At the end of the school year (which is tomorrow), it has become traditional for there to be one great big party in Puerto Alcúdia, attended by school pupils from Alcúdia and nearby towns. This "macrobotellón" has caused problems in the past, though last year it went off without any real incidents. Nevertheless, provision has been made to boost the number of police with special police tutors from different towns being drafted in.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
Thursday, June 14, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Pastor is suspended from PP public duties
The rumpus caused by Antoni Pastor voting against the government over changes to the language law continues. Pastor has been provisionally suspended from all public duties. Meanwhile, Pastor has received support of a sort. The president of the parliament, Pere Rotger, one of the PP's grandees, has said that there are plenty of people within the local party who think like Pastor.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 14 June 2012
Fresh feel to the morning. A best of 18.9C at 07.45. Nice and sunny, but then it was yesterday before it became cloudy. Easterly breeze due today, so should be quite warm, but then it was meant to have been yesterday but wasn't particularly.
Afternoon update: Some more cloud today, so not as sunny as might have been anticipated, and the temperatures nothing remarkable - a high of 24.6C inland and a bit lower on the coast.
Afternoon update: Some more cloud today, so not as sunny as might have been anticipated, and the temperatures nothing remarkable - a high of 24.6C inland and a bit lower on the coast.
The Tourist Tax Lottery
Celestí Alomar, the one-time Balearics tourism minister, said the other day that had the eco-tax been allowed to continue it would by now have realised some 800 million euros worth of investment. 800 million; that's a fair old wedge. The eco-tax was not designed for such purposes, but 800 million would have wiped out the debt that the Balearics health service has and left a goodly amount left over to pay for Palma's Palacio de Congresos and any other number of projects.
Alomar would of course defend the eco-tax and big up the lost opportunity of investment through its continued imposition. He was the tourism minister who introduced it. He was no longer tourism minister when, two years after the tax was brought in, the then government of Jaume Matas scrapped it.
Much as the eco-tax was unpopular and ill-conceived, with hindsight one could argue that there was a good deal of foresight in its introduction. Taxes have come in elsewhere, and Catalonia will bring in its tourist tax from November this year. It was the implementation, the discriminatory basis of the tax and the PR that were wrong, not the eco-tax per se.
The tax had merit, and as a general principle, I believe that tourists should make some form of contribution to services and what have you in their destinations. I know, I know ... tourists pay for services, these services are taxed, businesses pay tax on receipts. I know all this, but this is not an argument which invalidates the concept of a direct contribution to help fund certain services.
Take the health service, for example. Hugely in debt, as everyone knows, it is a health service that is at the disposal of tourists. Indeed, the quality of health service is something which has been identified as being key to future tourism development; not by health tourists but as a vital service to an ageing population that comprises a good chunk of the tourism market. The local health service is hard-pressed as it is. It becomes more so during the main season, especially if some tourists insist on going around jumping off balconies.
Though there are no plans to re-introduce a tax in the Balearics, were there to be, how much would it be? The Catalonia tax has varying rates depending on type of accommodation and where it is. It complicates things, but there is some sense in tourists heading for four or five-star accommodation paying slightly more, but then a similar system of a higher rate would need also to apply to luxury villas. The implementation of such a system is what becomes difficult, and implementation was one of the problems with the eco-tax.
But assuming an efficient system could be established and that a Balearics tax were to be along similar rates as to that in Catalonia, an average tax revenue of around ten euros per tourist would be generated (Catalonia's is to be charged for a maximum of seven nights but won't be levied on children under 16). As a rough estimate, the Balearics could raise in the region of 70 to 80 million euros a year, which over ten years would be getting on for 800 million, as Alomar has claimed the eco-tax would have generated.
This is a significant sum, but as soon as the T-word is mentioned, everyone gets into a lather. So rather than a tax, what about something else? Ladies and gentlemen, I offer for your consideration the Balearics tourist lottery, i.e. the tax would still be applied but would be for a lottery.
Don't ask me how this might be implemented, as it is simply an idea that has flown into my mind. Among other things, a change to tax law would be needed as currently if a tourist were to win the Spanish national lottery and take the winnings out of Spain, he would be liable for tax. But if there were to be a lottery, with a good range of prizes, yes some of the revenue would have to be paid back in the form of prizes, say 20%, but it could well be far more acceptable to tourists. If these lotteries were weekly, then why not also, during the high season in particular, have roadshows hitting different resorts to make the draws. Entertainment, bands, stuff for kids, whatever. This would take some more out of the pot, but it would be strong PR and would represent regular "tourist days" rather than the annual one-offs that occur in Alcúdia for example.
Tax. Lottery. Both would generate revenue, but a lottery would be a whole load more fun and potentially a whole load less painful.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Alomar would of course defend the eco-tax and big up the lost opportunity of investment through its continued imposition. He was the tourism minister who introduced it. He was no longer tourism minister when, two years after the tax was brought in, the then government of Jaume Matas scrapped it.
Much as the eco-tax was unpopular and ill-conceived, with hindsight one could argue that there was a good deal of foresight in its introduction. Taxes have come in elsewhere, and Catalonia will bring in its tourist tax from November this year. It was the implementation, the discriminatory basis of the tax and the PR that were wrong, not the eco-tax per se.
The tax had merit, and as a general principle, I believe that tourists should make some form of contribution to services and what have you in their destinations. I know, I know ... tourists pay for services, these services are taxed, businesses pay tax on receipts. I know all this, but this is not an argument which invalidates the concept of a direct contribution to help fund certain services.
Take the health service, for example. Hugely in debt, as everyone knows, it is a health service that is at the disposal of tourists. Indeed, the quality of health service is something which has been identified as being key to future tourism development; not by health tourists but as a vital service to an ageing population that comprises a good chunk of the tourism market. The local health service is hard-pressed as it is. It becomes more so during the main season, especially if some tourists insist on going around jumping off balconies.
Though there are no plans to re-introduce a tax in the Balearics, were there to be, how much would it be? The Catalonia tax has varying rates depending on type of accommodation and where it is. It complicates things, but there is some sense in tourists heading for four or five-star accommodation paying slightly more, but then a similar system of a higher rate would need also to apply to luxury villas. The implementation of such a system is what becomes difficult, and implementation was one of the problems with the eco-tax.
But assuming an efficient system could be established and that a Balearics tax were to be along similar rates as to that in Catalonia, an average tax revenue of around ten euros per tourist would be generated (Catalonia's is to be charged for a maximum of seven nights but won't be levied on children under 16). As a rough estimate, the Balearics could raise in the region of 70 to 80 million euros a year, which over ten years would be getting on for 800 million, as Alomar has claimed the eco-tax would have generated.
This is a significant sum, but as soon as the T-word is mentioned, everyone gets into a lather. So rather than a tax, what about something else? Ladies and gentlemen, I offer for your consideration the Balearics tourist lottery, i.e. the tax would still be applied but would be for a lottery.
Don't ask me how this might be implemented, as it is simply an idea that has flown into my mind. Among other things, a change to tax law would be needed as currently if a tourist were to win the Spanish national lottery and take the winnings out of Spain, he would be liable for tax. But if there were to be a lottery, with a good range of prizes, yes some of the revenue would have to be paid back in the form of prizes, say 20%, but it could well be far more acceptable to tourists. If these lotteries were weekly, then why not also, during the high season in particular, have roadshows hitting different resorts to make the draws. Entertainment, bands, stuff for kids, whatever. This would take some more out of the pot, but it would be strong PR and would represent regular "tourist days" rather than the annual one-offs that occur in Alcúdia for example.
Tax. Lottery. Both would generate revenue, but a lottery would be a whole load more fun and potentially a whole load less painful.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Airport taxes due to be reduced in winter
As previously suggested might be the case, national government is due to approve a reduction of 10% in airport taxes in the Balearics from November to March. The proposal is set to come before the Senate on Tuesday next week prior to being definitively adopted by Congress.
MALLORCA TODAY - Puerto Pollensa marina cabins slammed
The PSM, among others, has criticised the reinstatement of wooden cabins next to the car parking area by Puerto Pollensa's marina. These have been put up by the ports authority without, it would seem, consulting with the town hall. Cabins were originally put up in 2005 and then taken down after objections by businesses, restaurant owners and the residents association in the port. The cabins' purpose would appear to be for nautical companies to be able to use them, subject to auction, for promotion.
MALLORCA TODAY - Pollensa PSM member fined over Bauzá protest
The former secretary of the PSM (Mallorcan socialists) in Pollensa, Miquel Amengual, is one of those who has been fined on the instruction of the Balearic Government's delegate for actions during the protest staged against President Bauzá in the town. He has received notification of a 3,000 euro fine but rejects claims that he acted violently and says that he gave his name to police (he is charged also with not identifying himself). Meanwhile, opposition parties in the town have been swift in supporting Amengual and condemning the fine.
MALLORCA TODAY - Pastor faces expulsion from the PP
The mayor of Manacor, Antoni Pastor, who voted against the Partido Popular partly line in the Balearics parliament yesterday in rejecting the government's law that will mean that Catalan is no longer a a pre-requisite for employment in the public sector, faces being expelled from the party. Pastor has defended his position by saying that the party is causing social division through its language policies and he has also been defended by other parties, e.g. La Lliga, whose leader Jaume Font (formerly a PP member) praised his courage.
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 13 June 2012
The forecast now shows no cloud for the next five days, and there isn't any obvious cloud this morning on a therefore bright and sunny morn with a local best of 20.8C, rising to the higher 20s.
Afternoon update: Well, so much for the forecast showing cloudless skies. It has been cloudy for much of the day, the cloud being quite thick on occasion. A high of only 24.3C as well.
Afternoon update: Well, so much for the forecast showing cloudless skies. It has been cloudy for much of the day, the cloud being quite thick on occasion. A high of only 24.3C as well.
Finally Speaking Out: Holiday lets
The Menorcan federation of small to medium-sized businesses has asked that the Council of Menorca incorporates into the new Balearics tourism law the possibility that any property on the island that has a certificate of occupancy be made available for tourism rental.
This request comes at a time when the tourism law is going through its parliamentary process. It is a bit late in the day to now be making the request, but perhaps it is a case of better late than never. How, though, the Council of Menorca can incorporate such a measure is a good question. The period of consultation for the new law has finished, though amendments are still being made. The Council of Menorca would nevertheless have to exert an enormous amount of pressure on the Balearic Government for an amendment of this sort to be either considered, let alone adopted. The chances of it being so are virtually zero, you would have thought. Perhaps the federation is hoping that the island council might unilaterally declare such accommodation legal, which it wouldn't unless it wanted a legal battle royal with the government.
The Menorcan business federation's executive committee met earlier this month and agreed to send a letter to the president of the Council stressing that permission for the rental of private accommodation was urgently needed and essential. Its arguments in favour of holiday lets will strike you as being very familiar, as they have been made ad nauseam, so I don't intend repeating them.
Why is the Menorcan federation only now though making its request to the Council of Menorca? I'm guessing, but it may well have been stung by the not untypical and traditional early-season moans and anxieties. Businesses find there is less business and so hit out at whatever they can, usually the all-inclusives, and demand that something be done. Whatever the reason for the federation's belated request, at least it has raised its voice. Which is more than can be said for pretty much any other organisation you care to think of, including the small to medium-sized business federation in Mallorca.
The timidity, fear even you feel, shown when it comes to the holiday-let issue serves to emphasise how cowed various sectors of Balearics business, professions as well as government are by the hotel sector. This is the impression they give, at any rate. No one dares to speak up for private accommodation and no one seems willing to ask the obvious question.
I have made this point before, but I will make it again, as I would dearly love to know, as I am sure would many others, what answer tourism minister Delgado (or any other member of the government or hotel industry representative) would have to it.
On 10 August last year, the Balearics registered the highest number of people on the islands at one time: 1,890,426. The total, regular population of the islands is 1,113,114. The total number of hotel places in the Balearics (and this is a liberal estimate) is in the region of 370,000. Even allowing for temporary workers, cruise passengers and others, this meant that at the height of summer, there was a population of some 400,000 people who were not staying in hotels. So - and this is the obvious question - where were they staying? They couldn't all have been with friends.
Of course, there are plenty of legal holiday lets (the villas and other houses), but these can't explain all of the shortfall. There isn't, as far as I am aware, an accurate answer, but there is a hint of an answer in the monthly figures issued by national government. Extrapolating from these and on the basis of an average length of stay of 6.8 days (a figure from the ImagineTourism consultancy), there were, on 10 August last year, at least 100,000 people staying in rented or "other" type of accommodation (excluding their own or family properties or with friends); significantly more in fact, as this extrapolation has its own shortfall.
I would challenge the government to refute this number and challenge it also to explain where it believes all the islands' tourists should be staying. I would also challenge the hotel industry to explain how this can be unfair competition (one of its usual arguments) when it isn't in a position to meet total demand. And one further challenge to government. Try stop talking about "illegal accommodation", try stop implying criminality when few owners wish to act illegally, and try instead talking about making the illegal legal.
Menorca's business federation may have been late in speaking out, but at least it has had the courage to do so. It's about time others did as well.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
This request comes at a time when the tourism law is going through its parliamentary process. It is a bit late in the day to now be making the request, but perhaps it is a case of better late than never. How, though, the Council of Menorca can incorporate such a measure is a good question. The period of consultation for the new law has finished, though amendments are still being made. The Council of Menorca would nevertheless have to exert an enormous amount of pressure on the Balearic Government for an amendment of this sort to be either considered, let alone adopted. The chances of it being so are virtually zero, you would have thought. Perhaps the federation is hoping that the island council might unilaterally declare such accommodation legal, which it wouldn't unless it wanted a legal battle royal with the government.
The Menorcan business federation's executive committee met earlier this month and agreed to send a letter to the president of the Council stressing that permission for the rental of private accommodation was urgently needed and essential. Its arguments in favour of holiday lets will strike you as being very familiar, as they have been made ad nauseam, so I don't intend repeating them.
Why is the Menorcan federation only now though making its request to the Council of Menorca? I'm guessing, but it may well have been stung by the not untypical and traditional early-season moans and anxieties. Businesses find there is less business and so hit out at whatever they can, usually the all-inclusives, and demand that something be done. Whatever the reason for the federation's belated request, at least it has raised its voice. Which is more than can be said for pretty much any other organisation you care to think of, including the small to medium-sized business federation in Mallorca.
The timidity, fear even you feel, shown when it comes to the holiday-let issue serves to emphasise how cowed various sectors of Balearics business, professions as well as government are by the hotel sector. This is the impression they give, at any rate. No one dares to speak up for private accommodation and no one seems willing to ask the obvious question.
I have made this point before, but I will make it again, as I would dearly love to know, as I am sure would many others, what answer tourism minister Delgado (or any other member of the government or hotel industry representative) would have to it.
On 10 August last year, the Balearics registered the highest number of people on the islands at one time: 1,890,426. The total, regular population of the islands is 1,113,114. The total number of hotel places in the Balearics (and this is a liberal estimate) is in the region of 370,000. Even allowing for temporary workers, cruise passengers and others, this meant that at the height of summer, there was a population of some 400,000 people who were not staying in hotels. So - and this is the obvious question - where were they staying? They couldn't all have been with friends.
Of course, there are plenty of legal holiday lets (the villas and other houses), but these can't explain all of the shortfall. There isn't, as far as I am aware, an accurate answer, but there is a hint of an answer in the monthly figures issued by national government. Extrapolating from these and on the basis of an average length of stay of 6.8 days (a figure from the ImagineTourism consultancy), there were, on 10 August last year, at least 100,000 people staying in rented or "other" type of accommodation (excluding their own or family properties or with friends); significantly more in fact, as this extrapolation has its own shortfall.
I would challenge the government to refute this number and challenge it also to explain where it believes all the islands' tourists should be staying. I would also challenge the hotel industry to explain how this can be unfair competition (one of its usual arguments) when it isn't in a position to meet total demand. And one further challenge to government. Try stop talking about "illegal accommodation", try stop implying criminality when few owners wish to act illegally, and try instead talking about making the illegal legal.
Menorca's business federation may have been late in speaking out, but at least it has had the courage to do so. It's about time others did as well.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Relaxation of parking in Alcúdia's port
An agreement between Alcúdia town hall and the Balearics port authority will mean that cars can be parked in the area by the commercial port during the Sant Joan fiestas in a couple of weeks time. Though Sant Joan is not a fiesta in Alcúdia, it very much is in Menorca, and many people from Alcúdia (and elsewhere) take ferries from the port to Menorca in order to celebrate the fiestas. Car parking by the terminal building is normally prohibited but will be lifted in order to avoid excessive parking in nearby streets.
MALLORCA TODAY - Pollensa's Corpus Christi tradition
Pollensa is the town in Mallorca that has done more than other towns to maintain a tradition of dress and jewellery worn by girls of the town chosen as "las Àguiles" (eagles) who take part in the annual Corpus Christi procession. The jewels are looked after by the Colonya bank in the town and kept under conditions of high security. During the procession, the girls are joined by a local boy who represents Sant Joan Pelós, and it took place on Sunday.
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 12 June 2012
Sunny but some cloud (not as heavy as yesterday). 20.7C the top at 08.00 with temperatures rising to the mid or higher 20s. The forecast for the rest of the week and into the weekend is consistent with sun and temperatures in the upper 20s.
Afternoon update: The cloud did in fact thicken up this morning and there were some spots of rain. It cleared later, leaving a high of 24.7C.
Afternoon update: The cloud did in fact thicken up this morning and there were some spots of rain. It cleared later, leaving a high of 24.7C.
Mallorcski: Hotels for sale
The Eden Playa hotel in Playa de Muro, as I have previously mentioned, has been sold to a German hotel chain. Financial pressures may have forced the sale, but does it represent the beginning of a change to hotel ownership not just in Playa de Muro but also in other resorts in Mallorca?
The Eden Playa is a four-star hotel. One could consider it the jewel in a small crown that is Eden Hotels. Modern and airy, it opens out directly onto the beach. There is another four-star in the Eden portfolio, the Eden Lago just over the border into Alcúdia, but this isn't a beachside hotel. The company has lost what was really its flagship establishment.
The acquisition via the Allsun hotel group by the German tour operator Alltours is most unlikely to be an isolated case of foreign purchase. It is being reported that German and Russian buyers are on the lookout for hotels in all of the main resort areas in Mallorca - Alcúdia bay, Calvià and Playa de Palma, Cala Millor and Cala d'Or.
The type of establishment these investors are said to be interested in conforms very much to the Eden Playa. Four-star, relatively large (the hotel has 298 apartments) and preferably with some financial issues. When the hotel association for Alcúdia and Can Picafort refers to investment which depends on a particular hotel's financial situation, it isn't implying that this situation has to be strong. Quite the opposite.
On the bay of Alcúdia, I can think of a number of hotels that might fit the bill, certainly where size and star rating are concerned. What is unknown (unknown within the public domain, that is) is the financial health of specific hotels or hotel groups. But Eden is not the only group with financial concerns which may find it necessary to divest itself of at least one property.
Mallorca's hotels are primarily Mallorcan or Balearic-owned by any number of hotel groups, some of them, like Eden, comparatively small with few establishments within their portfolios. Behind the scenes, there is foreign ownership and investment, and there has long been foreign involvement. Riu, now 50% owned by TUI, is an example of such involvement. Another of Mallorca's hotel chains, and one I won't identify, makes a virtue of drawing on foreign investment; it is said to actually put relatively little of its own capital into ventures.
On the face of it, though, hotels are Mallorcan and can be pointed to, with justification, as being representative of local entrepreneurship and business acumen. They are symbols of island pride and perhaps also a certain parochialism. There is, one often feels, an ambivalence, not to say antipathy, towards foreign investment and ownership in Mallorca.
Such attitudes are, however, going to have to change. Away from the main resort areas, there are clear examples of foreign investment, as with the Jumeirah in Sóller and the Middle-Eastern money that is meant to be behind the village hotel complex in Canyamel together with the involvement of the US Hyatt group. These are specific luxury developments, though. They are not the more regular bread and butter of the resorts, the target of German and Russian investors who can sense potential bargains.
We are witnessing a shift in the hotel scene in Mallorca. Larger hotel chains, such as Melià, are clearly committed to ongoing investment in Mallorca, but they also have plenty of opportunities overseas, so offering the possibility of greater inward investment to Mallorca from abroad. But this investment appears to be interested only in the higher end of the middle market, i.e. the four stars. So, where would this leave all the three stars?
If smaller hotel groups, without major financial clout, are unable to fund the types of modernisation that the new tourism law envisages and are also unable to attract buyers either locally or from abroad, then their futures might be uncertain. The foreign investment that is being spoken about in the main resorts is one of cherry-picking.
Would this investment mean a change also to the overall tourism profile of Mallorca? Possibly it would. Russian investment is already established, as with TUI's largest single shareholder being Russian, while more direct investment in hotel real estate would be with an eye on the anticipated huge expansion of Russian and eastern-European tourism.
Greater foreign ownership might not play well with an insular mentality, but it shouldn't come as a great surprise were it now be a feature of Mallorca's tourism. This tourism is in its mature stage of a classic product life cycle. There are only certain ways in which tourism can continue to develop in such a circumstance, and one of these is what appears to be happening - acquisition by foreign investors, seeking to exploit the new tourism markets that will fundamentally change Mallorca.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The Eden Playa is a four-star hotel. One could consider it the jewel in a small crown that is Eden Hotels. Modern and airy, it opens out directly onto the beach. There is another four-star in the Eden portfolio, the Eden Lago just over the border into Alcúdia, but this isn't a beachside hotel. The company has lost what was really its flagship establishment.
The acquisition via the Allsun hotel group by the German tour operator Alltours is most unlikely to be an isolated case of foreign purchase. It is being reported that German and Russian buyers are on the lookout for hotels in all of the main resort areas in Mallorca - Alcúdia bay, Calvià and Playa de Palma, Cala Millor and Cala d'Or.
The type of establishment these investors are said to be interested in conforms very much to the Eden Playa. Four-star, relatively large (the hotel has 298 apartments) and preferably with some financial issues. When the hotel association for Alcúdia and Can Picafort refers to investment which depends on a particular hotel's financial situation, it isn't implying that this situation has to be strong. Quite the opposite.
On the bay of Alcúdia, I can think of a number of hotels that might fit the bill, certainly where size and star rating are concerned. What is unknown (unknown within the public domain, that is) is the financial health of specific hotels or hotel groups. But Eden is not the only group with financial concerns which may find it necessary to divest itself of at least one property.
Mallorca's hotels are primarily Mallorcan or Balearic-owned by any number of hotel groups, some of them, like Eden, comparatively small with few establishments within their portfolios. Behind the scenes, there is foreign ownership and investment, and there has long been foreign involvement. Riu, now 50% owned by TUI, is an example of such involvement. Another of Mallorca's hotel chains, and one I won't identify, makes a virtue of drawing on foreign investment; it is said to actually put relatively little of its own capital into ventures.
On the face of it, though, hotels are Mallorcan and can be pointed to, with justification, as being representative of local entrepreneurship and business acumen. They are symbols of island pride and perhaps also a certain parochialism. There is, one often feels, an ambivalence, not to say antipathy, towards foreign investment and ownership in Mallorca.
Such attitudes are, however, going to have to change. Away from the main resort areas, there are clear examples of foreign investment, as with the Jumeirah in Sóller and the Middle-Eastern money that is meant to be behind the village hotel complex in Canyamel together with the involvement of the US Hyatt group. These are specific luxury developments, though. They are not the more regular bread and butter of the resorts, the target of German and Russian investors who can sense potential bargains.
We are witnessing a shift in the hotel scene in Mallorca. Larger hotel chains, such as Melià, are clearly committed to ongoing investment in Mallorca, but they also have plenty of opportunities overseas, so offering the possibility of greater inward investment to Mallorca from abroad. But this investment appears to be interested only in the higher end of the middle market, i.e. the four stars. So, where would this leave all the three stars?
If smaller hotel groups, without major financial clout, are unable to fund the types of modernisation that the new tourism law envisages and are also unable to attract buyers either locally or from abroad, then their futures might be uncertain. The foreign investment that is being spoken about in the main resorts is one of cherry-picking.
Would this investment mean a change also to the overall tourism profile of Mallorca? Possibly it would. Russian investment is already established, as with TUI's largest single shareholder being Russian, while more direct investment in hotel real estate would be with an eye on the anticipated huge expansion of Russian and eastern-European tourism.
Greater foreign ownership might not play well with an insular mentality, but it shouldn't come as a great surprise were it now be a feature of Mallorca's tourism. This tourism is in its mature stage of a classic product life cycle. There are only certain ways in which tourism can continue to develop in such a circumstance, and one of these is what appears to be happening - acquisition by foreign investors, seeking to exploit the new tourism markets that will fundamentally change Mallorca.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Monday, June 11, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 11 June 2012
22.2C the best at 08.30, sunny but there is some heavyish cloud inland, especially towards the mountains. The sea is quite noisy. No great chance of rain forecast, but it looks a possibility.
Afternoon update: Some cloud kicking around during the day. Quite sweaty, a high of only 24.2C but humidity well up.
Afternoon update: Some cloud kicking around during the day. Quite sweaty, a high of only 24.2C but humidity well up.
Don't Dream It's Over
A Sunday afternoon in June. I shouldn't be where I am. I am where I am, in Playa de Muro, because of one of those unforeseen annoyances of life. We can't always foresee things. Just ask Spain's politicians.
Because I am not where I should be, there seems only one place to be. The beach. Yet the wind is blowing. It is blowing quite strongly. But this is an inland wind. When it blows like this on a June afternoon, it doesn't blow on the beach.
I am at a loss to explain why the wind should blow only a few metres away from the beach and be only intermittent and little more than a breeze on the beach. This is how it is, though. I have come to understand this. I would have thought the local Mallorcans would have understood this far better than I do.
The sea is calm. It is virtually suspended, save for the odd yawning wave. When the surf is down as far down as it is on this Sunday afternoon and when the breeze is little more than a snooze, the beach assumes its dreamtime quality. But look at this beach. Where is everyone?
There are some Germans, immune to everything it would appear. The sun's rays, economic crisis, they both come easily to the Germans, as they never seem to be affected. There are hardly any Mallorcans, hardly any Spaniards. But this is a Sunday afternoon, when the picnics usually break out, and whole tribes congregate on the sand. They surely haven't been fooled by the inland wind. They can't have been. And the Spain footy match is hours off.
This is no ordinary Sunday afternoon. The beach is in its dreamtime, but the dream has died. Maybe this is why the beach is empty. It would be inappropriate to go to the beach. Perhaps this is a Sunday afternoon when reality takes over from the dreamworld.
The conclusion doesn't seem right, though. However bad things might be, there is always the beach. Its dreamlike quality has always been a haven, but it has also been the source of the storm. It has helped to create unreality. It has drawn the young to easy jobs in summer and to the building sites in winter, so taking them from education. It has drawn the expats, constantly blind to realities that creep up on them unforeseen and ignorant of anything other than the unrealities of "Big Brother", a few soaps and life back home. The beach has fooled so many with its dreamtimes.
The dream died, and on a Sunday in June Spain and Mallorca finally woke up to the reality that the dreams of so many years had kept hidden. From the days when wads of notes could be handed over to the beneficiaries of the first-wave tourism to the days when Europe came with its suitcases of cash, to the days at the end of the last century when the next great land grab occurred. It was all so easy. And there was always the beach as well. Paradise in Mallorca, paradise in the kingdom of Spain.
Prime Minister Rajoy says that his government has avoided "intervention in the kingdom of Spain". He has avoided his worst nightmare, of determination of fate by powers from outside the kingdom. Intervention may have been avoided, but events just prior to this Sunday in June confirmed that it had all been a dream, as many had warned Rajoy's political predecessors that this was all it had ever been.
Walking back from the beach there was a sign for a development of newly built properties. Newly built three years ago. How many have been sold? Any? The leaflets accompanying the sign flutter forlornly in the stiff breeze as forlornly as they have been scattered by the wind these past three years when they have been attached to the windscreens of cars of the Sunday visitors to the beach.
But on this Sunday, there are no visitors. The development was one final testimony to the folly of the dreamtimes, and it now stands as though it were a curio, a folly in its own right.
Come next Sunday, though, maybe it will all have been forgotten. This Sunday in June was a bad dream. Everyone can wake up and things will be back to normal; back to unreality and so back to the beach. Assuming the beach is as it should be, though, and hasn't been invaded by the unforeseen, by the ships of fools, dreams wrecked on its dreamtime sand.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Because I am not where I should be, there seems only one place to be. The beach. Yet the wind is blowing. It is blowing quite strongly. But this is an inland wind. When it blows like this on a June afternoon, it doesn't blow on the beach.
I am at a loss to explain why the wind should blow only a few metres away from the beach and be only intermittent and little more than a breeze on the beach. This is how it is, though. I have come to understand this. I would have thought the local Mallorcans would have understood this far better than I do.
The sea is calm. It is virtually suspended, save for the odd yawning wave. When the surf is down as far down as it is on this Sunday afternoon and when the breeze is little more than a snooze, the beach assumes its dreamtime quality. But look at this beach. Where is everyone?
There are some Germans, immune to everything it would appear. The sun's rays, economic crisis, they both come easily to the Germans, as they never seem to be affected. There are hardly any Mallorcans, hardly any Spaniards. But this is a Sunday afternoon, when the picnics usually break out, and whole tribes congregate on the sand. They surely haven't been fooled by the inland wind. They can't have been. And the Spain footy match is hours off.
This is no ordinary Sunday afternoon. The beach is in its dreamtime, but the dream has died. Maybe this is why the beach is empty. It would be inappropriate to go to the beach. Perhaps this is a Sunday afternoon when reality takes over from the dreamworld.
The conclusion doesn't seem right, though. However bad things might be, there is always the beach. Its dreamlike quality has always been a haven, but it has also been the source of the storm. It has helped to create unreality. It has drawn the young to easy jobs in summer and to the building sites in winter, so taking them from education. It has drawn the expats, constantly blind to realities that creep up on them unforeseen and ignorant of anything other than the unrealities of "Big Brother", a few soaps and life back home. The beach has fooled so many with its dreamtimes.
The dream died, and on a Sunday in June Spain and Mallorca finally woke up to the reality that the dreams of so many years had kept hidden. From the days when wads of notes could be handed over to the beneficiaries of the first-wave tourism to the days when Europe came with its suitcases of cash, to the days at the end of the last century when the next great land grab occurred. It was all so easy. And there was always the beach as well. Paradise in Mallorca, paradise in the kingdom of Spain.
Prime Minister Rajoy says that his government has avoided "intervention in the kingdom of Spain". He has avoided his worst nightmare, of determination of fate by powers from outside the kingdom. Intervention may have been avoided, but events just prior to this Sunday in June confirmed that it had all been a dream, as many had warned Rajoy's political predecessors that this was all it had ever been.
Walking back from the beach there was a sign for a development of newly built properties. Newly built three years ago. How many have been sold? Any? The leaflets accompanying the sign flutter forlornly in the stiff breeze as forlornly as they have been scattered by the wind these past three years when they have been attached to the windscreens of cars of the Sunday visitors to the beach.
But on this Sunday, there are no visitors. The development was one final testimony to the folly of the dreamtimes, and it now stands as though it were a curio, a folly in its own right.
Come next Sunday, though, maybe it will all have been forgotten. This Sunday in June was a bad dream. Everyone can wake up and things will be back to normal; back to unreality and so back to the beach. Assuming the beach is as it should be, though, and hasn't been invaded by the unforeseen, by the ships of fools, dreams wrecked on its dreamtime sand.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 10 June 2012
A breezy morning, some cloud about but mostly sunny and a high of 22.5C at 08.45. Due to be mainly southerly breezes today and the temperatures heading towards the upper 20s but some cloud persisting. The outlook for the week ahead is for similar temperatures and plenty of sun.
Afternoon update: The southerly duly blew. Quite strongly, the skies cleared and the high was a 28.2C
Afternoon update: The southerly duly blew. Quite strongly, the skies cleared and the high was a 28.2C
Behind The Smoke Screen: Balearics health
What the hell does the Balearic Government think it's playing at? Does it seriously believe that by threatening the former health minister and current parliamentary spokesperson of PSIB (the Balearics wing of PSOE) with investigation by anti-corruption prosecutors it is going to score some brownie points with an electorate that has seen the government effect cuts to the health service?
It probably does think this, in which case it demonstrates a genuine lack of political nous as well as cynicism, which is hardly surprising for a government that was quite cynically prepared to cash in on what was limited violence by exaggerating the level of protests against President Bauzá as an attack on democracy and is now also prepared to levy fines against protesters (it is the government levying the fines, not the police).
Cynicism is just one word that PSIB has used to describe the government's calling in of the prosecutors. It is cynical, but it is also predictable; more of this below.
But first, one needs to understand the background to the involvement of the prosecutors. In 2008, the then PSOE (PSIB)-led coalition struck a deal with the main medical union whereby medical workers were to receive additional payments to their regular salaries. This was done as a way of avoiding strike action that had been threatened in 2008. The Balearics Supreme Court, two years later, said that the agreement to make these additional payments should be declared void. The then government did not stop the payments and they have indeed continued under the new government.
The prosecutors are being asked to investigate whether the former health minister Vicenç Thomàs engaged in the misappropriation of public funds and in the abuse of his public office. These are serious accusations, and for one government to level such an accusation against a member of a former government is a pretty extraordinary state of affairs.
One says extraordinary, but it is a state of affairs that comes with a sense of the predictable. President Bauzá had made it clear that if he discovered any instances of possible misuse of public funds by the previous administration, then he would go after it. There is a distinct impression being created by the call on the prosecutors to investigate Thomas of the government having gone fishing to find something with which it can seek to effect its threat. But more than this, there is a further impression that this is all something of a payback time.
The Partido Popular has been looking for revenge, caused by its feeling that corruption cases that came up for investigation during the last administration (which didn't only involve the former Unió Mallorquina of course) were politically motivated. Quite how the charge sheet against one-time president Jaume Matas could be described as politically motivated it is difficult to understand, but the PP and Bauzá have been looking for an excuse to retaliate, and now they think they have found one.
Medical workers face having to repay over 70 million euros. The union will strike if they are forced to and PSIB has said that it will respond with a criminal complaint against the government; any suggestion that the two main parties might be able to work together in taking the Balearics out of economic crisis has been shot to pieces.
Thomàs has called the government's action a "smoke screen". Of course it's a smoke screen, anyone with any sense can see that it is. It is a smoke screen with which the government is trying to tell the public that the previous administration basically ripped the public off to the tune of over 70 million euros, so this is why the health service is in such a bad way and the public has to pay ten euros for their health cards, experience delays in treatment, read about resignations of leading personnel at hospitals because of cuts and pay 4.8 cents for a litre of petrol to pay for the missing 70 million plus. It is a smoke screen that the public surely won't buy, as calling in the prosecutors smacks of the puerile, an act by a government that is fast becoming discredited and diverting itself away from its main purpose.
The government might hope that the anti-corruption prosecutors will take some of the heat off of it, but is there not just a further touch of cynicism about all this? There are now questions regarding President Bauzá's business affairs and the fact that he did not declare them.
A smoke screen and one that gets murkier.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
It probably does think this, in which case it demonstrates a genuine lack of political nous as well as cynicism, which is hardly surprising for a government that was quite cynically prepared to cash in on what was limited violence by exaggerating the level of protests against President Bauzá as an attack on democracy and is now also prepared to levy fines against protesters (it is the government levying the fines, not the police).
Cynicism is just one word that PSIB has used to describe the government's calling in of the prosecutors. It is cynical, but it is also predictable; more of this below.
But first, one needs to understand the background to the involvement of the prosecutors. In 2008, the then PSOE (PSIB)-led coalition struck a deal with the main medical union whereby medical workers were to receive additional payments to their regular salaries. This was done as a way of avoiding strike action that had been threatened in 2008. The Balearics Supreme Court, two years later, said that the agreement to make these additional payments should be declared void. The then government did not stop the payments and they have indeed continued under the new government.
The prosecutors are being asked to investigate whether the former health minister Vicenç Thomàs engaged in the misappropriation of public funds and in the abuse of his public office. These are serious accusations, and for one government to level such an accusation against a member of a former government is a pretty extraordinary state of affairs.
One says extraordinary, but it is a state of affairs that comes with a sense of the predictable. President Bauzá had made it clear that if he discovered any instances of possible misuse of public funds by the previous administration, then he would go after it. There is a distinct impression being created by the call on the prosecutors to investigate Thomas of the government having gone fishing to find something with which it can seek to effect its threat. But more than this, there is a further impression that this is all something of a payback time.
The Partido Popular has been looking for revenge, caused by its feeling that corruption cases that came up for investigation during the last administration (which didn't only involve the former Unió Mallorquina of course) were politically motivated. Quite how the charge sheet against one-time president Jaume Matas could be described as politically motivated it is difficult to understand, but the PP and Bauzá have been looking for an excuse to retaliate, and now they think they have found one.
Medical workers face having to repay over 70 million euros. The union will strike if they are forced to and PSIB has said that it will respond with a criminal complaint against the government; any suggestion that the two main parties might be able to work together in taking the Balearics out of economic crisis has been shot to pieces.
Thomàs has called the government's action a "smoke screen". Of course it's a smoke screen, anyone with any sense can see that it is. It is a smoke screen with which the government is trying to tell the public that the previous administration basically ripped the public off to the tune of over 70 million euros, so this is why the health service is in such a bad way and the public has to pay ten euros for their health cards, experience delays in treatment, read about resignations of leading personnel at hospitals because of cuts and pay 4.8 cents for a litre of petrol to pay for the missing 70 million plus. It is a smoke screen that the public surely won't buy, as calling in the prosecutors smacks of the puerile, an act by a government that is fast becoming discredited and diverting itself away from its main purpose.
The government might hope that the anti-corruption prosecutors will take some of the heat off of it, but is there not just a further touch of cynicism about all this? There are now questions regarding President Bauzá's business affairs and the fact that he did not declare them.
A smoke screen and one that gets murkier.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Saturday, June 09, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Medical union threatens Balearics strike over repayments
The medical union in the Balearics has announced that it will order a strike of medical workers if members are obliged to return additional salary payments that were made by the previous government and which avoided a strike threat in 2008. The Balearics Supreme Court subsequently in 2010 declared that the agreement by which these payments were made was null but the decision was not applied by the previous administration. This has led the current government to invite anti-corruption prosecutors to investigate possible misappropriation of funds and abuse of public office by the former health minister. The payments are said to total over 76 million euros.
MALLORCA TODAY - Pollensa terrace law and Bauzá protest fines reactions
The more serious issue, that of fines issued to those who protested against President Bauzá when he visited Pollensa, has attracted condemnation from various political parties in the town, the Alternativa having said that it shows that repression of dissent is all that is available to a government which is incapable of tackling economic crisis. More or less all the parties have condemned the violence that occurred. Meanwhile, the ongoing saga of the size of terraces in Pollensa's Plaça Major has led the PSM Mallorcan socialists to dub the square "Terrassa Major".
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