There was a great opinion piece* in the magazine Preferente the other day. It was written by Ignacio Vasallo, who I suspect will need some introduction, even though he is one of the most prominent names in Spain's tourism industry. He was the first director-general of the national tourism promotion agency, Turespaña. He directed the first real marketing plans for Spain's tourism and was largely responsible for the logo that Joan Miró created for Turespaña ("El Sol de Miró"). His CV is extensive, so let's just confine the rest to the fact that in 2008 he was awarded the Gran Cruz de Isabel la Católica for his contribution to improving Spain's global image.
He is therefore someone with an immense amount of credibility, especially when it comes to observations about travel fairs. Turespaña is of course to be found at these fairs, flying the Miró flag for Spain and for regions of Spain, including the one that was Miró's adopted region - the Balearics.
The article to which I refer was entitled The Crisis Is Over. It had to do with how travel fairs, and especially London's World Travel Market, act as barometers of prevailing economic circumstances. In times of economic difficulty, the number of politicians and public officials who head off to London is small. When the economic climate is better, off they all go. Ignacio noted that most of these politicians and officials can't speak English and that they generally attend the fairs not so that they can have meetings with people whose language they can't speak but in order to be photographed and have these photos published back home.
He had more to say on this subject but it would be wrong of me to detail it all as I would basically be reproducing his article. But it is worth highlighting what he had to say about one particular delegation. It was from Arousa Norte, and there was apparently a subsequent photo in the local Arousa paper which featured (get this) 25 people. Yes, a whole 25 had gone to London.
I have to say that I needed to consult Mr. Google. I'd never heard of Arousa Norte either. It is, in case you're interested, on the Galician coast. Galicia, it is perhaps reasonable to say, doesn't loom large on the list of UK (or other countries) tour operator priority destinations. Santiago de Compostela maybe, but Galicia's coast? As a rule, no. Nevertheless, the Arousa delegation had apparently aroused that much interest in London that a whole page was devoted to it - all 25 of them. Well, you would need a whole page in order to fit them all in.
Apart from the cost of transporting these folk, there is the question as to why they're even there. Is it some sort of perk? With regimes like those in the Balearics, any hint of superfluous and unjustified public expense is normally subject to intense scrutiny, not least by political parties in the current anti-corruption meets sort of austerity climate. It isn't corrupt to send people off on these trips, but the attendance by many of them is highly questionable, especially if they do nothing more than hang around for a photo opportunity.
The contrast with the private sector is great. For starters, the private sector pays for itself to attend. The private sector, the tourism industry in Mallorca and the Balearics, speaks languages. Ignacio Vasallo knows about languages. He was also the director of Spain's overseas tourism bureaux in New York, London, Stockholm, Paris and Milan. Languages are pre-requisites for getting ahead in the tourism industry and for conducting meetings. The politicians and public officials by and large do not conduct meetings, except between themselves, and they could have these without ever needing to go near an airport let alone fly to London.
So, what is the point of any of them being at these fairs? Very little, except for the imperative of being seen and, even more important, being seen in photos by the folks back home. Here, look at the president, the vice-president, the other presidents, the mayors, the councillors, the ministers. How impressed we are all supposed to be. Or more likely unimpressed.
There is, it seems to me, a broader issue here: one to do with the vanity of the need to be seen in photos. There are times when it can appear that the sole purpose of Mallorcan society, and not just its political society, is to be photographed. And the more the people in the photos the better. Specifically where local politicians are concerned, I well recall the Alternativa per Pollença troublemakers being askance at the number of town hall politicians and officials in a photo for some reason that I now forget. The Alternativa was right, though. Why were they all there? And who were most of them? Does anyone really care? I, for one, do not.
* http://www.preferente.com/opinion/ignacio-vasallo/271720-271720.html
Showing posts with label Turespaña. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Turespaña. Show all posts
Friday, December 01, 2017
Tuesday, April 22, 2014
Bullfighting Apologies And Apologists
One of the grandest fairs of a Spanish spring is that of San Isidro in Madrid. It is a fair which attracts visitors from across Spain and from overseas. As part of the promotion for this year's fair, the travel agency Nautalia Viajes had offered a package which included hotel accommodation and entrance to one of the main events of this grand fair: the bullfight in the Las Ventas bullring. The agency had offered this package; it now no longer does. Nautalia in fact withdrew this promotion almost two weeks ago. The withdrawal followed an avalanche of criticism from opponents of the bullfight.
Nautalia's explanation for dropping the promotion was posted onto its Facebook page. Its wording was such that it left no one in any doubt that it, Nautalia, recognised that a mistake had been made. "After listening to your petitions (and the informal 'vuestras' was used for 'your') and as a business which values opinions of its community, we have decided to cease selling the package." The explanation went on: "We are conscious of the argument with regard to bullfighting, so for this reason we apologise to people who may have been offended by the sale of this package ... At no time has Nautalia defended the mistreatment of animals."
This was a strong statement of regret. It may have been for PR purposes, but it was PR that was necessary in the face of the onslaught of criticism and of the power of social media. The agency doubtless calculated that it stood to lose more custom by continuing to offer the package than by withdrawing it. Its Twitter account revealed that some supporters of the bullfight said that they would stop being clients.
Spain.info is the website for the national tourism agency Turespaña. Under a heading, "Bullfights: the magic of Spain's 'national fiesta' ", the website talks about the "excitement" of this fiesta and says that "to discover Spain is to discover bullfighting culture". It refers to the San Isidro event as indeed it does to others. It makes one crucial mistake, though. It includes reference to the bullfight in Barcelona. There no longer is a bullfight in Barcelona. Catalonia has banned bullfighting.
The effusive description that Spain.info offers is probably to be expected. Even if there are those at Turespaña who are wary of being involved with the argument in the way that Nautalia has been, the agency could hardly not mention bullfighting or be critical of it. One could argue, however, that it goes over the top in seeking to convey the "excitement".
But Turespaña is of course a government agency, and the national government of the Partido Popular has made clear its commitment to and support of bullfighting. And there are others from the PP who are clear in this support. The party's president in Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, is one of them.
On Sunday at Seville's April fair (where there is a bullfight), Sra. Aguirre issued her own strong statement as part of the oration for the bullfight, one that was very different to that which Nautalia had felt compelled to make. She spoke of how bullfighting was part of her family's tradition and had been since her great-grandfather's days. She placed her love of bulls alongside her Christianity and her love of country. She accused critics of bullfighting of being anti-Spanish and said that their arguments were of a much lower intellectual level than had been inherent to criticisms expressed a century ago. In other words, one has to conclude that opponents, in addition to being anti-Spanish, are little more than an unintelligent rabble.
Invoking being anti-Spanish and so also its opposite, being pro-Spanish, can be seen within the context of the Catalonian argument. The bullfighting ban, where many within the PP are concerned, was purely political. But this ignores the fact that the ban was the result of popular legislation through petition. Not all the thousands upon thousands who signed the petition could surely have been motivated solely by Catalonian nationalist sentiments and a desire to attack a potent symbol of Spanishness, i.e. the bullfight.
Spanish nationalism is quite clearly threatened by Catalonia's quest for independence, and this is a threat felt by those on both the right and the left politically (PSOE isn't in favour). But there is a crucial difference when it comes to the nationalist narrative. Elements within the PP are in tune with Sra. Aguirre's back-to-the-future model of nationalism. The Spanish people may still be Christian but they aren't necessarily staunch Catholics, as has been demonstrated, for example, by opposition to abortion reform. And nor are they necessarily defenders of the bullfight. None of this opposition makes them anti-Spanish.
If Sra. Aguirre and the PP were a travel agency, they might feel obliged to issue a retraction.
Nautalia's explanation for dropping the promotion was posted onto its Facebook page. Its wording was such that it left no one in any doubt that it, Nautalia, recognised that a mistake had been made. "After listening to your petitions (and the informal 'vuestras' was used for 'your') and as a business which values opinions of its community, we have decided to cease selling the package." The explanation went on: "We are conscious of the argument with regard to bullfighting, so for this reason we apologise to people who may have been offended by the sale of this package ... At no time has Nautalia defended the mistreatment of animals."
This was a strong statement of regret. It may have been for PR purposes, but it was PR that was necessary in the face of the onslaught of criticism and of the power of social media. The agency doubtless calculated that it stood to lose more custom by continuing to offer the package than by withdrawing it. Its Twitter account revealed that some supporters of the bullfight said that they would stop being clients.
Spain.info is the website for the national tourism agency Turespaña. Under a heading, "Bullfights: the magic of Spain's 'national fiesta' ", the website talks about the "excitement" of this fiesta and says that "to discover Spain is to discover bullfighting culture". It refers to the San Isidro event as indeed it does to others. It makes one crucial mistake, though. It includes reference to the bullfight in Barcelona. There no longer is a bullfight in Barcelona. Catalonia has banned bullfighting.
The effusive description that Spain.info offers is probably to be expected. Even if there are those at Turespaña who are wary of being involved with the argument in the way that Nautalia has been, the agency could hardly not mention bullfighting or be critical of it. One could argue, however, that it goes over the top in seeking to convey the "excitement".
But Turespaña is of course a government agency, and the national government of the Partido Popular has made clear its commitment to and support of bullfighting. And there are others from the PP who are clear in this support. The party's president in Madrid, Esperanza Aguirre, is one of them.
On Sunday at Seville's April fair (where there is a bullfight), Sra. Aguirre issued her own strong statement as part of the oration for the bullfight, one that was very different to that which Nautalia had felt compelled to make. She spoke of how bullfighting was part of her family's tradition and had been since her great-grandfather's days. She placed her love of bulls alongside her Christianity and her love of country. She accused critics of bullfighting of being anti-Spanish and said that their arguments were of a much lower intellectual level than had been inherent to criticisms expressed a century ago. In other words, one has to conclude that opponents, in addition to being anti-Spanish, are little more than an unintelligent rabble.
Invoking being anti-Spanish and so also its opposite, being pro-Spanish, can be seen within the context of the Catalonian argument. The bullfighting ban, where many within the PP are concerned, was purely political. But this ignores the fact that the ban was the result of popular legislation through petition. Not all the thousands upon thousands who signed the petition could surely have been motivated solely by Catalonian nationalist sentiments and a desire to attack a potent symbol of Spanishness, i.e. the bullfight.
Spanish nationalism is quite clearly threatened by Catalonia's quest for independence, and this is a threat felt by those on both the right and the left politically (PSOE isn't in favour). But there is a crucial difference when it comes to the nationalist narrative. Elements within the PP are in tune with Sra. Aguirre's back-to-the-future model of nationalism. The Spanish people may still be Christian but they aren't necessarily staunch Catholics, as has been demonstrated, for example, by opposition to abortion reform. And nor are they necessarily defenders of the bullfight. None of this opposition makes them anti-Spanish.
If Sra. Aguirre and the PP were a travel agency, they might feel obliged to issue a retraction.
Monday, December 30, 2013
The 5.5 Million Gamble: Spain's tourism promotion
When the 2.7 million euros for Balearics tourism promotion in 2014 is derided, as it is often is, a thought should be spared for promotion budgets elsewhere. I have previously noted the higher regional budgets, e.g. those of the Canaries and especially Catalonia, but what about the national budget, that at the command of the national tourism institute, Turespaña? You might be amazed to learn that it will be all of 5.5 million euros in 2014, only twice as much as the Balearics and lower than the Canaries. There again, you might be even more amazed to learn that it was only 1.1 million euros this year.
The figures don't do full justice because they don't include all the work done by tourism offices and delegations in parts of the globe. There is more to what Turespaña does than merely promotional campaigns, but one can't help but feel that 5.5 million euros is a pretty miserly sum for a country with such a high dependence on tourism. Marta Blanco, the new director-general, will argue (and she already has) that it isn't miserly because it is five times the 2013 budget, but five point five million ...? It sounds like a promotional drop in the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian and any other ocean you might wish to mention.
Not, it must be said, that these oceans are particularly relevant, except for European countries with an Atlantic coastline, most obviously France and Great Britain. The 5.5 million is mostly going to be spent on mature tourism markets, says Sra. Blanco. So much, therefore, for all those emerging markets. Apparently it is a far more efficient use of resources to concentrate on established markets, which it probably is, but tourism in 2013 and 2104 does not live by established markets alone. Or shouldn't.
These established European markets will be regaled with promotion which focuses on urban tourism, cultural tourism, health tourism, shopping tourism, meetings tourism and, a newer theme, so it is said, rural tourism. My just having examined two of these - urban and rural - was coincidental but it was fortuitous, as things have turned out. There is an obvious form of tourism that isn't due to be focused on, that of sun and beach. Fair enough perhaps as it pretty much sells itself, but Spanish tourism should never neglect the bread and butter and the bucket and spade that got it to where it is, no more so than in Mallorca.
On rural tourism though, this has a sense of back-to-the-future promotion. Before the days of the Costas and the Mallorcan beaches being packed by northern Europeans in desperate search of post-austerity sun in the late 1950s and 1960s, rural tourism was a big thing. Or at least, the Franco regime attempted to make it a big thing. It eyed up what the French were doing and had hopes of a tourism that was and still is very much more diverse than Spanish tourism. With hindsight, it is perhaps a shame that the diversity and spread between countryside and coast which typifies French tourism was never attained in Spain. The coasts would look very different, had it been.
As my two recent articles noted, urban tourism is a growth market while rural tourism is in a bit of a trough. It seems counter-intuituive to therefore promote a type of tourism that has registered a 10% fall in general tourism terms, but this said, maybe rural tourism could do with some more effective promotion. Back in the day, i.e. before the peseta dropped and Franco's mob came to understand that tourists wanted to go to the seaside, a not untypical image was the "Castilian Landscape" of a rainbow tumbling into a wheat field. Perhaps it's unsurprising that it never took off. One trusts that current-day promotion might be better.
Where Mallorca is concerned, a Turespaña drive in urban and rural tourism might be beneficial and opportune, despite my misgivings about Palma as an urban tourism destination and about the contribution of rural tourism to the island. The new Balearics tourism minister, having helped with the clauses regarding the advancement of rural tourism in the 2012 bill, will doubtless be happy and will be sending felicitations to a fellow novice in Sra. Blanco.
The campaign for 2014 is the first which she will have overseen since her surprising appointment in September to succeed Manuel Butler. It was a surprise to many in the tourism industry who had never heard of her. A career politico with banking experience, like Martinez in the Balearics and Borrego at the national tourism ministry, one does have to wonder as to the personnel in charge of tourism both regionally and nationally. Still, she seems like a very nice lady, and I wish her well. But really ... 5.5 million euros? Is that all?
The figures don't do full justice because they don't include all the work done by tourism offices and delegations in parts of the globe. There is more to what Turespaña does than merely promotional campaigns, but one can't help but feel that 5.5 million euros is a pretty miserly sum for a country with such a high dependence on tourism. Marta Blanco, the new director-general, will argue (and she already has) that it isn't miserly because it is five times the 2013 budget, but five point five million ...? It sounds like a promotional drop in the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian and any other ocean you might wish to mention.
Not, it must be said, that these oceans are particularly relevant, except for European countries with an Atlantic coastline, most obviously France and Great Britain. The 5.5 million is mostly going to be spent on mature tourism markets, says Sra. Blanco. So much, therefore, for all those emerging markets. Apparently it is a far more efficient use of resources to concentrate on established markets, which it probably is, but tourism in 2013 and 2104 does not live by established markets alone. Or shouldn't.
These established European markets will be regaled with promotion which focuses on urban tourism, cultural tourism, health tourism, shopping tourism, meetings tourism and, a newer theme, so it is said, rural tourism. My just having examined two of these - urban and rural - was coincidental but it was fortuitous, as things have turned out. There is an obvious form of tourism that isn't due to be focused on, that of sun and beach. Fair enough perhaps as it pretty much sells itself, but Spanish tourism should never neglect the bread and butter and the bucket and spade that got it to where it is, no more so than in Mallorca.
On rural tourism though, this has a sense of back-to-the-future promotion. Before the days of the Costas and the Mallorcan beaches being packed by northern Europeans in desperate search of post-austerity sun in the late 1950s and 1960s, rural tourism was a big thing. Or at least, the Franco regime attempted to make it a big thing. It eyed up what the French were doing and had hopes of a tourism that was and still is very much more diverse than Spanish tourism. With hindsight, it is perhaps a shame that the diversity and spread between countryside and coast which typifies French tourism was never attained in Spain. The coasts would look very different, had it been.
As my two recent articles noted, urban tourism is a growth market while rural tourism is in a bit of a trough. It seems counter-intuituive to therefore promote a type of tourism that has registered a 10% fall in general tourism terms, but this said, maybe rural tourism could do with some more effective promotion. Back in the day, i.e. before the peseta dropped and Franco's mob came to understand that tourists wanted to go to the seaside, a not untypical image was the "Castilian Landscape" of a rainbow tumbling into a wheat field. Perhaps it's unsurprising that it never took off. One trusts that current-day promotion might be better.
Where Mallorca is concerned, a Turespaña drive in urban and rural tourism might be beneficial and opportune, despite my misgivings about Palma as an urban tourism destination and about the contribution of rural tourism to the island. The new Balearics tourism minister, having helped with the clauses regarding the advancement of rural tourism in the 2012 bill, will doubtless be happy and will be sending felicitations to a fellow novice in Sra. Blanco.
The campaign for 2014 is the first which she will have overseen since her surprising appointment in September to succeed Manuel Butler. It was a surprise to many in the tourism industry who had never heard of her. A career politico with banking experience, like Martinez in the Balearics and Borrego at the national tourism ministry, one does have to wonder as to the personnel in charge of tourism both regionally and nationally. Still, she seems like a very nice lady, and I wish her well. But really ... 5.5 million euros? Is that all?
Tuesday, November 05, 2013
What The Butler Saw?: Turespaña
You might, on the other hand, have heard of Manuel Butler. Those in the tourism industry were long familiar with Butler. He had been in charge of the Spanish tourism offices in Berlin and London, centres therefore of Spain's two largest tourism markets. Having been director of these offices, he was made director-general of the Spanish Institute of Tourism, better known for its promotional name, Turespaña. Butler took the world of tourism by surprise at the end of September by announcing his resignation. It's still not entirely clear why he resigned, especially as he had a contract that would have seen him stay in his post until 2020. He had in fact only been in the post since the start of 2012. Resigning less than two years later was not just a surprise. The tourism industry suspects there was rather more to it than a possible job with the UN's World Tourism Organization.
It wouldn't be hard to arrive at certain conclusions as to why he might have resigned. Government budgets were being drawn up; they would have been known even before they had been made public. Tourism did not get a particularly generous budget. Of course, it may well be that he was eyeing up other employment, but the timing of his resignation was bound to have raised suspicions. Butler, on announcing his departure, made complimentary noises about the minister to whom he was reporting, José Manuel Soria, but then diplomacy often requires that such noises are made, if only for public consumption.
All of this brings us to Marta Blanco Quesada. She is Butler's successor. When her appointment was announced, the tourism website preferente.com described her as an "unknown". It went very much further. It called her appointment a political one. Sra. Blanco has been knocking around government circles but she has had very little direct involvement with tourism. Unlike Butler, who, thanks to his previous experience, would have known who was whom in the industry and, as importantly, what was what with tourism, Sra. Blanco starts from a much more disadvantaged position. She is not known and she doesn't really know anyone either; not those who matter, such as major figures within the tourism industry in Spain and overseas and especially in the two key markets of Germany and the UK.
None of this should be taken as a criticism of Sra. Blanco's competence, but this isn't the issue. What is, is the fact that a job as critical as the director-general of tourism should go to someone who doesn't seem to have the right sort of credentials, other than political ones. And the job is especially critical given that tourism is seemingly undervalued in governmental circles. There has never been a cabinet minister or a government department solely dedicated to tourism. Instead, tourism has been moved around departments, amalgamated here, joined on there. The current minister, Soria, combines tourism with industry and energy. One can just about see the connection with industry, but with energy? How can he really be expected to oversee two such different areas of specialism?
Tourism was, from 1996 to 2004, deposited in the economy and finance departments. During the 1980s it formed a three-headed ministry with transport and communications. If there ever was an appropriate place for tourism, it was when the first ever national commission for tourism was established in 1905. Then, it was with the Ministerio de Fomento (development), and this association gave rise to the Fomento del Turismo in Mallorca, i.e. the Majorca Tourist Board.
So, governmentally, tourism has never been given the recognition it probably should have been. And with Butler's departure from the tourism wing of government which actually does something for tourism, an essentially political appointment has been made to go along with that which was made when Soria's number two, the secretary-of-state for tourism, was appointed. She was and is Isabel Borrego, a Mallorcan. Her background is property law. Useful perhaps when keeping up to speed with government moves regarding tenancy acts and the like but not necessarily as useful as it might be.
There are plenty of people in the tourism industry who have long despaired of governmental treatment of tourism. They have called for one dedicated minister, but these calls have never been listened to, and now, at Turespaña, there is a further reason for tourism professionals to wonder quite what the government is playing at.
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Spain Lackofinfo.es
There is a new website portal for travellers to Spain. It is sort of new. Spain.info has been relaunched. And relaunched with some fanfare as well as some anxiety.
The new, improved Spain.info, an all-Spain travel information system that falls under the national tourism promotion agency Turespaña, is going to be all-singing, all-dancing. Possibly. It isn't exactly all-singing or all-dancing just at present, despite the fanfare of its relaunch that might have suggested it would be.
The revamped system works but only after a fashion. I have put it to a few simple tests, using the "international English" version of the site. The first test was to find accommodation. Now, where does one find this? It isn't listed on the main banner menu. It must be under "What are you looking for?". No, not there. "Practical information"? Yes, there it is. How silly of me to think that it would have been listed under the more obvious heading.
By default, having clicked on "Accommodation", a search for "Hotels" comes up. There is a downwards arrow with the Hotels banner to suggest you can look for other types of accommodation. It doesn't work. Not to worry, there are five other types listed below and they have upwards arrows. How about flats? Yep, that works. So, let's find Mallorca. Enter. And what do you get? Seven pages of rental agencies and estate agents in places other than Mallorca.
Not to worry, let's try Hotels anyway. Mallorca. Enter. What do you get? Page upon page upon page, starting not with Mallorca but with Almeria. I didn't bother to wade through the numerous pages to discover if there were indeed any hotels for Mallorca.
What about transport? There's a specific "Book your trip" thing on the home pages. Flights or trains. Let's go for flights. Origin: let's use London Luton. Destination: Palma de Mallorca. Enter. What do we get? Another portal. Skyscanner. In Spanish, not English. It wants the origin and destination information again, as it seems not to have registered this. Enter. Ah, four flights. Easyjet. As I might have expected.
These few and simple tests were not wholly satisfactory, though of course one of them wouldn't be expected to throw up any information. Flats. Mallorca. If there were any information, it would be very odd and it would also be very illegal, according to the Balearics Government at any rate. Moreover, it may well become very illegal in other parts of Spain (if it isn't already), now that the Tenancy Act has shifted responsibility to regional governments to enact legislation that may (or may not) be along the same lines as that in the Balearics. Even if these other regional governments don't have the same attitude, the very presence of "Flats" on what is a Spanish Government website is odd in itself. This is a Spanish Government which, as with the Balearics Government, wants to stamp out the so-called illegal offer, and that, by and large, means flats. Maybe someone will point this anomaly out to Segittur, the governmental organisation which specialises in tourism technologies and which has been responsible for overhauling Spain.info.
The fanfare for the relaunch, with national tourism minister José Manuel Soria blowing the loudest trumpet, included reference to grand features such as being able to compare prices for flights, which is all fine and dandy, but isn't it a bit late? Google Flights and others are already doing this. So, the Spain.info finder is useful but not exactly innovative, while it isn't actually its finder system anyway; it's Skyscanner's.
The upgraded website has caused anxieties amongst Spain's travel agents, who were under the impression that users would be able to book direct and so miss them out. This isn't the case, so the travel agents can breathe more easily. But to what extent the portal will create additional business for them may be questionable.
Much will depend on how easy users find the system, and the initial impression is that it isn't as easy as it might be. Perhaps there are teething troubles, though it looks more like the website has been put up without having been finished. If it has been, then no one's going to be booking any hotels in Mallorca.
More than this, though, is whether users actually think to go to a site for Spain if they want to go to Mallorca (or any other part of Spain). Put another way, do travellers think "Spain" rather than individual parts of the country? Rather like the "Marca España" is now a questionable concept, so a whole-country internet travel portal is also questionable.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The new, improved Spain.info, an all-Spain travel information system that falls under the national tourism promotion agency Turespaña, is going to be all-singing, all-dancing. Possibly. It isn't exactly all-singing or all-dancing just at present, despite the fanfare of its relaunch that might have suggested it would be.
The revamped system works but only after a fashion. I have put it to a few simple tests, using the "international English" version of the site. The first test was to find accommodation. Now, where does one find this? It isn't listed on the main banner menu. It must be under "What are you looking for?". No, not there. "Practical information"? Yes, there it is. How silly of me to think that it would have been listed under the more obvious heading.
By default, having clicked on "Accommodation", a search for "Hotels" comes up. There is a downwards arrow with the Hotels banner to suggest you can look for other types of accommodation. It doesn't work. Not to worry, there are five other types listed below and they have upwards arrows. How about flats? Yep, that works. So, let's find Mallorca. Enter. And what do you get? Seven pages of rental agencies and estate agents in places other than Mallorca.
Not to worry, let's try Hotels anyway. Mallorca. Enter. What do you get? Page upon page upon page, starting not with Mallorca but with Almeria. I didn't bother to wade through the numerous pages to discover if there were indeed any hotels for Mallorca.
What about transport? There's a specific "Book your trip" thing on the home pages. Flights or trains. Let's go for flights. Origin: let's use London Luton. Destination: Palma de Mallorca. Enter. What do we get? Another portal. Skyscanner. In Spanish, not English. It wants the origin and destination information again, as it seems not to have registered this. Enter. Ah, four flights. Easyjet. As I might have expected.
These few and simple tests were not wholly satisfactory, though of course one of them wouldn't be expected to throw up any information. Flats. Mallorca. If there were any information, it would be very odd and it would also be very illegal, according to the Balearics Government at any rate. Moreover, it may well become very illegal in other parts of Spain (if it isn't already), now that the Tenancy Act has shifted responsibility to regional governments to enact legislation that may (or may not) be along the same lines as that in the Balearics. Even if these other regional governments don't have the same attitude, the very presence of "Flats" on what is a Spanish Government website is odd in itself. This is a Spanish Government which, as with the Balearics Government, wants to stamp out the so-called illegal offer, and that, by and large, means flats. Maybe someone will point this anomaly out to Segittur, the governmental organisation which specialises in tourism technologies and which has been responsible for overhauling Spain.info.
The fanfare for the relaunch, with national tourism minister José Manuel Soria blowing the loudest trumpet, included reference to grand features such as being able to compare prices for flights, which is all fine and dandy, but isn't it a bit late? Google Flights and others are already doing this. So, the Spain.info finder is useful but not exactly innovative, while it isn't actually its finder system anyway; it's Skyscanner's.
The upgraded website has caused anxieties amongst Spain's travel agents, who were under the impression that users would be able to book direct and so miss them out. This isn't the case, so the travel agents can breathe more easily. But to what extent the portal will create additional business for them may be questionable.
Much will depend on how easy users find the system, and the initial impression is that it isn't as easy as it might be. Perhaps there are teething troubles, though it looks more like the website has been put up without having been finished. If it has been, then no one's going to be booking any hotels in Mallorca.
More than this, though, is whether users actually think to go to a site for Spain if they want to go to Mallorca (or any other part of Spain). Put another way, do travellers think "Spain" rather than individual parts of the country? Rather like the "Marca España" is now a questionable concept, so a whole-country internet travel portal is also questionable.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, June 21, 2013
Tourism Logos: the Sol of Miró
The Sol of Miró, as the logo is commonly referred to, could only have come from Miró. Thirty years represent a lifetime for any logo to have been in existence, and, despite thoughts by different governments that the time might have come for a change, the Sol has remained.
The logo hasn't enjoyed universal acclaim - it has been re-named the Fried Egg of Miró - but it is, thanks to its novelty and sheer longevity, one of the best known of all tourism logos. But is it the best known or the most ground-breaking? There have been attempts to imitate it, but there is one tourism logo that has been imitated more than any other, and that is New York's. The imitation is such that critics of Palma de Mallorca's logo consider its heart to have been borrowed from New York's.
The degree of imitation has, it might be argued, devalued New York's tourism promotion, but whatever attempts there may have been to imitate the Sol, Miró's logo has not lost any power because of the flattery of imitation; it is just too difficult to borrow the idea and make a logo look as though it hasn't been nicked, which is testimony to the power of Miró's unique style.
Everywhere has a tourism logo and mostly everywhere updates its logo periodically. There are always vogues as to what is "in" at any given time in design, and the current vogue is for typography that suggests movement. Consequently, a light, brush script style has become commonplace, not that this familiarity breeds the contempt of unoriginality or of lack of appeal. Excellent logos can appear from the most unexpected places, and Haiti, as a tourist destination, is one of them; a design with a quasi-italicised font and based on the national flower, the hibiscus, is quite stunning.
Whether of course it helps in attracting much-needed tourism to Haiti is an entirely different matter. And in a world where there is so much design and so many logos, memorability and recognition are hard to achieve, which is a further reason for not meddling with Miró's Sol. It appeared at a time when a strong logo stood a very good chance of standing out from the crowd, because the crowd was very much smaller. As it was so original, it became almost instantaneously recognisable. To what extent or even whether one can attribute increases in tourism numbers to the logo is impossible to say, but were there to now be a new logo, it would have to be something that was pretty special. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
If a tourism logo has any value, it has to say something about the destination. And so, with this in mind, we come to Mallorca, which, in effect, has two logos. One of them is another Miró. It was given to the Mallorca Tourist Board in 1973, at a time when the tourist board was very much the tourist board and so ten years before the first regional government and first tourism ministry in the Balearics were formed. The other is the generic logo for the Balearics, which can be adapted to use the name of the individual islands. This four-coloured affair, which looks like slices of fruit, is in need of an overhaul. It lacks dynamism and, in line with the current vogue, a sense of movement. Ideally, there should be a separate logo for Mallorca; the lumping together with the rest of the Balearics makes little marketing or branding sense.
One could, I suppose, say that Palma's new logo does Mallorca's job for it. One could say this, but it would be wrong to say it. Palma's logo may have some virtue in its lightness of typography, but otherwise it looks like an advert for a medical charity. The image is wrong, and it is only Palma's image, not Mallorca's.
Getting a logo right, therefore, is not an easy task. I'm sure Miró didn't find it easy to come up with either the Sol of Mallorca or the Sol of Miró for Turespaña. Or maybe he did. If you are a genius, things aren't necessarily difficult, though I am only guessing.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tuesday, March 19, 2013
Tourism's Grim Up North
The national government has yet another tourism scheme up its sleeves. This one is called "España Verde" (Green Spain) and, like the "Marca España" is supposedly a branding exercise, so this one will be as well. And, as part of this green branding, the government's tourism promotion agency, Turespaña, has been scouring the dictionary for a new word to include. They have come up with "norte" - north.
Green Spain is a campaign confined to a geographical region, namely the "north", by which is meant the regions with an Atlantic coastline - Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria and the Basque Country. Turespaña says that these regions will create new tourism products of traditions, culture, landscapes and cuisine. These products will be distinct from other parts of Spain and will offer "different experiences".
There is in all this something of a reinvention of the wheel and of a harking back to the past in emphasising difference. "Spain is Different" was one of the first slogans adopted to attract tourists after the Second World War and it was one that survived for many years. Though the slogan embraced the notion of Spain as being the point where Europe met Africa (an earlier slogan in the 1930s had boasted "the romance of Africa and the comforts of Europe"), officialdom was slow to latch onto the attractions of the far sunnier climes of the Costas and Mallorca.
Not everyone was as slow by any means, but governmentally there was a belief that the Atlantic coast would be a prime if not the prime area for tourism development. It would be a key centre of Spain's "difference". This was a belief based on what was evident before the Civil War and the Second World War. Northern beaches and cities such as Santander and San Sebastian were popular, more so than other parts of Spain. It may seem odd now to appreciate that these beaches were considered to be the main centres for summer tourism, while the Costas and Mallorca were thought of more as winter destinations.
This was what officialdom thought, and it was a mode of thinking that would have appealed to the Francoists of the immediate post-war period, as the northern regions did possess serious amounts of tradition, not least Santiago de Compostela, the spiritual centre of Spanish Catholicism. But it was a mode of thinking that totally overlooked trends towards beach tourism and sun worship, ones that had existed well before the war. Although the Franco regime favoured these established Atlantic regions (and it might be remembered that Franco himself came from Galicia) and although there was a tourism drive based bizarrely on "rutas de guerra" (war routes) which developed into tours of historical cities, the Costas and Mallorca created a whole other tourism supply, and the demand for sun and beach was far better met in Mallorca than on the Atlantic; Cantabria, as an example, is one of the wettest parts of Spain.
Now, therefore, Turespaña has rediscovered the old "difference" up north. It is further evidence of an attempt to rectify what has been admitted - that cultural tourism has not been handled particularly well for years. Whether "Green Spain" is the best of brands is perhaps debatable, as "green" has its specific environmental connotation, but the geographical niching of the Atlantic regions does make some sense, more so than Turespaña's umbrella slogan of "I Need Spain", one that fails to emphasise the great natural and cultural diversity of Spain.
The boom in 1960s sun-and-beach tourism disrupted other forms of tourism promotion to the extent that they were largely neglected. Only now is there a genuinely coherent effort to reinvent what the Franco regime in its earlier years, albeit in a rather naïve fashion, had sought to promote. But then those naïve efforts, and one can see the type of promotion that was used in posters for inland rural as well as cultural tourism, were matched by the naïveté and gullibility of tourists of the time. Do you know what happened in 1956? "My Fair Lady" is what happened. And which was one of its most popular songs? The rain in Spain didn't and doesn't fall mainly in the plain. It falls mainly in Cantabria. But who knew where was where back then. A joke, the quoting of which is attributed to Robert Graves, had it that a woman, on telling her friend that she had been on holiday in Mallorca, was asked where Mallorca was. The woman replied that she didn't know; she had gone by plane. All tourists wanted to know was where the sun was. The sun shone mainly in Mallorca. By comparison, tourism was grim up north.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Green Spain is a campaign confined to a geographical region, namely the "north", by which is meant the regions with an Atlantic coastline - Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria and the Basque Country. Turespaña says that these regions will create new tourism products of traditions, culture, landscapes and cuisine. These products will be distinct from other parts of Spain and will offer "different experiences".
There is in all this something of a reinvention of the wheel and of a harking back to the past in emphasising difference. "Spain is Different" was one of the first slogans adopted to attract tourists after the Second World War and it was one that survived for many years. Though the slogan embraced the notion of Spain as being the point where Europe met Africa (an earlier slogan in the 1930s had boasted "the romance of Africa and the comforts of Europe"), officialdom was slow to latch onto the attractions of the far sunnier climes of the Costas and Mallorca.
Not everyone was as slow by any means, but governmentally there was a belief that the Atlantic coast would be a prime if not the prime area for tourism development. It would be a key centre of Spain's "difference". This was a belief based on what was evident before the Civil War and the Second World War. Northern beaches and cities such as Santander and San Sebastian were popular, more so than other parts of Spain. It may seem odd now to appreciate that these beaches were considered to be the main centres for summer tourism, while the Costas and Mallorca were thought of more as winter destinations.
This was what officialdom thought, and it was a mode of thinking that would have appealed to the Francoists of the immediate post-war period, as the northern regions did possess serious amounts of tradition, not least Santiago de Compostela, the spiritual centre of Spanish Catholicism. But it was a mode of thinking that totally overlooked trends towards beach tourism and sun worship, ones that had existed well before the war. Although the Franco regime favoured these established Atlantic regions (and it might be remembered that Franco himself came from Galicia) and although there was a tourism drive based bizarrely on "rutas de guerra" (war routes) which developed into tours of historical cities, the Costas and Mallorca created a whole other tourism supply, and the demand for sun and beach was far better met in Mallorca than on the Atlantic; Cantabria, as an example, is one of the wettest parts of Spain.
Now, therefore, Turespaña has rediscovered the old "difference" up north. It is further evidence of an attempt to rectify what has been admitted - that cultural tourism has not been handled particularly well for years. Whether "Green Spain" is the best of brands is perhaps debatable, as "green" has its specific environmental connotation, but the geographical niching of the Atlantic regions does make some sense, more so than Turespaña's umbrella slogan of "I Need Spain", one that fails to emphasise the great natural and cultural diversity of Spain.
The boom in 1960s sun-and-beach tourism disrupted other forms of tourism promotion to the extent that they were largely neglected. Only now is there a genuinely coherent effort to reinvent what the Franco regime in its earlier years, albeit in a rather naïve fashion, had sought to promote. But then those naïve efforts, and one can see the type of promotion that was used in posters for inland rural as well as cultural tourism, were matched by the naïveté and gullibility of tourists of the time. Do you know what happened in 1956? "My Fair Lady" is what happened. And which was one of its most popular songs? The rain in Spain didn't and doesn't fall mainly in the plain. It falls mainly in Cantabria. But who knew where was where back then. A joke, the quoting of which is attributed to Robert Graves, had it that a woman, on telling her friend that she had been on holiday in Mallorca, was asked where Mallorca was. The woman replied that she didn't know; she had gone by plane. All tourists wanted to know was where the sun was. The sun shone mainly in Mallorca. By comparison, tourism was grim up north.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tuesday, February 05, 2013
Things Go Better With Coke: Spain's marketing
Spain has a strong association with Coca-Cola. So strong that it has been claimed that the drink was a Spanish invention. The great-great uncle of Juanjo Mica, of the town of Ayelo, was the inventor, says Juanjo. He took his syrup to the US in 1884, won a prize at a fair, and so was born Coke. It's a nice story, but it is, alas for Juanjo and for Spain, just one of many competing stories as to the originator of the secret recipe. The usual one involves John Pemberton of Atlanta.
A more definite association is one that was announced a few days ago. Coca-Cola is to advise Turespaña, the national tourism promotion agency, on a grand marketing plan to promote the Spanish tourist brand. When the news of this first became public, it was all over Twitter, complaints being made that Turespaña had not entered an open bidding process for such advice. The tweeting complainants had nothing to complain about. Coca-Cola, a company widely regarded as having one of the best marketing organisations in the world as well as one of the world's strongest and most recognisable brands, had offered to advise Turespaña for free.
I guess there is no such thing as a free can of Coke, but on the face of it, this is hugely positive news and is made more positive by the fact that, rather than engage some consultancy firm which would expect to be paid a small fortune and which might deal in the more theoretical, here is a company which deals squarely with the practical and has been doing so for years. There are few companies in the world better equipped to advise on marketing.
To be critical, one could argue that Turespaña, whose reason for being is to market Spain as a tourist destination, should be capable of doing this without advice. But apart from it being foolish to look a marketing gift horse in the mouth, it is also foolish not to tap into knowledge and to recognise that there may be others who can improve what is already being done. I applaud Turespaña for their humility.
Why have Coca-Cola made this offer? The company, so says the director of Turespaña's institute of tourism, Manuel Butler, wants to help the Spanish economy. Altruistic consultancy, it would appear. The cynic might suggest that Coca-Cola would be bound to be interested in helping the economy in order to boost sales. Maybe so, but there would be nothing wrong with it wishing this; the arrangement sounds like it's win-win.
Coca-Cola is, though, currently engaged in a charm offensive, one sparked by accusations that it contributes to the problem of childhood obesity. Coke is just one sugary drink that is going to be banned in New York from restaurants, cinemas and stadiums, and the company is now airing adverts in the US, designed to raise awareness of the need for exercise to combat the calories in all sorts of food and drink. Childhood obesity in Spain has become a matter of increasing concern, so there may be some public relations mileage to be gained by Coca-Cola, but this doesn't appear to have played much part, if any, in the formulation of the arrangement.
The announcement of Coca-Cola's involvement coincided with a preview of Turespaña's grand marketing plan at the Fitur trade fair. Based on preliminary work that included over 18,500 interviews in 17 countries, the plan has six key objectives, such as the geographical diversification of the markets which send tourists to Spain. Coca-Cola, a global brand, knows all about different markets, but where the company may be of particular value is in developing the use of social media. Coca-Cola, as with other forms of marketing, is a world leader in understanding how to harness the power of social media.
Julián Villanueva, associate professor of marketing at the IESE Business School, has written a case study of Coca-Cola Spain's use of social media. The case study is one which, among other things, enables a greater understanding of the cultural mindset of social media, of measuring the effectiveness of social media investment and of the need to evolve brands as part of the dynamic nature of social media communications.
My guess would be that it is the use of social media that is at the heart of the association with Turespaña. I have been critical of the way in which social networks have been used until now (not least by Balearics tourism agencies), and so having access to a leader in their application makes great sense. Things with Spain's tourism marketing are about to go very much better.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
A more definite association is one that was announced a few days ago. Coca-Cola is to advise Turespaña, the national tourism promotion agency, on a grand marketing plan to promote the Spanish tourist brand. When the news of this first became public, it was all over Twitter, complaints being made that Turespaña had not entered an open bidding process for such advice. The tweeting complainants had nothing to complain about. Coca-Cola, a company widely regarded as having one of the best marketing organisations in the world as well as one of the world's strongest and most recognisable brands, had offered to advise Turespaña for free.
I guess there is no such thing as a free can of Coke, but on the face of it, this is hugely positive news and is made more positive by the fact that, rather than engage some consultancy firm which would expect to be paid a small fortune and which might deal in the more theoretical, here is a company which deals squarely with the practical and has been doing so for years. There are few companies in the world better equipped to advise on marketing.
To be critical, one could argue that Turespaña, whose reason for being is to market Spain as a tourist destination, should be capable of doing this without advice. But apart from it being foolish to look a marketing gift horse in the mouth, it is also foolish not to tap into knowledge and to recognise that there may be others who can improve what is already being done. I applaud Turespaña for their humility.
Why have Coca-Cola made this offer? The company, so says the director of Turespaña's institute of tourism, Manuel Butler, wants to help the Spanish economy. Altruistic consultancy, it would appear. The cynic might suggest that Coca-Cola would be bound to be interested in helping the economy in order to boost sales. Maybe so, but there would be nothing wrong with it wishing this; the arrangement sounds like it's win-win.
Coca-Cola is, though, currently engaged in a charm offensive, one sparked by accusations that it contributes to the problem of childhood obesity. Coke is just one sugary drink that is going to be banned in New York from restaurants, cinemas and stadiums, and the company is now airing adverts in the US, designed to raise awareness of the need for exercise to combat the calories in all sorts of food and drink. Childhood obesity in Spain has become a matter of increasing concern, so there may be some public relations mileage to be gained by Coca-Cola, but this doesn't appear to have played much part, if any, in the formulation of the arrangement.
The announcement of Coca-Cola's involvement coincided with a preview of Turespaña's grand marketing plan at the Fitur trade fair. Based on preliminary work that included over 18,500 interviews in 17 countries, the plan has six key objectives, such as the geographical diversification of the markets which send tourists to Spain. Coca-Cola, a global brand, knows all about different markets, but where the company may be of particular value is in developing the use of social media. Coca-Cola, as with other forms of marketing, is a world leader in understanding how to harness the power of social media.
Julián Villanueva, associate professor of marketing at the IESE Business School, has written a case study of Coca-Cola Spain's use of social media. The case study is one which, among other things, enables a greater understanding of the cultural mindset of social media, of measuring the effectiveness of social media investment and of the need to evolve brands as part of the dynamic nature of social media communications.
My guess would be that it is the use of social media that is at the heart of the association with Turespaña. I have been critical of the way in which social networks have been used until now (not least by Balearics tourism agencies), and so having access to a leader in their application makes great sense. Things with Spain's tourism marketing are about to go very much better.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Packaging Culture: Why Mallorca misses out
Will culture ever become the main reason for tourists visiting Mallorca? The chances are extremely remote. Yet a professor of tourism at Girona University, José Antonio Donaire, reckons that one day it might be. Or at least, he reckons that culture will be the prime motivation for tourists from certain sectors of the tourism market heading to certain destinations. This caveat is important. Parts of Spain have much to offer the tourist going in search of culture. Mallorca and the Balearics, on the other hand ... ?
Turespaña, the national tourism agency, is currently looking at ways of increasing cultural tourism. One of the reasons for doing so is to tackle the vagaries of seasonality; Mallorca is by no means the only part of Spain that suffers from a lack of winter tourism. A second reason is that there has been an acknowledgement that, despite a rich culture and innumerable cultural sites, Spain as a destination for cultural tourism has been poorly positioned in terms of its international marketing, which is incredible given all the talk that emanates from different bodies regarding culture; there has been a huge gap between the talk and meaningful action. Which leads us on neatly to Mallorca.
In 2010, the Fundación Caja Madrid issued a report which put figures on the value of cultural tourism by Spanish tourists in the different regions of Spain. Way out in the lead was Andalucía (452 million euros) with Catalonia in second place (319 million). Rank bottom was Murcia (36 million). And second to bottom? You've guessed it. The Balearics (48 million). Even the Canaries fared better - to the tune of 20 million euros.
A survey of the same year that looked at different aspects of spending on culture was slightly more positive in placing the Balearics as the fifth worst performing region in terms of attracting overseas tourists who came for the express purpose of engaging in cultural pursuits. Three places higher but the percentage of cultural tourists in relation to all tourists to the Balearics was just under 2%, and the number had fallen from the previous year. From a base of under 2%, there is a hell of a way to go for culture to ever be a dominating reason for tourists to come to Mallorca.
Also back in 2010, a company offering an excursion of historic and cultural sites on Menorca said that it was in two minds whether to bother again. Over five months in 2009 it had managed to attract a total of 2,000 excursionists. The principal reason for the lack of take-up was, the company admitted, the far greater attraction of "sun, sea and sand". And for Menorca, read also Mallorca. Both islands' key brand attribute is sun, sea and sand, despite what some people might think and say to the contrary. When this brand attribute is as clearly identifiable and strong as it is, changing perceptions to embrace culture and therefore promote it is a huge task.
Of course, there are plenty of tourists who will take in something of a cultural nature even if they mainly come for the beach. Turespaña points out that the majority of visitors signal their intention to do so, but there is a problem in knowing what exactly is meant by culture. As an example, ABTA conducted a survey almost four years ago which suggested that culture was the third most important element of the British holidaymaker's visit to Mallorca. It made a great song and dance about publicising the fact. Unfortunately, when you went behind the press releases and actually looked at the survey, a quite different picture emerged. What had happened was that several elements (such as food) had been combined to give the result. A specific ranking for "the culture" had been given by only 5% of respondents, not the 18% that was being spoken about.
Mallorca is at a disadvantage when it comes to cultural tourism because it is so readily recognisable with something that is culture's virtual antithesis - sun and beach. One suspects that Turespaña's emphasis will be on parts of Spain that have stronger claims on cultural tourism, such as the old cities of Andalucía, but whichever its priority destinations will be, the agency is looking at how culture can be better packaged. And this is the nub of the issue.
Mallorca has culture, but compared with the money-for-old-rope ease of packaging the sun and beach holiday, culture is a very different beast. To be effective, the cost of marketing cultural package tours would be high, but the returns would be questionable. To be anything other than a minor aspect of Mallorca's tourism, culture would need the kind of volume tour operators could provide, but the tour operators have other holidays and other destinations they can sell and sell more easily.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Turespaña, the national tourism agency, is currently looking at ways of increasing cultural tourism. One of the reasons for doing so is to tackle the vagaries of seasonality; Mallorca is by no means the only part of Spain that suffers from a lack of winter tourism. A second reason is that there has been an acknowledgement that, despite a rich culture and innumerable cultural sites, Spain as a destination for cultural tourism has been poorly positioned in terms of its international marketing, which is incredible given all the talk that emanates from different bodies regarding culture; there has been a huge gap between the talk and meaningful action. Which leads us on neatly to Mallorca.
In 2010, the Fundación Caja Madrid issued a report which put figures on the value of cultural tourism by Spanish tourists in the different regions of Spain. Way out in the lead was Andalucía (452 million euros) with Catalonia in second place (319 million). Rank bottom was Murcia (36 million). And second to bottom? You've guessed it. The Balearics (48 million). Even the Canaries fared better - to the tune of 20 million euros.
A survey of the same year that looked at different aspects of spending on culture was slightly more positive in placing the Balearics as the fifth worst performing region in terms of attracting overseas tourists who came for the express purpose of engaging in cultural pursuits. Three places higher but the percentage of cultural tourists in relation to all tourists to the Balearics was just under 2%, and the number had fallen from the previous year. From a base of under 2%, there is a hell of a way to go for culture to ever be a dominating reason for tourists to come to Mallorca.
Also back in 2010, a company offering an excursion of historic and cultural sites on Menorca said that it was in two minds whether to bother again. Over five months in 2009 it had managed to attract a total of 2,000 excursionists. The principal reason for the lack of take-up was, the company admitted, the far greater attraction of "sun, sea and sand". And for Menorca, read also Mallorca. Both islands' key brand attribute is sun, sea and sand, despite what some people might think and say to the contrary. When this brand attribute is as clearly identifiable and strong as it is, changing perceptions to embrace culture and therefore promote it is a huge task.
Of course, there are plenty of tourists who will take in something of a cultural nature even if they mainly come for the beach. Turespaña points out that the majority of visitors signal their intention to do so, but there is a problem in knowing what exactly is meant by culture. As an example, ABTA conducted a survey almost four years ago which suggested that culture was the third most important element of the British holidaymaker's visit to Mallorca. It made a great song and dance about publicising the fact. Unfortunately, when you went behind the press releases and actually looked at the survey, a quite different picture emerged. What had happened was that several elements (such as food) had been combined to give the result. A specific ranking for "the culture" had been given by only 5% of respondents, not the 18% that was being spoken about.
Mallorca is at a disadvantage when it comes to cultural tourism because it is so readily recognisable with something that is culture's virtual antithesis - sun and beach. One suspects that Turespaña's emphasis will be on parts of Spain that have stronger claims on cultural tourism, such as the old cities of Andalucía, but whichever its priority destinations will be, the agency is looking at how culture can be better packaged. And this is the nub of the issue.
Mallorca has culture, but compared with the money-for-old-rope ease of packaging the sun and beach holiday, culture is a very different beast. To be effective, the cost of marketing cultural package tours would be high, but the returns would be questionable. To be anything other than a minor aspect of Mallorca's tourism, culture would need the kind of volume tour operators could provide, but the tour operators have other holidays and other destinations they can sell and sell more easily.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
French Lessons: Promotional messages
What's a ridiculous French number? "Soixante-neuf" perhaps? Not ridiculous, but it has inspired generations of prurient chortling. "Deux" maybe? The number of years of suspended prison sentence that Chirac has received. "Mille-cent-trente-sept?" The year that Charles the Fat died, and ridiculous for no other reason than that the French used to deal in kings with ridiculous names.
The answer is in fact none of these. It is of course "trois-cent-mille". Or indeed slightly fewer than 300,000, the total number of French tourists who travel to Mallorca each year, and a number that hasn't changed since the turn of the century.
At a gathering of directors of different offices of Turespaña, the national tourism promotion organisation, the director for Paris cited the ridiculous number and bemoaned the small number of French tourists and an image they have of Mallorca as being "over-constructed".
The French tourism market is an odd one. You might wonder why the French would want to bother holidaying in Mallorca when they have their own Mediterranean or Atlantic resorts. There again, if you live in Paris, you might just as well hop over to Mallorca as head down to the Riviera. It is a tourism market that also has plenty of history. It was French tourists, for example, who pretty much first colonised Alcúdia in the early 1930s, dropping into the bay by sea-planes from Marseille.
But resorts or no resorts, Mediterranean or no Mediterranean, the reluctant French tourists are a mystery when you consider that they lag some way behind the Italians who also have sea and sun and can, and do, boast about cuisine and wines superior to those of Mallorca (just as the French would). The Turespaña director in Milan says that Mallorca has become a destination "à la mode" for the Italians, or rather "una moda".
The lack of French tourists, who could joyfully take to the beaches of Mallorca and lob Euro-harmony insults at the British (and indeed the Italians and Spanish) along the lines of your deficit is bigger than our deficit, was just one issue that the Turespaña directors had to contend with. It might simply be a case of Turespaña's promotional slogan of "I Need Spain" being more of a mouthful in French ("J'ai besoin de l'Espagne"), but Mallorca's image of being over-constructed is perhaps revealing, especially to a race whose own tourism tends to be understated by comparison.
It does rather depend where in Mallorca you go (or the French go), but the fact that the French might have this image emphasises the fact that promotion cannot rest on its laurels and that it also needs to create different messages for different markets. Unfortunately, on its laurels is where promotion is resting.
The massive cut to the Balearics tourism budget for 2012 and the resultant loss of tourism promotion spend (the total budget will have plummeted by 89% in the space of two years) was way higher than the Mallorca hoteliers federation, among others, had been expecting.
The Balearics finance minister - and note that it is the finance and not the tourism minister - has said that promotion will have to be "much more austere" but also "more distinctive". So distinctive in fact that the tourism ministry is planning on not bothering having its own stand at the Berlin travel fair. Shortage of cash should exercise the creative abilities and make more out of less, but, as the French experience suggests, promotion has to be differentiated (which does mean spending money). It might not be imagery that plays well with other nationalities, but the French presumably need to see quaint, stone-walled cottages and toothless pensioners sitting around a square partaking of some bread and wine - rather like France, therefore.
Meantime, the soon-to-depart national tourism secretary-general, the Mallorcan Joan Mesquida, has had his centimo's worth, warning of the dangers of the Balearics not undertaking promotion. As with the hoteliers, he is pointing to the fact that, though 2012 is set to be another good year for tourism, there has to be greater proactivity in cementing and improving on the gains made in 2011.
And as part of the wider promotional message, the regional government might do well to consider that relaxations to the tourism law to facilitate re-modellings of already over-constructed parts of Mallorca, e.g. to allow for Melià's plans for Magalluf, do not necessarily attract all of the island's main markets. The French, you would imagine, would not be so ridiculous as to buy the message of transformation or to buy a condo. And how much might one cost? "Trois-cent-mille?"
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The answer is in fact none of these. It is of course "trois-cent-mille". Or indeed slightly fewer than 300,000, the total number of French tourists who travel to Mallorca each year, and a number that hasn't changed since the turn of the century.
At a gathering of directors of different offices of Turespaña, the national tourism promotion organisation, the director for Paris cited the ridiculous number and bemoaned the small number of French tourists and an image they have of Mallorca as being "over-constructed".
The French tourism market is an odd one. You might wonder why the French would want to bother holidaying in Mallorca when they have their own Mediterranean or Atlantic resorts. There again, if you live in Paris, you might just as well hop over to Mallorca as head down to the Riviera. It is a tourism market that also has plenty of history. It was French tourists, for example, who pretty much first colonised Alcúdia in the early 1930s, dropping into the bay by sea-planes from Marseille.
But resorts or no resorts, Mediterranean or no Mediterranean, the reluctant French tourists are a mystery when you consider that they lag some way behind the Italians who also have sea and sun and can, and do, boast about cuisine and wines superior to those of Mallorca (just as the French would). The Turespaña director in Milan says that Mallorca has become a destination "à la mode" for the Italians, or rather "una moda".
The lack of French tourists, who could joyfully take to the beaches of Mallorca and lob Euro-harmony insults at the British (and indeed the Italians and Spanish) along the lines of your deficit is bigger than our deficit, was just one issue that the Turespaña directors had to contend with. It might simply be a case of Turespaña's promotional slogan of "I Need Spain" being more of a mouthful in French ("J'ai besoin de l'Espagne"), but Mallorca's image of being over-constructed is perhaps revealing, especially to a race whose own tourism tends to be understated by comparison.
It does rather depend where in Mallorca you go (or the French go), but the fact that the French might have this image emphasises the fact that promotion cannot rest on its laurels and that it also needs to create different messages for different markets. Unfortunately, on its laurels is where promotion is resting.
The massive cut to the Balearics tourism budget for 2012 and the resultant loss of tourism promotion spend (the total budget will have plummeted by 89% in the space of two years) was way higher than the Mallorca hoteliers federation, among others, had been expecting.
The Balearics finance minister - and note that it is the finance and not the tourism minister - has said that promotion will have to be "much more austere" but also "more distinctive". So distinctive in fact that the tourism ministry is planning on not bothering having its own stand at the Berlin travel fair. Shortage of cash should exercise the creative abilities and make more out of less, but, as the French experience suggests, promotion has to be differentiated (which does mean spending money). It might not be imagery that plays well with other nationalities, but the French presumably need to see quaint, stone-walled cottages and toothless pensioners sitting around a square partaking of some bread and wine - rather like France, therefore.
Meantime, the soon-to-depart national tourism secretary-general, the Mallorcan Joan Mesquida, has had his centimo's worth, warning of the dangers of the Balearics not undertaking promotion. As with the hoteliers, he is pointing to the fact that, though 2012 is set to be another good year for tourism, there has to be greater proactivity in cementing and improving on the gains made in 2011.
And as part of the wider promotional message, the regional government might do well to consider that relaxations to the tourism law to facilitate re-modellings of already over-constructed parts of Mallorca, e.g. to allow for Melià's plans for Magalluf, do not necessarily attract all of the island's main markets. The French, you would imagine, would not be so ridiculous as to buy the message of transformation or to buy a condo. And how much might one cost? "Trois-cent-mille?"
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Basket Case: Sport and tourism promotion
Wherever a successful sportsman or woman or successful sports team is to be found, someone from a Spanish tourism promotion authority will also be found, running behind, puffing and turning puce and brandishing an advertising contract.
If not the Mallorcans Nadal and Lorenzo, then it will be either the Real Madrid football team or the Spanish men's basketball side. Both Madrid and the basketball players are faces and bodies of tourism promotion.
The contracts are, however, different. Madrid are being paid a million euros. The basketball team is getting nothing. Nada. Not a centimo. European champions, they are worth zilch. How come Madrid can be paid and the basketball team can't be?
It seems to have to do with the fact that Madrid is a business and that the basketball team is a representative of the state, down to its red and yellow strip. The six players from the championship-winning side depicted in Turespaña's hastily cobbled-together advert are "ambassadors" for Spain. Does this mean, therefore, that the Madrid players aren't? No, as they too, according to Turespaña, are ambassadors. If you play in white, though, you get paid; just ask Nadal.
Whatever the ins and outs of the contractual agreement, why is the Spanish tourism promotion agency, Turespaña, so desperate to nail its promotional colours to the masts of successful sports teams? The answer seems pretty simple. Teams with high recognition as well as fame mean high awareness and, you would hope, high numbers of tourists. In Madrid's case this may be so, but as for the basketball team, the thinking is more questionable. Perhaps this explains why they're not getting paid.
The ad featuring the basketball players is all part of the Turespaña campaign under the slogan of "I Need Spain". Yes, that campaign, the one that demands you fill in the missing words. I need Spain like I need a massive budget deficit; this sort of thing. Apparently, the basketball guys not only themselves need Spain, they love it. The ad carries the legend: "There is only one thing they love more than basketball - Spain". We'll take their word for it.
Questionable as this ad is in terms of what it might actually achieve for tourism, there is a question mark over whether a national basketball team should be going anywhere near Spanish tourism promotion. The reason for this is that basketball and Spain have form.
There was the unfortunate matter of the Spanish team which won the Paralympics gold medal in Sydney in 2000, but which turned out to have contained some ringers, i.e. players (ten out of the twelve) who were fully mentally able. Then there was the slitty-eyed gesture advert the men and women's teams participated in during the Beijing Olympics, which might not have caused much of a fuss had Sid Lowe of "The Guardian" not brought it to the world's attention. Let's just say that Spanish basketball, in its 2011 incarnation, is more ambassadorial.
But what of Real Madrid? In June, a promotional video popped up with nine players. All good ambassadors for Spain? Only up to a point, as only two of them were Spanish. Otherwise it was a video that would have played well with the German tourism market (Özil and Khedira), the French (Benzema) and the all-important Brazilian (Kaká and Marcelo), Argentinian (Di María) and Portuguese (Ronaldo) markets.
There is a rather obvious question. Why Madrid and not Barcelona? Barça are after all European club champions. At the time of the announcement of the tie-up with Madrid, the minister for industry, tourism and commerce, Miguel Sebastián, said that it had not been possible to come to an agreement with the club that would have allowed the use of the team's image and that things were rather easier where Madrid was concerned. Barcelona, however, said that there had been no request from the government.
Things being easier with Madrid than Barcelona presumably had nothing to do with Barça being littered with Catalan players and also nothing to do with the fact that the club had an existing agreement with the Catalonia Tourism Agency. The club has said that it is open to an approach from Turespaña so long as it doesn't conflict with its arrangements with the agency, which it probably almost certainly would.
And so the age-old Madrid versus Barcelona, Spain versus Catalonia El Clásico national division persists and with it so tourism promotion becomes political. The basketball players love Spain and together with Real Madrid, the team with all its historical connotations of Spanishness, they form the faces of Spain. I need Spain. I need Spain like I need the eternal row between Castile and Catalonia.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
If not the Mallorcans Nadal and Lorenzo, then it will be either the Real Madrid football team or the Spanish men's basketball side. Both Madrid and the basketball players are faces and bodies of tourism promotion.
The contracts are, however, different. Madrid are being paid a million euros. The basketball team is getting nothing. Nada. Not a centimo. European champions, they are worth zilch. How come Madrid can be paid and the basketball team can't be?
It seems to have to do with the fact that Madrid is a business and that the basketball team is a representative of the state, down to its red and yellow strip. The six players from the championship-winning side depicted in Turespaña's hastily cobbled-together advert are "ambassadors" for Spain. Does this mean, therefore, that the Madrid players aren't? No, as they too, according to Turespaña, are ambassadors. If you play in white, though, you get paid; just ask Nadal.
Whatever the ins and outs of the contractual agreement, why is the Spanish tourism promotion agency, Turespaña, so desperate to nail its promotional colours to the masts of successful sports teams? The answer seems pretty simple. Teams with high recognition as well as fame mean high awareness and, you would hope, high numbers of tourists. In Madrid's case this may be so, but as for the basketball team, the thinking is more questionable. Perhaps this explains why they're not getting paid.
The ad featuring the basketball players is all part of the Turespaña campaign under the slogan of "I Need Spain". Yes, that campaign, the one that demands you fill in the missing words. I need Spain like I need a massive budget deficit; this sort of thing. Apparently, the basketball guys not only themselves need Spain, they love it. The ad carries the legend: "There is only one thing they love more than basketball - Spain". We'll take their word for it.
Questionable as this ad is in terms of what it might actually achieve for tourism, there is a question mark over whether a national basketball team should be going anywhere near Spanish tourism promotion. The reason for this is that basketball and Spain have form.
There was the unfortunate matter of the Spanish team which won the Paralympics gold medal in Sydney in 2000, but which turned out to have contained some ringers, i.e. players (ten out of the twelve) who were fully mentally able. Then there was the slitty-eyed gesture advert the men and women's teams participated in during the Beijing Olympics, which might not have caused much of a fuss had Sid Lowe of "The Guardian" not brought it to the world's attention. Let's just say that Spanish basketball, in its 2011 incarnation, is more ambassadorial.
But what of Real Madrid? In June, a promotional video popped up with nine players. All good ambassadors for Spain? Only up to a point, as only two of them were Spanish. Otherwise it was a video that would have played well with the German tourism market (Özil and Khedira), the French (Benzema) and the all-important Brazilian (Kaká and Marcelo), Argentinian (Di María) and Portuguese (Ronaldo) markets.
There is a rather obvious question. Why Madrid and not Barcelona? Barça are after all European club champions. At the time of the announcement of the tie-up with Madrid, the minister for industry, tourism and commerce, Miguel Sebastián, said that it had not been possible to come to an agreement with the club that would have allowed the use of the team's image and that things were rather easier where Madrid was concerned. Barcelona, however, said that there had been no request from the government.
Things being easier with Madrid than Barcelona presumably had nothing to do with Barça being littered with Catalan players and also nothing to do with the fact that the club had an existing agreement with the Catalonia Tourism Agency. The club has said that it is open to an approach from Turespaña so long as it doesn't conflict with its arrangements with the agency, which it probably almost certainly would.
And so the age-old Madrid versus Barcelona, Spain versus Catalonia El Clásico national division persists and with it so tourism promotion becomes political. The basketball players love Spain and together with Real Madrid, the team with all its historical connotations of Spanishness, they form the faces of Spain. I need Spain. I need Spain like I need the eternal row between Castile and Catalonia.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Never Mind The Quality: Meaningless systems for tourism
There are certain words which, because of their widespread and widely unthinking usage, have lost any sense of meaning. Quality is one of them. Everyone does quality. "Our meat/fish/desserts/full Englishes/beers (use as applicable) are of the highest quality." Oh, for the bar or restaurant which advertises its quality as being rubbish. Or the resort which promotes itself as being the worst or most maligned: "Everyone hates us, but we don't care."
None of this applies to Alcúdia, Pollensa or, mystifyingly, Artà. Quality abounds in all three, unlike, at present, anywhere else in Mallorca, other than Palma. Each can boast of quality. The whole of Menorca can also do some boasting, as can Formentera and Ibiza. Soon, you would imagine, everywhere in Mallorca will be proclaiming quality, and so the meaning will go out the window, if there was any to begin with.
I am not making this qualitative assessment of the three towns/resorts. It is being done by something called SICTED, the Sistema Integral de Calidad Turística en Destinos. It's an unfortunate acronym. Is sick Ted pervy Edward or infirm Eddie? Sick Ted, Father Ted: "Would you have a look at this quality here, Ted." "Not while I'm vomiting, Dougal."
SICTED is, so says its website, "a project for improving the quality of tourist destinations that is promoted by the Spanish tourism institute (Turespaña) and the Spanish federation of municipalities and provinces". I'm sure you feel better for knowing this, as you will feel better - less sick - for knowing that the sick note from SICTED is a sign of a destination's "commitment to tourist quality". And signs you can get, it would appear. One with a T with a gap and a sort of Smiley curve that brings to mind the TUI logo.
They should mind the gap. If it's quality they're after, then they should learn to cross their Ts properly. But a broken T is, I suppose, all the more aesthetically and graphically-designed pleasing, and it would seem that it will be making itself known outside "distinguished establishments" in the SICTED towns: the odd restaurant or hotel and, in the case of Alcúdia, its police station.
I confess to being utterly confused. Not so long ago, there was all this stuff about the Q quality mark, something also to do with Turespaña. Now there's this one. Destinations and businesses can apply to be assessed for receiving their sick note and subject themselves to surveys of customer satisfaction. So convoluted does SICTED appear, the FAQs (frequently asked questions) on the website run to 102 in total. If you can wade through this lot, then you probably deserve to get what you're meant to - your commitment to tourist quality and your broken T.
But as the mere word quality loses its meaning, so do exercises in granting quality. How many more of them are there? And what on earth do they mean? And for whom?
Alcúdia's SICTED, so says the citation on the website, is on account of, among other things, "beautiful beaches with fine sand", "hidden coves", and "very diverse peoples who form a tranquil environment". These will presumably be the same diverse peoples whooping it up in the bars and entertainment centres of The Mile of an evening, scratch-card touts, and lookies selling dodgy DVDs and/or crack on the streets.
Pollensa "combines sea, countryside and mountains". It has "solitary coves" as opposed to hidden ones; someone's been at the thesaurus. No mention of dog mess on the streets, not getting the management of the beaches sorted out on time for the start of season or protesting business owners marching through Puerto Pollensa.
Then there is Artà. Its inclusion is a bit mystifying, as it's not exactly a place with a lot of tourism. It's off-the-beaten-track coastal Mallorca, but it does, like Alcúdia, so goes the SICTED blurb, have beaches with "fine sand". There is, possibly though, more of a reason for Artà having its SICTED than Alcúdia and Pollensa, and this is because it isn't particularly known for its tourism. Otherwise, what really is the point of all this?
The answer, one guesses and obviously so, is a desire for a general lifting of quality, a response to the threats posed by perceptions of greater quality in rival destinations. Fair enough, but does this require the rigmarole that SICTED and the Q mark demand? It should be obvious where quality failings may exist, and failings there are, even in Alcúdia and Pollensa, despite their having passed the sick test.
Who takes any notice? Tourists? It's very doubtful. And were all other towns/resorts in Mallorca to apply for and be awarded the same status as Alcúdia, Pollensa and Artà, then even less notice would be taken. It is quality becoming meaningless because everywhere has it, or so it is claimed.
Never mind the quality, because no one's paying any attention.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
None of this applies to Alcúdia, Pollensa or, mystifyingly, Artà. Quality abounds in all three, unlike, at present, anywhere else in Mallorca, other than Palma. Each can boast of quality. The whole of Menorca can also do some boasting, as can Formentera and Ibiza. Soon, you would imagine, everywhere in Mallorca will be proclaiming quality, and so the meaning will go out the window, if there was any to begin with.
I am not making this qualitative assessment of the three towns/resorts. It is being done by something called SICTED, the Sistema Integral de Calidad Turística en Destinos. It's an unfortunate acronym. Is sick Ted pervy Edward or infirm Eddie? Sick Ted, Father Ted: "Would you have a look at this quality here, Ted." "Not while I'm vomiting, Dougal."
SICTED is, so says its website, "a project for improving the quality of tourist destinations that is promoted by the Spanish tourism institute (Turespaña) and the Spanish federation of municipalities and provinces". I'm sure you feel better for knowing this, as you will feel better - less sick - for knowing that the sick note from SICTED is a sign of a destination's "commitment to tourist quality". And signs you can get, it would appear. One with a T with a gap and a sort of Smiley curve that brings to mind the TUI logo.
They should mind the gap. If it's quality they're after, then they should learn to cross their Ts properly. But a broken T is, I suppose, all the more aesthetically and graphically-designed pleasing, and it would seem that it will be making itself known outside "distinguished establishments" in the SICTED towns: the odd restaurant or hotel and, in the case of Alcúdia, its police station.
I confess to being utterly confused. Not so long ago, there was all this stuff about the Q quality mark, something also to do with Turespaña. Now there's this one. Destinations and businesses can apply to be assessed for receiving their sick note and subject themselves to surveys of customer satisfaction. So convoluted does SICTED appear, the FAQs (frequently asked questions) on the website run to 102 in total. If you can wade through this lot, then you probably deserve to get what you're meant to - your commitment to tourist quality and your broken T.
But as the mere word quality loses its meaning, so do exercises in granting quality. How many more of them are there? And what on earth do they mean? And for whom?
Alcúdia's SICTED, so says the citation on the website, is on account of, among other things, "beautiful beaches with fine sand", "hidden coves", and "very diverse peoples who form a tranquil environment". These will presumably be the same diverse peoples whooping it up in the bars and entertainment centres of The Mile of an evening, scratch-card touts, and lookies selling dodgy DVDs and/or crack on the streets.
Pollensa "combines sea, countryside and mountains". It has "solitary coves" as opposed to hidden ones; someone's been at the thesaurus. No mention of dog mess on the streets, not getting the management of the beaches sorted out on time for the start of season or protesting business owners marching through Puerto Pollensa.
Then there is Artà. Its inclusion is a bit mystifying, as it's not exactly a place with a lot of tourism. It's off-the-beaten-track coastal Mallorca, but it does, like Alcúdia, so goes the SICTED blurb, have beaches with "fine sand". There is, possibly though, more of a reason for Artà having its SICTED than Alcúdia and Pollensa, and this is because it isn't particularly known for its tourism. Otherwise, what really is the point of all this?
The answer, one guesses and obviously so, is a desire for a general lifting of quality, a response to the threats posed by perceptions of greater quality in rival destinations. Fair enough, but does this require the rigmarole that SICTED and the Q mark demand? It should be obvious where quality failings may exist, and failings there are, even in Alcúdia and Pollensa, despite their having passed the sick test.
Who takes any notice? Tourists? It's very doubtful. And were all other towns/resorts in Mallorca to apply for and be awarded the same status as Alcúdia, Pollensa and Artà, then even less notice would be taken. It is quality becoming meaningless because everywhere has it, or so it is claimed.
Never mind the quality, because no one's paying any attention.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
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