Today's title - how could I have overlooked "quizzing" this lot for so long? Canadians: think amusements and heat.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Anyway, now that she no longer needs the books, I have taken temporary possession in order to delve into the strange world of Spanish driving. The "learning to drive" book (and there is indeed an English version) suggests, with its front cover, a liberating experience of youth and activity. Five early-twenty-somethings in front of what may be a Golf, are all smiling, having been able to fathom out the contents of what is, in truth, a book of almost total incomprehensibility, and have taken to the road in order to drive to wherever it is one has to drive in order to play football and go skateboarding. And the reason I say that is that, of the five, one has a football and one has a skateboard, and so one has to draw the conclusion that driving is a means to an end, the end being football or skateboarding (and not of course going clubbing, getting rat arsed, off your face and crashing into high-kerbed islands in the centre of the main road that runs alongside the beach in Puerto Alcúdia).
It would be impossible to do full justice to the 200-odd pages of "learning to drive, playing football and going skateboarding", so let me choose but one example of the mysteries of Spanish driving for the time being. Now, you must realise that the book uses the verb "accord" liberally and not wholly accurately and therefore descends into tortuous prose as in - "drivers should drive with extreme caution when approaching the vicinity of crossings, always being prepared to stop to accord precedents to pedestrians". Yep, of course.
It goes on: "Motorists should not gesture to pedestrians to cross the road and should only use recognised signs to convey to pedestrians that they are according them right of way, such as brake lights to indicate the fact that they are slowing down and stopping". So, what this means is that you shouldn't, under any circumstance, it would seem, wave your hand, for example, in a manner that indicates that the pedestrian might cross the road. And the reason why not is that the pedestrian must walk to the back of your car to see if your brake lights are on, and then, and only then, will the pedestrian realise that he or she has been accorded precedent to cross the road. Or something like that. And it just goes to show how important it is that your brake lights are functioning properly, because if no drivers' lights were working properly, no pedestrians would ever cross roads. So keep those brake lights working!
The Inca plan
In the scheme of tourism things in the northern reaches of Mallorca, you would have to say that Inca fails to register other than as a place you pass en route to Alcúdia or Pollensa or as the town with that big market and those leather shops you get hauled off to on a Thursday. Well, the town hall wants to change all that, having put together a "strategic plan" for tourism development of a commercial and gastronomic nature. Oh dear. The words strategic and plan together bring me out in a cold sweat, induced by management bollocks-speak. And I can speak about management bollocks-speak with great authority, trust me on this. I have been working, for a while, on my own theory of what provisionally I call "the theory of the edifice of complete and utter shit", of which management speak is one major constituent. The past year of economic destruction has tended to help me in constructing this theory. Keep watching.
Anyway, I don't wish to debunk Inca's brave attempt at becoming a tourist destination. I'm sure that there are many cultural routes - which is one of their things - as well as fine cooking and shopping that will have tourists flocking to the town. Actually, I'm not sure about that, but good luck to them anyway and to the idea of a museum of hunting. Astonishingly, the town hall is saying that it wishes to open a tourist office: astonishing that there isn't one already, especially given those tourists who are dragged around the town on a Thursday as part of Inca excursionism. And can I just ask? I have seen this word - excursionism - used on more than one occasion recently. As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't exist. Can someone please confirm or deny this as I am unable to sleep.
QUIZ
Yesterday's title - D-D-D-David Bowie, and from some US TV thing - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=chUolMjZyHc. Today's title - how could I have overlooked "quizzing" this lot for so long? Canadians: think amusements and heat.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Tell Me More
One of those catching-up days, with feedback on a number of things - cleanliness, tourism strategy and the Pollensa Ç carry-on. Oh, and weather, the least said about, quite honestly, the better. Except they say it will be better from tomorrow, and it may well be, but they've been saying that for at least a fortnight.
Firstly, to cleanliness, and Geoff confirms that a clean bill of health for a toilet is a sure guarantor of repeat patronage. His wife has a scoring system for loo cleanliness, with those receiving "nul point" or not many being relegated from the Bar-Restaurant Premier (though they were probably only Conference level to begin with). Like "Strictly Come Dancing" or ice-skating, there should be panels of tourists trekking to and from toilets with their score cards and holding them aloft post-pan pointing. Here therefore is another thing for bars etc to consider when next putting together their publicity: "We have clean toilets"; "The cleanest loos in ..." Another sure winner like the "we have number ones" of the haircut piece of a while back. Beats "specialists in meat" any day.
Secondly, the whole business about tourism diversification. And here's what John has to say:
"I see from a number of your blog entries that the tourist authorities are getting worried about maintaining visitor numbers to Mallorca. Having visited the island many times and lived there for a period, it is abundantly clear where the problem areas are.
"Just as with the acting fraternity, tourist destinations get type-cast and as you rightly point out, 30 years of mass tourism have left Mallorca with the image of sun, sand and surf. Then, of course, the towns like Arenal and Magaluf and the greasy mile in Alcúdia have added big-belly-boozer to the image. Printing posters that say 'golf and fine dining' aren't going to make much of a dent. Mallorca is not exactly on the gastronomic route in Europe. I believe you made a good point to me once, when you said that they should concentrate on making Mallorca a winter destination as well. This would require putting in suitable weather-proof entertainment. Maybe a small Disney Land somewhere.
"The authorities need to work out their demographics and see which groups make up the main tourist numbers and if they are British and German, which I am certain they will be, then for heaven's sake make the place language friendly. I came across with my tennis racquet but despite all efforts never came close to getting a game. The tennis complex on Crta. Arta (Puerto Alcúdia) is a ghost town. The office is always closed and when I asked some youngsters who were playing there for some information, they said they just slipped in and played a game and then left. No one was ever able to give me any information.
"I can just imagine what these so-called think tanks are like. A bunch of insular pro-Catalan/Mallorquín civil servants trying to coin catchy slogans. I can see all the signage changing to Catalan to add to the confusion that already exists, with different town names depending on which map you have. Mallorca will not easily lose its present image, and indeed does it want to, as this brings in a fair amount of revenue. It needs a dual image, and I believe that if it develops the infrastructure and the marketing promotion needed for a winter destination, this will gradually drag over into the summer season. They should hurry as countries like Croatia and Montenegro are starting to stir."
Well, some of this does rather reinforce some of what I'm been saying. I should point out that the current think tank, that one convened by the British Consul, is, save for the presence perhaps of IBATUR, the tourism promotion unit, not comprised of local civil servants, even if the stamp of local thinking is inked into other aspects of tourism promotion, like the Pollensa Ç. Which brings me to the third piece of feedback.
Seamus wonders if any "bright spark" might have thought about the letter P rather than the Ç, which would have been a suitably fine piece of mis-promotion in the sense that the P is universally known as a symbol for Parking, which, as anyone knows, there is an absence of in Pollensa. "P - Come to Pollensa and Park." He also wonders about the cock as in like the one on the roundabout, but now it's mentioned, I thought the cock was the Pollensa symbol. Did it not used to be? Maybe it still is. Perhaps though there was a rare display of cross-cultural and linguistic understanding in that "cock" may not be the most appropriate word for the British. Apart from the obvious, there is also the expression "a load of cock". Another c-letter, not far removed from ç.
At a rather more official level, the singularly un-Catalan-sounding Cathy Sweeney, speaking for a body behind the Catalan language, says that the adoption of the Ç to promote the Balearic language should not interfere with Pollensa's tourism promotion and also that the letter cannot be registered as a "brand name". Precisely.
QUIZ
Chain - Another film by The Who was "Quadrophenia" in which Sting played the Ace Face. Not so much a chain question, but what is the in-joke about Sting in Quadrophenia in the "Men Behaving Badly" special where Gary takes them to Worthing? Yesterday's title - Camera Obscura. (See this at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiLh9rkvjac). Today's title - where's this from?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Firstly, to cleanliness, and Geoff confirms that a clean bill of health for a toilet is a sure guarantor of repeat patronage. His wife has a scoring system for loo cleanliness, with those receiving "nul point" or not many being relegated from the Bar-Restaurant Premier (though they were probably only Conference level to begin with). Like "Strictly Come Dancing" or ice-skating, there should be panels of tourists trekking to and from toilets with their score cards and holding them aloft post-pan pointing. Here therefore is another thing for bars etc to consider when next putting together their publicity: "We have clean toilets"; "The cleanest loos in ..." Another sure winner like the "we have number ones" of the haircut piece of a while back. Beats "specialists in meat" any day.
Secondly, the whole business about tourism diversification. And here's what John has to say:
"I see from a number of your blog entries that the tourist authorities are getting worried about maintaining visitor numbers to Mallorca. Having visited the island many times and lived there for a period, it is abundantly clear where the problem areas are.
"Just as with the acting fraternity, tourist destinations get type-cast and as you rightly point out, 30 years of mass tourism have left Mallorca with the image of sun, sand and surf. Then, of course, the towns like Arenal and Magaluf and the greasy mile in Alcúdia have added big-belly-boozer to the image. Printing posters that say 'golf and fine dining' aren't going to make much of a dent. Mallorca is not exactly on the gastronomic route in Europe. I believe you made a good point to me once, when you said that they should concentrate on making Mallorca a winter destination as well. This would require putting in suitable weather-proof entertainment. Maybe a small Disney Land somewhere.
"The authorities need to work out their demographics and see which groups make up the main tourist numbers and if they are British and German, which I am certain they will be, then for heaven's sake make the place language friendly. I came across with my tennis racquet but despite all efforts never came close to getting a game. The tennis complex on Crta. Arta (Puerto Alcúdia) is a ghost town. The office is always closed and when I asked some youngsters who were playing there for some information, they said they just slipped in and played a game and then left. No one was ever able to give me any information.
"I can just imagine what these so-called think tanks are like. A bunch of insular pro-Catalan/Mallorquín civil servants trying to coin catchy slogans. I can see all the signage changing to Catalan to add to the confusion that already exists, with different town names depending on which map you have. Mallorca will not easily lose its present image, and indeed does it want to, as this brings in a fair amount of revenue. It needs a dual image, and I believe that if it develops the infrastructure and the marketing promotion needed for a winter destination, this will gradually drag over into the summer season. They should hurry as countries like Croatia and Montenegro are starting to stir."
Well, some of this does rather reinforce some of what I'm been saying. I should point out that the current think tank, that one convened by the British Consul, is, save for the presence perhaps of IBATUR, the tourism promotion unit, not comprised of local civil servants, even if the stamp of local thinking is inked into other aspects of tourism promotion, like the Pollensa Ç. Which brings me to the third piece of feedback.
Seamus wonders if any "bright spark" might have thought about the letter P rather than the Ç, which would have been a suitably fine piece of mis-promotion in the sense that the P is universally known as a symbol for Parking, which, as anyone knows, there is an absence of in Pollensa. "P - Come to Pollensa and Park." He also wonders about the cock as in like the one on the roundabout, but now it's mentioned, I thought the cock was the Pollensa symbol. Did it not used to be? Maybe it still is. Perhaps though there was a rare display of cross-cultural and linguistic understanding in that "cock" may not be the most appropriate word for the British. Apart from the obvious, there is also the expression "a load of cock". Another c-letter, not far removed from ç.
At a rather more official level, the singularly un-Catalan-sounding Cathy Sweeney, speaking for a body behind the Catalan language, says that the adoption of the Ç to promote the Balearic language should not interfere with Pollensa's tourism promotion and also that the letter cannot be registered as a "brand name". Precisely.
QUIZ
Chain - Another film by The Who was "Quadrophenia" in which Sting played the Ace Face. Not so much a chain question, but what is the in-joke about Sting in Quadrophenia in the "Men Behaving Badly" special where Gary takes them to Worthing? Yesterday's title - Camera Obscura. (See this at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiLh9rkvjac). Today's title - where's this from?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Saturday, May 31, 2008
Mister Blue Sky
Well absolutely no surprise. This has been the rainiest May on record. And this Saturday dawned with a return of grey skies and drizzle. The fourth weekend that will have suffered from poor weather. It seems like a long time ago that I said on the first of May that "the weather has put on its finest gown and has danced a tango of vivid blue". The first day of the season was ushered in with glorious weather and the optimism of a new season. Where did it all go? Into the drains and reservoirs and onto the gardens. And the optimism has been washed away with the rain. The season is in danger of going down the pan, and taking businesses with it. When you hear stories such as a bar that takes 15 euros over the course of an evening - in the main tourist area of Puerto Alcúdia - something isn't quite right.
Take away the sun and Mallorca is stripped of its life-blood. The rain of May tells us everything about Mallorca as a holiday destination, which is why all this talk and tank-thinking about tourism diversification is largely peripheral. It is the sun and therefore the sea and the sand that combine to make Mallorca, and no amount of golf and gastronomy will compensate. The poor weather throws into sharp relief the lack of genuine alternatives for the mainstream tourist, the one who wants his sangria warmed by the rays of the sun. What else is there really to do in places like Alcudia, Puerto Pollensa and Can Picafort? Very little in truth.
Of course one can see all this like they do in the UK when there is heavy snow. It happens infrequently enough to make the lack of provisions to deal with it excusable. So it is with poor weather here in summer. This May has been unusual. But if one looks at tourism as a whole, the summer and winter and therefore the other possibilities, the absence of genuine options for the mainstream tourist should, I believe, be at least one of the items on this think-tank agenda. I have said it before on this blog, and one only has to look at parts of mainland Spain and Portugal to understand that the lack of foresight in tourism planning here requires far more dynamic thought processes than are seemingly on display at present.
Mallorca, in a way, is like England of the Industrial Revolution. As it was at the forefront of mass tourism, it - like the new industrialism of England - had little in the way of a blueprint to go by. Just shove up some hotels and the sun will take care of the rest; that is how I imagine it might have been. But if you look at other places, and Portugal is a good example, they played catch-up by appreciating some of the lessons. Accordingly, Portugal has integrated developments which allow for much of the extra tourism that is constantly banged on about in Mallorca. The planned development of La Gran Escala near Zaragoza just emphasises the absence of integrated facilities that would enable not only winter tourism but also alternatives when the sun doesn't take care of the rest.
The rain and misery of May should be held up as a lesson to those who would fill the diversification void with a golf course or two that no one would want; except if it were part of a tourism campus or two or three. Blue-sky thinking is needed and not just an unthinking stare into the blue sky, whenever it finally returns.
QUIZ
Chain - "Wouldn't It Be Nice (Beach Boys) / Good (Nik Kershaw)". And, in similar vein (the odd word or two), how do you get from Nik Kershaw to Elton John? Yesterday's title - Morris Albert. Today's title - who?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Index for May 2008
All-inclusives - 29 May 2008
Andratx - 26 May 2008
Bars - 8 May 2008, 12 May 2008, 24 May 2008, 27 May 2008
Beaches - 2 May 2008, 9 May 2008
British Consulate - 30 May 2008
Cala San Vicente - 2 May 2008
Can Picafort - 2 May 2008
Canals - 19 May 2008, 21 May 2008
Chinese bazars - 17 May 2008, 20 May 2008
Corruption - 26 May 2008
Design - 3 May 2008
Eco tourism - 18 May 2008
Eurovision Song Contest - 25 May 2008
Events - 16 May 2008
Fiestas - 16 May 2008
Football - 12 May 2008, 22 May 2008
Garden Hotels - 15 May 2008
Hotels - 15 May 2008, 26 May 2008, 27 May 2008, 29 May 2008
Learned journals - 15 May 2008
Local authorities - 16 May 2008
London elections - 6 May 2008
Mayors - 6 May 2008, 26 May 2008
Music systems - 26 May 2008, 27 May 2008
Noise - 26 May 2008, 27 May 2008, 28 May 2008
Portobello Restaurant - 7 May 2008
Potatoes - 23 May 2008
Price - 29 May 2008
Puerto Pollensa - 7 May 2008, 9 May 2008, 10 May 2008
Racism - 14 May 2008, 21 May 2008
Restaurants - 4 May 2008, 7 May 2008
Road accidents - 19 May 2008
Road races - 5 May 2008
Roads - 9 May 2008
Romanians - 14 May 2008, 21 May 2008
Sa Romana Restaurant - 4 May 2008
Season - 1 May 2008
Shops - 17 May 2008, 20 May 2008
Slogans - 13 May 2008, 15 May 2008
Spanish television - 22 May 2008
Sunbeds - 2 May 2008, 7 May 2008
Toilets - 1 May 2008
Tour operators - 30 May 2008
Tourism statistics - 23 May 2008, 24 May 2008
Tourism strategy - 13 May 2008, 20 May 2008, 30 May 2008, 31 May 2008
Vamps Bar - 8 May 2008
Weather - 11 May 2008, 20 May 2008, 23 May 2008, 24 May 2008, 28 May 2008, 31 May 2008
Websites - 3 May 2008, 16 May 2008
Weddings - 8 May 2008
Take away the sun and Mallorca is stripped of its life-blood. The rain of May tells us everything about Mallorca as a holiday destination, which is why all this talk and tank-thinking about tourism diversification is largely peripheral. It is the sun and therefore the sea and the sand that combine to make Mallorca, and no amount of golf and gastronomy will compensate. The poor weather throws into sharp relief the lack of genuine alternatives for the mainstream tourist, the one who wants his sangria warmed by the rays of the sun. What else is there really to do in places like Alcudia, Puerto Pollensa and Can Picafort? Very little in truth.
Of course one can see all this like they do in the UK when there is heavy snow. It happens infrequently enough to make the lack of provisions to deal with it excusable. So it is with poor weather here in summer. This May has been unusual. But if one looks at tourism as a whole, the summer and winter and therefore the other possibilities, the absence of genuine options for the mainstream tourist should, I believe, be at least one of the items on this think-tank agenda. I have said it before on this blog, and one only has to look at parts of mainland Spain and Portugal to understand that the lack of foresight in tourism planning here requires far more dynamic thought processes than are seemingly on display at present.
Mallorca, in a way, is like England of the Industrial Revolution. As it was at the forefront of mass tourism, it - like the new industrialism of England - had little in the way of a blueprint to go by. Just shove up some hotels and the sun will take care of the rest; that is how I imagine it might have been. But if you look at other places, and Portugal is a good example, they played catch-up by appreciating some of the lessons. Accordingly, Portugal has integrated developments which allow for much of the extra tourism that is constantly banged on about in Mallorca. The planned development of La Gran Escala near Zaragoza just emphasises the absence of integrated facilities that would enable not only winter tourism but also alternatives when the sun doesn't take care of the rest.
The rain and misery of May should be held up as a lesson to those who would fill the diversification void with a golf course or two that no one would want; except if it were part of a tourism campus or two or three. Blue-sky thinking is needed and not just an unthinking stare into the blue sky, whenever it finally returns.
QUIZ
Chain - "Wouldn't It Be Nice (Beach Boys) / Good (Nik Kershaw)". And, in similar vein (the odd word or two), how do you get from Nik Kershaw to Elton John? Yesterday's title - Morris Albert. Today's title - who?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Index for May 2008
All-inclusives - 29 May 2008
Andratx - 26 May 2008
Bars - 8 May 2008, 12 May 2008, 24 May 2008, 27 May 2008
Beaches - 2 May 2008, 9 May 2008
British Consulate - 30 May 2008
Cala San Vicente - 2 May 2008
Can Picafort - 2 May 2008
Canals - 19 May 2008, 21 May 2008
Chinese bazars - 17 May 2008, 20 May 2008
Corruption - 26 May 2008
Design - 3 May 2008
Eco tourism - 18 May 2008
Eurovision Song Contest - 25 May 2008
Events - 16 May 2008
Fiestas - 16 May 2008
Football - 12 May 2008, 22 May 2008
Garden Hotels - 15 May 2008
Hotels - 15 May 2008, 26 May 2008, 27 May 2008, 29 May 2008
Learned journals - 15 May 2008
Local authorities - 16 May 2008
London elections - 6 May 2008
Mayors - 6 May 2008, 26 May 2008
Music systems - 26 May 2008, 27 May 2008
Noise - 26 May 2008, 27 May 2008, 28 May 2008
Portobello Restaurant - 7 May 2008
Potatoes - 23 May 2008
Price - 29 May 2008
Puerto Pollensa - 7 May 2008, 9 May 2008, 10 May 2008
Racism - 14 May 2008, 21 May 2008
Restaurants - 4 May 2008, 7 May 2008
Road accidents - 19 May 2008
Road races - 5 May 2008
Roads - 9 May 2008
Romanians - 14 May 2008, 21 May 2008
Sa Romana Restaurant - 4 May 2008
Season - 1 May 2008
Shops - 17 May 2008, 20 May 2008
Slogans - 13 May 2008, 15 May 2008
Spanish television - 22 May 2008
Sunbeds - 2 May 2008, 7 May 2008
Toilets - 1 May 2008
Tour operators - 30 May 2008
Tourism statistics - 23 May 2008, 24 May 2008
Tourism strategy - 13 May 2008, 20 May 2008, 30 May 2008, 31 May 2008
Vamps Bar - 8 May 2008
Weather - 11 May 2008, 20 May 2008, 23 May 2008, 24 May 2008, 28 May 2008, 31 May 2008
Websites - 3 May 2008, 16 May 2008
Weddings - 8 May 2008
Friday, May 30, 2008
Feelings
As alluded to yesterday, this pow-wow at the British Consulate.
You may recall my reporting on a meeting that took place between the British Consul, Paul Abrey, and the Balearics President, Francesc Antich (9 January, "Our Man in Palma"), at which they discussed the boosting of tourism to Mallorca and the issue of winter tourism. From that meeting has come the "think-tank" that is the Consul, representatives of major tour operators and IBATUR, the promotional part of the tourism ministry; oh, and the bloke from Pirates, too.
I am still none the wiser as to quite what this all has to do with the British Consul. It is unclear as to whether it has fallen to the representative of a foreign government to convene a meeting designed to boost the island's tourism. If so, then quite what does IBATUR do? Moreover, I do wonder if there is not something slightly askew with priorities in terms of the promotion of British commercial interests. If the purpose is to somehow assist local British-run businesses (bars and so on), then maybe I can understand it, but I doubt if that is the case, and if it were the case, then why are those interests not represented?
Seemingly, the main point of discussion is the Holy Grail of tourism diversification, away from the simple message of sun, sea and sand. To this end, IBATUR have got themselves going with that strange "much more than golf/meetings/good food" slogan thing (13 May: "More Than Words"). According to the Consul, the promotion of Mallorca as a multi-activity destination is something that the local government and tour operators will be working on. Is it indeed? This all may be something that can be tagged on to summer tourism, but the winter season still needs a fair chunk of co-operation from another interested party - the airlines. Oh, and also the hotels. And the bars and the restaurants.
I have a horrible feeling in the pit of the stomach when the words think and tank are combined. Not that there is anything wrong with think-tanks so long as they are more than talking shops and, far more importantly, that they do not descend into exercises in "groupthink". And what is groupthink? It is the group dynamic by which the dominant idea becomes accepted by all; unanimity and consensus of view without conflict or the exploration of alternatives is the preferred group modus operandi. The point of a think-tank should be - to coin an awful cliché - to think outside the box. I fear that this think-tank has already fallen into the box marked conventional thinking, been closed up and taped over, typified as it seems to be by the old chestnuts of a bit of sport, a bit of nosh, a bit of a conference and a bit of a weekend break. It can hardly be called a think-tank if all that's coming from it is what has already been thought. One thing I do hope is that whatever thinking may have gone on, it had a whole-island perspective. The name of Palma and only of Palma is writ large over the winter market.
The reporting on the meeting, that at least that comes from "The Bulletin", is not very encouraging. It says nothing that we haven't hard numerous times before. The tank is due to be filled again in September when it will look ahead to how the winter market (this coming winter's market) can be boosted. Eh? Would this not be a bit late? Apart from anything else, the tour operators have already got their winter plans sorted out.
A horrible feeling in the pit of the stomach and a horrible sinking feeling, dropping lower and lower into a tank of thinking. Sinking, thinking, drowning.
QUIZ
Chain - The Isley Brothers to "Behind A Painted Smile" to the album "Smile" by The Beach Boys. And from The Beach Boys ... by one change of word, how do The Beach Boys connect with Nik Kershaw? Yesterday's title - Pink Floyd. Today's title - who did this first?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
You may recall my reporting on a meeting that took place between the British Consul, Paul Abrey, and the Balearics President, Francesc Antich (9 January, "Our Man in Palma"), at which they discussed the boosting of tourism to Mallorca and the issue of winter tourism. From that meeting has come the "think-tank" that is the Consul, representatives of major tour operators and IBATUR, the promotional part of the tourism ministry; oh, and the bloke from Pirates, too.
I am still none the wiser as to quite what this all has to do with the British Consul. It is unclear as to whether it has fallen to the representative of a foreign government to convene a meeting designed to boost the island's tourism. If so, then quite what does IBATUR do? Moreover, I do wonder if there is not something slightly askew with priorities in terms of the promotion of British commercial interests. If the purpose is to somehow assist local British-run businesses (bars and so on), then maybe I can understand it, but I doubt if that is the case, and if it were the case, then why are those interests not represented?
Seemingly, the main point of discussion is the Holy Grail of tourism diversification, away from the simple message of sun, sea and sand. To this end, IBATUR have got themselves going with that strange "much more than golf/meetings/good food" slogan thing (13 May: "More Than Words"). According to the Consul, the promotion of Mallorca as a multi-activity destination is something that the local government and tour operators will be working on. Is it indeed? This all may be something that can be tagged on to summer tourism, but the winter season still needs a fair chunk of co-operation from another interested party - the airlines. Oh, and also the hotels. And the bars and the restaurants.
I have a horrible feeling in the pit of the stomach when the words think and tank are combined. Not that there is anything wrong with think-tanks so long as they are more than talking shops and, far more importantly, that they do not descend into exercises in "groupthink". And what is groupthink? It is the group dynamic by which the dominant idea becomes accepted by all; unanimity and consensus of view without conflict or the exploration of alternatives is the preferred group modus operandi. The point of a think-tank should be - to coin an awful cliché - to think outside the box. I fear that this think-tank has already fallen into the box marked conventional thinking, been closed up and taped over, typified as it seems to be by the old chestnuts of a bit of sport, a bit of nosh, a bit of a conference and a bit of a weekend break. It can hardly be called a think-tank if all that's coming from it is what has already been thought. One thing I do hope is that whatever thinking may have gone on, it had a whole-island perspective. The name of Palma and only of Palma is writ large over the winter market.
The reporting on the meeting, that at least that comes from "The Bulletin", is not very encouraging. It says nothing that we haven't hard numerous times before. The tank is due to be filled again in September when it will look ahead to how the winter market (this coming winter's market) can be boosted. Eh? Would this not be a bit late? Apart from anything else, the tour operators have already got their winter plans sorted out.
A horrible feeling in the pit of the stomach and a horrible sinking feeling, dropping lower and lower into a tank of thinking. Sinking, thinking, drowning.
QUIZ
Chain - The Isley Brothers to "Behind A Painted Smile" to the album "Smile" by The Beach Boys. And from The Beach Boys ... by one change of word, how do The Beach Boys connect with Nik Kershaw? Yesterday's title - Pink Floyd. Today's title - who did this first?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Night Boat To Cairo
If it's the 20th May, must be update day. Follow-ups to the Chinese bazar and tourism density stories.
On the first one, it's been bugging me since I wrote that piece. Then I realised what it was I'd failed to mention the other day - the existence of other "bazar"-type shops; other shops not run by Chinese, but run by Spaniards, Mallorcans even.
In Alcúdia, there are three shops of this nature - De Tot Un Poc by the market square, one up near the tourist office and a third by the old hospital. Maybe there are more. In Puerto Alcúdia, there used to be one quite big cheapo place in what was taken over by a combination of the Petits i Mamas shop and Genius toy store, the latter now Engel & Völkers. It was pretty good; my household still has some decent towels to testify to that. Puerto Pollensa has at least one, as does Pollensa town, both of these, like one of the shops in Alcúdia, made a thing of selling stuff for one euro.
The point is that the cheap and cheerful Chinese bazar is not significantly different to any of these Spanish-run shops. Except in one respect - Chinese. I'm not sure if one can draw any conclusions, but let's just say that the low-cost shop phenomenon was not unknown before the arrival of the Chinese bazar and is also not unknown as a line of business for the local Mallorcans. I leave it to you to draw a conclusion.
And so to the tourism density issue. Having declared Can Picafort the tourist-sardine centre and having asked for any suggestions of somewhere that could rival Can Pic's claim to this award, I duly got one. Seamus volunteers Peguera. Something about more hotels than you'd find Frauleins in Lederhosen in Munich. Which does raise a whole different issue, but let's not dwell on that. But I take the point. In fact Peguera is a sort of German colony. There is, I understand, even a German school there. There again, Can Pic was essentially a German colony as well; before the Brits started to occupy to some extent. Mallorca can seem like another of the Bundesländer, and Peguera is like a Hauptstadt, one of hotel-squeezed sunbedsraum.
And weather. No surprise to learn that May thus far has exceeded records in terms of rain. Yesterday was yet another utterly miserable contribution to what has been a diabolical month overall. To give a measure of how much rain there has been, in Palma there has been 138 litres per square metre till now; the norm is 31. In all this I guess people will be searching for evidence of this that and the other, but I suggest it is no more than a righting of nature as the winter had been generally very dry. However, that is a rather facile explanation, so I myself went searching for explanations and was amazed at the sheer deluge of websites and blogs and so on devoted to weather. I had thought that perhaps the explanation would lie in the influence of La Niña, but I'm none the wiser despite having trawled through all this meteorological worthiness. Let's just say it's been very wet.
QUIZ
Chain - So how do you get from Led Zeppelin to the British Electric Foundation? Today's title - couldn't think of anything "bazar", so thought Arabic and here's the youtube of the nutty boys - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSTHMxBttlU
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
On the first one, it's been bugging me since I wrote that piece. Then I realised what it was I'd failed to mention the other day - the existence of other "bazar"-type shops; other shops not run by Chinese, but run by Spaniards, Mallorcans even.
In Alcúdia, there are three shops of this nature - De Tot Un Poc by the market square, one up near the tourist office and a third by the old hospital. Maybe there are more. In Puerto Alcúdia, there used to be one quite big cheapo place in what was taken over by a combination of the Petits i Mamas shop and Genius toy store, the latter now Engel & Völkers. It was pretty good; my household still has some decent towels to testify to that. Puerto Pollensa has at least one, as does Pollensa town, both of these, like one of the shops in Alcúdia, made a thing of selling stuff for one euro.
The point is that the cheap and cheerful Chinese bazar is not significantly different to any of these Spanish-run shops. Except in one respect - Chinese. I'm not sure if one can draw any conclusions, but let's just say that the low-cost shop phenomenon was not unknown before the arrival of the Chinese bazar and is also not unknown as a line of business for the local Mallorcans. I leave it to you to draw a conclusion.
And so to the tourism density issue. Having declared Can Picafort the tourist-sardine centre and having asked for any suggestions of somewhere that could rival Can Pic's claim to this award, I duly got one. Seamus volunteers Peguera. Something about more hotels than you'd find Frauleins in Lederhosen in Munich. Which does raise a whole different issue, but let's not dwell on that. But I take the point. In fact Peguera is a sort of German colony. There is, I understand, even a German school there. There again, Can Pic was essentially a German colony as well; before the Brits started to occupy to some extent. Mallorca can seem like another of the Bundesländer, and Peguera is like a Hauptstadt, one of hotel-squeezed sunbedsraum.
And weather. No surprise to learn that May thus far has exceeded records in terms of rain. Yesterday was yet another utterly miserable contribution to what has been a diabolical month overall. To give a measure of how much rain there has been, in Palma there has been 138 litres per square metre till now; the norm is 31. In all this I guess people will be searching for evidence of this that and the other, but I suggest it is no more than a righting of nature as the winter had been generally very dry. However, that is a rather facile explanation, so I myself went searching for explanations and was amazed at the sheer deluge of websites and blogs and so on devoted to weather. I had thought that perhaps the explanation would lie in the influence of La Niña, but I'm none the wiser despite having trawled through all this meteorological worthiness. Let's just say it's been very wet.
QUIZ
Chain - So how do you get from Led Zeppelin to the British Electric Foundation? Today's title - couldn't think of anything "bazar", so thought Arabic and here's the youtube of the nutty boys - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSTHMxBttlU
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Sunday, May 18, 2008
The One And Only
Ego tourism. What an excellent expression. Why didn't I think of it? But I didn't and have to hand it to John Swarbrook of Sheffield Hallam University for apparently having coined it.
From a "c" to a "g", you have the transformation of eco to ego, and there is a large slice of green-based ego in the eco tourism agenda - it is a slice as vast as the polar ice-caps or some remote rain forest, neither of which, following Mr Swarbrook's analysis, should be playing host to the ego/eco tourist.
This all comes from the BBC and a piece by Tom Heap, the presenter of "Costing the Earth". What makes his article doubly interesting is that he holds up tourism centres of high density (in this instance Benidorm) as being eco-sensible. For Benidorm, one can also read local resorts here. Density there is and also evironmentally conscious practices by hotels and local authorities. The argument in favour of density is that the worst excesses of tourism eco damage are mitigated by proximity, i.e. people can walk everywhere, produce can be sourced locally. QED, sustainable tourism, rather than the preserve of an elitist and eco-egotistic minority who would seem to believe that tramping through Rwandan jungle is in some way environmentally right-on, is more the preserve of the package tourist packed tight into a small area - such as Can Picafort. If someone can cite an example of greater density of tourist humanity in terms of hotels than Can Pic, I would be delighted to hear about it. In Mallorca at any rate, Can Picafort is the tourist-sardine centre. One begins to also consider all that building in Puerto Pollensa in a rather different energy-saving light. You can bet your eco-dollar that many of the new apartments rising from the highly-concentrated land of the resort will be of a holiday let variety, thus increasing the numbers of tourists. Yet the compact nature of Puerto Pollensa does, so goes Mr Heap's thesis, create a condition for sustainable tourism.
I have previously drawn attention to the fact that the über-tour operator, TUI, in line with a more environmentally aware and controlled German culture, both social and business, has made demands on local hoteliers to make their establishments ever more sustainable. Struggle though I do to believe that anything more than a smattering of tourists base their holiday choice on the recycling system at a particular hotel, there are, presumably, some who do; some who can be eco-egotists without the hassle of arranging anti-malaria jabs for a couple of weeks yomping in some frightful, disease-ridden tropic of 100% humidity. They can be as eco-friendly in Port Alcúdia as they can in Port Moresby. More so in fact, or so it would seem. And as if to emphasise the fact, not only does Alcúdia town hall boast the town's eco-tourism credentials, so also do some hotels hereabouts have an eco-tourism plaque by the main doors.
The density argument has some logic, but were the tourist authorities to ever pursue that logic to its extreme, the tourist centres would become ghettoes from which, preferably, there would be no escape. They would in fact become more like concentration camps. Taking coach loads of tourists into the more fragile environment of, for instance, the Tramuntana mountains, would be off the excursion list. No, no, Mr and Mrs Tourist, you stay here by the pool and take a stroll to the nearby bar. That's your lot. And now I think of it, those all-inclusives which some already treat as ghettoes which they never leave ... environmentally perfect. There again, let's not get too carried away. There is always the flight to take into account. Oh, and as a final thought - an ego tourist is presumably also, by definition, an ego tripper. Every one a winner.
QUIZ
The video to Frankie Goes To Hollywood's "Two Tribes" was the work of Godley and Creme, once of 10cc who of course did "I'm Not In Love". And how do you get from 10cc to Led Zeppelin? Yesterday's title - Level 42. Today's title - who was responsible for this bit of egotism?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
From a "c" to a "g", you have the transformation of eco to ego, and there is a large slice of green-based ego in the eco tourism agenda - it is a slice as vast as the polar ice-caps or some remote rain forest, neither of which, following Mr Swarbrook's analysis, should be playing host to the ego/eco tourist.
This all comes from the BBC and a piece by Tom Heap, the presenter of "Costing the Earth". What makes his article doubly interesting is that he holds up tourism centres of high density (in this instance Benidorm) as being eco-sensible. For Benidorm, one can also read local resorts here. Density there is and also evironmentally conscious practices by hotels and local authorities. The argument in favour of density is that the worst excesses of tourism eco damage are mitigated by proximity, i.e. people can walk everywhere, produce can be sourced locally. QED, sustainable tourism, rather than the preserve of an elitist and eco-egotistic minority who would seem to believe that tramping through Rwandan jungle is in some way environmentally right-on, is more the preserve of the package tourist packed tight into a small area - such as Can Picafort. If someone can cite an example of greater density of tourist humanity in terms of hotels than Can Pic, I would be delighted to hear about it. In Mallorca at any rate, Can Picafort is the tourist-sardine centre. One begins to also consider all that building in Puerto Pollensa in a rather different energy-saving light. You can bet your eco-dollar that many of the new apartments rising from the highly-concentrated land of the resort will be of a holiday let variety, thus increasing the numbers of tourists. Yet the compact nature of Puerto Pollensa does, so goes Mr Heap's thesis, create a condition for sustainable tourism.
I have previously drawn attention to the fact that the über-tour operator, TUI, in line with a more environmentally aware and controlled German culture, both social and business, has made demands on local hoteliers to make their establishments ever more sustainable. Struggle though I do to believe that anything more than a smattering of tourists base their holiday choice on the recycling system at a particular hotel, there are, presumably, some who do; some who can be eco-egotists without the hassle of arranging anti-malaria jabs for a couple of weeks yomping in some frightful, disease-ridden tropic of 100% humidity. They can be as eco-friendly in Port Alcúdia as they can in Port Moresby. More so in fact, or so it would seem. And as if to emphasise the fact, not only does Alcúdia town hall boast the town's eco-tourism credentials, so also do some hotels hereabouts have an eco-tourism plaque by the main doors.
The density argument has some logic, but were the tourist authorities to ever pursue that logic to its extreme, the tourist centres would become ghettoes from which, preferably, there would be no escape. They would in fact become more like concentration camps. Taking coach loads of tourists into the more fragile environment of, for instance, the Tramuntana mountains, would be off the excursion list. No, no, Mr and Mrs Tourist, you stay here by the pool and take a stroll to the nearby bar. That's your lot. And now I think of it, those all-inclusives which some already treat as ghettoes which they never leave ... environmentally perfect. There again, let's not get too carried away. There is always the flight to take into account. Oh, and as a final thought - an ego tourist is presumably also, by definition, an ego tripper. Every one a winner.
QUIZ
The video to Frankie Goes To Hollywood's "Two Tribes" was the work of Godley and Creme, once of 10cc who of course did "I'm Not In Love". And how do you get from 10cc to Led Zeppelin? Yesterday's title - Level 42. Today's title - who was responsible for this bit of egotism?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
The Knowledge
“You know who I had in the back of my cab …”
Ah yes, the London cabbie. Knowledge of the roads and knowledge of any subject you care to mention or indeed don’t care to mention – the knowledge will be imparted regardless. I once knew a London cabbie well. Could talk the backside off the proverbial donkey. He even appeared on “The Price Is Right”. But this is totally tangential.
No self-respecting London cabbie would turn down a free lunch, or a free trip to Thailand. And so when the Thai tourist board comes knocking on the cab window brandishing tickets to Bangkok, he is hardly likely to refuse. This is – more or less – what has been happening. As part of its marketing, the Thais (and the city of Melbourne in Australia), have co-opted London cabbies. A trip to soak up the atmosphere (and anything else that might be soaked up) and of course to also fill the cabbie with knowledge. Always knowledge.
This is not a simple case of an ad on the side of the cab. No, the interior is given the once-over, with brochures available. And, as importantly, there is the cabbie. Stuck at some lights, Capital Radio in the background, and the conversation – even if you didn’t want it to – turns to holidays. Where better and who better to assist in the next holiday choice than in the captive environment of a cab and in the captive arms (so to speak) of the cab driver?
Personally, I am not so sure a London cabbie could sell me anything, let alone a holiday, but the Thais and the Australians clearly think they’re onto something. Maybe they are. Who next? Hairdressers? They take degree courses in discussing holidays.
Daft it might sound, but different it is, and it suggests an attempt to look for new and innovative forms of marketing for tourism. I am not proposing that one should jump in a cab at King’s Cross and be given a sales pitch for Mallorca or one of the resorts, but some different approaches may well be worth exploring and especially where the “alternative” Mallorcan tourism is concerned. While I remain sceptical as to confusing the market with a Mallorcan message that conflicts with how the vast majority perceive Mallorca – sun, sea etc. – if that message is to be conveyed, let’s look at alternative means of doing so.
In Germany, there are often television programmes that feature Mallorca. The island is almost one of the Bundesländer. A typical programme, dire though it might be, would have some female singer in evening wear standing on some Mallorcan rocks, accompanied by a trumpeter on some other rocks. It’s rubbish, but at least you see some of the island. The programmes are, in essence, product placement on an island level.
We are becoming virtual tourists. We want to see and experience the tourism destination. This can be gained at present via the internet, but not on a well-produced scale. To see and experience the island and its different facets, those that the alternative tourism wishes to promote; this is the challenge. The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that the Balearic Government should have gone to the producers of the film about Jaime 1, shoved a large number of folding euros into their pockets, boosted their budget and insisted it was all filmed on location in Mallorca. What better for the alternative tourism than a bit of history and loads of landscape?
At Christmas, I bought a DVD of Paco de Lucia in concert and gave it to someone in the UK. It was fabulous. Paco, you may recall, is the face of Mallorca at the moment. He is hardly karaoke and the Sea Club boys and girls belting out “Let Me Entertain You”. He is classical, jazz, flamenco – cultural if you like, alternative definitely, in terms of tourist image. What if they were to break the Pollensa town hall’s bank once and for all and get Paco to play the Pollensa music festival? What if they were to make a superb film of Paco and of the area, interspersing it with certain cultural and historical bits and pieces, with the landscape and the traditions? What if they were to market the DVD like crazy and to get it onto TV, just like the Germans have their programmes – except this would be bloody good. It would be so bloody good and of such quality, the alternative tourists would flock in their droves. And they wouldn’t need a London cabbie to tell them either.
QUIZ
Yesterday – Gloria Gaynor. Today’s title – a TV programme, a famous one. Who wrote it?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Ah yes, the London cabbie. Knowledge of the roads and knowledge of any subject you care to mention or indeed don’t care to mention – the knowledge will be imparted regardless. I once knew a London cabbie well. Could talk the backside off the proverbial donkey. He even appeared on “The Price Is Right”. But this is totally tangential.
No self-respecting London cabbie would turn down a free lunch, or a free trip to Thailand. And so when the Thai tourist board comes knocking on the cab window brandishing tickets to Bangkok, he is hardly likely to refuse. This is – more or less – what has been happening. As part of its marketing, the Thais (and the city of Melbourne in Australia), have co-opted London cabbies. A trip to soak up the atmosphere (and anything else that might be soaked up) and of course to also fill the cabbie with knowledge. Always knowledge.
This is not a simple case of an ad on the side of the cab. No, the interior is given the once-over, with brochures available. And, as importantly, there is the cabbie. Stuck at some lights, Capital Radio in the background, and the conversation – even if you didn’t want it to – turns to holidays. Where better and who better to assist in the next holiday choice than in the captive environment of a cab and in the captive arms (so to speak) of the cab driver?
Personally, I am not so sure a London cabbie could sell me anything, let alone a holiday, but the Thais and the Australians clearly think they’re onto something. Maybe they are. Who next? Hairdressers? They take degree courses in discussing holidays.
Daft it might sound, but different it is, and it suggests an attempt to look for new and innovative forms of marketing for tourism. I am not proposing that one should jump in a cab at King’s Cross and be given a sales pitch for Mallorca or one of the resorts, but some different approaches may well be worth exploring and especially where the “alternative” Mallorcan tourism is concerned. While I remain sceptical as to confusing the market with a Mallorcan message that conflicts with how the vast majority perceive Mallorca – sun, sea etc. – if that message is to be conveyed, let’s look at alternative means of doing so.
In Germany, there are often television programmes that feature Mallorca. The island is almost one of the Bundesländer. A typical programme, dire though it might be, would have some female singer in evening wear standing on some Mallorcan rocks, accompanied by a trumpeter on some other rocks. It’s rubbish, but at least you see some of the island. The programmes are, in essence, product placement on an island level.
We are becoming virtual tourists. We want to see and experience the tourism destination. This can be gained at present via the internet, but not on a well-produced scale. To see and experience the island and its different facets, those that the alternative tourism wishes to promote; this is the challenge. The more I think about it, the more I am convinced that the Balearic Government should have gone to the producers of the film about Jaime 1, shoved a large number of folding euros into their pockets, boosted their budget and insisted it was all filmed on location in Mallorca. What better for the alternative tourism than a bit of history and loads of landscape?
At Christmas, I bought a DVD of Paco de Lucia in concert and gave it to someone in the UK. It was fabulous. Paco, you may recall, is the face of Mallorca at the moment. He is hardly karaoke and the Sea Club boys and girls belting out “Let Me Entertain You”. He is classical, jazz, flamenco – cultural if you like, alternative definitely, in terms of tourist image. What if they were to break the Pollensa town hall’s bank once and for all and get Paco to play the Pollensa music festival? What if they were to make a superb film of Paco and of the area, interspersing it with certain cultural and historical bits and pieces, with the landscape and the traditions? What if they were to market the DVD like crazy and to get it onto TV, just like the Germans have their programmes – except this would be bloody good. It would be so bloody good and of such quality, the alternative tourists would flock in their droves. And they wouldn’t need a London cabbie to tell them either.
QUIZ
Yesterday – Gloria Gaynor. Today’s title – a TV programme, a famous one. Who wrote it?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Saturday, January 05, 2008
There May Be Trouble Ahead
Is 2008 going to be such a good year? All the prognostications that were being offered towards the end of the old year suggested that it would be, but will the credit squeeze make those predictions look a little silly? The big two tour operators – TUI (Thomson and First Choice) and Neckermann (Thomas Cook and My Travel) – are now apparently cutting the number of beds for Mediterranean holidays this coming season to the tune of some 1.25 million. How this might impact upon Mallorca is not clear, but it is not unrealistic to believe that Spain as a whole may see a reduction by at least a fifth of that total.
Thomas Cook are maintaining a positive spin by saying that holidays are a “necessity”. Are they really? If money gets tight, then perhaps a fallow year is something families might well consider. But even if the actual holiday sales are not harmed significantly, that spend that everyone keeps on about could well be. The trend is for lower spend, and it is understandable. Fork out for the actual holiday and then skimp when in situ. Common sense suggests, I’m afraid, that the tills will not be ringing more loudly than they have been these past two or three years.
As ever, the all-inclusives will cop it if that spend goes down further. And if evidence were needed of the attraction and promotion of the all-inclusive, look no further than one of the tour operator’s brochures. I have a copy of Direct Holidays’ brochure. This offers – in Alcúdia* – six hotels (or hotel complexes): Bellevue, Lagomonte, Club Mac, Sol Alcúdia, Alcúdia Pins and Delfin Verde. Three of these (Lagomonte, Club Mac and Delfin Verde) are all-inclusive, and it is there in red letters in the brochure to highlight the fact. (* Actually not all in Alcúdia – see as follows.)
Brochures are not what they were many years ago. Consumerism, watchdogs, the media and the law have all helped to stop the flagrant misrepresentation that used to occur once upon a time. But there are still some, how can I put it, inconsistencies. Take Direct Holidays. Its brochure makes the “mistake” that is often made regarding Playa de Muro. Alcúdia Pins, it says, is in Alcúdia, or at least it says so initially. It then says that the hotel is on the “outskirts” of Alcúdia – depends how you define outskirts really – and adds that it is “just” 5.6 kilometres from the centre.
Nowhere in this description are the words Playa, de, Muro mentioned. I have spoken about this before (20 August 2007, “And I’m Pins And I’m Needles”). To sell Alcúdia Pins as being in Alcúdia is inaccurate. It is in Muro, it is a schlep to get to Alcúdia, and the “selection of restaurants and shop within easy walking distance” of the hotel is limited. If the hotel were to be defined as being in a town other than that in which it really is, it would be more accurate to say that it was in Can Picafort, which is fractionally closer than the Alcúdia boundary.
This 5.6 kilometres: checked it by driving it. The distances from Alcúdia Pins are a bit over 3 kilometres to the border of Alcúdia, a bit over 5 to Bellevue and a bit over 7 (getting on for four and a half miles) to the port. The 5.6 is, one presumes, to the Bellevue area or The Mile if you prefer. Fair enough, but it repeats the misnomer that is used in respect of the “centre” of Alcúdia. The real centre is either the old town or the port; Bellevue (The Mile) is a tourism adjunct, it is more towards the outskirts of Alcúdia than being the centre, but it does all of course depend on how you define outskirts, doesn’t it.
But coming back to all-inclusives and still courtesy of the Direct Holidays’ brochure, how do prices compare between an all-inclusive, self-catering and half-board (based on 3-star or 3-key accommodation)? The most expensive fortnight is the last two weeks of July. Club Mac (all-inclusive), one adult, £949 for 14 nights. Sol Alcúdia (self-catering), £692. Alcúdia Pins (half-board), £866. The Club Mac offer includes all meals, “locally produced” alcoholic drinks for a minimum of 12 hours a day plus snacks, entertainment and activities. 250 or so quid difference between all-inclusive and self-catering. Does the all-inclusive represent good value for money? For that one adult (self-catering), maybe it would cost a minimum 30 pounds a day for food and drink, or around 400 for the fortnight. You pays your money, you takes … Or perhaps you don't pays your money. Credit squeeze anyone?
QUIZ
Yesterday – Kirsty MacColl had the hit, Billy Bragg wrote it. Today’s title – who is most associated with this?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Thomas Cook are maintaining a positive spin by saying that holidays are a “necessity”. Are they really? If money gets tight, then perhaps a fallow year is something families might well consider. But even if the actual holiday sales are not harmed significantly, that spend that everyone keeps on about could well be. The trend is for lower spend, and it is understandable. Fork out for the actual holiday and then skimp when in situ. Common sense suggests, I’m afraid, that the tills will not be ringing more loudly than they have been these past two or three years.
As ever, the all-inclusives will cop it if that spend goes down further. And if evidence were needed of the attraction and promotion of the all-inclusive, look no further than one of the tour operator’s brochures. I have a copy of Direct Holidays’ brochure. This offers – in Alcúdia* – six hotels (or hotel complexes): Bellevue, Lagomonte, Club Mac, Sol Alcúdia, Alcúdia Pins and Delfin Verde. Three of these (Lagomonte, Club Mac and Delfin Verde) are all-inclusive, and it is there in red letters in the brochure to highlight the fact. (* Actually not all in Alcúdia – see as follows.)
Brochures are not what they were many years ago. Consumerism, watchdogs, the media and the law have all helped to stop the flagrant misrepresentation that used to occur once upon a time. But there are still some, how can I put it, inconsistencies. Take Direct Holidays. Its brochure makes the “mistake” that is often made regarding Playa de Muro. Alcúdia Pins, it says, is in Alcúdia, or at least it says so initially. It then says that the hotel is on the “outskirts” of Alcúdia – depends how you define outskirts really – and adds that it is “just” 5.6 kilometres from the centre.
Nowhere in this description are the words Playa, de, Muro mentioned. I have spoken about this before (20 August 2007, “And I’m Pins And I’m Needles”). To sell Alcúdia Pins as being in Alcúdia is inaccurate. It is in Muro, it is a schlep to get to Alcúdia, and the “selection of restaurants and shop within easy walking distance” of the hotel is limited. If the hotel were to be defined as being in a town other than that in which it really is, it would be more accurate to say that it was in Can Picafort, which is fractionally closer than the Alcúdia boundary.
This 5.6 kilometres: checked it by driving it. The distances from Alcúdia Pins are a bit over 3 kilometres to the border of Alcúdia, a bit over 5 to Bellevue and a bit over 7 (getting on for four and a half miles) to the port. The 5.6 is, one presumes, to the Bellevue area or The Mile if you prefer. Fair enough, but it repeats the misnomer that is used in respect of the “centre” of Alcúdia. The real centre is either the old town or the port; Bellevue (The Mile) is a tourism adjunct, it is more towards the outskirts of Alcúdia than being the centre, but it does all of course depend on how you define outskirts, doesn’t it.
But coming back to all-inclusives and still courtesy of the Direct Holidays’ brochure, how do prices compare between an all-inclusive, self-catering and half-board (based on 3-star or 3-key accommodation)? The most expensive fortnight is the last two weeks of July. Club Mac (all-inclusive), one adult, £949 for 14 nights. Sol Alcúdia (self-catering), £692. Alcúdia Pins (half-board), £866. The Club Mac offer includes all meals, “locally produced” alcoholic drinks for a minimum of 12 hours a day plus snacks, entertainment and activities. 250 or so quid difference between all-inclusive and self-catering. Does the all-inclusive represent good value for money? For that one adult (self-catering), maybe it would cost a minimum 30 pounds a day for food and drink, or around 400 for the fortnight. You pays your money, you takes … Or perhaps you don't pays your money. Credit squeeze anyone?
QUIZ
Yesterday – Kirsty MacColl had the hit, Billy Bragg wrote it. Today’s title – who is most associated with this?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Monday, December 17, 2007
Concrete And Clay
The condohotel concept seems to be the latest “big idea” (see previous – 22 November). Already operating in southern Spain, it looks set to be a feature in the Balearics as well. In today’s “Ultima Hora”, there is an interview with the central government’s tourism secretary-general. One never gets much information form these interviews, only ever headlines and rather vague ideas, but the condohotel does seem to be one on the agenda, and it could give a boost in the winter. Say could.
Otherwise, the secretary-general reckons that it would not be a bad idea if the “oferta complementaria” were to make an effort to stay open in the winter. By “oferta complementaria”, what is meant is, essentially, the bar-restaurant sector. The problem is she does not identify why except as part of some notion of market leadership. Responding to the fact that, although tourist number are up, the tourist spend is not, she believes that alternative and new niche markets that add value should be sought and that a tourist marketing vision is required as the competition is going to get stronger.
It would be harsh to be too harsh on her; the interview is hardly in-depth. But it would be instructive to ever get beyond the obvious and the nebulous. The condohotel idea seems potentially sound, though how widespread it would be and where it would be are other questions. When I hear that term “add value”, I always get somewhat twitchy. What and how much value being added to what precisely, and again where?
If the condohotels go ahead, I trust that their winter clientele can be assured of good heating. It is distinctly cold here at present.
Meanwhile, our old friends GOB, the environmental pressure group, has been handing out its annual gongs. A British naturalist, Nick Riddoford, has collected one for his work in Albufera, while among the recipients of the equivalent of the rotten tomatoes is – no surprises – the mayor of Muro in recognition of Son Bosc. This prize is actually named premio “Ciment”, which I take to be ciment as in the Catalan for cement. What jolly fun.
QUIZ
Yesterday – Dennis Brown. Today’s title – concrete may not be the same as cement, but with the condo angle, it’s as good as you’ll get. Who from the ‘60s?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Otherwise, the secretary-general reckons that it would not be a bad idea if the “oferta complementaria” were to make an effort to stay open in the winter. By “oferta complementaria”, what is meant is, essentially, the bar-restaurant sector. The problem is she does not identify why except as part of some notion of market leadership. Responding to the fact that, although tourist number are up, the tourist spend is not, she believes that alternative and new niche markets that add value should be sought and that a tourist marketing vision is required as the competition is going to get stronger.
It would be harsh to be too harsh on her; the interview is hardly in-depth. But it would be instructive to ever get beyond the obvious and the nebulous. The condohotel idea seems potentially sound, though how widespread it would be and where it would be are other questions. When I hear that term “add value”, I always get somewhat twitchy. What and how much value being added to what precisely, and again where?
If the condohotels go ahead, I trust that their winter clientele can be assured of good heating. It is distinctly cold here at present.
Meanwhile, our old friends GOB, the environmental pressure group, has been handing out its annual gongs. A British naturalist, Nick Riddoford, has collected one for his work in Albufera, while among the recipients of the equivalent of the rotten tomatoes is – no surprises – the mayor of Muro in recognition of Son Bosc. This prize is actually named premio “Ciment”, which I take to be ciment as in the Catalan for cement. What jolly fun.
QUIZ
Yesterday – Dennis Brown. Today’s title – concrete may not be the same as cement, but with the condo angle, it’s as good as you’ll get. Who from the ‘60s?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Keep The Customer Satisfied
More on the “Gran Escala” project near Zaragoza (25 November: Bond Themes). “The Times” confirms what its Sunday sister paper had spoken of before; indeed it fleshes out what this complex will comprise – 32 themed casinos, 70 hotels, five theme parks, pyramids, sphinxes and golf courses. 25 million visitors are anticipated each year by 2015. And for those 25 million, there will doubtless be innumerable bars and also shops that stay open when people want them to be open, unlike in Palma for example. 25 million is well over double Mallorca’s current annual tourism intake. 25 million people heading to a piece of reclaimed desert, modelled as the new Las Vegas, more or less on Mallorca’s doorstep and only the same flying-time from the UK.
But why is it that this news is coming from “The Times”? Where is the local reporting? This development is something of huge interest to Mallorca in different ways. Firstly, it poses a potential threat, especially to what there is of winter tourism. One waits to see what the theme parks will be, but they are sure to be of a variety that attracts family tourism as well as any short-breakers wanting to risk their money in a casino; they will not get 25 million visitors just for casinos and a round of golf.
Secondly, the Gran Escala highlights the muddled thinking regarding Mallorca’s tourism. To digress a little: In the late ’70s, Jan Carlsson, the boss of the Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS), transformed the airline’s culture and performance by creating a structure with the customer at the top of the organisational pyramid; everything else was subordinate to or supported the customer. SAS was one of the first organisations to have a recognisable customer-driven philosophy.
SAS was representative of a wholly different approach to management and organisations. Take this approach and place it in the context of tourism strategy, Mallorca’s tourism strategy, and where is the customer – the tourist – in the structure? Place it in the context of the whole economic model of Mallorca and where is the customer? It is the tourist, the customer, to whom the island is beholden. What fraction of Mallorca’s wealth would exist without that customer?
To continue the business analogy: Mallorca is at the mature stage of its life cycle. A business faced with the same situation has different choices – carrying on the same but with improvements, diversification, acquisition or sale of the business, progressive decline. Mallorca has three of these choices, unless those German businessmen who wanted to buy the island were really for real! To an extent, the first two of these choices are being pursued: hotel stock being upgraded, infrastructure improved, new products (and, yes, that includes all-inclusives). Otherwise, the diversification is clouded with ambiguity and irrelevance: the vagueness of “quality” tourism, the offer of tourism served with a gastronomy of culture and history – what culture, what history? These are minority niches of tiny portions for an island business grown fat on the mass market. As ever, where is the beef?
The thinking is too defined by an insular (inevitably perhaps) and romantic view of what tourists might want, as opposed to what tourists really want. The tourist, the customer, is not at the top of the pyramid. Much of the thinking is couched in terms of “sustainable tourism” with the environmental overtones this implies. This is the wrong adjective. Meaningful tourism is more accurate. Much as it may offend, for every one “cultural” tourist there are a hundred more who have mainly hedonistic pursuits at the top of their list of priorities. The tourist wants entertaining. This means attractions, this means fun. And this is where Gran Escala comes in.
A similar project was never going to be created in Mallorca and never will be. Land is too scarce and too expensive. The environmental lobby would not permit it. But more fundamentally, the building of some giant fun palace in Mallorca would conflict with the current group-think that can conceive of only culture and gastronomy. It is this group-think which denies the tourist, the customer, his or her place at the top of the pyramid.
Yesterday, I defended the Balearic Government. But I also said that things could be done differently. No, there would never be a Gran Escala in Mallorca, but the thinking behind it is precisely the sort of thinking that is required in Mallorca to shake the island out of its winter torpor and to sustain, yes sustain, meaningful tourism in the summer as well. The customer comes first – on a grand scale.
QUIZ
Yesterday – The Jackson Five. Today’s title – which duo?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
But why is it that this news is coming from “The Times”? Where is the local reporting? This development is something of huge interest to Mallorca in different ways. Firstly, it poses a potential threat, especially to what there is of winter tourism. One waits to see what the theme parks will be, but they are sure to be of a variety that attracts family tourism as well as any short-breakers wanting to risk their money in a casino; they will not get 25 million visitors just for casinos and a round of golf.
Secondly, the Gran Escala highlights the muddled thinking regarding Mallorca’s tourism. To digress a little: In the late ’70s, Jan Carlsson, the boss of the Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS), transformed the airline’s culture and performance by creating a structure with the customer at the top of the organisational pyramid; everything else was subordinate to or supported the customer. SAS was one of the first organisations to have a recognisable customer-driven philosophy.
SAS was representative of a wholly different approach to management and organisations. Take this approach and place it in the context of tourism strategy, Mallorca’s tourism strategy, and where is the customer – the tourist – in the structure? Place it in the context of the whole economic model of Mallorca and where is the customer? It is the tourist, the customer, to whom the island is beholden. What fraction of Mallorca’s wealth would exist without that customer?
To continue the business analogy: Mallorca is at the mature stage of its life cycle. A business faced with the same situation has different choices – carrying on the same but with improvements, diversification, acquisition or sale of the business, progressive decline. Mallorca has three of these choices, unless those German businessmen who wanted to buy the island were really for real! To an extent, the first two of these choices are being pursued: hotel stock being upgraded, infrastructure improved, new products (and, yes, that includes all-inclusives). Otherwise, the diversification is clouded with ambiguity and irrelevance: the vagueness of “quality” tourism, the offer of tourism served with a gastronomy of culture and history – what culture, what history? These are minority niches of tiny portions for an island business grown fat on the mass market. As ever, where is the beef?
The thinking is too defined by an insular (inevitably perhaps) and romantic view of what tourists might want, as opposed to what tourists really want. The tourist, the customer, is not at the top of the pyramid. Much of the thinking is couched in terms of “sustainable tourism” with the environmental overtones this implies. This is the wrong adjective. Meaningful tourism is more accurate. Much as it may offend, for every one “cultural” tourist there are a hundred more who have mainly hedonistic pursuits at the top of their list of priorities. The tourist wants entertaining. This means attractions, this means fun. And this is where Gran Escala comes in.
A similar project was never going to be created in Mallorca and never will be. Land is too scarce and too expensive. The environmental lobby would not permit it. But more fundamentally, the building of some giant fun palace in Mallorca would conflict with the current group-think that can conceive of only culture and gastronomy. It is this group-think which denies the tourist, the customer, his or her place at the top of the pyramid.
Yesterday, I defended the Balearic Government. But I also said that things could be done differently. No, there would never be a Gran Escala in Mallorca, but the thinking behind it is precisely the sort of thinking that is required in Mallorca to shake the island out of its winter torpor and to sustain, yes sustain, meaningful tourism in the summer as well. The customer comes first – on a grand scale.
QUIZ
Yesterday – The Jackson Five. Today’s title – which duo?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Monday, November 26, 2007
Who Are You?
Ramón Llull. I referred to him yesterday and have before on this blog. It is not just Herr Link, to whom I also referred yesterday, who would like to promote Llull, the Mallorcan council is keen to do likewise - as an iconic figure in Mallorcan history in attracting quality and cultural tourism. Well maybe. The problem is obvious: outside of some intellectual circles in other countries, the name of Llull would mean nothing. Llull does deserve greater recognition, if only for the fact that he developed that early system of computing theory, but his writings in Catalan, his philosophy and science remain largely unknown - to an audience outside of Mallorca or Spain. Nevertheless, within those intellectual circles, he has been branded “a great European”; arguably he wrote the first European novel - “Blanquerna” (1283); he wanted more emphasis on the study of Arabic (which he spoke) as a means of converting Muslims to Christianity, while also seeking a unification of Christianity, Judaism and Islam.
Llull is no minor figure in European history - quite the contrary - but his reputation is minor in the minds of the majority in other European countries; to be more accurate, it is negligible. Ask non-Spaniards here who Llull was, and most would not have a clue, other than as a name given to streets (17 September: Where The Streets Have No Shame).
In seeking to promote Llull as a figure for attracting tourism, the council is starting from a point of almost total lack of awareness. Think of Llull as a brand, and the recall would be more or less non-existent. Compare Llull to historical and cultural figures in other countries and elsewhere in Spain, and the challenge is obvious. Shakespeare has massive international brand awareness, for example, and has lent his name to a “country”, as have the Brontës. In Spain, which names spring to mind? Dali, Picasso, Gaudi; for the visitor to Barcelona, Gaudi’s architecture is a visible presence in the same way as Wren’s is in London, or Michelangelo’s artistic and architectural work is on show in Rome. Llull, in his polymathic way, is comparable to few - da Vinci would most certainly be one, but da Vinci would register right at the top of this brand awareness, and not just because of Dan Brown.
There is an unfortunate aspect to Llull; how he met his end. That he succeeded in persuading some major universities of the time, e.g. Oxford, to undertake Arabic learning, did not prevent him from being stoned in Algeria and dying from his injuries. In current sensitive times, one wonders how well his Christian martyrdom might play in the eyes of some.
The brand awareness of historical figures is something gathered over years; over centuries, in some cases. Llull may have died 700 years ago, but he does not have the benefit of those centuries of awareness. The Mallorcan council can try, but it will have to be something spectacular to induce tourism; not just some museum to a largely obscure figure in history.
QUIZ
Yesterday - Shirley Bassey. Today’s title - song by? They have featured here only very recently.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Llull is no minor figure in European history - quite the contrary - but his reputation is minor in the minds of the majority in other European countries; to be more accurate, it is negligible. Ask non-Spaniards here who Llull was, and most would not have a clue, other than as a name given to streets (17 September: Where The Streets Have No Shame).
In seeking to promote Llull as a figure for attracting tourism, the council is starting from a point of almost total lack of awareness. Think of Llull as a brand, and the recall would be more or less non-existent. Compare Llull to historical and cultural figures in other countries and elsewhere in Spain, and the challenge is obvious. Shakespeare has massive international brand awareness, for example, and has lent his name to a “country”, as have the Brontës. In Spain, which names spring to mind? Dali, Picasso, Gaudi; for the visitor to Barcelona, Gaudi’s architecture is a visible presence in the same way as Wren’s is in London, or Michelangelo’s artistic and architectural work is on show in Rome. Llull, in his polymathic way, is comparable to few - da Vinci would most certainly be one, but da Vinci would register right at the top of this brand awareness, and not just because of Dan Brown.
There is an unfortunate aspect to Llull; how he met his end. That he succeeded in persuading some major universities of the time, e.g. Oxford, to undertake Arabic learning, did not prevent him from being stoned in Algeria and dying from his injuries. In current sensitive times, one wonders how well his Christian martyrdom might play in the eyes of some.
The brand awareness of historical figures is something gathered over years; over centuries, in some cases. Llull may have died 700 years ago, but he does not have the benefit of those centuries of awareness. The Mallorcan council can try, but it will have to be something spectacular to induce tourism; not just some museum to a largely obscure figure in history.
QUIZ
Yesterday - Shirley Bassey. Today’s title - song by? They have featured here only very recently.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Friday, November 16, 2007
Pick Up My Guitar And Play
Is Paco de Lucía the tourist image that the Balearics needs?
This is a question posed in today’s “Ultima Hora”. The Spanish guitarist is now the new face of the Balearics. That Paco may prove to be a “magnificent ambassador” for the islands I will not question, but I will pose the question that will come to many lips - who is he?
In the past there have been various faces knocking around as promotional hooks for the Balearics and Mallorca - Michael Douglas, Claudia Schiffer, Anna Kournikova. Like them or not, at least most people have heard of them; Paco on the other hand. I suppose in all of this is the idea that Paco will represent something a tad more cultural than the likes of German supermodels or over-hyped Russian tennis-players. That Paco is arguably Spain’s most famous flamenco guitarist and that he has taken flamenco to a wider audience and crossed-over into other musical forms (e.g. into jazz with the likes of John McLaughlin) is not in dispute, but I ask how many people among the general mass of British tourists could tell you who he is. Were his appointment, if one can use such a word, as the face of Balearic tourism solely for Spanish consumption, then all would be fine, but the gig he’s been landed with was being pushed at the London World Travel Market, from which follows the conclusion that he is the international face of Balearic tourism.
Can someone tell me what exactly does being the face of Balearic tourism entail? Does Paco front some ads or what? Come Boxing Day, and there it is, a TV ad for the Balearics, shots of turquoise seas and a grinning waiter pouring some sangria before gleefully trousering some euros and up pops Paco strumming a few chords before saying in good Fred Pontin style - “Book early”. No, I don’t think so either.
Weather - winter has arrived. Cold and wet. Apparently the Dijous Bo day at Inca yesterday was pretty well attended. Brave that’s all I can say.
QUIZ
Yesterday - Barbara Streisand, “The Way We Were”. Today’s title - a line from?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
This is a question posed in today’s “Ultima Hora”. The Spanish guitarist is now the new face of the Balearics. That Paco may prove to be a “magnificent ambassador” for the islands I will not question, but I will pose the question that will come to many lips - who is he?
In the past there have been various faces knocking around as promotional hooks for the Balearics and Mallorca - Michael Douglas, Claudia Schiffer, Anna Kournikova. Like them or not, at least most people have heard of them; Paco on the other hand. I suppose in all of this is the idea that Paco will represent something a tad more cultural than the likes of German supermodels or over-hyped Russian tennis-players. That Paco is arguably Spain’s most famous flamenco guitarist and that he has taken flamenco to a wider audience and crossed-over into other musical forms (e.g. into jazz with the likes of John McLaughlin) is not in dispute, but I ask how many people among the general mass of British tourists could tell you who he is. Were his appointment, if one can use such a word, as the face of Balearic tourism solely for Spanish consumption, then all would be fine, but the gig he’s been landed with was being pushed at the London World Travel Market, from which follows the conclusion that he is the international face of Balearic tourism.
Can someone tell me what exactly does being the face of Balearic tourism entail? Does Paco front some ads or what? Come Boxing Day, and there it is, a TV ad for the Balearics, shots of turquoise seas and a grinning waiter pouring some sangria before gleefully trousering some euros and up pops Paco strumming a few chords before saying in good Fred Pontin style - “Book early”. No, I don’t think so either.
Weather - winter has arrived. Cold and wet. Apparently the Dijous Bo day at Inca yesterday was pretty well attended. Brave that’s all I can say.
QUIZ
Yesterday - Barbara Streisand, “The Way We Were”. Today’s title - a line from?
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
But Friday Never Hesitate
Despite my scepticism, word coming from the World Travel Market suggests that Mallorca can expect a “spectacular” increase in the number of British tourists in 2008 especially those coming all year round for city breaks - for which, read Palma. I shall bow to this word. Undoubtedly the availability of low-cost air travel and the wide use of the internet for travel booking in the UK are helping to promote this form of tourism, though I remain to be convinced that Palma holds greater attractions than many other destinations. But even allowing for the fact that it does, tourism coming into Palma for a long weekend does virtually nothing for places like Alcúdia and Pollensa.
There is to be a major promotional campaign in collaboration with tour operators and airlines to bring more people to all the Balearic Islands in the low seasons of September to November and March to May, the promotional emphasis seemingly being the cheapness of travel.
Back on the autumn fairs. There was this sound-off thing in “Ultima Hora”. While bemoaning the chaos of parking in Pollensa for its recent fair, the commentator was otherwise full of praise (parking in Pollensa is chaotic at the best of times). He found though that there was a lack of knowledge among craft exhibitors in Pollensa as to the upcoming fair in Sa Pobla, decrying the lack of publicity and lack of dynamism and implicating Muro (which had its fair last weekend - at the same time as Pollensa) as well.
He may well have a point. Living closer to both Sa Pobla and Muro than to Pollensa, I am always fully aware of the Pollensa event as I am of Alcúdia’s fair. It is easy to get information for things going on in Pollensa and Alcúdia, but for Muro and Sa Pobla ... .
For the British, with a tradition of satire from Jonathan Swift (albeit he was half-Irish) to “Punch” and “Private Eye” and, moreover, a tradition of debunking its institutions and their representatives, the case of the “El Jueves” cartoon might seem somewhat odd. To remind you: the magazine was charged for publishing a cartoon which ridiculed the Crown in the form of Crown-Prince Felipe and his wife. This is an offence in Spain. The editor and cartoonist have now been fined.
Inevitably, the prosecution of the magazine’s personnel has led to accusations that the case has been pursued as a means of limiting press freedom and freedom of expression. This is not so. The judgement makes it clear that there are limits, and the magazine crossed these. It is the law and not the specific case that places limits on freedom of expression. Spain is hardly unique in having such limits. Whether these limits need to be stretched by a change to the law is another matter; the publicity surrounding the case might be said to have caused the Royal Family more harm than the original cartoon.
QUIZ
Yesterday - The Strawbs. And for those currently on a roll ... Today’s title - one for weekend-breakers, a line from what song, together with “Saturday wait, And Sunday always comes too late”.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
There is to be a major promotional campaign in collaboration with tour operators and airlines to bring more people to all the Balearic Islands in the low seasons of September to November and March to May, the promotional emphasis seemingly being the cheapness of travel.
Back on the autumn fairs. There was this sound-off thing in “Ultima Hora”. While bemoaning the chaos of parking in Pollensa for its recent fair, the commentator was otherwise full of praise (parking in Pollensa is chaotic at the best of times). He found though that there was a lack of knowledge among craft exhibitors in Pollensa as to the upcoming fair in Sa Pobla, decrying the lack of publicity and lack of dynamism and implicating Muro (which had its fair last weekend - at the same time as Pollensa) as well.
He may well have a point. Living closer to both Sa Pobla and Muro than to Pollensa, I am always fully aware of the Pollensa event as I am of Alcúdia’s fair. It is easy to get information for things going on in Pollensa and Alcúdia, but for Muro and Sa Pobla ... .
For the British, with a tradition of satire from Jonathan Swift (albeit he was half-Irish) to “Punch” and “Private Eye” and, moreover, a tradition of debunking its institutions and their representatives, the case of the “El Jueves” cartoon might seem somewhat odd. To remind you: the magazine was charged for publishing a cartoon which ridiculed the Crown in the form of Crown-Prince Felipe and his wife. This is an offence in Spain. The editor and cartoonist have now been fined.
Inevitably, the prosecution of the magazine’s personnel has led to accusations that the case has been pursued as a means of limiting press freedom and freedom of expression. This is not so. The judgement makes it clear that there are limits, and the magazine crossed these. It is the law and not the specific case that places limits on freedom of expression. Spain is hardly unique in having such limits. Whether these limits need to be stretched by a change to the law is another matter; the publicity surrounding the case might be said to have caused the Royal Family more harm than the original cartoon.
QUIZ
Yesterday - The Strawbs. And for those currently on a roll ... Today’s title - one for weekend-breakers, a line from what song, together with “Saturday wait, And Sunday always comes too late”.
(PLEASE REPLY TO andrew@thealcudiaguide.com AND NOT VIA THE COMMENTS THINGY HERE.)
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