Here's a stat for you. Over the past ten years the number of tourists per annum in Mallorca has risen from just shy of six million to just shy of eleven million. Not quite a 100% increase, it's still one hell of an increase.
Such an abundance of tourists should have everyone jumping for joy. But not everyone is. Some are staring at beaches of the island, at roads, at treatment plants. Their expressions are ones of pain. How has it come to this? We know how. We know why. Mediterranean geopolitics and the advance of Airbnb (and others). We know the reasons. Nevertheless, an additional five million tourists in the space of a decade, 500k more each year: this is a massive increase.
It might be thought that the increase has been more concentrated than this. Go back ten years and the world was at the point of throwing itself off financial towers. But the crash didn't create a tourism wreck. It didn't enable tourism to truly set sail with a fair wind behind it, but nor was tourism becalmed. The numbers grew and then suddenly they exploded. There was the collision of collaborative economy internet portals, the firing of a terrorist's gun, and the sound of cash tills being reactivated through recovery. For some, this caused the perfect storm. For others, it was imperfect. Storm it was, though. And with storms come damage.
Crisis begat austerity. While recovery is all around, it is easy to forget that Spain and Mallorca are still labouring in the sludgy sand of parsimony. It took a constitutional manoeuvre and an alliance of political foes - the Partido Popular and PSOE - to enshrine austerity into statute. It remains there. It is yielding slightly, but it keeps well hidden the key to the giant padlock that guards and seals the public spending treasure chest.
Town halls are at least to now be allowed to spend some of the vast surpluses they have been attaining because of the law on financial stability. But they are still subject to spending restrictions on personnel. As can be observed in Capdepera and Muro, which are not the only examples, town halls are severely restricted in terms of police recruitment and police pay. The municipal security force is only one component of the constraint.
So, coincidental with this major increase in tourist numbers has been a block on the wherewithal to deal with them. Policing, or its absence, should have us all alarmed. But the strains are clear elsewhere: cleaning, water, sewage, health service, traffic. Have public services advanced in line with the five million or so tourists advance? They have not.
Should government, Madrid in particular, shoulder the blame? Partly, it should, but then what other options did Madrid really have? But demanding that ever greater financial resources are made available obscures the real issue. The rate of growth in tourism is unsustainable. An island such as Mallorca cannot deal with it. While infrastructure can be updated, there is only so much that the general environment can absorb. It is true that no one ever places precise figures on the island's load capacities, but intuitively as well as financially, there is broad agreement that there is a finite point. And it may well have been reached.
It is no longer just the environmentalists who argue the case. Divisions of the state recognise it, even the ministry for development. While it keeps a weather eye on Aena with its ambitions for increased flights (and by and large seems prepared to permit them), it has its other duties. It is the development ministry that oversees transport in general, land in general. It can talk to the traffic directorate or to the Bank of Spain. The opinions are the same. Not sustainable.
Given this general agreement, there is a need for different branches of government (and business and environmentalists) to come together. But the regional and national governments, thanks to political differences, butt heads rather than make accords. Mallorca, hamstrung by austerity and a disadvantageous financing system, is entitled to expect something more in return for all the wealth that the additional five million is generating. But I say again, financing isn't the real issue.
The regional government, via its legislation, is seeking to spread the load of tourism. It is looking to the island's interior to take some of the strain that has been created by the increased numbers. While this can be positive for some towns, it isn't entirely. Selva is one place where the infrastructure is creaking. Buger, tiny Buger, has the highest density of tourist places on the island relative to population. It doesn't have the ability to serve them.
The oft-quoted slogan is that Mallorca lives from tourism. It does indeed. But an impression given is of an island slowly dying from its own lifeblood.
Showing posts with label Tourist numbers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tourist numbers. Show all posts
Wednesday, June 07, 2017
Saturday, May 14, 2016
Banning Tourist Cars Or Not
This week's foreign media Mallorca and Balearic alarm-raising headlines had to do with cars. Tourists cars are to be banned from the Balearics, said one headline. This stemmed principally from a piece in La Vanguardia, the Barcelona-based national paper which, given its location, takes a keen interest in that city's tourism affairs (of which there are many) and thus considers other destinations by means of comparison.
The background to all this is familiar enough. The regional government, especially Biel Barceló, has been making reference to overcrowding and saturation for several months. A ban or a limitation on cars has been most spoken about in respect of Formentera. As the island has no airport, it can get overrun by the volume of vehicles: this was certainly how things were being described last summer.
A ban on the entrance of cars to it and to the other islands would be extremely difficult to enforce. It would run up against challenges from the ferry operators and its legality might be questionable. The Balearics are part of Spain, so how can you stop other Spaniards moving freely? And that's before one gets to other European nationalities. The example is cited of Capri, where non-resident vehicles are banned during the summer, but Capri is really tiny and is also right next to the mainland. The comparison, even with Formentera, isn't as strong as some might think, not least because of the differing nature of the islands' governmental administrations.
Another measure is some form of tax. The possibility of this was raised some weeks ago, with imported hire cars being its target along with tourist vehicles. While a charge on hire cars might be possible (as a way of dissuading agencies from bringing ever more cars onto the islands' roads), one for private vehicles would come up against European law. Toll roads are perfectly legitimate but tariffs to simply use roads are not.
The number of vehicles on the road, especially in high summer, is obviously a reflection of the number of tourists, and as this number continues to rise and is expected to rise again this summer, the whole issue of human saturation has arrived centre-stage in Balearics' tourism politics and possible policies.
On 10 August last year, the population of the islands exceeded two million. This was the total population. One can of course ask how the number is arrived at, but assuming that it has some legitimacy it would have acted as confirmation of how much human pressure there can be on any given day in high summer. This maximum value has risen every year since the turn of the century except for one small blip downwards in 2009. In 2000, the maximum, also on 10 August, was 1,543,160. So, tourism has contributed to a rise of over 460,000, has it?
Well no, because the registered population increased by almost 280,000 between 2000 and 2015. Tourism, therefore, has added under 200,000 over the same period, though even here one has to be aware of the caveat that not all this additional number is made up by tourists.
Nevertheless, the increase is significant, and last year's maximum represented an increase of over 40,000 on 7 August 2014, when the population reached its maximum. This wasn't the largest rise since 2000 but it was one of the larger, and crossing the two million mark might be said to have been a crossing of a psychological barrier. Two million are too many, however ill-defined too many might be. Which is of course the nub of the issue. How many people can the Balearics cope with? How many should they cope with?
Saturation, human pressure, overcrowding are going to be themes of this coming summer, even more so than last year.
This said, we already have the sound of the doubting voices ringing in our ears. Despite current tourism performance, there is the familiar, typically anecdotal denial. Businesses are reporting a bad start to the season: the normal response to what statistics would suggest otherwise. Somewhere between the anecdotes and the statistics lies the truth, though it's anyone's guess as to what that might be.
Anyway, for what it's worth, a survey by the Gadeso research organisation here in Mallorca reports that a half of hoteliers expect this season to be better than last year. With all the visitors we can supposedly anticipate this season, one would have thought that they would all be expecting a better year. But maybe the other half see themselves threatened by holiday rentals. They may actually be right.
The background to all this is familiar enough. The regional government, especially Biel Barceló, has been making reference to overcrowding and saturation for several months. A ban or a limitation on cars has been most spoken about in respect of Formentera. As the island has no airport, it can get overrun by the volume of vehicles: this was certainly how things were being described last summer.
A ban on the entrance of cars to it and to the other islands would be extremely difficult to enforce. It would run up against challenges from the ferry operators and its legality might be questionable. The Balearics are part of Spain, so how can you stop other Spaniards moving freely? And that's before one gets to other European nationalities. The example is cited of Capri, where non-resident vehicles are banned during the summer, but Capri is really tiny and is also right next to the mainland. The comparison, even with Formentera, isn't as strong as some might think, not least because of the differing nature of the islands' governmental administrations.
Another measure is some form of tax. The possibility of this was raised some weeks ago, with imported hire cars being its target along with tourist vehicles. While a charge on hire cars might be possible (as a way of dissuading agencies from bringing ever more cars onto the islands' roads), one for private vehicles would come up against European law. Toll roads are perfectly legitimate but tariffs to simply use roads are not.
The number of vehicles on the road, especially in high summer, is obviously a reflection of the number of tourists, and as this number continues to rise and is expected to rise again this summer, the whole issue of human saturation has arrived centre-stage in Balearics' tourism politics and possible policies.
On 10 August last year, the population of the islands exceeded two million. This was the total population. One can of course ask how the number is arrived at, but assuming that it has some legitimacy it would have acted as confirmation of how much human pressure there can be on any given day in high summer. This maximum value has risen every year since the turn of the century except for one small blip downwards in 2009. In 2000, the maximum, also on 10 August, was 1,543,160. So, tourism has contributed to a rise of over 460,000, has it?
Well no, because the registered population increased by almost 280,000 between 2000 and 2015. Tourism, therefore, has added under 200,000 over the same period, though even here one has to be aware of the caveat that not all this additional number is made up by tourists.
Nevertheless, the increase is significant, and last year's maximum represented an increase of over 40,000 on 7 August 2014, when the population reached its maximum. This wasn't the largest rise since 2000 but it was one of the larger, and crossing the two million mark might be said to have been a crossing of a psychological barrier. Two million are too many, however ill-defined too many might be. Which is of course the nub of the issue. How many people can the Balearics cope with? How many should they cope with?
Saturation, human pressure, overcrowding are going to be themes of this coming summer, even more so than last year.
This said, we already have the sound of the doubting voices ringing in our ears. Despite current tourism performance, there is the familiar, typically anecdotal denial. Businesses are reporting a bad start to the season: the normal response to what statistics would suggest otherwise. Somewhere between the anecdotes and the statistics lies the truth, though it's anyone's guess as to what that might be.
Anyway, for what it's worth, a survey by the Gadeso research organisation here in Mallorca reports that a half of hoteliers expect this season to be better than last year. With all the visitors we can supposedly anticipate this season, one would have thought that they would all be expecting a better year. But maybe the other half see themselves threatened by holiday rentals. They may actually be right.
Friday, March 13, 2015
Into The Biosphere: Sustainable/responsible tourism
This has been a week during which it was revealed that Catalonia wishes to become the first tourism region in the world to obtain a Biosphere certification. Which seemed a little odd as Menorca has been a Biosphere for over twenty years: it was declared to be one by UNESCO in 1993. Whatever. Perhaps Menorca isn't a region as such. Anyway, UNESCO has a regional Biosphere which is certified by its Global Sustainable Tourism Council, a body with lofty aims to ensure, inter alia, that "tourism meets its potential as a tool for conservation and poverty alleviation". A Biosphere refers to, among other things, the encouragement of the "social and cultural authenticity of each (tourist) destination and community".
Catalonia's ambition comes at a time when, according to global trends in tourism, "a new traveller" is seeking "creative and sustainable destinations". The argument goes that by promoting sustainability (this Biosphere stuff), a destination can establish greater loyalty from a tourist who, impressed by the efforts to maintain the environment, the local culture, the local heritage, alleviate poverty, etc. etc., will become a repeat tourist. There is a further argument that this approach will enable a destination to in fact increase its tourism in the first place.
Sustainable tourism, responsible tourism and other terms do have specific meanings and grand intentions. But they have also become part of the tourism marketing lexicon for destinations for which they weren't originally intended. Sustainable tourism was derived from sustainable development, initially a UN programme with contemporary origins in the 1980s. Primarily, it was concerned (as was sustainable tourism when it was first conceived) with protection of less-developed parts of the world. Subsequently, the tourism industry latched on to the idea that all this sustainability offered product and marketing possibilities for developed tourist destinations.
This isn't to say that genuine efforts have not been made - as they have - but to come to Catalonia or indeed to Mallorca, how applicable are principles of sustainable (or responsible) tourism? Let's consider a couple. Involve local people in decisions that affect their lives and life chances. Provide more enjoyable experiences for tourists through meaningful connections with local people and a greater understanding of local cultural, social and environmental issues.
While it is undeniable that there are tourists who value the second of these, and do so in Catalonia or Mallorca, there is a vast number who really, let's be perfectly honest, aren't that bothered. And when they are in all-inclusives, their chances of being bothered are significantly lessened. What do advocates suggest? Bussing in loads of locals for the inmates of an all-inclusive to goggle at?
For less-developed parts of the tourism world, there are clear benefits from increasing the volume of tourism so long as this increase stays in harmony with the environment and the needs of the local people. For developed parts, increasing volume runs counter to principles of sustainability/responsbility. The creative or smart tourist destination in the developed world should not be aiming to add more tourists willy-nilly. Instead, it should seek tourists who will maximise economic benefits while keeping social and environmental costs to a minimum.
The argument goes that destinations such as Mallorca have devoted too much attention to constantly increasing numbers of tourists without truly assessing economic benefits, and in the past few days there has been an admission that this is the case. Sort of. It has come from the president of the Balearics, José Ramón Bauzá. In parliament on Tuesday, Bauzá said that there was "no direct relationship between an increase in the number of tourists and variance in Balearics GDP". "The key", he said, was competitiveness profit or loss. Through inference, Bauzá was saying what many have said before. More tourists do not mean greater economic benefits when a proportion of tourist volume contributes little or nothing to the economy or indeed can cause a loss. This is something that has been known about for years but it is not something that politicians and others have chosen to do anything about. The increase in numbers has all they have been worried about.
What Bauzá was saying comes back to a governmental desire for more "quality" tourists, but this does not mean more tourists in total. It means the opposite, and former tourism minister Carlos Delgado, in not so many words, once said as much. But while Bauzá and the PP have sought this course, we now have, repeated this week, the desire of the Mallorcan left-wing for a tourism that will permit "shared prosperity" for the people of the Balearics. From both right and left and so from different political starting-points, a common view appears to be emerging - that the islands' tourism model has to change, and it is a change that may well entail fewer tourists and not more.
Into all of this came an intervention from Gabriel Escarrer of Melià. He said that "the Balearics have to become the elite destination in the Mediterranean": not an elite destination, the elite destination. Meliá is committing itself to ever greater quality, as is the case with the Calvia Beach Resort. This commitment, says Sr. Escarrer, is one that emphasises differentiation from other destinations and - that word again - sustainability. But if Meliá's vision were to be embraced wholeheartedly and were, therefore, Mallorca to be propelled towards tourist elitism, the consequence is clear. It would result in fewer tourists. The current mass could not be converted into the type of tourist that Meliá (and the government) has in mind. And it most certainly could not be converted in this way while lousy and outdated all-inclusives remain.
By the coincidence of Catalonia and its Biosphere and of what Bauzá and Escarrer have said, this past week has encapsulated where Mallorca might be heading. While it is Catalonia that is seeking the Biosphere certificate, it can be certain that a close eye will be kept on that. And if Catalonia were to conclude that entering the Biosphere means sustainability and responsibility through fewer tourists, then others may well draw the same conclusion.
Catalonia's ambition comes at a time when, according to global trends in tourism, "a new traveller" is seeking "creative and sustainable destinations". The argument goes that by promoting sustainability (this Biosphere stuff), a destination can establish greater loyalty from a tourist who, impressed by the efforts to maintain the environment, the local culture, the local heritage, alleviate poverty, etc. etc., will become a repeat tourist. There is a further argument that this approach will enable a destination to in fact increase its tourism in the first place.
Sustainable tourism, responsible tourism and other terms do have specific meanings and grand intentions. But they have also become part of the tourism marketing lexicon for destinations for which they weren't originally intended. Sustainable tourism was derived from sustainable development, initially a UN programme with contemporary origins in the 1980s. Primarily, it was concerned (as was sustainable tourism when it was first conceived) with protection of less-developed parts of the world. Subsequently, the tourism industry latched on to the idea that all this sustainability offered product and marketing possibilities for developed tourist destinations.
This isn't to say that genuine efforts have not been made - as they have - but to come to Catalonia or indeed to Mallorca, how applicable are principles of sustainable (or responsible) tourism? Let's consider a couple. Involve local people in decisions that affect their lives and life chances. Provide more enjoyable experiences for tourists through meaningful connections with local people and a greater understanding of local cultural, social and environmental issues.
While it is undeniable that there are tourists who value the second of these, and do so in Catalonia or Mallorca, there is a vast number who really, let's be perfectly honest, aren't that bothered. And when they are in all-inclusives, their chances of being bothered are significantly lessened. What do advocates suggest? Bussing in loads of locals for the inmates of an all-inclusive to goggle at?
For less-developed parts of the tourism world, there are clear benefits from increasing the volume of tourism so long as this increase stays in harmony with the environment and the needs of the local people. For developed parts, increasing volume runs counter to principles of sustainability/responsbility. The creative or smart tourist destination in the developed world should not be aiming to add more tourists willy-nilly. Instead, it should seek tourists who will maximise economic benefits while keeping social and environmental costs to a minimum.
The argument goes that destinations such as Mallorca have devoted too much attention to constantly increasing numbers of tourists without truly assessing economic benefits, and in the past few days there has been an admission that this is the case. Sort of. It has come from the president of the Balearics, José Ramón Bauzá. In parliament on Tuesday, Bauzá said that there was "no direct relationship between an increase in the number of tourists and variance in Balearics GDP". "The key", he said, was competitiveness profit or loss. Through inference, Bauzá was saying what many have said before. More tourists do not mean greater economic benefits when a proportion of tourist volume contributes little or nothing to the economy or indeed can cause a loss. This is something that has been known about for years but it is not something that politicians and others have chosen to do anything about. The increase in numbers has all they have been worried about.
What Bauzá was saying comes back to a governmental desire for more "quality" tourists, but this does not mean more tourists in total. It means the opposite, and former tourism minister Carlos Delgado, in not so many words, once said as much. But while Bauzá and the PP have sought this course, we now have, repeated this week, the desire of the Mallorcan left-wing for a tourism that will permit "shared prosperity" for the people of the Balearics. From both right and left and so from different political starting-points, a common view appears to be emerging - that the islands' tourism model has to change, and it is a change that may well entail fewer tourists and not more.
Into all of this came an intervention from Gabriel Escarrer of Melià. He said that "the Balearics have to become the elite destination in the Mediterranean": not an elite destination, the elite destination. Meliá is committing itself to ever greater quality, as is the case with the Calvia Beach Resort. This commitment, says Sr. Escarrer, is one that emphasises differentiation from other destinations and - that word again - sustainability. But if Meliá's vision were to be embraced wholeheartedly and were, therefore, Mallorca to be propelled towards tourist elitism, the consequence is clear. It would result in fewer tourists. The current mass could not be converted into the type of tourist that Meliá (and the government) has in mind. And it most certainly could not be converted in this way while lousy and outdated all-inclusives remain.
By the coincidence of Catalonia and its Biosphere and of what Bauzá and Escarrer have said, this past week has encapsulated where Mallorca might be heading. While it is Catalonia that is seeking the Biosphere certificate, it can be certain that a close eye will be kept on that. And if Catalonia were to conclude that entering the Biosphere means sustainability and responsibility through fewer tourists, then others may well draw the same conclusion.
Friday, November 28, 2014
Isabel In Quality Land
Isabel Borrego, the Mallorcan who is the national secretary-of-state for tourism, has been suspiciously visible over the past few days. After three years of relative anonymity or of, when becoming visible, a tendency to put her foot in it, she has suddenly taken tourism centre-stage. Something's afoot, or perhaps she's just taking the heat off her boss, Soria, as the flak flies in the Canaries over oil prospecting and is about to fly in the Balearics for the same reason. Whatever the reason for this unexpected activity, Isabel has followed up her grand idea for Shopping Tourism 2015 with the Strategic Plan for Quality, something which has in mind giving Spain the most advanced tourism quality system in the world.
As ever with announcements of such plans, there were precious few details to explain what she meant, other than vague references to perfecting cultures of hospitality and attention to tourists and to attracting tourists with increased purchasing power (the same principle underpins her shopping plan). Asian tourists would appear to be important to all this. Their number has risen by 20% so far this year, and as they spend more than other tourists, Isabel is clearly keen to cash in. Not that Asian tourists are going to mean a great deal for Mallorca at present, save for a few Chinese knocking around on golf courses. Without direct flights, getting a piece of the Asian action will be hard.
Meanwhile, Isabel didn't have good news for hoteliers who have been imploring national government to give them some form of fiscal preference, as in reducing IVA. She didn't believe that this was likely, noting that sectors of the tourism industry (not all but certainly the hotels) do already have preferential treatment in that IVA is charged at a lower rate of 10%.
She has also been speaking about holiday lets, and what she had to say was very little. This is a matter for regional governments, she pointed out, which is something we already knew, the national government having abrogated responsibility (for fear of upsetting the hoteliers) and dressed this up as decentralisation of decision-making, something which has led to the lack of harmony of regulations across Spain.
Figures issued by the Balearics Statistics Institute for October's tourism should be noted by Isabel, by Martínez and by the Mallorcan hoteliers. Though healthy - over one million tourists, which is in fact very healthy for October - the figures point to the importance of non-hotel accommodation in attracting tourists. It can be misleading to refer to a lengthening of the season in respect of October, given that October is part of the summer season, but a lengthening was how these figures were being interpreted in some quarters. The fact that holiday lets were playing a significant role in this lengthening contradicts the frankly stupid comments that have come from Martínez and the hoteliers' federation. They have claimed that holiday lets only intensify seasonality, when it should be obvious that they can play a role in making it less intense and so lengthening the season even further. (When there are so few hotels open, this should be clear.)
As ever with announcements of such plans, there were precious few details to explain what she meant, other than vague references to perfecting cultures of hospitality and attention to tourists and to attracting tourists with increased purchasing power (the same principle underpins her shopping plan). Asian tourists would appear to be important to all this. Their number has risen by 20% so far this year, and as they spend more than other tourists, Isabel is clearly keen to cash in. Not that Asian tourists are going to mean a great deal for Mallorca at present, save for a few Chinese knocking around on golf courses. Without direct flights, getting a piece of the Asian action will be hard.
Meanwhile, Isabel didn't have good news for hoteliers who have been imploring national government to give them some form of fiscal preference, as in reducing IVA. She didn't believe that this was likely, noting that sectors of the tourism industry (not all but certainly the hotels) do already have preferential treatment in that IVA is charged at a lower rate of 10%.
She has also been speaking about holiday lets, and what she had to say was very little. This is a matter for regional governments, she pointed out, which is something we already knew, the national government having abrogated responsibility (for fear of upsetting the hoteliers) and dressed this up as decentralisation of decision-making, something which has led to the lack of harmony of regulations across Spain.
Figures issued by the Balearics Statistics Institute for October's tourism should be noted by Isabel, by Martínez and by the Mallorcan hoteliers. Though healthy - over one million tourists, which is in fact very healthy for October - the figures point to the importance of non-hotel accommodation in attracting tourists. It can be misleading to refer to a lengthening of the season in respect of October, given that October is part of the summer season, but a lengthening was how these figures were being interpreted in some quarters. The fact that holiday lets were playing a significant role in this lengthening contradicts the frankly stupid comments that have come from Martínez and the hoteliers' federation. They have claimed that holiday lets only intensify seasonality, when it should be obvious that they can play a role in making it less intense and so lengthening the season even further. (When there are so few hotels open, this should be clear.)
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