Tramuntana Is Number One

You can't or shouldn't take Trip Advisor at its word. Not for its rankings lists certainly. "Best restaurants" in a given a resort are often laughable. They become best not because they are but because someone has been clever in driving reviews. But sometimes these rankings do bear some semblance of a connection with reality. What is the number one attraction in Mallorca out of 221? If you guessed Pirates you would be wrong. It's number two, says Trip Advisor. At number one, and it is really quite heartening to find it at number one, is the Tramuntana mountain range.

The consortium which promotes the mountains and which was tasked with doing so following the declaration of the Tramuntana as a World Heritage Site has launched a website. About time, too, you might think. The declaration was made in 2011. Very little in promotional terms seems to have happened since. Better late than never, though.

The website is reasonable enough, and so it should be at a cost of 21 grand. It has a good amount of information and the English section, for once, seems to have actually been written in English and not passed through a Google Translate mangle or been Spanglished by a non-native speaker. It's reasonable in the worthy-but-dull sense of reasonable. Plenty of information, plenty of pictures, but no multimedia, interactivity or social media. This would probably cost too much.

Thanks to the press announcement of the site's launch, I knew of its existence and so went in search of it. I entered "Serra Tramuntana", and it was there in Google, though it might be confused with another website with the .eu suffix. The official one is .net. The first thing that occurred to me, though, was whether an English search would get to the site so easily. Its title is Catalan - Serra de Tramuntana - so would "Tramuntana mountains" work? They do. Very well. That's a big plus.

It was when checking that this English search was satisfactory that I noticed the fifth entry on the Google page. It was for the Serra de Tramuntana in Trip Advisor. Five of five stars, the abstract said, and on going into Trip Advisor, I found there were indeed five of five stars. Out of 196 reviews, 163 rated as excellent and 32 as very good. Not a hint of criticism, unless one considers a not-for-fainthearted warning for the route (by car) as being a criticism (which it isn't).

It is mightily reassuring and just a little surprising to find the Tramuntana at number one. It is reassuring in different ways. One very much doubts that someone is hard at it getting visitors to post positive reviews. They are, one has to presume, absolutely genuine and totally unsolicited. As such, it is an example of how one might hope that Trip Advisor would normally work but doesn't. There's nothing wrong at all in positive reviews being solicited - it's good business to do so because Trip Advisor is very powerful - but this can result in something of a credibility issue. We're back to some of those so-called "best restaurants".

A second way in which there is reassurance lies with the fact that the mountains are a natural attraction. Obviously they are. But the term attraction - in tourism circles - tends to mean something which isn't natural. We can all name some of them, and I would do, but to do so might imply a criticism when none is intended. It is the, shall we say, artificial attractions and the association that is made with them as "attractions" which makes the number-one position of the Tramuntana that much more surprising. Trip Advisor is hardly scientific, but occasionally it can be quite revealing, and this is one occasion. For all that Mallorca has its commercial tourist attractions, one that isn't commercial on account of it simply being there and that is ranked number one should tell a story. Mallorca's natural heritage is clearly appreciated and perhaps more so than might be thought.

The mountains can be enjoyed at any time of the year. I know how popular the excursion during the summer season is. As part of the island tour, it is probably the single most popular excursion that the island has to offer. But clearly, the mountains don't have to be enjoyed only during the summer season, and so one comes back, almost inevitably, to the theme of off-season tourism.

The hope with the World Heritage Site declaration was that this would lead to inroads being made into the absent off-season tourism through the promotion of the Tramuntana. With the website, at least there is some tangible evidence of this promotion, and with the Trip Advisor number-one ranking, there is evidence also of how impressed visitors are with the mountains.

Sometimes when number-one rankings are given, the relevant business or authority makes a point of saying so. Is anyone saying anything about the Tramuntana? This brings one back to the website. Because it seems to have neglected social media, there is no link to Trip Advisor and certainly no announcement of the ranking. A trick is being missed. Promotion isn't simply a case of spending twenty thousand euros on a website. One would have hoped that this would have been realised by now. Tramuntana. Number one on Trip Advisor.

* The web address is http://www.serradetramuntana.net

The Balearic Government's Guide To English

"Flesh on the tenterhooks." This was an introduction some years ago to the peerless standards of translation to be found in all walks of Mallorcan life. It was on the business card of a restaurant, you'll be relieved to learn. It should have said something like "tender meat on ..."; well I don't really know on what, but whatever it was, it wasn't tenterhooks.

Back then, and it wasn't so long ago, lousy translations could be dismissed patronisingly as being typical of stupid Johnny Foreigner. Or it could be considered quaint and so also patronising; oh, it just all adds to the charm, doesn't it.

Actually, it didn't add to the charm. It was embarrassing, and the embarrassment was heightened when one learnt from the poor restaurant owner that the print agency responsible for the cards claimed to be proficient at translations. He didn't know any better. Until someone, i.e. me, told him that flesh (as opposed to meat) in a state of anxiety or nervous anticipation was not the type of advertisement to get the punter beating a path to the restaurant door.

Though it wasn't so long ago, it was in the days before the Google and Bing double-act took to the internet stage, plugged in their machines and performed translations for a worldwide audience which hitherto had been deprived of language understanding. Literal language understanding. Which isn't the same as proper language understanding.

The Balearic Government wishes to educate the children and youth of the islands in three languages (one of them being English). Its attempts at introducing this trilingualism have been ham-fisted, but is it any wonder when one considers the government's own attempts at English (and German and French)?

If you have never looked at the government's website English pages, then I recommend that you do. There are hours of endless amusement to be had, many of them to be spent deciphering the English amidst the Catalan words that simply refuse to be translated. The government has, belatedly, realised just how useless some of this translation is. At the foot of some pages, there is a note in red lettering: "automatic translation, sorry for the inconvenience". As, for instance on the "beginning" page of the ministry of education, culture and universities, there is a menu item inviting "help improvement to us the web", we should all feel duty-bound to help improvement to them the web in order to remove the inconvenience caused by automatic translation.

Cheap is the only explanation for this inconvenience. Actually, it isn't even cheap. It's free. Some bright spark has taken Catalan text, shoved it into Google and come up with ... . Come up with what exactly? So bad has some of this been that the Ibanat division of the environment ministry has been forced to take down its English (and German and French pages) which give literal translations for some place names.

Why were they even bothering to give translations of place names anyway? A place name is a place name. It doesn't need to be translated. There again, the Spanish show a peculiar enthusiasm for translating proper names. Hence, for example, the British royal family has an Isabel, a Felipe, a Guillermo and an Enrique. The British, on the other hand, leave such names well alone. When have you ever mistook the King of Spain for a one-time Leeds United footballer? You haven't. John Charles is not the King of Spain.

But, seemingly believing that proper names should be translated, Ibanat informed us as to the existence of, among other places, "Sleep Fortuny (sic)", "The House of Him Share-Cropper" and "Him Broken Bridge", the latter of which sounds like it was Tonto giving the Lone Ranger instructions.

Overseeing the drive towards trilingualism is Juana María Camps Bosch, now the minister for education. The people of the Balearics can have full confidence in Juana María's ability to drive this trilingualism. Just read the following. I need say no more.



"Juana María Camps Bosch (Citadel, 1965), was a general director of Work and Work Health of the Government of the Balearic Islands. She/It is discharged in law/right for the University of the Balearic Islands and estate agent, and since 1990 until June of 2011 he/she/it practised as lawyer in its/his/her/their office in Ciutadella. 
Between 1991 and 1999 it/he/she occupied several charges/posts in the Town Council of Ciutadella; in particular, she was lieutenant of batle of Treasury, Staff and Police and lieutenant of batle of Treasury. 
During these two years of legislature as a general director of Work and Work Health, it/he/she has promoted the relation|relationship with the social agents of the Islands; because of that, in November 2012 it constituted the Tripartite Social Board, formed by the Government, the employers and the unions, that he/she/it erects itself/himself/herself as/like the central organ of institutional participation/shareholding in the area of the Administration economic|economical and occupational of the Autonomous Community of the Balearic Islands, which/who substitutes the ancient|antique Board of Social Dialog. 
One of the most important successes of this legislature has been the implantation of the allowance in the foreseen Social Security for the companies dedicated to the touristic activities, to advance towards the desestacionalització of the economy/economics of the Islands. Thus, the touristic companies and the trades linked to the hotel business that discontinuous permanent workers have hired the months of March and November have been able to resort to this initiative. 
Juana María Camps has had the reduction in the work loss like one of the priorities. Because of that, it/he/she started off a campaign of work risks prevention, which includes numerous initiatives in this area, among/between which one specific almost for 600 companies of more than ten workers with a loss ratio superior/upper to the average of its/his/her/their sector, he/she/it col ·' laboració with the benefit societies of work and Inspection of Work. In 2012 the industrial accidents in the Balears brought one 17,8 down in relation to the former year and the lower figure of accidents was attained since 2004. On the other hand, Camps exercised/exerted its/his/her/their task of intermediation with success, with which it/he/she contributed to avoiding conflicts in the areas of the hotel business, the cleaning or the discretionary transport."

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

(Automatic translation, sorry for the inconvenience).

MALLORCA TODAY - New public transport website

A new website, http://www.consorcidetransports.org, has been launched which should make the use of public transport services in Mallorca a little easier, and it includes bike pick-up and return in Palma. The site has an English section, and though it is an improvement on the old one, it is still a bit confusing when it comes to explanations as to zones and multi-ticketing.