Renting The Tramuntana

What does someone who organises an event called Foro Vacacional do after he leaves the organisation he was organising it on behalf of? Answer: he becomes the head of the Foro Vacacional, he being Juan Estarellas, the former president (founder) of the Aptur holiday rentals' association. The Foro is more than just an event, it is a body which promotes a professionalisation of the rentals' market.

Estarellas stepped down as president of Aptur just after a forum took place in February. Aptur had been the organiser of the forum. Aptur and the forum can seem as though they are much the same, even if they are not.

The world of holiday rentals in Mallorca (and the Balearics) might appear to be a small one, given the apparent ubiquity of Sr. Estarellas, but small it has ceased to be, as I think we all know. It is big business, and just to prove the point, businesses involved with that February forum were none other than Airbnb, Booking.com and HomeAway.

These three giants of the online rentals' market (aka collaborative economy) provided data with which Aptur, sorry, Foro Vacacional was able to announce at the same time as there was another forum (this one for the Tramuntana mountains) that holiday rentals generate 283 million euros in the Tramuntana each year. In fact, they apparently generate 1,700 million euros in total across the seventeen municipalities under consideration. Eh?

This higher figure was excluded from at least two reports of this income - one of which I wrote. It was difficult to understand whether the lower amount was just spending on staying in actual properties and so therefore the higher one was total revenue from spending (restaurants, shops, etc.). Whatever it was for, are we really to believe that in each of the seventeen municipalities there is on average a nice round annual revenue of 100 million euros?

These figures, however one looks at them, are astronomical. They may well be right, but the problem as ever is that numbers are tossed about and inevitably invite some scepticism. Designed to highlight current economic benefit and potential future benefit, they can either be taken as being impressive or somewhat alarming. As with other parts of the island, there are concerns about the Tramuntana being overrun by tourism and not just the tourism staying in a mountain holiday rental property.

The Foro Vacacional study suggests that cycling tourism brings in some 150 million euros on its own (this is a figure, it would appear, for the whole island or possibly the Balearics). Cycling tourism is viewed as a growth sector for the Tramuntana. Hence, and as part of the ongoing professionalism, rental properties in the mountains will be able to classify themselves as cycling friendly and be graded according to facilities. Which is fine, but this inevitably raises - yet again - the issue of saturation. The number of cyclists on roads in the mountains is something that has concerned various town halls, Escorca most certainly. In Bunyola, the town hall is having to take measures against the "invasion" of bikes in the main square.

The growth of rentals' tourism, of whatever type, has proved to be extremely beneficial to municipalities without a great deal of tourism. Selva is an example. So successful has the promotion of the town been, however, that the town hall has become alarmed at the pressure being placed on infrastructure - roads, water supplies and so on. The massive increase in properties for rent has caught the town hall on the hop.

Fornalutx is another case. Courtesy of a poster having been installed in the town hall the other day, it has now officially become one of the limited number of Spain's prettiest villages (the only one in Mallorca or the Balearics). Criteria for this award include traffic and cleanliness. But doesn't Fornalutx run the risk of encountering similar issues to Selva from the publicity given to its newly acquired status and from the onward march of rentals? Might its virtuous prettiness in fact prove to be a burden?

This said, one comes back to the figures. Foro Vacacional excluded Calvia from the list of municipalities because of the distortion created by the Calvia resorts. But there is distortion elsewhere, Pollensa being the prime example. It, as has been well reported, has more rentals' places than hotel places. In this regard, it is unique among the island's main tourism municipalities.

The distribution is, therefore, highly uneven. Andratx, Pollensa and Soller must surely account for the bulk of this Tramuntana rentals' trade. But will the potential future trade across the Tramuntana be realised? Foro Vacacional will hope so, and the upcoming legislation (zoning and all) might well add to this hope. However, while the likes of Pollensa can absorb this trade, would villages right in the mountains be able to do likewise?

The Tramuntana And Institutional Failure

Theodore Pratt, the American journalist (long passed away), is one of my favourite Mallorcan anti-heroes. Little of or about Mallorca was spared from the vitriol he unleashed in what became an infamous article which appeared in "The American Mercury" in 1933. By contrast with what he had to say of other subjects, the Tramuntana mountains emerged relatively unscathed. Well, he did say that they were dramatic, even if he then went on to describe them as bare, grey and mostly inaccessible. They were evidence, according to Ted, of Mallorca's physical characteristics: not exceptional in his opinion.

Pratt was, it should be said, pretty even-handed. His jaundiced view of Mallorca was reserved for more or less everything. He couldn't have been accused of being biased in favour of certain aspects at the expense of others. He was, though, not unique in offering criticism of what was otherwise acquiring the title of the paradise island and which had, by the time he wrote, been dubbed the island of calm for some twenty years: and that description was from the painter Rusiñol, who was to capture what he perceived as a very different Tramuntana.

George Sand, almost one hundred years before Pratt, had launched insults directed at the locals (and some other subjects) which were at a comparative level of abuse. Unlike Pratt, she wasn't run off the island; she and Chopin left of their own accord. But also unlike Ted, she didn't engage in criticisms of the mountains; she was rather taken by the landscape.

One mentions these differing perspectives of the mountains - each of them by foreigners (Rusiñol was from Catalonia) - as they can seem to sum up what might be considered to be a certain ambivalence towards the Tramuntana by the residents of Mallorca: an ambivalence which appears to be reflected at institutional levels on the island.

This ambivalence might equally be defined as indifference or, in the estimation of historian Angel Morillas, as "low self-esteem" held by the people of Mallorca when it comes to the Tramuntana. Morillas is Unesco's representative in Spain. He is also a member of Unesco's council of monuments and sites, the one which awarded the Tramuntana World Heritage Site status five years ago. He had been closely associated with the award in the advance of its being granted. In September 2008, for example, he had attended a conference in Pollensa which addressed the processing of the award nomination. At that conference were representatives of various schools from Pollensa, Alcudia and elsewhere.

The presence of those people from Mallorca's education sector now appears pertinent, with a question - just as pertinent - being how much the island's schools do to inform and educate the young generation about the mountains and the very patrimony - that of dry stone formations - which was to prove to be key to the awarding of World Heritage status.

Morillas attended another conference at the weekend. It was in Selva and was organised as a way of celebrating the fifth anniversary. During his presentation he referred to the lack of self-esteem, a rather curious way of putting it, one thinks: it might be better explained as the mountains not being held in high esteem by the islanders. Morillas argued that there was a lack of knowledge of the "gem" that is the Tramuntana range. He called, therefore, for greater input by schools and levelled criticism at the University of the Balearic Islands. What does the university do for the mountains? Not very much was his answer to his own question.

As curious as styling the attitude as one of lack of self-esteem is the fact that Morillas should feel it necessary to highlight it. One would have the impression, given the amount that was written and said about the mountains at the time of the heritage award and has been since, that there is an island-wide attitude of high regard. Clearly not. Morillas will know better than I, and I am not about to disagree with him.

It is an unfortunate fact that in the years since the award was granted, there seems to have been an incoherent approach to promotion of the mountains as well as maintenance of their prized assets - the dry stone paths, walls, terraces and other structures. The fault lies at an institutional level, and not only with, if Morillas is right (and who's to argue with him?), the university.

There are of course any number of people and sources who inform and who heap praise on the mountains. Many of them are foreigners who write, paint and provide blogs and websites. The Pratt view of the mountains is certainly not the prevailing one. But then it often does seem to fall to others, and not the island's institutions, to act as promoters of Mallorca - mountains, beaches, villages and the rest. The institutional failure to promote is not discriminatory.

Photo: the templete at Son Marroig (Deia), one of the Tramuntana's iconic spots.

The Tramuntana: The Confusion Continues

Nine months ago, I wrote an article with the byline "tourism confusion". It was about the Tramuntana mountains and their promotion for tourism purposes. In that article I wondered about the organisation of the Tramuntana. Had there been a lack of political will? Had there been difficulties of co-ordination? Or was the whole management of the mountains within a tourism framework suffering from the lack of a clear vision as to what is wanted from the Tramuntana?

I suggested that a change in the political landscape might bring with it a more sympathetic attitude but that there would remain the question as to what the vision actually was. Well, that political change appears to have made very little difference. Mallorca has a marvellous asset and public institutions still apparently incapable of appreciating just how marvellous and of making this marvel known.

At the most recent Council of Mallorca full session was an item about the Tramuntana. Antoni Serra Comas, a Partido Popular councillor, said that the consortium which supposedly oversees the promotional development of the mountains was "in a state of total paralysis". He said that the regional government needed to figure out "what type of management model there should be for promoting the Tramuntana".

Comas was immediately identifying a structural problem. Which institution actually has overall responsibility? The Council of Mallorca has a great deal and will doubtless assume more once tourism promotion responsibilities are fully devolved to it. So why might the regional government need to be involved? Well, a reason is that the consortium to which Comas was referring - Consorcio Sierra de Tramuntana Patrimonio Mundial, to give it its full title - falls under the auspices of the ministry for the presidency: President Armengol of the regional government, that is.

On the government's website, it still names Bartomeu Deyà as being the head of this consortium. In fact, as Comas alluded to, he ceased to be its director last October. Since then, as I'm led to believe, there has been an executive looking after the shop. But no replacement as director has been found, despite, so I understand, one notable approach having been made.

There are those, it has been said to me, who were not totally enamoured of Deyà's performance. This is not for me comment on, but he came to the role with fifteen years of experience as manager of the Fomento del Turismo (Mallorca Tourist Board). He must have had something about him and more than just the fact that he was a Partido Popular appointment: one made by the former president of the Council, Maria Salom. Yes, a Council of Mallorca appointment, raising again the issue of institutional responsibility.

The governing board of the consortium has, since it was formed in 2011, had the president of the Council of Mallorca as its president. It is now Miquel Ensenyat. The vice-president is from the Council, which provides other members, as does the regional government. Plus there are observers from political parties that don't form the administrations at government and Council levels. Oh, and there are representatives from each of the Tramuntana municipalities on the consortium as well, most of whom will be new because of changes following the elections last May.

The apparent institutional confusion may well be a reason why the consortium seems to have been largely ineffective. Another is the lack of continuity. Political changes are to be expected, but it doesn't follow that these automatically have to lead to senior officials also changing. A good example of this is the Palma 365 Foundation. Pedro Homar has remained in place. He said in a recent interview that political change in Palma had made no difference to his job or to the work of Palma 365. The commitment was as it was under the PP. Indeed, it might be said to be greater.

This foundation and the Tramuntana consortium are designed to promote two key projects for promoting alternative forms of tourism for Mallorca: Palma all year and the mountains and all they have to offer. The consortium does have to abide by Unesco rules, so it does have an outside influence that Palma doesn't. But this shouldn't be an excuse for the great contrast in developments since both were formed.

They have been in existence for roughly the same length of time. While Palma goes from strength to strength, the Tramuntana is stuck in a state of paralysis, as Comas calls it. But there is one very major difference between the two bodies. Palma 365 has enormous private sector support. The mountains do not.

With Palma 365, the likes of TUI have worked closely in developing and rolling out the strategy. The Tramuntana could benefit from the same. Instead there are all sorts of public institutions and representatives who are involved in getting the strategy nowhere. Comas is right. A new management model is needed. The question is - who takes the decision?

Noises In The Tramuntana

Towards the end of October the 800KM Mallorca Classic will take place. It is a five-day event for classic motorbikes that started last year in Argentina with the Patagonia Classic and is being brought to Spain this year. It is an occasion for bike enthusiasts and collectors to gather and head off together on one long road test. In Argentina, it is said, the event has had the support of sponsors and local authorities in towns and villages, and its route has included the Tronador mountains and the Moreno and Nahuel Huapi lakes.

The classic in Mallorca is being supported by, among others, the Balearic Motorcycling Federation and Palma365. According to the website, riders will be staying at exclusive five-star hotels in Palma and their excursions will be taking them onto the roads of the Tramuntana mountains.

Coming as it will towards the end of the summer season, a gathering of bike enthusiasts - the precise number isn't yet known - in top-quality accommodation sounds highly positive. These are presumably visitors, possibly with family or friends, who will have money to spend. They may well fit a profile, therefore, of the type of tourist the regional government seems so desperate to attract. However, will everyone look upon the event positively? Local authorities in Argentina in areas with mountains and lakes may do so, but will local authorities in Mallorca with mountains and artificial lakes, the reservoirs of Gorg Blau and Cuber?

Mayors of towns in the mountains, Soller's mayor in particular, have been expressing their concerns about the seemingly illegal motorbike races that take place on the mountains' roads each Saturday. The legality and safety of these races are two issues, another one is the noise, and the sound of motorbikes roaring around the mountains was one that was highlighted in the "manifesto" of a save the Tramuntana group not so long ago.

Bikes do make noise. There's no getting away from this. But, illegal races aside, are there too many complaints? And doubtless there will be ones when the classic race hits the mountain roads in October. Biking is a very good way of seeing Mallorca and especially the mountains, as also is cycling, yet there were complaints earlier this year that there were too many cyclists, and these complaints form part of a general pattern: there are too many tourists in the mountains full stop.

Another manifestation of this abundance of visitors has been a recent concern expressed at the volume of beachgoers in Sa Calobra, but this concern just reinforces what should be a pretty fundamental question as to what, touristically, Mallorca wants from its mountains. The Tramuntana has its status as a World Heritage Site (and are we ever allowed to forget the fact), but there is still a lack of clarity and vision as to what this means in terms of tourism promotion.

There are those who will argue that this Unesco status is a double-edged sword, its negative aspect being that it leads to so-called "massification". But are more cyclists, bikers, beachgoers in Sa Calobra the consequence of heritage status? I wouldn't have thought so for one moment. Having such status can be something to be banged on about incessantly, as it is, but there are numerous ways by which visitors are attracted to the mountains, to its beaches, to its cycling and biking potential that have absolutely nothing to do with Unesco. Social media are just one of them. Do visitors truly pay much attention to awards such as world heritage or even blue flags and other beach quality standards? Some might, but blue flag beaches of Mallorca that have been packed out at weekends this summer owe very little to the flags. They owe a great deal more to the sheer volume of visitors, popularity with residents and sharing via social media.

As for the classic motorbikes, noise there will be in October in the mountains, but it is not a noise that should be made to feel unwelcome.

Saving The Tramuntana: Tourism confusion

Movements have occurred in the Tramuntana mountains. Their landscape has altered. Only partially but significantly, topped and tailed by Pollensa and Calvia. The mountains' political landscape has been given a gloss of red but also of green, and it doesn't come any greener than in Pollensa. Here, the new mayor is Miquel Àngel March, the former and long-time spokesperson for GOB, Mallorca's eco-enviro group/watchdog. In Calvia the earth has not moved quite so dramatically in swallowing up the Partido Popular - an old-school socialist sort is in charge - but new-school socialism, as with Més, the eco-nationalist variety, hovers in the background.

There are nineteen municipalities which are embraced - either wholly or in part - by the mountains, over a third of all of Mallorca's municipalities. Each has its interest in the Tramuntana, each has its say about conservation, preservation, management and tourism. But rising above them are the peaks of the Tramuntana consortium and the Council of Mallorca. Their landscapes are also altering, along with their personnel, and at the Council this change might involve its presidency falling to the former mayor of one of the smaller municipalities: Miquel Ensenyat of Més, the ex-mayor of Esporles.

The mountains are thus far from immune to political change. On the face of it, in conservation and preservation terms, the mountains might be said to have got a result. One-time GOB here, eco-nationalists there: how green tinged with red are their valleys. And for the Save the Tramuntana campaign, the movement of the political furniture might also represent a result. The mountains will be saved.

Did you know that there was a Save the Tramuntana campaign? Well there is. And you can sign its petition, its civil manifesto at Change.org*. But why do the mountains need saving? Wasn't the UNESCO declaration - the World Heritage Site - all to do with saving? Yes, but according to the campaign organisers, the guidelines and objectives for making the Tramuntana "a sustainable natural and cultural landscape" are not being met because of a "lack of political will (and) the difficulties of co-ordination between the different administrative organs". "Designations have been used more as a tourist attraction than a guide to protect our environment." (Designations include the UNESCO declaration.)

The campaign is principally concerned with the effects of tourism. It says: "The Serra de Tramuntana must not repeat the excesses committed elsewhere on the Mallorcan coast. We do not want the opportunistic short-term attitude nor the institutional indifference to give way to mass tourism and the inevitable and irreversible destruction of our values, our landscape, our traditions and the Mediterranean way of life".

Mass tourism? In the mountains? Possibly so. But the mass is not the mass of overcrowded beach resorts, unless this is supposed to refer to, for example, Puerto Sóller. The Tramuntana in Calvia does not extend to the resorts there, while Puerto Pollensa is just outside the Tramuntana zone. I'm guessing it is more a reference to the volume of tourists, while the campaign also refers to activities - motorbiking for example - which are "abuses" and that threaten the mountains with being turned into a "theme park".

The organisation of the Tramuntana, post-UNESCO declaration, doesn't appear to have been terribly effective. The campaign has a point here, but has this been because of a lack of political will and difficulties of co-ordination or does the whole management of the Tramuntana within a tourism framework suffer from the lack of a clear vision as to what is wanted from the mountains?

A point about the UNESCO declaration is that if there are abuses which threaten conservation and preservation, the status of World Heritage Site can be and will be taken away. A further point, and one expressed to me by a leading authority on tourism marketing, Professor David Carson, is that the declaration was the worst thing that could have happened to the Tramuntana. Why? Because it imposes so many constraints that tourism development is hindered. It isn't as if the declaration is against tourism development - it most certainly isn't - but it has to be done in line with principles of conservation and preservation, which apply to land, buildings, people and ways of life.

With the change in the political landscape, a more sympathetic attitude towards the campaign's objectives may be obtained. But again, one comes back to what the vision actually is. The campaign calls for "a model of quality tourism ... without being elitist." Would this be in line with the Més desire for greater sharing of the spoils of tourism? And would it therefore not be as it is in Pollensa? In a profile of Miquel Àngel March, it says that he is from a town which is the "capital of the tourist elite in Mallorca". What do we want from the mountains?

* www.salvarlatramuntana.com.

A Tram Runs Through It

At the entrance to the train station in Sóller is a plaque in honour of the town's illustrious son, Jerónimo Estades Llabrés. Catalan correctness would have it that the name should be Jeroni, but the story of Sóller's train and tram was not one of linguistic politics between Catalan and Castellano; it was one to do with transport, connectivity, logistics and business. Jerónimo was the man who made it all possible. Indeed, Jerónimo made a lot of things possible back in the day. Nothing much moved or didn't move in Sóller without Jerónimo being involved, and this included politics. In an era when the "cacique" system of the local political boss was supposedly being dismantled, Jerónimo was a prime example of this breed. He was Sóller.

It was curious in a way. One of the dominant figures of national politics at that time was the only Mallorcan to have thus far been prime minister of Spain, Antoni Maura, who had as one of his driving principles an end to the cacique, a system of abuse within a further system of pretend democracy; one characterised by favours and privileges. Yet, Jerónimo and Maura were close. Jerónimo was a supporter of Maura's. And when it came to the train and the tram, Maura was to prove to be useful. Or so at least goes one of the versions of the train-tram story, the one about the length of the railway line being too short to qualify for a government grant. Because it was too short, the plan was hatched to extend it, not by train but by tram to the port. And Jerónimo! A grant was forthcoming, thanks to Maura.

This is all of course lost in the mists of early twentieth-century time. It doesn't really matter now what the precise circumstances were that led to the creation of the tram. What does is that Sóller has its tram. And its train. There is nowhere else on Mallorca that is defined in the way that Sóller is. It is a definition of transport, and the plaque pays homage to this.

It is hypothetical, but what if the railway line had been the grant-requiring thirty kilometres minimum in length? Would the expedience of the initially unplanned-for tram have been replaced by the foresight of a tram? Rather than having been some sort of accident of transport planning, might it have been conceived as an essential means of linking town and port? One with tourism in mind?

Though Sóller and its port are distinct, they are indistinct precisely because of the tram. It is fundamental to both. Sóller has many defining characteristics, but none is as significant as the tram. It is its own attraction, but it is important in a way that makes Sóller unique. Unlike other municipalities in Mallorca where the town and the resort are separated by some distance, Sóller and the port are intimately linked. They are, therefore, a single entity: a double whammy of touristic potential produced by a mode of transport that reeks of nostalgia and times past but is nevertheless very much of the present.

It is perfectly conceivable that the tram would have been created anyway. But not principally because of tourism. Sóller's port had long been a vital means for the town's exports. Just as the train was not originally only designed to move people but also produce, so the tram would shift produce. That the tram was to become one of the iconic and main symbols for Sóller and Mallorcan tourism was more happenchance than design.

Jerónimo, though certainly not immune to the business potential of the "new" industry of tourism, was more concerned with expanding conventional business interests and introducing other infrastructure, such as electricity. There was to be someone else, however, who had tourism firmly in mind, and had his wish been fulfilled, Sóller might now not have quite the same claim it does for transport uniqueness and the curiosity factor of this transport in the Tramuntana mountains. That someone else was Antoni Parietti. He was the engineer responsible for the roads to Sa Calobra and from Puerto Pollensa to Formentor: both built with tourism in mind. Parietti had another project. The intention had been for a funicular railway to go to the top of the Puig Major, where there was to have been an observatory, a restaurant and ... some type of snow sports resort.

Parietti's vision was never fulfilled. Wars got in the way and the funicular plan was eventually scrapped in favour of a road to serve what was to become a military installation. Had the project been fulfilled, well, you can probably draw your own conclusions as to what it might have meant for winter tourism. It wasn't and so Sóller, with its train and the tram that runs through it, was left for all time to reap the benefits of uniqueness.

Connections: A day in the mountains

There is a scene from the famous episodes of "Coronation Street" when its ladies came to Mallorca in 1974 which has always struck me as slightly odd. Emily was writing a postcard but couldn't remember the exact spelling of Valldemossa. It was Hilda who was able to tell her: the same Hilda of the plaster flying ducks and the "muriel". Perhaps there was a hidden depth to Hilda after all. Odd it was that she should be the one to know the spelling, but might it have been because Hilda had been captivated by something she hadn't expected, that she had acquired a knowledge of attentiveness to the rare and rather marvellous? Pure speculation of course.

Forty years later, there will still be those who misspell Valldemossa as there will also be those who go nowhere near the place, who, though they can see there are mountains, never venture into them and discover the secrets of their peaks, slopes and hidden valley. Mallorca is sun and beach and yet it isn't sun and beach. The first "tourists" came not for the beach but for the mountains, inspired to do so by the likes of the Archduke Louis Salvador. When the masses arrived, the beach was more accommodating. Much of it artificial, its breadth and fineness of sand were the magnet that drew the masses to the sea. They saw it at sea level. In the mountains as you travel to or from Deià, you can look down on a very different sea: expansive and lit by the sun, yet alien and remote, two Mallorcas separated millions of years ago by Alpine formation.

I am in the mountains because of a film documentary. The script, to which I have contributed, has undergone iterations. To my words have been added those of the one who is to be the presenter; they need to be his words, after all, and he is, after all, someone with intimate knowledge of these mountains: William Graves, son of Robert.

There is a word which is used a couple of times in this script. It is "shaped". The references are both specific and general. Dry-stone walling and paving have been shaped through the craft of the stone technique, but the mountains themselves have been shaped. How can this be? Man can intervene, as he has, by blasting holes through mountains, by deforestation and forestation, by building and by fire and carelessness, but can man "shape" mountains?

Man can. The dry-stone paths are just one example, so also is the planting of trees and their cultivation, notably the olive trees. They shape the mountains because they commandeer part of its landscape. They were not there originally. They are immigrants and they have assisted, over the many centuries, in transforming that landscape. And there is another way, that of the dry-stone terracing. It is something which, though one might have been aware of it previously, is seen as more fundamental when the eyes one is looking through are those of someone who has grown up in the mountains and has been there all his life. William's reference to man's shaping through dry-stone terracing gives it an importance which had previously eluded me.

When one spends time with William, a connection with Mallorca is rekindled, a connection with its past and its development. For most of the time, I, and mostly everyone else I daresay, takes for granted what surrounds us, but there are moments when I pause. I have done so on the rustic beach of Playa de Muro and sought to try and imagine it as it was: backed as it is by dunes, forest and the wetlands of Albufera, with the mountains of Artà in the distance descending to the cape at the eastern limit of Alcúdia bay. Not very different in truth, apart from the people and the wooden tracks through the dunes that are designed to protect the eco-system. But this is a humbling realisation, of a connection to times so distant they are impossible to imagine.

Then, one can move much more closely to the present. At the Graves house, now the museum, this more recent past is preserved, and I find myself on the terrace with the ghosts of Robert Graves himself and of those familiar names who visited Deià: Ava Gardner, Orson Welles, Gabriel Garcia Márquez. On this very spot, of what would they have spoken? What connections would they have made, for they would not have been influenced by the onset of mass tourism, by the influx of people, even those tramping through the mountains, of whom, as I discover, there is a surprisingly large number?

The connection is one of perpetuation, of continuity. While Mallorca changes, it doesn't change. It stays immovable because, as yet, man has not learned how to move a mountain.

A Tale Of Two Films

If the "Torrente" series of films had previously been unknown to a Mallorcan audience, it would have become known when former tourism minister Carlos Delgado compared investigators from the Guardia Civil with the films' main character, José Luis Torrente, an anti-hero comedy police officer with quite despicable habits and attitudes. The background to Delgado's outburst was the raid on Calvia Town Hall; the Guardia were and still are investigating claims of "irregularities" in the awarding of contracts for Radio Calvia when Delgado was mayor.

It would in fact have been most unlikely that a Mallorcan audience would have been unfamiliar with Torrente. The "franchise" has been the most successful in the history of Spanish cinema. The fifth and in all likelihood final Torrente movie goes on general release tomorrow. "Torrente 5 - Operación Eurovegas" stars its director-producer-writer Santiago Segura as Torrente and Alec Baldwin, who has admitted it wasn't straightforward having to act using a different language.

The Spanish film-making industry has had its problems over the past few years. Dwindling cinema audiences has been one. A lack of finance has been another, while the sources of much finance - governments and/or banks - have tended, so critics say, to put a block on genuine creativity. Nevertheless, Segura has provided evidence that popular and irreverent film-making can still flourish, while the strong competition for the most recent Goya awards showed that the industry is in rather better shape than some have suggested. The best film, "Vivir es facíl con los ojos cerrados", the story of the teacher who goes in search of John Lennon, has been put forward for an Oscar nomination for best foreign language film in 2015.

In Mallorca, film-making was not helped by the closure of the Mallorca Film Commission in 2012 and by the uncertainty that produced. There is now the Balearics Film Commission, which benefits from all of 100,000 euros of regional government finance in attempting to attract film-makers. The island does get its share - a modest one - of location work, as witnessed by zombies traipsing around the Cala Tuent and Formentor in the making of "Generation Z", but there is little by way of film-making coming out of the island.

Toni Bestard, the Mallorcan director of the excellent "Perfect Stranger" with Colm Meaney, will be involved with the shooting of the final scenes of a Civil War film he is co-producing - "El destierro" ("The Banishment") - on Mallorca later this month. The critical acclaim that "Perfect Stranger" received has given Bestard something of a reputation and it is one that, it might be hoped, would raise the profile of Mallorcan film-makers. 

But there again, something is always likely to crop up which undoes efforts of these film-makers. Consider this. In 1998, "El País" reported that the main awards from the Atlantic Cinematography Festival in Cadiz had gone to a film called "Bert". It also received rave reviews at the Malaga Festival in the same year. It was made by the Mallorcan Lluis Casasayas and was shot entirely on Mallorca and mainly in the Tramuntana mountains. It told the story of Bert and his hunt for a friend, an ornithologist who had disappeared in mysterious circumstances in the mountains. It was a film which had taken four years to make, which was widely acclaimed and yet sank without trace. The reason for this was that the Madrid producer of the film had not paid what she should have done. The film was seized before it was put out on commercial release.

It took eight years for there to be anything like a resolution and it has taken a further eight years for Casasayas to restore the original, to transfer it to digital and to edit it down by some fifteen minutes. Sixteen years after it was completed, "Bert" is now on general release.

The Tramuntana mountains quite clearly hold an appeal for film-makers. Locations there and in Formentor were used in the making of "Cloud Atlas", just as they have been more recently for "Generation Z". Indeed, one can go back to 1925 and the first significant film to have benefited from a Tramuntana location - "El secreto de la pedriza". There have been others, such as the film adaptations of "A Winter in Mallorca" (Chopin, Sand and all that, made in 1969) and the novel "Bearn" by the Mallorcan author Llorenç Villalonga (1983).

This all said, filming in the Tramuntana does bring its challenges. One of the reasons it took Casasayas so long to make "Bert" was a problem of continuity. The mountains don't behave themselves when it comes to consistent weather. But he has finally got there, and "Bert" is in the cinemas along with "Torrente 5". Two very different films and two very different backgrounds.

Into The Biosphere: Menorca

Mallorca has its areas which are protected in different ways. Wetlands such as Albufera are protected and so are parts of old towns. Menorca, on other hand, does not have specific parts which are protected; the whole island is. In 1993 it was declared a "biosphere reserve" by UNESCO. It is one of over 400 such "reserves" across the planet, all of them working within a framework of sustainable development. In accordance with its status, anything which gets done on Menorca has to be done in such a way as to preserve the quality of life and the environment. There are various initiatives which pursue these goals, such as Agenda Local 21, which is a plan for environmental activity drawn up by municipalities, of which there are eight in Menorca.

The UNESCO declaration was made on 8 October 1993, so the island is now celebrating twenty years of having become a biosphere. It is something which the Council of Menorca is shouting about, and there is any amount of self-congratulation going around, stating how well things have all gone.

But not everyone agrees that the biosphere has been the great success the Council would like everyone to believe. Indeed the Council has been identified as having always lacked both the skills and the money to make anything of Menorca's biosphere status in terms of attracting more tourism.

Esther Mascaró, writing in "Hosteltur", has laid into the Council and the Balearic Government. It is she who says that the Council has been found wanting. She adds that there is mistrust in the Council and in its ability to make anything worthwhile come of the biosphere status and that the government has never had the will to create a viable tourism product that exploits the island's natural attributes.

One of the reasons for apparent inaction lies with the fact that businesspeople, who might wish to establish businesses which are in line with the status and which would also help to attract more visitors to Menorca, especially out of the summer season, are hamstrung by the levels of bureaucracy and government. It is a familiar tale of woe that sees applications pass through municipality to provincial administration (the Council) to regional government and possibly also on to Madrid and Brussels and which means that it can take anything up to three years for decisions to be made, approvals to be given and permissions issued.

There was a recent forum on tourism and nature in Menorca. The tourism minister, Carlos Delgado, was there. But not for very long. Many were the complaints that he appeared less than interested or committed enough to have devoted more time to hear from local businesspeople and others. 

The forum highlighted examples in Spain where biospheres have been made very much more valuable in tourism terms than Menorca's has. A case in point is La Palma in the Canaries where, despite a similarly heavy reliance on tourism, there is a limit placed on tourist accommodation and a greater emphasis placed on maintaining the island's traditional agriculture and products. La Palma, similar in many ways to Menorca, sounds idyllic insofar as its biosphere status has been applied effectively, but it does benefit from being in the Canaries. Menorca is the wettest of the Balearic Islands and, as with the others, doesn't have the same winter sun and so therefore the same potential for winter-sun tourists.

But Menorca has suffered in other ways. Though a biosphere, it is not part of Turespaña's "ecotourism" product. Which begs a pretty big question why not. Again, the Council and regional government are accused of allowing this to be so. But while the Council of Menorca is criticised, there does seem, and this is not an isolated example, to have been a neglect of Menorca by the government in Palma. The experience with the biosphere does raise a question about how much the islands other than Mallorca are paid a proper amount of attention to. And it raises a further question, that to do with the Tramuntana mountains. These were awarded a different UNESCO status two years ago. What has happened since? Where is the plan for tourism, especially winter tourism, that its heritage status is meant to produce? Are the mountains, like Menorca, being either neglected or exposed to that much bureaucracy and to so many layers of administration that nothing is being done? 


* Esther Mascaró's article: http://www.hosteltur.com/114490_menorca-20-anos-reserva-biosfera-producto.html

No Money In Mallorca's Biomass

The irony is not lost. Mallorca imports waste from Europe and incinerates it at Son Reus. Italy, a country which sends its waste to Mallorca, creates clean energy using woody biomass that is exported from Mallorca.

In January last year I wrote about the potential to use biomass as part of a programme of renewable energy in Mallorca. The Balearic Government was talking about upping its renewables game by investing three million euros (not a huge amount) on renewables installations, an investment in accordance with a national government wish to raise the contribution of renewables to energy sources to 20% by 2020. Biomass was spoken of as one of these sources in Mallorca. Over 11,000 homes could be served by biomass energy, or so it was said.

The forests of Mallorca possess a great deal of biomass. They possess rather less than they did now that parts of the Tramuntana and the Llevant nature park have gone up in flames, but there is still a good deal to go round and to go to Italy.

Various reasons have been given as to why the Tramuntana fire spread as widely as it did. One of these was that the forest is not sufficiently well maintained, which means that the ground is not attended to well enough. It is littered with woody debris, which burns an absolute treat but which burns as a better treat when it is put to productive purpose. 

It is idealistic to believe that a renewable like biomass could be anything more than a small contributor to overall energy sources. It comes at a cost, and one cost is that of its gathering. But this doesn't seem to deter the operation which does gather biomass and which ships it for use in Sardinia where there is an altogether greater premium placed on ecological energy than there is in Mallorca. Indeed, there is an altogether greater commitment to producing clean energy in Italy than in Spain, despite what the government might say. And as the national government has cut support for renewables, then whatever commitment there was has been diminished.

Between them, Mallorca and Menorca exported 7,000 tons of biomass last year. Productive use in the Balearics stands at less than one out of every ten tons of biomass that is retrieved, and there are very few examples of productive use; one is in Sant Antoni in Ibiza. This is not a project operated by Tirme, the GESA-led coalition of companies that has a monopoly on waste management and recycling in Mallorca and which needed the waste imports to help pay for its Son Reus incineration plant. Tirme accept that biomass is highly adaptable as an energy source but that without governmental support, unlike in Italy, its cost is too great; collection and production would outstrip its return. It's not profitable, therefore.

Although the biomass in the mountain forests is a natural resource and one which, through its very nature, is free, it isn't of course free. The Tramuntana fire reminded everyone of the fact that vast areas of the mountains are in fact privately owned. This ownership came up as an issue when the mountain range was awarded its World Heritage status. It was all well and good talking about opening up the mountains to more tourism, but what about rights and permissions to access private land?

Criticisms of the regional government's environment ministry that the lack of forest maintenance contributed to the fire overlook what is a more complicated situation than simply saying that gangs of workers should be packed off into forests in order to clear the debris and the biomass. The complication comes, in part, because of ownership. These owners have, in turn, been criticised for themselves not having looked after their forests, but then what incentives do they have to do better? One could argue that they shouldn't need incentive and that they have a duty to maintain the forests properly, but this is too simplistic a view.

Were there a genuine incentive, i.e. in the form of payment for the biomass, then the forests might at least be in a better state and might be less vulnerable to devastating wildfires, but such payment needs balancing, and, or so it would seem, the use of this biomass is just not profitable.

It seems crazy that there are tons of a potential energy source lying around in Mallorca's forests doing nothing more than being ripe for adding fuel to fires. It seems crazy that, at a time when environmental concerns are being raised about the extension of a different energy source - the gas pipeline to Alcúdia's power station - that a more benign source is being neglected. But this is so often the story with renewables. They have much to offer but they don't make money.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Don't Walk This Way: Camí de Ternelles

After years of legal wrangle and several weeks spent in a courtroom in Inca, a judge has arbitrated that the property through which the Camí de Ternelles in Pollensa passes is indeed private. This old way or road has been the focus of a battle between ramblers and Pollensa town hall, on one side, and the owners, the March family of bank fame, on the other.

To summarise, the judge has said that the property passed into private hands in 1811 and that on this property a way does not exist that is in the public domain. The judge has added that the town hall must remove the walk from its brochure of local rambles but has also advised the owners to respect the currently restricted access of up twenty walkers a day. The town hall may appeal.

The judge's decision is hugely important. It has potential ramifications for other walks not just in Pollensa but in other parts of Mallorca. Indeed, it is that important that it might serve to kill stone dead many of the ambitions that exist, since the awarding of World Heritage status, for opening up the Tramuntana mountains to more tourism.

In the immediate Pollensa area, walks such as those with access to Boquer could be threatened. And the threat resides in whether land is ultimately determined as being private or in the public domain, a threat that extends along the Tramuntana range and from the legal battle that has been fought at its northerly, Pollensa end.

What was generally overlooked amidst the euphoria of the awarding of World Heritage status was the fact that most of the Tramuntana range is privately owned, or claimed to be. This does not in itself prevent walks, so long as some accommodation is arrived at with owners (and Pollensa town hall seems to think that it might yet be able to do just this with the March family). But if there are no agreements, much of the range becomes off-limits, and the prospect arises of years of legal disputes in order to try and secure rights of way.

It is such a prospect that must seriously curb whatever marketing there might be in mind for the Tramuntana. It would be a massive mistake to start promoting walks, only for other town halls to discover, as in Pollensa, that they have to then scrub them.

However, the issue with many walks is not simply one that relates to land ownership. There is also the sea.

The Ternelles walk ultimately leads to the Cala Castell, a cove to the west of Cala San Vicente. The walk also provides access to the ancient fortification of the Castell del Rei, only a short distance from the coast. The judge has made clear that, privately owned or not privately owned, because the property forms a link with the coast, free access to the sea must be supported. This stems from the principle enshrined in the Coasts Law (yep, that again) which guarantees free access to the public.

The limitation of twenty people a day was, in effect, a compromise established by the Council of Mallorca. It was predicated not so much on the question of land ownership but on access to the sea. By emphasising this aspect, however, the judge has surely opened up the possibility of a legal challenge to the Council's compromise. And invoking the Coasts Law is what makes the Ternelles saga even more interesting.

This is because of a move that has gone almost completely unnoticed (not least by myself, until a couple of days ago), namely that the regional government is set to assume responsibility for the coasts in the Balearics. This would involve a transfer of such responsibility from the Costas Authority and would involve the management of the coasts. But it could also well mean ordinance. If so, this raises all sorts of questions of the type that have been raised regarding hotel exploitation of beaches and also of public access to the sea and whether this would indeed be guaranteed - the privatisation question.

Yet the regional government, aware of the need for tourism development that embraces heritage and culture and that exploits the Tramuntana's new status, can ill afford to have obstacles in the way of accessing important historic sites such as the Castell del Rei. Consequently, Ternelles has the potential to become an issue not between Pollensa town hall and the owners but between a Partido Popular government and the most powerful banking family in Mallorca.

Of course, this may not mean a collision course; it could actually help to smooth the situation. But one thing is almost certain. The last has not been heard about the Ternelles walk. It has way, way further to go.


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Just A Perfect Day

AN ALCUDIAPOLLENSA.BLOGSPOT.COM SPECIAL

From the first encounter you know it will be good. A welcoming smile, a handshake, a sir, a madam; not a simple and often disinterested “hi there” or worse still a “hello, mate”, but a greeting that smacks of client care and professionalism. That client care and professionalism last the whole of the trip, and it is a long trip, a day tour of the island with No Frills Excursions.

What is it that makes for a good excursion? For a tour into the Tramuntana mountains, a catamaran to Port de Soller, the tram to the old town of Soller and then the train to Palma, it is easy to identify the essential components - a comfortable ride, terrific scenery, a stop here and there, a walk here and there. These are the basics. But one asks again - what makes for a good excursion?

Some visitors prefer the freedom of touring the island independently, but many want the organisation of an excursion. They pay for that scenery of course, but they also pay - or rather have the right to expect that they are paying - for something a bit extra. It’s that old management and marketing motto of “added value”. It’s also attention to detail and the notion of putting the customer (sorry, client) first. And client it is. Not customers, not “people”, not “some folk”, but clients.

That question again - what makes for a good excursion? In terms of the island tour, the scenery from the coach, the catamaran, the train is vital, as are the tranquility and sheer awe of the mountains. They all make for a magical experience, a day quite like no other. As does coming across a horse and trap on the hairy mountain road, seeing the mountain goats on their pinnacles of rock, taking in the sheer-faced sleepiness of the cove at Sa Calobra, seeing the new chic of Port de Soller, hearing the rattle of the tram to the town of Soller. All of these things.

But there is far more to it. An excursion, much like a bar or restaurant, is highly intangible. There are the physical elements - the view, the drink, the meal - but it is the rest that makes the difference. That difference lies with a history of the road that runs from Alcúdia to Puerto Pollensa; lies with giving a geological explanation for the different colours of sand in response to a client question; lies with stating and then re-stating important information (times of meeting for instance); lies with the called-ahead orders for a restaurant; lies with the organisation of clients within good time for the tram journey; lies with the touches of humour and all the additional information; lies with being available all the time. It was Toni on this occasion, but it could have been someone else at No Frills. And all this carried off with patience and courtesy; all carried off in October during a long day trip at the end of a long season.

Just in case you are wondering. A friend went on the No Frills island tour. This is an interpretation of his day and his impressions. This is no article in exchange for. The trip was paid for. This is an independent opinion. “Brilliant” was the word; that summed up a perfect day.



QUIZ
Yesterday - Jan and Dean. The Carpenters only as a last resort. Today’s title? Way too easy, so on the BBC version who played the sax solo?

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