Against the background of talk of tourist limits, control of holiday rentals and tourist "massification", it is useful to note what is going on elsewhere in the Mediterranean. There seems to be a view among those who are rejecting the Balearic policies - tourist tax, rentals' legislation - that other destinations don't have the same issues and will be welcoming floods of more tourists next year: those who will be abandoning Mallorca.
There really does need to be a greater understanding of these other destinations. Take the Greek islands, for example, and the context of Greece's politics, with the Podemos-style Syriza in power, curiously supported by the highly conservative right-wing Independent Greeks.
Santorini is a case in point. It has a population of 25,000. It receives some two million visitors per year. The island's mayor, Anastasios Sorsos, wants the Greek government to declare the island "touristically saturated". Santorini simply can't cope. Its roads can no longer support more traffic. The use of resources has been stretched to its absolute limit.
There is to be a cap placed on the number of cruise ships. The environment ministry is being asked to ban any development away from the main urbanised areas. There is a drive to limit hotel capacities and to prevent there being new businesses that offer tourist services. There is an environmental lobby as concerned as any in the Balearics
Prices are increasing, accommodation is ever more difficult to find for employees and for professional groups, such as doctors. There has to be an end to private holiday rentals, especially those via the likes of Airbnb. They are "wreaking havoc" and not just in Santorini.
Does it all sound rather familiar? Well yes, it does. And the point is that Mallorca is far from being the only tourist destination where issues exist regarding saturation. Taleb Rifai, the secretary general of the UN World Tourism Organisation (WTO), has highlighted his concern with growing tourismphobia. He cited Dubrovnik in Croatia as an example because of saturation through holiday rentals and cruise ship passenger numbers.
2017 is supposedly the year of tourism sustainability, a year decreed by the WTO. This sustainability is espoused by political regimes such as those of the Balearics and Greece, yet it is coloured, as Rifai, notes, by populism that generates an antagonism within society. He is stepping down as secretary general. His successor, the Georgian Zurab Pololikashvili, faces great challenges, and one of them is tourismphobia.
Showing posts with label Tourist saturation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tourist saturation. Show all posts
Monday, September 18, 2017
Sunday, August 13, 2017
Pin The Tail On The Tourist
Esporles. What do we know of the place? It is home to La Granja, it has a sweets fair every October and Mick of the Council was its mayor for ten years. Since ascending to the presidential throne at the Council, Mick and his cultural vice-presidential compadre Frank (Miralles) have been bigging up the island's fiestas. They are a means for tourists to get to know the real Mallorca, the authentic Mallorca. Not, therefore, the Mallorca with roads with all-summer-long jams, with every last piece of the streets of old Palma crammed with visitors, with locals ejected from their dwellings by Airbnb, with youthful tourists leaving trails of vomit between Magalluf and Playa de Palma. No, this is the authentic Mallorca with tranquil village squares cooled by Tramuntana breezes and where visitors can engage in cultural exchange with the locals and discover the limitless joys of bread with oil and tomato and of ball de bot, little-jumping folk dancers.
Esporles does have tourists. Not huge numbers but numbers nonetheless. They are swelled by cyclists overrunning the tranquil squares in springtime and excursion trips to La Granja. The right sort of place, in general though, for the Mick'n'Frank vision of touristic cultural harmony and appreciation of the rich and long history of the Island of Calm to flourish. However.
There are two bits to Esporles: the old bit and the new bit. The latter of these, Vilanova, has had its fiestas. Jolly little affairs, they will be more of an occasion for the indigenous population of the new bit than for outsiders. Which may be as well. Each year, the fiestas use a mascot for promotion. This mascot is the Boc, a goat. The poster took the word Boc and came up with "OverBOCking". How clever. Then there was a game to be played. Was this in the style of the "jocs tradicionals" that feature so heavily in village fiestas and can allow visitors to understand the traditions of jewel races and spinning tops? Well, it depends what you mean by tradition. There is a new tradition. A new craze. Everyone seems to be playing it. And so in the new bit there was "hunt the guiri".
The guiri of the poster didn't, it has to be said, look like a typical tourist. Certainly not one along Punta Ballena. He was an Inspector Poirot type of character carrying a rolled-up beach umbrella (not that you really need a beach umbrella in Esporles). Anyway, if the guiris could be hunted down, there would be a free supper for the winner. Goodness, they know how to make their own fun in the new bit.
No, it wasn't xenophobic, which had been a criticism. It was all a spot of humour with an ironic touch, said the organising committee, that took "massification" and holiday rentals as its themes. And humorous it no doubt was. Absolutely no offence was meant or indeed caused. It was all just a variation on a "joc tradicional" that isn't necessarily one here in Mallorca. Pin the tail on the donkey, with a tourist as the substitute. Mick'n'Frank, as far as one is aware, haven't commented.
Esporles does have tourists. Not huge numbers but numbers nonetheless. They are swelled by cyclists overrunning the tranquil squares in springtime and excursion trips to La Granja. The right sort of place, in general though, for the Mick'n'Frank vision of touristic cultural harmony and appreciation of the rich and long history of the Island of Calm to flourish. However.
There are two bits to Esporles: the old bit and the new bit. The latter of these, Vilanova, has had its fiestas. Jolly little affairs, they will be more of an occasion for the indigenous population of the new bit than for outsiders. Which may be as well. Each year, the fiestas use a mascot for promotion. This mascot is the Boc, a goat. The poster took the word Boc and came up with "OverBOCking". How clever. Then there was a game to be played. Was this in the style of the "jocs tradicionals" that feature so heavily in village fiestas and can allow visitors to understand the traditions of jewel races and spinning tops? Well, it depends what you mean by tradition. There is a new tradition. A new craze. Everyone seems to be playing it. And so in the new bit there was "hunt the guiri".
The guiri of the poster didn't, it has to be said, look like a typical tourist. Certainly not one along Punta Ballena. He was an Inspector Poirot type of character carrying a rolled-up beach umbrella (not that you really need a beach umbrella in Esporles). Anyway, if the guiris could be hunted down, there would be a free supper for the winner. Goodness, they know how to make their own fun in the new bit.
No, it wasn't xenophobic, which had been a criticism. It was all a spot of humour with an ironic touch, said the organising committee, that took "massification" and holiday rentals as its themes. And humorous it no doubt was. Absolutely no offence was meant or indeed caused. It was all just a variation on a "joc tradicional" that isn't necessarily one here in Mallorca. Pin the tail on the donkey, with a tourist as the substitute. Mick'n'Frank, as far as one is aware, haven't commented.
Wednesday, August 02, 2017
Terrorising The Tourist Bus
Imagine that you are a tourist taking a trip on the sightseeing bus in Palma or even one (of seemingly several) in Alcudia. You are enjoying the sights. Here is the Cathedral. Or there, in Alcudia, is the site of the old Roman town of Pollentia. While you are enjoying this ride, you are suddenly shocked. More than just shocked. You are scared witless. Four terrorists wearing hoods have leapt onto the bus.
On Thursday last week, tourists in Barcelona were presented with just this scenario. They thought the attackers were terrorists. They weren't. They were four members of Arran, the revolutionary youth movement. A Dutch tourist, with his children, certainly thought they were terrorists. He told a radio station that he had believed they were.
The sightseeing bus had its tyres slashed. Graffiti was daubed on it. The principal message was that tourism kills the neighbourhoods, i.e. the local residential areas which are meant to be for the people of Barcelona. They have been invaded by tourists. By holiday rentals. By Airbnb.
The incident occurred by the Camp Nou football stadium. News of it only emerged almost three days later. The town hall, the police had given no notification of its occurrence. It was, however, noted on social media, not least by Arran themselves. Tourism, the group averred, damages the working classes. And in case anyone wasn't getting the message or thought the bus invasion hadn't taken place, they supplied video evidence.
Arran is linked to a political party known as Candidatura d'Unitat Popular (CUP). Of the extreme left, the CUP advocates anti-capitalist Republicanism, bank nationalisation, Catalonian independence and Spain's exit from the European Union and NATO. The CUP has ten seats (out of 135) in Catalonia's parliament. Either directly or via Arran, it has associations with Valencia and the Balearics, where another link is via Endavant, the socialist organisation for national liberation.
Both Arran and Endavant were involved with the latest display of anti-tourist sentiment in Palma last week. As such, therefore, one can't wholly rule out there being a repetition in Palma of what took place in Barcelona with the sightseeing bus. The two cities are, where anti-tourist protest is concerned, pretty much joined at the hip. But Barcelona is where this protest has been much stronger. There was a previous incident involving the sightseeing bus (blocking its way so that it was stuck for a considerable time). There was a protest against Harmony of the Seas when the giant cruise ship sailed for the first time from Barcelona's port. There have been occupations of apartments and anti-Airbnb banners shown. In May this year, several hotels were "attacked".
In their social media statements, Arran stated that the bus attack was not "tourismphobia". Rather, it was a defence against "barriocidio", which can be translated as something like a form of neighbourhood genocide. The working class is condemned to "misery" because of mass tourism. Arran therefore is fighting against a "predatory and murdering" tourism model. This model creates jobs that are only insecure and temporary. It gentrifies cities. It benefits only a few. There is the need for an alternative and sustainable tourism model.
When one considers all of this, some of it could have been said by Balearic politicians, certainly those of Més or Podemos. In Barcelona, the town hall is headed by Ada Colau. Her grouping, Barcelona en Comú, is a coming-together of her own movement against evictions and political entities of the left. It isn't Podemos but it has some similarities.
One of the councillors with Colau's grouping is Agustí Colom. He is responsible for employment, business and tourism. Faced with what happened with the bus - the town hall having not even previously acknowledged the incident - he has said that the town hall is looking to see if there is any basis for legal action. The impression given is that the town hall is in no desperate hurry to establish the facts and therefore the need for such action. It is being suggested that the town hall will brush it all off in the same way it did with the "attacks" on the hotels, which were more or less categorised as having been a bit of fun.
The bus incident wasn't terrorism in that no one was targeted and no one was hurt. But it was terrorism insofar as tourists were terrorised. To even hint that it was only some youthful revolutionary high-jinks would be utterly irresponsible. But are administrations, such as Barcelona's and perhaps also Palma's, creating the environment for this type of terrorising? Why was Barcelona town hall so apparently reticent in recognising what took place? For fear of damaging the city's tourism image? And where, one might ask, could it lead?
Palma should take note. Some of its councillors should be very careful with what they say.
* Since writing this (on Monday), the town hall and the Catalonian government have said that they will take action against the bus attack. They have also denounced another incident involving Arran: tyres on bikes for rental to tourists in Barcelona were slashed. Jaume Collboni, the second deputy mayor, says that the incidents of "tourismphobia" are expressions of xenophobia that are to be condemned. Barcelona is a "democratic and open city" and there will be "zero tolerance" if similar incidents occur.
On 20 July, Arran were also behind an attack on a restaurant in Palma's Moll Vell. Confetti was thrown over clients and their food and flares were let off.
On Thursday last week, tourists in Barcelona were presented with just this scenario. They thought the attackers were terrorists. They weren't. They were four members of Arran, the revolutionary youth movement. A Dutch tourist, with his children, certainly thought they were terrorists. He told a radio station that he had believed they were.
The sightseeing bus had its tyres slashed. Graffiti was daubed on it. The principal message was that tourism kills the neighbourhoods, i.e. the local residential areas which are meant to be for the people of Barcelona. They have been invaded by tourists. By holiday rentals. By Airbnb.
The incident occurred by the Camp Nou football stadium. News of it only emerged almost three days later. The town hall, the police had given no notification of its occurrence. It was, however, noted on social media, not least by Arran themselves. Tourism, the group averred, damages the working classes. And in case anyone wasn't getting the message or thought the bus invasion hadn't taken place, they supplied video evidence.
Arran is linked to a political party known as Candidatura d'Unitat Popular (CUP). Of the extreme left, the CUP advocates anti-capitalist Republicanism, bank nationalisation, Catalonian independence and Spain's exit from the European Union and NATO. The CUP has ten seats (out of 135) in Catalonia's parliament. Either directly or via Arran, it has associations with Valencia and the Balearics, where another link is via Endavant, the socialist organisation for national liberation.
Both Arran and Endavant were involved with the latest display of anti-tourist sentiment in Palma last week. As such, therefore, one can't wholly rule out there being a repetition in Palma of what took place in Barcelona with the sightseeing bus. The two cities are, where anti-tourist protest is concerned, pretty much joined at the hip. But Barcelona is where this protest has been much stronger. There was a previous incident involving the sightseeing bus (blocking its way so that it was stuck for a considerable time). There was a protest against Harmony of the Seas when the giant cruise ship sailed for the first time from Barcelona's port. There have been occupations of apartments and anti-Airbnb banners shown. In May this year, several hotels were "attacked".
In their social media statements, Arran stated that the bus attack was not "tourismphobia". Rather, it was a defence against "barriocidio", which can be translated as something like a form of neighbourhood genocide. The working class is condemned to "misery" because of mass tourism. Arran therefore is fighting against a "predatory and murdering" tourism model. This model creates jobs that are only insecure and temporary. It gentrifies cities. It benefits only a few. There is the need for an alternative and sustainable tourism model.
When one considers all of this, some of it could have been said by Balearic politicians, certainly those of Més or Podemos. In Barcelona, the town hall is headed by Ada Colau. Her grouping, Barcelona en Comú, is a coming-together of her own movement against evictions and political entities of the left. It isn't Podemos but it has some similarities.
One of the councillors with Colau's grouping is Agustí Colom. He is responsible for employment, business and tourism. Faced with what happened with the bus - the town hall having not even previously acknowledged the incident - he has said that the town hall is looking to see if there is any basis for legal action. The impression given is that the town hall is in no desperate hurry to establish the facts and therefore the need for such action. It is being suggested that the town hall will brush it all off in the same way it did with the "attacks" on the hotels, which were more or less categorised as having been a bit of fun.
The bus incident wasn't terrorism in that no one was targeted and no one was hurt. But it was terrorism insofar as tourists were terrorised. To even hint that it was only some youthful revolutionary high-jinks would be utterly irresponsible. But are administrations, such as Barcelona's and perhaps also Palma's, creating the environment for this type of terrorising? Why was Barcelona town hall so apparently reticent in recognising what took place? For fear of damaging the city's tourism image? And where, one might ask, could it lead?
Palma should take note. Some of its councillors should be very careful with what they say.
* Since writing this (on Monday), the town hall and the Catalonian government have said that they will take action against the bus attack. They have also denounced another incident involving Arran: tyres on bikes for rental to tourists in Barcelona were slashed. Jaume Collboni, the second deputy mayor, says that the incidents of "tourismphobia" are expressions of xenophobia that are to be condemned. Barcelona is a "democratic and open city" and there will be "zero tolerance" if similar incidents occur.
On 20 July, Arran were also behind an attack on a restaurant in Palma's Moll Vell. Confetti was thrown over clients and their food and flares were let off.
Tuesday, August 01, 2017
The Modest Benefits Of Saturation
Saturation. The word first really became popularised in tourist terms two summers ago. It was applied primarily to Palma and in particular to the impact of cruise ships and of cloudy days, when hire cars bring masses of additional tourists to the city and clog the roads. Since then, it has become all-embracing, with Airbnb and its like having been fingered along with Aena and airport traffic. Mallorca is saturated.
The simple view is that this is purely a phenomenon of high summer. This is too simple. Saturation, as in far more tourists than have been typical in the past, occurs from the springtime. This earlier "invasion" should be perceived as a positive. By and large it is. But the elevated numbers of people, the increased volume of traffic (hire cars, transfer coaches, delivery trucks), the additional pressures on beaches and resources, the distortion of the market for accommodation, the higher level of airport movement create their perceptions. Whatever the arguments about tourism quality versus tourism quantity, the perception is of vastly greater quantity, and the perception is not wrong.
In order to gain an appreciation of this perception, there are the surveys. These attempt to give scientific insight to saturation. While the surveys, conducted in accordance with accepted standards for accuracy, reveal their conclusions, they are subject to a further pressure caused by saturation: the degree to which the discussion of saturation is in the public domain and the propaganda that comes with it. If you ask people for their perceptions, then they will answer with guidance that influences these perceptions.
The latest survey by the Gadeso researchers discovers, inter alia, that 80% of Balearic citizens perceive that the islands are saturated. This sensation is felt fractionally more in Mallorca and Formentera than in Menorca and Ibiza. There is a 75% or above perception when it comes to main roads (including motorways), to excessive use of resources, and to beaches and their access.
The survey doesn't compare like with like. In September last year, Gadeso found that 80% of citizens had perceived increased saturation. The current survey doesn't ask about an increase. Saturation has, if you like, become an embedded reality. Or this is one way of interpreting the results.
Another survey by Gadeso, this one conducted in June, asked tourists in Mallorca what they thought about services, infrastructure and so on. The results of tourist surveys tend not to show great variance from one to another, but there were a couple of indicators worthy of mention. Compared with the previous year, access to beaches had slumped from 4.7 to 4.1. Asked about "massification" (which can be used interchangeably with saturation), this was rated more negatively than in 2016 when there had been greater negativity than in 2015. The increase in negativity was, however, up by three times.
Bear in mind that this was in June, so not the height of the summer. Yet here were tourists themselves complaining about a sense of increased saturation and of overcrowding at beaches. In addition, they rated cleanliness notably lower, and this, one has to conclude, may well owe at least something to there being more people.
Returning to the latest survey, one of the more extraordinary findings relates to the strengths of tourism. Under a half of those surveyed (48%) agreed that it is the basis of well-being. It is difficult to discern of this was well-being in general or at an individual level. But either way, for the islands' principal industry to be considered in such a way seems almost bizarre. Or does this finding in fact reveal an ambivalence towards tourism? People aren't sure whether it's positive or negative.
And from a negative point of view, further findings on jobs and incomes speak volumes. A mere 22% said that tourism generates jobs. Only 20% felt that incomes will rise this year. More than 80% believed that there is excessive dependence upon tourism.
The tourism-employment equation is fundamental to all the discussion of tourism quality versus quantity. While the government seeks to pursue policies designed to alleviate saturation and its consequences for the environment, roads, services and the rest, it speaks in only vague terms about redistribution of wealth, raising the quality of employment and economic diversification. The government, in truth, is trapped in the same corner that others have been. It fully understands that there is far too much reliance on tourism, but addressing this reliance in any meaningful way is a challenge without obvious solutions.
Saturation won't necessarily persist if there is a correction in Mediterranean tourism and geopolitics cease to be less influential than they have been. Then what? Where the citizens in the survey are concerned, saturation has been only modestly beneficial. The government can talk all it likes about generating quality employment. But what about employment, period?
The simple view is that this is purely a phenomenon of high summer. This is too simple. Saturation, as in far more tourists than have been typical in the past, occurs from the springtime. This earlier "invasion" should be perceived as a positive. By and large it is. But the elevated numbers of people, the increased volume of traffic (hire cars, transfer coaches, delivery trucks), the additional pressures on beaches and resources, the distortion of the market for accommodation, the higher level of airport movement create their perceptions. Whatever the arguments about tourism quality versus tourism quantity, the perception is of vastly greater quantity, and the perception is not wrong.
In order to gain an appreciation of this perception, there are the surveys. These attempt to give scientific insight to saturation. While the surveys, conducted in accordance with accepted standards for accuracy, reveal their conclusions, they are subject to a further pressure caused by saturation: the degree to which the discussion of saturation is in the public domain and the propaganda that comes with it. If you ask people for their perceptions, then they will answer with guidance that influences these perceptions.
The latest survey by the Gadeso researchers discovers, inter alia, that 80% of Balearic citizens perceive that the islands are saturated. This sensation is felt fractionally more in Mallorca and Formentera than in Menorca and Ibiza. There is a 75% or above perception when it comes to main roads (including motorways), to excessive use of resources, and to beaches and their access.
The survey doesn't compare like with like. In September last year, Gadeso found that 80% of citizens had perceived increased saturation. The current survey doesn't ask about an increase. Saturation has, if you like, become an embedded reality. Or this is one way of interpreting the results.
Another survey by Gadeso, this one conducted in June, asked tourists in Mallorca what they thought about services, infrastructure and so on. The results of tourist surveys tend not to show great variance from one to another, but there were a couple of indicators worthy of mention. Compared with the previous year, access to beaches had slumped from 4.7 to 4.1. Asked about "massification" (which can be used interchangeably with saturation), this was rated more negatively than in 2016 when there had been greater negativity than in 2015. The increase in negativity was, however, up by three times.
Bear in mind that this was in June, so not the height of the summer. Yet here were tourists themselves complaining about a sense of increased saturation and of overcrowding at beaches. In addition, they rated cleanliness notably lower, and this, one has to conclude, may well owe at least something to there being more people.
Returning to the latest survey, one of the more extraordinary findings relates to the strengths of tourism. Under a half of those surveyed (48%) agreed that it is the basis of well-being. It is difficult to discern of this was well-being in general or at an individual level. But either way, for the islands' principal industry to be considered in such a way seems almost bizarre. Or does this finding in fact reveal an ambivalence towards tourism? People aren't sure whether it's positive or negative.
And from a negative point of view, further findings on jobs and incomes speak volumes. A mere 22% said that tourism generates jobs. Only 20% felt that incomes will rise this year. More than 80% believed that there is excessive dependence upon tourism.
The tourism-employment equation is fundamental to all the discussion of tourism quality versus quantity. While the government seeks to pursue policies designed to alleviate saturation and its consequences for the environment, roads, services and the rest, it speaks in only vague terms about redistribution of wealth, raising the quality of employment and economic diversification. The government, in truth, is trapped in the same corner that others have been. It fully understands that there is far too much reliance on tourism, but addressing this reliance in any meaningful way is a challenge without obvious solutions.
Saturation won't necessarily persist if there is a correction in Mediterranean tourism and geopolitics cease to be less influential than they have been. Then what? Where the citizens in the survey are concerned, saturation has been only modestly beneficial. The government can talk all it likes about generating quality employment. But what about employment, period?
Friday, December 30, 2016
Saturation, Sustainability And Stability: Mallorca's Tourism 2016
It was the 3S year. Not sun, sea and sand (substitute sex for the latter if you prefer) but saturation, sustainability and stability. Mallorca had stability by the safety and security load, plus - more or less - political stability. Geopolitics, a word that was being rammed down our throats, were at play in creating the opposite in different parts of the Med: the instability of others was Mallorca's good fortune. Until, that is, it came to saturation. Tourist numbers were greater than ever. And they were everywhere. Clogging up beaches, clogging up town centres (well, one, i.e. Palma, but only now and then), clogging up the port in Palma on account of the leviathans of the sea colliding on the same days, clogging up roads with the thousands more hire cars that had been diverted from Turkish ports, clogging up private apartments and firing off messages of gratitude to Airbnb. Bloody tourists.
It may have only been a couple of cranks who sprayed their messages on walls of Palma's old town, but their sentiments were far more widely held. Regardless of whether politicians attempted to either downplay or make hay with the slogans, the publicity had won. Saturation and its negative effects were here to stay. Or for at least as long as geopolitics are active in the eastern Mediterranean and northern Africa.
It wasn't as if we hadn't been here before. Few mentioned the fact that there had been similar murmurings of discontent at the turn of the millennium, despite Mallorca experiencing something of a crisis because of competition from destinations then unaffected by geopolitics. The response had been a campaign for sustainability - yes, they've been talking about it for that long - and a new tax. The ecotax was introduced in 2002 and then un-introduced eighteen months later. Politics, not of a geo nature but of a typically Balearic style, saw to it that the ecotax was ejected with force and catapulted into the deep blue waters of the Mediterranean, never to darken a hotel reception again. Until 1 July, 2016.
While former tourism minister Celesti Alomar had believed (hoped) that the ecotax would lead to a cut in tourist numbers, the current minister, Biel Barceló, didn't seem to suggest that the new tourist tax was a means of limiting numbers. Not to begin with anyway. Although he remained somewhat equivocal on the tax and limits relationship, others were not for equivocating. Podemos and fellow travellers in Barceló's Més party were all for putting it up in 2017 in order to keep the numbers down. Més and numerous members of Podemos signed up to the campaign "Sense límits no hi ha futur".
The politics of the tourist tax were in themselves curious. Més in their former solo guise as the PSM had been against the ecotax in 2002 (believe it or not, they had feared it would harm tourist numbers). It had been PSOE - Alomar especially - who had been the evangelists and advocates. Although PSOE in their current form have never admitted that they would have rather the tourist tax had been given a wide berth, they were badgered into it by Més and Podemos.
And once it was on the parliamentary agenda, it caused all sorts of disagreement, not least with regard to how the revenue was to be spent. There was, for example, the notion (proposed by Toni Reus of Més) of some of the revenue going towards old folks' homes. The scrapping was such that an unidentified member of Podemos entertainingly remarked that during one particularly heated discussion "we were screaming like we were kids in primary school".
Paramount, though, was our old friend sustainability, so much so that the tax was officially dubbed the sustainable tourism tax. It duly arrived in time for the high season, and fears that outraged tourists might be dragged off to the cells for refusing to part with payment were to prove to have been unfounded.
It is perhaps instructive to look back at quotes that I used in reviewing the 2015 tourism year. The president of the Mallorca Hoteliers Federation, the ubiquitous Inma Benito, had called it a bad measure that "will cause the loss of millions in 2016". Hans Müller of Thomas Cook believed that it "could suddenly cost us everything that has been gained over the past four years". As things turned out, the hoteliers and the tour operators were grateful for the geopolitics as far as Mallorca was concerned; tour operators otherwise experienced losses, especially in Turkey.
With limits and saturation very much on the agenda, Barceló introduced the draft for the holiday rentals legislation. This will be one of the big issues for 2017, and it will be a contentious issue as well. The divvying up of the 43,000 places according to nine zones in Mallorca, to say nothing of the other three islands, will be a wonder to behold, while the lawyers will already be champing at the bit. On all-inclusives, if the tourism ministry is true to its word and gets tough with offer that is not registered, then good on the ministry.
2016 will otherwise be remembered for the collapse of Low Cost Holidays and so for the job losses. It was a case study of crap cash-flow management allied to inadequate regulatory control in the Balearics: the tourism ministry was left to squirm and cite European bonds as its fallback position for holidaymakers whose holidays were costing them double. There were also the losses that Vueling was consistently making: it kept on having to cancel flights. The airports authority Aena hasn't explained if the record numbers at Palma airport took account of the cancellations.
And what of losses in 2017? Brexit had no impact this year, and in truth there had been little justification for thinking that it would have. We're told that bookings from the UK are buoyant for next year, the bigger fear being lower spend. But as no one believes tourist spending statistics anyway, how will we able to tell?
So we look forward to the new year, one during which we will revisit - time and time again - the same themes. 2017 will be 3S year Mark II.
It may have only been a couple of cranks who sprayed their messages on walls of Palma's old town, but their sentiments were far more widely held. Regardless of whether politicians attempted to either downplay or make hay with the slogans, the publicity had won. Saturation and its negative effects were here to stay. Or for at least as long as geopolitics are active in the eastern Mediterranean and northern Africa.
It wasn't as if we hadn't been here before. Few mentioned the fact that there had been similar murmurings of discontent at the turn of the millennium, despite Mallorca experiencing something of a crisis because of competition from destinations then unaffected by geopolitics. The response had been a campaign for sustainability - yes, they've been talking about it for that long - and a new tax. The ecotax was introduced in 2002 and then un-introduced eighteen months later. Politics, not of a geo nature but of a typically Balearic style, saw to it that the ecotax was ejected with force and catapulted into the deep blue waters of the Mediterranean, never to darken a hotel reception again. Until 1 July, 2016.
While former tourism minister Celesti Alomar had believed (hoped) that the ecotax would lead to a cut in tourist numbers, the current minister, Biel Barceló, didn't seem to suggest that the new tourist tax was a means of limiting numbers. Not to begin with anyway. Although he remained somewhat equivocal on the tax and limits relationship, others were not for equivocating. Podemos and fellow travellers in Barceló's Més party were all for putting it up in 2017 in order to keep the numbers down. Més and numerous members of Podemos signed up to the campaign "Sense límits no hi ha futur".
The politics of the tourist tax were in themselves curious. Més in their former solo guise as the PSM had been against the ecotax in 2002 (believe it or not, they had feared it would harm tourist numbers). It had been PSOE - Alomar especially - who had been the evangelists and advocates. Although PSOE in their current form have never admitted that they would have rather the tourist tax had been given a wide berth, they were badgered into it by Més and Podemos.
And once it was on the parliamentary agenda, it caused all sorts of disagreement, not least with regard to how the revenue was to be spent. There was, for example, the notion (proposed by Toni Reus of Més) of some of the revenue going towards old folks' homes. The scrapping was such that an unidentified member of Podemos entertainingly remarked that during one particularly heated discussion "we were screaming like we were kids in primary school".
Paramount, though, was our old friend sustainability, so much so that the tax was officially dubbed the sustainable tourism tax. It duly arrived in time for the high season, and fears that outraged tourists might be dragged off to the cells for refusing to part with payment were to prove to have been unfounded.
It is perhaps instructive to look back at quotes that I used in reviewing the 2015 tourism year. The president of the Mallorca Hoteliers Federation, the ubiquitous Inma Benito, had called it a bad measure that "will cause the loss of millions in 2016". Hans Müller of Thomas Cook believed that it "could suddenly cost us everything that has been gained over the past four years". As things turned out, the hoteliers and the tour operators were grateful for the geopolitics as far as Mallorca was concerned; tour operators otherwise experienced losses, especially in Turkey.
With limits and saturation very much on the agenda, Barceló introduced the draft for the holiday rentals legislation. This will be one of the big issues for 2017, and it will be a contentious issue as well. The divvying up of the 43,000 places according to nine zones in Mallorca, to say nothing of the other three islands, will be a wonder to behold, while the lawyers will already be champing at the bit. On all-inclusives, if the tourism ministry is true to its word and gets tough with offer that is not registered, then good on the ministry.
2016 will otherwise be remembered for the collapse of Low Cost Holidays and so for the job losses. It was a case study of crap cash-flow management allied to inadequate regulatory control in the Balearics: the tourism ministry was left to squirm and cite European bonds as its fallback position for holidaymakers whose holidays were costing them double. There were also the losses that Vueling was consistently making: it kept on having to cancel flights. The airports authority Aena hasn't explained if the record numbers at Palma airport took account of the cancellations.
And what of losses in 2017? Brexit had no impact this year, and in truth there had been little justification for thinking that it would have. We're told that bookings from the UK are buoyant for next year, the bigger fear being lower spend. But as no one believes tourist spending statistics anyway, how will we able to tell?
So we look forward to the new year, one during which we will revisit - time and time again - the same themes. 2017 will be 3S year Mark II.
Monday, September 12, 2016
Is The Pope A Mallorquinista?
There was some funny old stuff cracking off last week. Take the visit of Real Mallorca bigwigs to Rome and an apparent attempt to sign up the Pope beyond the transfer window. The Holy Father declined the temptation to decamp to the Son Moix and end Mallorca's goal drought, but instead was delighted to receive a Mallorca shirt to add to the vast range that adorns the bar at the Vatican. Or this, one assumed, was the purpose of the gift. What else would a Pope do with such a shirt? Wear it in bed? There must be such a bar, therefore, to which the visiting priesthood are invited to make use of the Vatican's Sky dish, sample the ample selection of international beers and add football shirts from many nations.
Or was there an alternative purpose to this visit by the Real Mallorca delegation? Was the shirt part of a secret mission on behalf of the island's diocese to seek papal forgiveness for the naughty bishop and to allow him to continue to bless the club's less than spectacular fortunes? Were Monti and Maheta thus despatched in the knowledge, courtesy of the diocese, that the Pope does like his football? He must do. He is Argentinian after all. Alas, the sacrificial offer of the shirt ended in failure. The naughty bishop was defenestrated. Not literally thrown out of the window, but packed off to play with the reserves in Valencia.
While Monti and Maheta were engaged in mission impossible, a performance artist no one had ever heard of was making a statement. The message went something like the Balearics are on the point of sinking into the Med under the sheer weight of accumulated tourist numbers and environmental groups berating tourists at every available opportunity. The stats office needs to start producing figures to show the ratio of environmental organisations/agitators per head of tourist population; it must be edging towards one to one by now. There's saturation for you.
Anyway, whoever this artist chappy was - Hugo was in fact his name - he determined that the performance required the symbolic use of vast beach towels, which didn't look anything like beach towels. More like sheets, of the type some lookies prefer. It was all to do with saturation by tourists, as if anyone was not already aware that there supposedly is such a saturation. We are saturated by saturation statements, so Hugo inadvertently added to the saturation. Such was the power of his message, from what one could divine, that there was no one there to witness his performance apart from the odd press photographer. So much, therefore, for beach saturation: El Molinar beach at any rate. He really should have nipped along the coast to Arenal and spread his sheets out there.
It did occur to me to wonder if he had permission from the Costas Authority to engage in such occupation of a part of the beach in the style of superyacht louts taking over Cabrera. He probably didn't need it, given that the space occupied was no greater than that taken up by a typical Mallorcan extended family which invades a beach on a Sunday. But had he, it would have been very doubtful that any environmentalists would have denounced him.
Ultimately, though, Hugo betrayed a certain lack of appreciation as to what full-on beach saturation by tourists (also known as Mallorcan residents) looks like. Beach towels there are, but they are obscured by the contents of Toys 'R' Us, some of Ikea, the entire crisps section in Eroski and most of the nearest vendor of inflatable dinosaurs. And getting all that lot on to a beach is what one could describe as a real performance.
Or was there an alternative purpose to this visit by the Real Mallorca delegation? Was the shirt part of a secret mission on behalf of the island's diocese to seek papal forgiveness for the naughty bishop and to allow him to continue to bless the club's less than spectacular fortunes? Were Monti and Maheta thus despatched in the knowledge, courtesy of the diocese, that the Pope does like his football? He must do. He is Argentinian after all. Alas, the sacrificial offer of the shirt ended in failure. The naughty bishop was defenestrated. Not literally thrown out of the window, but packed off to play with the reserves in Valencia.
While Monti and Maheta were engaged in mission impossible, a performance artist no one had ever heard of was making a statement. The message went something like the Balearics are on the point of sinking into the Med under the sheer weight of accumulated tourist numbers and environmental groups berating tourists at every available opportunity. The stats office needs to start producing figures to show the ratio of environmental organisations/agitators per head of tourist population; it must be edging towards one to one by now. There's saturation for you.
Anyway, whoever this artist chappy was - Hugo was in fact his name - he determined that the performance required the symbolic use of vast beach towels, which didn't look anything like beach towels. More like sheets, of the type some lookies prefer. It was all to do with saturation by tourists, as if anyone was not already aware that there supposedly is such a saturation. We are saturated by saturation statements, so Hugo inadvertently added to the saturation. Such was the power of his message, from what one could divine, that there was no one there to witness his performance apart from the odd press photographer. So much, therefore, for beach saturation: El Molinar beach at any rate. He really should have nipped along the coast to Arenal and spread his sheets out there.
It did occur to me to wonder if he had permission from the Costas Authority to engage in such occupation of a part of the beach in the style of superyacht louts taking over Cabrera. He probably didn't need it, given that the space occupied was no greater than that taken up by a typical Mallorcan extended family which invades a beach on a Sunday. But had he, it would have been very doubtful that any environmentalists would have denounced him.
Ultimately, though, Hugo betrayed a certain lack of appreciation as to what full-on beach saturation by tourists (also known as Mallorcan residents) looks like. Beach towels there are, but they are obscured by the contents of Toys 'R' Us, some of Ikea, the entire crisps section in Eroski and most of the nearest vendor of inflatable dinosaurs. And getting all that lot on to a beach is what one could describe as a real performance.
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