A strange thing happened yesterday. A group of us were taking a coffee in an Alcúdia bar and each of us admitted to having experienced the same sensations. They had occurred over the previous few days. What we admitted to was that nothing seemed to be right. Everyone's daily lives were in a state of turmoil, turbulence, confusion perhaps. One of us had to just pack up the day before and call it a day before a gasket was blown. Another said that in his bar, on one day this week, every table appeared to pose a problem, even if there wasn't. A colleague of his had said to him that she felt that things just weren't as they should be. Crucially though, none of this was seemingly only down to stress.
I myself have been in a distinctly odd place over the past few days. It has been a feeling of going mad, but I know why and I know why others have been experiencing similar loss of control or of situations spiralling out of control. It's known as August and the height of the season. This is the superficial explanation, at any rate.
"There is an air of love and of happiness, and this is the Fresh Prince's new definition of summer madness." Will Smith's summer madness is quite different to the summer madness of August in Mallorca; that of mental disruption, of a perception that you are living outside your body, incapable of getting back in and re-establishing some perspective and some control.
It could all be explained by the heat, I suppose. Is it all simply a case of not knowing what to do with oneself because of the oppressiveness of the heat over the past few days. Maybe, but we've known greater heat. This August isn't unusual. Except that it is. It has got to people. Got to them in ways and in degrees I've not known before.
August madness is heat and it is frustration. Traffic is a nightmare, one created by the regular crossings, the regular roundabouts, the regular, uninterrupted movement of slow-moving aliens with inflatable dinosaurs, the regular slow movement of a hire car undecided as to which way it should be going, which lane it should be in, which action to take when the orange lights flash, the regular fast movement of other cars squeezing into limited areas of tarmac in desperate attempts to steal one or two places in the queue.
The supermarkets are a nightmare of not knowing to have to weigh and label, of the hunt for some identity to support the credit card. The banks are a nightmare of the paying in of wads of cash; the petrol stations their own hire-car logjam nightmares.
But then all of this is August madness. We know it well. None of it is new, but this year there is something different, something intangible, something requiring an explanation. The trouble is, I don't know how to explain it. It had occurred to me that perhaps we are all carrying with us the greater troubles caused by the economy, of greater troubles to come. Maybe this is it. Or maybe there is a collective feeling of something breaking down, for whatever reason, an instinctive sense that all is not right. I can't put my finger on it. And nor, it would seem, can others.
To escape the August madness, there is always the beach, itself a potential nightmare of overcrowding, of the incessant pat-pat of beach tennis, of the interruptions for the massage or sunglasses offer. I stare towards the sun but avoid staring at it directly. For no good reason, the rhythmic pitter-patter of tom-toms comes into my mind. I can hear it clearly, Nick Mason's patented drum sound. Set the controls for the heart of the sun. I know what the reason is. I've had a flashback.
Years ago, I would have been fifteen I suppose, I was listening to the Floyd's magnus opus. It wasn't a dream, it wasn't out of body (of course not), it was a trance, that's all I can think it was. There was nothing lysergic involved, but I hallucinated. What I saw was a decaying body filled with wasps. And all the time there was the rhythm and the softly-breathed incantation to set the controls for the heart of the sun.
We've come to the heart of the sun and we now see decay. Is this the explanation for what's not quite right, a reaching into the subconscious to discover frightening imagery we had hoped we would never see, or never see again? The controls for the heart of the sun are being lost.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 15 August 2012
Humid overnight and this morning, 24.8 the high at 08.00 on what will be a fine, sunny, hot day, just the day to celebrate a fiesta (Mare de Déu d'Agost), go for a swim off the Mar y Paz in Can Picafort and catch some rubber ducks (or even some live ones?).
Afternoon update: Seriously warm all day. Inland highs to 35, and the Colonia Sant Pere tradition for being the hottest coastal area was maintained by beating even the inland high, 35.7. Another yellow advice has been issued for Friday (meaning it's going to get even hotter?)
Afternoon update: Seriously warm all day. Inland highs to 35, and the Colonia Sant Pere tradition for being the hottest coastal area was maintained by beating even the inland high, 35.7. Another yellow advice has been issued for Friday (meaning it's going to get even hotter?)
Dave's Day Out
So, there I was engrossed in conversation outside Puerto Pollensa's Cultural bar with a wealthy businessman who was explaining to me that neither austerity nor growth is a solution to the economic mess in Western Europe or indeed elsewhere. He has a solution. It is in fact a very good one, which is why I'm not going to tell you. Not just yet anyway. I have to think about the book rights. One doesn't just solve economic crisis over a coffee and water in Puerto Pollensa and give the whole game away without ensuring that one extracts some benefit.
In the course of this conversation, I received a phone call (let's just say it came from a Mallorca-based English newspaper), telling me that the British Prime Minister was apparently staying in a hotel somewhere between Alcúdia and Puerto Pollensa (and as there are only two of them, you can probably figure out which one).
It must have all been a cunning plan to put the press off the scent of where Dave really was. But knowing better and knowing also that an offer (from the same newspaper) to treat me to a Club sandwich at this particular Club hotel whilst I was lurking in the undergrowth intent on spying the Prime Minister in his speedos and putting away a litre or so of sangria was likely to run up against a bureaucratic problem in accounts for the payment of such a lavish expense, I expressed to the wealthy businessman that I found it highly implausible that Dave would be at the hotel. Dave doesn't do regular tourist hotels, much though, big society, man of the people, the new Boris and all that, he might wish to.
"I can tell you that he's not staying at the Club (add as applicable)," said said wealthy businessman, thus confirming my doubts. There was then a pause (dramatic effect). "He's staying in a villa." "Go on," I thought. "In Cala San Vicente." Which was as far as it went. He knew where, he knew I would like him to tell me, and I knew he wouldn't.
Anyway, armed with this knowledge I then phoned the same newspaper back, somewhat relieved that I didn't have to head off to the hotel and wander around the pool area staring at women who might or might not be the Prime Minister's wife and then being thrown out by security.
Prior to this, however, I had tried my best to home in on which villa when my businessman compatriot suggested that a couple of hours with Cameron explaining the solution to the economic crisis could prove most worthwhile. Well, why don't we go off now and tell him? I was prepared to be blindfolded so that I wouldn't know precisely the whereabouts of the Dave and Sam villa. Nothing doing, though. The meeting with Dave would have to be another day.
Meanwhile, and having thought that this apparent scoop as to Dave's general location would result in press helicopters hovering over Cala San Vicente to try and determine which villa, it would seem that Dave's people were willing to permit photos of Dave to be released. So, it wasn't a scoop at all; not that it really was, as I didn't know which villa. There was therefore a photo of Dave in Pollensa's Plaça Major, yet at the same time it wasn't being confirmed that he was staying in the area, which by now everyone knew was the case. The Prime Minister is, therefore, staying in a villa in Cala San Vicente (or its general environs). Except of course, he isn't. And this is official. Or isn't, as the case may be.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
In the course of this conversation, I received a phone call (let's just say it came from a Mallorca-based English newspaper), telling me that the British Prime Minister was apparently staying in a hotel somewhere between Alcúdia and Puerto Pollensa (and as there are only two of them, you can probably figure out which one).
It must have all been a cunning plan to put the press off the scent of where Dave really was. But knowing better and knowing also that an offer (from the same newspaper) to treat me to a Club sandwich at this particular Club hotel whilst I was lurking in the undergrowth intent on spying the Prime Minister in his speedos and putting away a litre or so of sangria was likely to run up against a bureaucratic problem in accounts for the payment of such a lavish expense, I expressed to the wealthy businessman that I found it highly implausible that Dave would be at the hotel. Dave doesn't do regular tourist hotels, much though, big society, man of the people, the new Boris and all that, he might wish to.
"I can tell you that he's not staying at the Club (add as applicable)," said said wealthy businessman, thus confirming my doubts. There was then a pause (dramatic effect). "He's staying in a villa." "Go on," I thought. "In Cala San Vicente." Which was as far as it went. He knew where, he knew I would like him to tell me, and I knew he wouldn't.
Anyway, armed with this knowledge I then phoned the same newspaper back, somewhat relieved that I didn't have to head off to the hotel and wander around the pool area staring at women who might or might not be the Prime Minister's wife and then being thrown out by security.
Prior to this, however, I had tried my best to home in on which villa when my businessman compatriot suggested that a couple of hours with Cameron explaining the solution to the economic crisis could prove most worthwhile. Well, why don't we go off now and tell him? I was prepared to be blindfolded so that I wouldn't know precisely the whereabouts of the Dave and Sam villa. Nothing doing, though. The meeting with Dave would have to be another day.
Meanwhile, and having thought that this apparent scoop as to Dave's general location would result in press helicopters hovering over Cala San Vicente to try and determine which villa, it would seem that Dave's people were willing to permit photos of Dave to be released. So, it wasn't a scoop at all; not that it really was, as I didn't know which villa. There was therefore a photo of Dave in Pollensa's Plaça Major, yet at the same time it wasn't being confirmed that he was staying in the area, which by now everyone knew was the case. The Prime Minister is, therefore, staying in a villa in Cala San Vicente (or its general environs). Except of course, he isn't. And this is official. Or isn't, as the case may be.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Hirsts and Pollett guilty of fraud and money laundering
The trial of John Hirst and others at Bradford Crown Court has ended, sentencing to be given later this month, following the jury's guilty verdicts on Linda Hirst (for money laundering) and Richard Pollett (for fraud) and the guilty plea entered by John Hirst for fraud he committed in engineering the Ponzi scheme that operated out of Calvià and which swindled many expatriates out of millions.
See more: Huddersfield Daily Examiner
See more: Huddersfield Daily Examiner
MALLORCA TODAY - Fines for illegal beach sellers
In a co-ordinated effort by police forces in northern Mallorca, 37 people have been issued with fines for the sale of fruit and goods and for offering massage on beaches in Pollensa and the bay of Alcúdia.
Update: The total number of those dealt with under this co-ordinated police activity has risen to 65.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
Update: The total number of those dealt with under this co-ordinated police activity has risen to 65.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Rafael Ayala's body found
The search for missing Alcúdia man, Rafael Ayala, is over, his body having been found this morning on a finca amidst heavy vegetation. Ayala went missing last Wednesday, provoking intensive searches involving volunteers, two of whom found the body.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Three more fires in one day
Another day, another three fires, one of them near Betlem on the bay of Alcúdia. The smoke was very clearly seen yesterday afternoon from beaches in Alcúdia and Muro. The fire affected almost two hectares of woodland.
Update: In the end, the fire in Betlem was more widespread, 20 hectares being affected before the blaze was brought fully under control.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
Update: In the end, the fire in Betlem was more widespread, 20 hectares being affected before the blaze was brought fully under control.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Bauzá is invited to La Beata but ...
Santa Margalida's mayor Miguel Cifre has issued an invitation to President Bauzá to attend the traditional La Beata procession in September, but he has made it clear that the president's presence should not be accompanied by the same security measures that the mayor found unacceptable when the president visited the town in May.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - Mallorca's Olympians welcomed back
Four Spanish Olympic athletes from Mallorca were welcomed back yesterday at Palma airport. These included Puerto Pollensa's Sete Benavides who finished fourth in the K-1 200 metres kayak final.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 14 August 2012
22.9 at 08.15. Very little more to say than the forecast for today and the rest of the week is for clear blue skies and hot temperatures, the yellow alert being turned on tomorrow.
Afternoon update: Certainly a warm day, though not as humid. 34.8 the inland high in Sa Pobla. 33.2 the highest in coastal areas (Colonia Sant Pere).
Afternoon update: Certainly a warm day, though not as humid. 34.8 the inland high in Sa Pobla. 33.2 the highest in coastal areas (Colonia Sant Pere).
Rapper's Delete
I can't be certain but I wouldn't be at all surprised were Josep Miquel Arenas, aka Josemy Valtonyc Marx Beltrán (Es Rapero Pagés - Marxista Leninista) to receive a visit from someone in the near future. Who is Josemy Valtonyc etc.? He is a 17-year-old rapper and he is not happy with, variously: the King and the royal family; Jorge Campos, the founder of the Círculo Balear; the mayor of Sineu; and the president of Nuevas Generaciones in Sineu.
Referred to as the rapper from Sa Pobla, despite a connection with Sineu (he went to school there and has, you might have noticed, got problems with some people from Sineu), Valtonyc has been creating a right old rapping rumpus. Via his poetry, he has nominated the King for assassination, Jorge Campos for death, and both Pere Joan Jaume, the mayor, and Laura Montenegro, of Nuevas Generaciones, for the receipt of a silver bullet, presumably from the barrel of a gun and not in a velvet-lined presentation box.
In case you are not quite up to speed with some of this, Campos' Círculo Balear is a sort of Catalan anti-Christ, while Nuevas Generaciones are like the Young Conservatives but without the Harris tweeds. Given his various targets, you can conclude that Valtonyc is not exactly a monarchist, not exactly a great admirer of Castellano and not exactly a supporter of the Partido Popular. The "Marxista Leninista", which is how he describes himself on his Facebook page, is a bit of a giveaway, after all. His revolutionary tendencies extend to his also describing himself as an "independentista", which is not a type of orthodontics, but a declaration of support for an independent Mallorca or Balearics or Catalan Lands or probably all three.
Rap is prone to the use of extreme lyrics, but going around suggesting that the King should be assassinated is not likely to be dismissed as rapping poetic licence. It's why I fancy that Valtonyc might just find himself in a spot of bother. One of his latest outpourings is unlikely to endear him to the good people of Sineu either. "Sineu Will Be Afghanistan" is its title, which will come as a shock to the residents of the town though not as much of a shock as to the mayor who is now also being lined up for the guillotine.
While Valtonyc's extremism probably won't be overlooked, might it be better if it were? Is he just an angry young teenager who has found he has a talent (at least one presumes this to be the case) for rap and poetry and has a lot to get off his chest? It might, therefore, be wiser to ignore him rather than fuel his extremism with the publicity of martyrdom that could yet come his way.
Does, however, Valtonyc represent an undercurrent of belief among Mallorcan youth? Mallorca has historically not been especially radical. Quite the contrary, it is an essentially conservative society. But such an undercurrent does exist and not only among the youth.
There is an event called the "Acampallengua". It is held annually and is a youth festival that celebrates Catalan language and culture. During the 2009 event in Sa Pobla, a spokesperson from the Obra Cultural Balear (OCB), an organisation that is the complete opposite to the Círculo Balear, delivered a speech in which it was stated that "we will not take a step backwards in the struggle for our language". At the time, I asked whether the Acampallengua might just contribute to a radicalisation of youth. During this year's event in Manacor, there was a performance by ... you've guessed it, Valtonyc.
It would be quite wrong to suggest that all those who attend these events are either radical or are prone to being radicalised or that they have any sympathy for Valtonyc's lyrics. But there will be some, and the organisers of the events, a group called Mallorcan Youths for the Language, have as a key sponsor the OCB. And the OCB promotes independence, just like Valtonyc.
It would be interesting to know what the OCB thinks of Valtonyc's death threats. Chances are that they would be put down to teenage angst and the excesses of rap culture. And to be honest, this is probably what they should be put down to.
Nevertheless, there is an uneasy sense that Valtonyc is tapping into a growth of what I discerned in 2009, a time when there wasn't a ruling political party that took a negative view of Catalan, a time also when economic crisis hadn't caused the decimation it since has.
Will the rapper of Sa Pobla just be ignored or will he join the ranks of the new Catalan martyrs? It won't be the former. Jorge Campos has denounced him.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Referred to as the rapper from Sa Pobla, despite a connection with Sineu (he went to school there and has, you might have noticed, got problems with some people from Sineu), Valtonyc has been creating a right old rapping rumpus. Via his poetry, he has nominated the King for assassination, Jorge Campos for death, and both Pere Joan Jaume, the mayor, and Laura Montenegro, of Nuevas Generaciones, for the receipt of a silver bullet, presumably from the barrel of a gun and not in a velvet-lined presentation box.
In case you are not quite up to speed with some of this, Campos' Círculo Balear is a sort of Catalan anti-Christ, while Nuevas Generaciones are like the Young Conservatives but without the Harris tweeds. Given his various targets, you can conclude that Valtonyc is not exactly a monarchist, not exactly a great admirer of Castellano and not exactly a supporter of the Partido Popular. The "Marxista Leninista", which is how he describes himself on his Facebook page, is a bit of a giveaway, after all. His revolutionary tendencies extend to his also describing himself as an "independentista", which is not a type of orthodontics, but a declaration of support for an independent Mallorca or Balearics or Catalan Lands or probably all three.
Rap is prone to the use of extreme lyrics, but going around suggesting that the King should be assassinated is not likely to be dismissed as rapping poetic licence. It's why I fancy that Valtonyc might just find himself in a spot of bother. One of his latest outpourings is unlikely to endear him to the good people of Sineu either. "Sineu Will Be Afghanistan" is its title, which will come as a shock to the residents of the town though not as much of a shock as to the mayor who is now also being lined up for the guillotine.
While Valtonyc's extremism probably won't be overlooked, might it be better if it were? Is he just an angry young teenager who has found he has a talent (at least one presumes this to be the case) for rap and poetry and has a lot to get off his chest? It might, therefore, be wiser to ignore him rather than fuel his extremism with the publicity of martyrdom that could yet come his way.
Does, however, Valtonyc represent an undercurrent of belief among Mallorcan youth? Mallorca has historically not been especially radical. Quite the contrary, it is an essentially conservative society. But such an undercurrent does exist and not only among the youth.
There is an event called the "Acampallengua". It is held annually and is a youth festival that celebrates Catalan language and culture. During the 2009 event in Sa Pobla, a spokesperson from the Obra Cultural Balear (OCB), an organisation that is the complete opposite to the Círculo Balear, delivered a speech in which it was stated that "we will not take a step backwards in the struggle for our language". At the time, I asked whether the Acampallengua might just contribute to a radicalisation of youth. During this year's event in Manacor, there was a performance by ... you've guessed it, Valtonyc.
It would be quite wrong to suggest that all those who attend these events are either radical or are prone to being radicalised or that they have any sympathy for Valtonyc's lyrics. But there will be some, and the organisers of the events, a group called Mallorcan Youths for the Language, have as a key sponsor the OCB. And the OCB promotes independence, just like Valtonyc.
It would be interesting to know what the OCB thinks of Valtonyc's death threats. Chances are that they would be put down to teenage angst and the excesses of rap culture. And to be honest, this is probably what they should be put down to.
Nevertheless, there is an uneasy sense that Valtonyc is tapping into a growth of what I discerned in 2009, a time when there wasn't a ruling political party that took a negative view of Catalan, a time also when economic crisis hadn't caused the decimation it since has.
Will the rapper of Sa Pobla just be ignored or will he join the ranks of the new Catalan martyrs? It won't be the former. Jorge Campos has denounced him.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Monday, August 13, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - External personnel advisor at Pollensa town hall criticised
The Alternativa per Pollença, which had opposed the creation of a post of councillor for personnel, has criticised the appointment by the councillor of an external advisor to draw up a new workforce collective agreement, claiming that there are already people at the town hall who can do this. The town hall says that the move is necessary as the agreement has not been renewed for six years.
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 13 August 2012
Another close morning, 25 plus at 09.00. The week's forecast is for sun all the way and temperatures remaining in the low 30s.
Afternoon update: 30.5 the Sa Pobla high and only slightly lower on the coasts at 29.7. A new yellow alert for high temperatures is out from Wednesday.
Afternoon update: 30.5 the Sa Pobla high and only slightly lower on the coasts at 29.7. A new yellow alert for high temperatures is out from Wednesday.
The Russian Takeover
Have you ever looked at a Russian tour operator's website? On the assumption that you probably haven't, let me tell you that the Russian holidaymaker has a similar internet experience to everyone else. I don't know why I expected it to be different - sheer ignorance, prejudice or stereotyping I suppose - but it isn't. Not that for Natalie Tours anyway. Here we find the same smiling tour operator representatives with their crisp uniforms beaming from the screen and the same delighted couples and families looking longingly at each other on a romantic beach or splashing in a pool as any Thomson or Thomas Cook website would show.
There is one minor difficulty when it comes to the Natalie Tours website. It is incomprehensible; but fortunately, not entirely. Having clicked on various options, which I had taken, correctly as it turned out, to be country destinations, I got to Spain. Finding Mallorca was simple. With the exception of a k where there should be a c, a p where there should be an r and an n round the wrong way with a small c on its side on top of it (denoting y rather than j or ll), Mallorca is pretty obvious. So I clicked away to see where Natalie sends her Mallorcan tourists on tour.
To my surprise, the resorts with the greatest numbers of hotels (and mercifully the hotels are not listed in Cyrillic script) are Magalluf, Palmanova, Santa Ponsa and Playa de Palma. Why the surprise? Well, I'd assumed that the Russians wouldn't be setting foot in any of them as they are far too well off to be slumming it in Maga and its fellow usual suspects. I had thought that they would all be heading to the likes of Playa de Muro (aka Mypo) with its stock of four and five-star hotels. They do, but what Natalie's website demonstrates is that Russian tourists aren't necessarily all in the oligarch league.
I shouldn't have been completely surprised that there might be some economy-class Russian tourists amongst the Abramovices, as I had been told, admittedly to my surprise, that there are Russians in Alcúdia's Bellevue. What they make of it, Lord alone knows. Perhaps it reminds them of the Gulag. Natalie, it would appear, doesn't send her tourists to Bellevue (or at least she isn't admitting that she does) and though she fesses up to some three-star slummery in Maga, she does send them overwhelmingly to four or five-star establishments, which is what I had expected to find.
The view that Russian tourists are walking banks (ones with cash, as opposed to Spanish ones therefore) is a widely held one, and one that is held with justification. We are being told that the streets of Palma and elsewhere are now lined with 500 euro notes, all stuffed inside a Russian pocket or purse. On the sound of a Russian voice, a restaurant owner rolls out the red carpet, offers his Russian guests the best seats in the house and shoves any Brits who happen to be in the restaurant into a back room where they can't be seen.
Things are changing in Mallorca and they are changing dramatically and will continue to do so. The other day, whilst loitering with intent with a couple of chaps from "Ultima Hora" in Puerto Pollensa, some Russian tourists walked past. "Rusos," I said, obviously, at least it was obvious to me; it was less so to the UH bods. "It's all going to be different," I told them. "In ten years, Mallorca will be very different."
Maybe they were aware that Puerto Pollensa is little Britain, so they thought not so there. Well, maybe not there, but elsewhere, yes. Put it this way. At current rates of growth in the number of Russian tourists coming to Mallorca, by 2020, if these percentage rates were to be repeated year on year, there would be nearly one million Russian tourists.
A million, and Russian tourism would be reaching similar levels to those of Britain and Germany; levels as they currently stand. German tourism isn't likely to be affected, but British tourism could well be; in fact, I'd put money on it. Whereas the British were once upon a time looked upon as the best of all tourist spenders, they most certainly aren't now. The Scandinavians and the Germans have assumed this mantle, along of course with the Russians. There are plenty in the Mallorcan tourism industry who would be quite happy to see a reliance on British tourism reduced, and they may well have their wishes granted.
Mallorca has only so many hotel places (and non-hotel, but let's not get into that discussion again) and it isn't going to be increasing the number to any great extent. Indeed, the number may fall as a consequence of the provisions for hotel conversion. If Russian tourism were to grow as dramatically as I have suggested it might, something would have to give, and this would mean reductions in the number of tourists from certain existing markets. Any guesses which ones or one?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
There is one minor difficulty when it comes to the Natalie Tours website. It is incomprehensible; but fortunately, not entirely. Having clicked on various options, which I had taken, correctly as it turned out, to be country destinations, I got to Spain. Finding Mallorca was simple. With the exception of a k where there should be a c, a p where there should be an r and an n round the wrong way with a small c on its side on top of it (denoting y rather than j or ll), Mallorca is pretty obvious. So I clicked away to see where Natalie sends her Mallorcan tourists on tour.
To my surprise, the resorts with the greatest numbers of hotels (and mercifully the hotels are not listed in Cyrillic script) are Magalluf, Palmanova, Santa Ponsa and Playa de Palma. Why the surprise? Well, I'd assumed that the Russians wouldn't be setting foot in any of them as they are far too well off to be slumming it in Maga and its fellow usual suspects. I had thought that they would all be heading to the likes of Playa de Muro (aka Mypo) with its stock of four and five-star hotels. They do, but what Natalie's website demonstrates is that Russian tourists aren't necessarily all in the oligarch league.
I shouldn't have been completely surprised that there might be some economy-class Russian tourists amongst the Abramovices, as I had been told, admittedly to my surprise, that there are Russians in Alcúdia's Bellevue. What they make of it, Lord alone knows. Perhaps it reminds them of the Gulag. Natalie, it would appear, doesn't send her tourists to Bellevue (or at least she isn't admitting that she does) and though she fesses up to some three-star slummery in Maga, she does send them overwhelmingly to four or five-star establishments, which is what I had expected to find.
The view that Russian tourists are walking banks (ones with cash, as opposed to Spanish ones therefore) is a widely held one, and one that is held with justification. We are being told that the streets of Palma and elsewhere are now lined with 500 euro notes, all stuffed inside a Russian pocket or purse. On the sound of a Russian voice, a restaurant owner rolls out the red carpet, offers his Russian guests the best seats in the house and shoves any Brits who happen to be in the restaurant into a back room where they can't be seen.
Things are changing in Mallorca and they are changing dramatically and will continue to do so. The other day, whilst loitering with intent with a couple of chaps from "Ultima Hora" in Puerto Pollensa, some Russian tourists walked past. "Rusos," I said, obviously, at least it was obvious to me; it was less so to the UH bods. "It's all going to be different," I told them. "In ten years, Mallorca will be very different."
Maybe they were aware that Puerto Pollensa is little Britain, so they thought not so there. Well, maybe not there, but elsewhere, yes. Put it this way. At current rates of growth in the number of Russian tourists coming to Mallorca, by 2020, if these percentage rates were to be repeated year on year, there would be nearly one million Russian tourists.
A million, and Russian tourism would be reaching similar levels to those of Britain and Germany; levels as they currently stand. German tourism isn't likely to be affected, but British tourism could well be; in fact, I'd put money on it. Whereas the British were once upon a time looked upon as the best of all tourist spenders, they most certainly aren't now. The Scandinavians and the Germans have assumed this mantle, along of course with the Russians. There are plenty in the Mallorcan tourism industry who would be quite happy to see a reliance on British tourism reduced, and they may well have their wishes granted.
Mallorca has only so many hotel places (and non-hotel, but let's not get into that discussion again) and it isn't going to be increasing the number to any great extent. Indeed, the number may fall as a consequence of the provisions for hotel conversion. If Russian tourism were to grow as dramatically as I have suggested it might, something would have to give, and this would mean reductions in the number of tourists from certain existing markets. Any guesses which ones or one?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - John Hirst's son not guilty of money laundering
The verdicts of the jury at the trial of John Hirst and others accused of being part of a Ponzi scheme that operated out of Calvià continue to come through. Linda Hirst has been found guilty on a further count of money laundering, but Hirst's son, Daniel, and Linda Hirst's daughter, Zoe Waite, have been found not guilty.
See more: Huddersfield Daily Examiner
See more: Huddersfield Daily Examiner
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 12 August 2012
Quite a lot of light cloud but due to clear away on a morning with a high of 25.7 at 08.15. The advice is out again for high temperatures, though these haven't been as high on the coasts as might have been anticipated. The outlook for the week is remaining hot.
Afternoon update: Not as hot today. A good deal of light cloud along with the sun perhaps keeping things cooler. 32.7 inland in Sa Pobla and just touching 30 on the coasts.
Afternoon update: Not as hot today. A good deal of light cloud along with the sun perhaps keeping things cooler. 32.7 inland in Sa Pobla and just touching 30 on the coasts.
Gran Scala: Lessons ignored?
I was lying on the beach and my thoughts turned, as no doubt yours turn as well, to the issue of major theme park projects. These thoughts centred on one project in particular; well, two actually, but the first thought was with desert near Zaragoza on the mainland and with Gran Scala.
I first became aware of Gran Scala almost five years ago and did so not because of any coverage in the media in Mallorca but because of the occasional article in "The Times". While this was a project for the mainland, it was nevertheless curious that it was totally ignored locally, except by myself. The scale of Gran Scala (and the name speaks for itself) was so grand, the proximity was that close that it had to pose some sort of threat to Mallorca. Moreover, it was just the sort of project, with its capacity for all-year tourism, that could only ever exist in the dreams of the Mallorcan tourism industry.
If you don't know about Gran Scala, let me tell you what had been envisaged: over 200 restaurants, 70 hotels, 32 themed casinos, six large theme parks and 12 smaller ones, golf courses, a racecourse, pyramids and sphinxes plus 25 million visitors by 2020, two and a half times the total number of visitors that Mallorca receives in a year. Its first phase was due to have opened this year. Things dragged on, arguments raged, and the option for the developers to acquire the land expired earlier this year.
The developers are International Leisure Development, registered as a PLC in London and a consortium comprising numerous companies from several countries. The authenticity of ILD and of the Gran Scala project were never really in doubt, though some would argue otherwise, but the project ran up against all manner of problems, not least of which has been financing in the economic climate of the past few years.
Gran Scala isn't totally dead in the water, though its future must be highly questionable. There is still talk of ILD finding new investment, but since Gran Scala was first presented (and the presentation was hugely impressive) another casino-based project has emerged, one that is as if not more controversial - Eurovegas in the Barcelona area. Just one of its controversies relates to an investigation for corruption.
As far as opponents of Gran Scala are concerned, the project is dead. Dead and good riddance to it. One has to accept that views of environmentalists, unionists, the Catholic charity Caritas would probably automatically be negative, but these views were gathered by one of the many blogs that has covered the whole Gran Scala story since it was first announced. And it is some of these views that demand being paid attention to in connection with projects in Mallorca, those that are far less grand or are of a different nature, and projects that might yet emerge.
Apart from the obvious resistance on environmental and ethical grounds to the development and to gambling, the analysis of the Gran Scala affair is striking for the way in which it condemns the whole project from the point of view of public policy (what the politicians do or don't do, in other words). "Gran Scala is a good example of what can happen when there is an absence of a coherent project for land and when support is for any proposal that generates (real or not) employment." This comes from the Granscaladebate blog, and it continues by observing that "much of the current (economic) pain is about the madness of walking in the wrong direction: the economics of real estate speculation".
Basically, what this is saying is that Gran Scala would have been a further, massive example of the type of project, with regional government political blessing (this one from Aragon), that has got Spain into the mess that it is. Lessons would have been completely overlooked therefore. More than this, the argument against Gran Scala was that the real estate speculation was one of speculation without genuine feasibility to support the numbers of visitors and the number of jobs and so the whole economic viability of the project.
It is when you consider projects in Mallorca, those both ongoing or planned, and when you consider the greater permissiveness to be allowed by the current regional government, that the arguments above do resonate. One ongoing project (now it's going, now it's stopped) is the Palacio de Congresos, a project about which I have asked numerous times where the business plan is. It is a purely speculative project. One that isn't ongoing is the plan for the theme park (that may or may not be located between Campos and Llucmajor). What has happened to it? Tourism minister Delgado was ambiguous when asked recently. But has it ever been more than speculative?
Gran Scala was a hugely ambitious project, but its sheer scale do not prevent it offering lessons and cautionary notes regarding other much smaller projects, be they hotel complexes, be they theme parks, be they convention centres, be they velodromes or sports centres. The real lesson of Gran Scala is that politicians need to demand that such projects are given a thorough, rigorous and independent analysis, because politicians in Mallorca and Spain are the last people who should be making the final decisions.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
I first became aware of Gran Scala almost five years ago and did so not because of any coverage in the media in Mallorca but because of the occasional article in "The Times". While this was a project for the mainland, it was nevertheless curious that it was totally ignored locally, except by myself. The scale of Gran Scala (and the name speaks for itself) was so grand, the proximity was that close that it had to pose some sort of threat to Mallorca. Moreover, it was just the sort of project, with its capacity for all-year tourism, that could only ever exist in the dreams of the Mallorcan tourism industry.
If you don't know about Gran Scala, let me tell you what had been envisaged: over 200 restaurants, 70 hotels, 32 themed casinos, six large theme parks and 12 smaller ones, golf courses, a racecourse, pyramids and sphinxes plus 25 million visitors by 2020, two and a half times the total number of visitors that Mallorca receives in a year. Its first phase was due to have opened this year. Things dragged on, arguments raged, and the option for the developers to acquire the land expired earlier this year.
The developers are International Leisure Development, registered as a PLC in London and a consortium comprising numerous companies from several countries. The authenticity of ILD and of the Gran Scala project were never really in doubt, though some would argue otherwise, but the project ran up against all manner of problems, not least of which has been financing in the economic climate of the past few years.
Gran Scala isn't totally dead in the water, though its future must be highly questionable. There is still talk of ILD finding new investment, but since Gran Scala was first presented (and the presentation was hugely impressive) another casino-based project has emerged, one that is as if not more controversial - Eurovegas in the Barcelona area. Just one of its controversies relates to an investigation for corruption.
As far as opponents of Gran Scala are concerned, the project is dead. Dead and good riddance to it. One has to accept that views of environmentalists, unionists, the Catholic charity Caritas would probably automatically be negative, but these views were gathered by one of the many blogs that has covered the whole Gran Scala story since it was first announced. And it is some of these views that demand being paid attention to in connection with projects in Mallorca, those that are far less grand or are of a different nature, and projects that might yet emerge.
Apart from the obvious resistance on environmental and ethical grounds to the development and to gambling, the analysis of the Gran Scala affair is striking for the way in which it condemns the whole project from the point of view of public policy (what the politicians do or don't do, in other words). "Gran Scala is a good example of what can happen when there is an absence of a coherent project for land and when support is for any proposal that generates (real or not) employment." This comes from the Granscaladebate blog, and it continues by observing that "much of the current (economic) pain is about the madness of walking in the wrong direction: the economics of real estate speculation".
Basically, what this is saying is that Gran Scala would have been a further, massive example of the type of project, with regional government political blessing (this one from Aragon), that has got Spain into the mess that it is. Lessons would have been completely overlooked therefore. More than this, the argument against Gran Scala was that the real estate speculation was one of speculation without genuine feasibility to support the numbers of visitors and the number of jobs and so the whole economic viability of the project.
It is when you consider projects in Mallorca, those both ongoing or planned, and when you consider the greater permissiveness to be allowed by the current regional government, that the arguments above do resonate. One ongoing project (now it's going, now it's stopped) is the Palacio de Congresos, a project about which I have asked numerous times where the business plan is. It is a purely speculative project. One that isn't ongoing is the plan for the theme park (that may or may not be located between Campos and Llucmajor). What has happened to it? Tourism minister Delgado was ambiguous when asked recently. But has it ever been more than speculative?
Gran Scala was a hugely ambitious project, but its sheer scale do not prevent it offering lessons and cautionary notes regarding other much smaller projects, be they hotel complexes, be they theme parks, be they convention centres, be they velodromes or sports centres. The real lesson of Gran Scala is that politicians need to demand that such projects are given a thorough, rigorous and independent analysis, because politicians in Mallorca and Spain are the last people who should be making the final decisions.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Saturday, August 11, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Sa Pobla rapper calls for King's assassination
A seventeen-year-old rapper from Sa Pobla has released a song via YouTube which alludes to the assassination of King Juan Carlos and Jorge Campos, founder of the fiercely anti-Catalan Círculo Balear.
See more: El Mundo
See more: El Mundo
MALLORCA TODAY - Hunt for missing Alcúdia man unsuccessful
A search for missing Alcúdia man, 39-year-old Rafael Ayala, involving around 100 volunteers and co-ordinated by the town hall and local police, has yet to draw any success. Ayala disappeared on Wednesday in Puerto Alcúdia. Assistance is being given in the search by marine rescue and boat operators. Sites that have been looked at include the Sant Marti cave near Bellevue and into the mountains around Alcúdia.
MALLORCA TODAY - Protests against Bauzá in Alcúdia
A small group of protesters greeted President Bauzá when he came to Alcúdia on Thursday evening for a presentation of the Via Fora theatrical show around the town's walls. There were no incidents during a peaceful demonstration.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Puerto Pollensa support for Olympian Sete Benavides
A large screen has been put up at the yacht club for people in Puerto Pollensa to watch local canoeist Alfonso "Sete" Benavides take part in the Olympic final of the C-1 kayaking this morning. The town hall is to lay on a special bus to take people to the airport to greet Benavides when he returns on Monday.
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 11 August 2012
25 is about the high on the coasts at 08.15 on a less humid morning. The breezes are predominantly northerly, so very high temperatures may not be as likely as had been predicted, though the yellow alerts are still out for today and tomorrow.
Afternoon update: While it has been very hot inland - 37.1 in Sa Pobla - it has been far less so on the coasts with a high of 31.8.
Afternoon update: While it has been very hot inland - 37.1 in Sa Pobla - it has been far less so on the coasts with a high of 31.8.
Our House Was A Very Fine House
In any Mallorcan town you are likely to stumble across a house that appears to have been abandoned. Some are in more of a ruined state than others. Some are in more prominent locations than others. The old houses in Pollensa's square were an example. The Can Ramis houses in Alcúdia market square were another before they were demolished to make way for the abomination that replaced them.
What all such houses have in common are their varying degrees of antiquity and their townhouse styles. Typically, they are joined together in the manner common to the interiors of Mallorca's old towns, either along lengthy streets or in short rows, such as was the case with the Can Ramis houses.
There is a grandeur and poignancy that attaches itself to these houses. Their histories are the towns' histories which themselves are wrapped up in families' histories. It is often these families' histories that are the reason why some of the houses become abandoned.
There is a greater sense of family possession of property in Mallorca than is common in, say, Britain. The size of the families can often be the source of problems, however, leading to squabbles over who owns what. Old land registry in Mallorca was not all that it might have been, hence properties that even today are the source of legal wrangles.
Houses can be abandoned for other reasons, such as debt, but most commonly they are because of their family histories and consequent inabilities to decide what to do with them and who should do what. The result of the abandonment can be more than a loss of grandeur and a heightening of poignancy. It can also be lack of safety or hygiene and will always be degradation in terms of appearance. It is for these reasons that Sa Pobla town hall has decided to compile a report on all such properties in the town, to pursue owners (those believed to be owners perhaps), and to seal some up if necessary.
The health and safety aspect of abandonment was highlighted not so long ago in Sa Pobla's neighbour, Muro. There, several houses in a street had been neglected and were infested with rats. But it isn't only houses that are privately owned that can pose a health or safety risk because they are not being looked after properly. In Pollensa, Can Llobera, the former family home of one of Pollensa's most famous sons, Miquel Costa i Llobera, he of the poem "Pi de Formentor", had suffered partial collapse. It had been acquired some time before by the town hall, but the lack of care was such that water ingress through the roof had not only threatened to cause there to be more collapse, it had also led to the destruction of documents that were meant to have been preserved for posterity and as part of the town's patrimony.
Mallorcan families and Mallorcan town halls are not alone in allowing buildings to degenerate. A German family owns a house in Can Picafort. It was one of the first to be built at the start of Can Picafort's modern era in the late 1950s. The house was handed down to the son and daughter, the latter now dead, the former alive and wealthy.
Despite the rest of the family arguing that something has to be done with the house, the son has constantly refused. Why? Well, one has to understand that there is a German tendency to be as unwilling to relinquish family property as among the Mallorcans. The son has no need for the money that might come from the sale of the property (or the plot). He would rather it remains as some form of tribute, despite its abandoned state. He had allowed someone to use it for storage, and this was how it was being used when some three or four years ago, a niece went to the house, only to find that a German vagrant was living in it. The house had no utilities, yet the vagrant had been there for some considerable time. Seemingly, he had simply been let in by the chap with the keys for the storage. The niece said that he might as well continue living there. At least he was acting as a sort of caretaker or security guard.
The Can Picafort house is of much more recent vintage than the townhouses of the old towns, thus proving that it is not only antiquity and ancient family squabbles that lead to abandonment. There is a further example, even more recent, the ruin by Playa de Muro beach, the house that has never been finished because it ran up against a family dispute, unresolved years later.
There is a widely held view of Mallorcans among the British (and even among some Mallorcans) that they are incredibly greedy when it comes to property. It is a view that has some justification. Owners may well prefer to let a property rot if they can't get out of it what they want, be it through sale, rental or even living in it. But at the heart of most abandoned properties in Mallorca, there is one story only, and that is one of families.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
What all such houses have in common are their varying degrees of antiquity and their townhouse styles. Typically, they are joined together in the manner common to the interiors of Mallorca's old towns, either along lengthy streets or in short rows, such as was the case with the Can Ramis houses.
There is a grandeur and poignancy that attaches itself to these houses. Their histories are the towns' histories which themselves are wrapped up in families' histories. It is often these families' histories that are the reason why some of the houses become abandoned.
There is a greater sense of family possession of property in Mallorca than is common in, say, Britain. The size of the families can often be the source of problems, however, leading to squabbles over who owns what. Old land registry in Mallorca was not all that it might have been, hence properties that even today are the source of legal wrangles.
Houses can be abandoned for other reasons, such as debt, but most commonly they are because of their family histories and consequent inabilities to decide what to do with them and who should do what. The result of the abandonment can be more than a loss of grandeur and a heightening of poignancy. It can also be lack of safety or hygiene and will always be degradation in terms of appearance. It is for these reasons that Sa Pobla town hall has decided to compile a report on all such properties in the town, to pursue owners (those believed to be owners perhaps), and to seal some up if necessary.
The health and safety aspect of abandonment was highlighted not so long ago in Sa Pobla's neighbour, Muro. There, several houses in a street had been neglected and were infested with rats. But it isn't only houses that are privately owned that can pose a health or safety risk because they are not being looked after properly. In Pollensa, Can Llobera, the former family home of one of Pollensa's most famous sons, Miquel Costa i Llobera, he of the poem "Pi de Formentor", had suffered partial collapse. It had been acquired some time before by the town hall, but the lack of care was such that water ingress through the roof had not only threatened to cause there to be more collapse, it had also led to the destruction of documents that were meant to have been preserved for posterity and as part of the town's patrimony.
Mallorcan families and Mallorcan town halls are not alone in allowing buildings to degenerate. A German family owns a house in Can Picafort. It was one of the first to be built at the start of Can Picafort's modern era in the late 1950s. The house was handed down to the son and daughter, the latter now dead, the former alive and wealthy.
Despite the rest of the family arguing that something has to be done with the house, the son has constantly refused. Why? Well, one has to understand that there is a German tendency to be as unwilling to relinquish family property as among the Mallorcans. The son has no need for the money that might come from the sale of the property (or the plot). He would rather it remains as some form of tribute, despite its abandoned state. He had allowed someone to use it for storage, and this was how it was being used when some three or four years ago, a niece went to the house, only to find that a German vagrant was living in it. The house had no utilities, yet the vagrant had been there for some considerable time. Seemingly, he had simply been let in by the chap with the keys for the storage. The niece said that he might as well continue living there. At least he was acting as a sort of caretaker or security guard.
The Can Picafort house is of much more recent vintage than the townhouses of the old towns, thus proving that it is not only antiquity and ancient family squabbles that lead to abandonment. There is a further example, even more recent, the ruin by Playa de Muro beach, the house that has never been finished because it ran up against a family dispute, unresolved years later.
There is a widely held view of Mallorcans among the British (and even among some Mallorcans) that they are incredibly greedy when it comes to property. It is a view that has some justification. Owners may well prefer to let a property rot if they can't get out of it what they want, be it through sale, rental or even living in it. But at the heart of most abandoned properties in Mallorca, there is one story only, and that is one of families.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, August 10, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Linda Hirst guilty of money laundering
The jury considering the cases against John Hirst, his estranged wife Linda and others in connection with the Ponzi scheme operated out of Calvià has returned a verdict of guilty on Linda Hirst on two counts - one of money laundering and one of evasion of liability by deception. Further verdicts against Linda Hirst as well as others are yet to be returned.
See more: Huddersfield Daily Examiner
See more: Huddersfield Daily Examiner
MALLORCA TODAY - Palma Aquarium evacuated in Playa de Palma fire
The Palma Aquarium needed to evacuate visitors this afternoon on account of a fire in the Fontanelles wood and wetland which lies between the Aquarium and Playa de Palma. Images of the fire being sent at the time (I was with Aquarium people elsewhere) looked quite dramatic, though there seemed little real risk. The regional government has recently given the go ahead for the development of a commercial centre in the Fontanelles.
Update: The fire was not extensive and was brought under control after an hour or so of its breaking out.
Photo: El Mundo
Update: The fire was not extensive and was brought under control after an hour or so of its breaking out.
Photo: El Mundo
MALLORCA TODAY - Protected geographical identification sought for almonds
Central government is to lobby the European Union to grant protected geographical identification status on the Mallorcan almond, which would give the nut the seal of quality approval that comes from such status, one that is already granted to Mallorcan ensaïmada and sobrasada.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Permissiveness on rural building violations in Pollensa
The Alternativa per Pollença party has complained that Pollensa has long been a town in which there has been a permissiveness regarding the application of fines for building infractions on rural land and it is complaining that this is continuing because the mayor has withdrawn responsibility in respect of such infractions from the ruling "junta" at the town hall. The mayor is in fact also the councillor responsible for urban planning issues in the town.
MALLORCA TODAY - Hope that Palma bus strike might be averted
The bus strike in Palma, planned for 16 and 17 August, may be called off if a pre-agreement is ratified by employees on Monday. There has been movement on working hours, pensions and possibly also on the payment of Christmas bonuses.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Abandoned houses in Sa Pobla being sealed up
Sa Pobla town hall has instigated a campaign against houses in the town that have been abandoned and which can pose a health or other risk. One house has already had its doors and windows sealed up, the owner having ignored notices regarding its maintenance, and local police are compiling reports on other properties.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 10 August 2012
23.7 the coastal high on a clear and still morning. The yellow advice is in place for high temperatures today. While coastal values of 33 are being forecast, they are likely to be greater. Staying hot into tomorrow and due to cool off a bit on Sunday.
Afternoon update: Well, not quite as hot as had been forecast. 34.2 inland in Sa Pobla, 31.7 on the coasts. Still hot enough and the yellow alert remains in place through into Sunday.
Afternoon update: Well, not quite as hot as had been forecast. 34.2 inland in Sa Pobla, 31.7 on the coasts. Still hot enough and the yellow alert remains in place through into Sunday.
VAT: Robin Hood and other problems
The extent of the application of the rise in IVA (VAT) has caught some people on the hop, and it is the recategorisation of businesses and services that will be liable for the general higher rate of 21% that has caught most out. From 1 September, there will be far fewer businesses than at present which will still benefit from the reduced rate (of 10%). In the tourism sector, these are basically hotels and restaurants. More or less everything else will be subject to 21% - clubs and discos, theme parks and attractions, sports facilities (including golf courses), health and beauty.
Value added tax is a highly discriminatory tax. It discriminates against the less well off and it also discriminates against or in favour of different business sectors. They wouldn't thank for me suggesting it, but why should bars and restaurants be treated differently to clubs? In a tourist sense, they are a part of the same thing, the so-called complementary offer, so why penalise one and not the other?
It would be argued that restaurants aren't solely for tourists (though neither are clubs) and that keeping IVA down enables the masses to feed themselves. Well yes, but then the masses can also feed themselves in a different way. By shopping. And IVA rates are either reduced or "super-reduced" for foodstuffs and beverages, with an exception for alcohol which attracts the higher rate, thus leading to the curious situation whereby a drink in a bar has a lower rate of IVA than the same drink that has been bought from a supermarket.
Business associations have not been slow in warning of the dire consequences of the IVA rise. From loss of general competitiveness to tourism taking a hit to hairdressing salons being cut and blown away, everyone is speaking with one voice, which even includes the government; its ministers admit that the IVA rise isn't going to be good for business, but then we all know that Spain's ministers don't have any say in how the economy is run.
Is the IVA rise going to have as harmful an impact on tourism as it is being suggested it might? In one respect, it is unlikely to. Tourism to Mallorca is remarkably durable, even if the level of tourism spend has been less durable. Putting up prices because of higher IVA rates will make this spend lower, but it doesn't follow that tourism itself would fall.
There is some validity in the argument that countries (Portugal, Greece) which have reduced VAT in the tourist sector will benefit at the expense of Mallorca and Spain, but they can benefit only by so much, the benefit being determined by supply. There again, do tourists make decisions based on rates of value added tax in different countries? They do make them based on price, but the price decision is more one of the cost of the package or the flight and the accommodation rather than how much it might cost to enter an attraction. Though tourists are way more savvy in their budgeting (and necessarily so) than was the case in the good old days of worthless pesetas and a bevvy costing a mere ten of these worthless coins, there is also a psychology of purchasing by the unit; hence, x number of meals out or y number of excursions (y probably equalling one nowadays) for which the decision is of course price sensitive but not exclusively so.
Tourism will be affected (and one might point out that golf could really lose out if the greens fees, already considered high in Mallorca, were to go up markedly) but not as much as is feared. The real killer isn't for tourism, it is for the domestic market. The constant rise in the cost of living is reaching a point, if it hasn't already, where it cannot be sustained without dire consequences of a different nature to those predicted for businesses. It isn't only IVA. If you pay 20 euros to put petrol into your car, you now get one euro's worth less, ever since the tax to pay for the health service was introduced in the Balearics. This is just one example.
Summer and the tourism season give false impressions. The season will finish soon enough. Then what? Unemployment going up, benefits down, IVA effects coming in, the tourism season is still in full swing in Andalucia and yet unionists have been helping themselves to supermarket goods and handing them out to those who have no means. Such Robin Hood acts could catch on, rather like a less benign form of robbery already has - house break-ins up massively in Mallorca. Things are about to get nasty.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Value added tax is a highly discriminatory tax. It discriminates against the less well off and it also discriminates against or in favour of different business sectors. They wouldn't thank for me suggesting it, but why should bars and restaurants be treated differently to clubs? In a tourist sense, they are a part of the same thing, the so-called complementary offer, so why penalise one and not the other?
It would be argued that restaurants aren't solely for tourists (though neither are clubs) and that keeping IVA down enables the masses to feed themselves. Well yes, but then the masses can also feed themselves in a different way. By shopping. And IVA rates are either reduced or "super-reduced" for foodstuffs and beverages, with an exception for alcohol which attracts the higher rate, thus leading to the curious situation whereby a drink in a bar has a lower rate of IVA than the same drink that has been bought from a supermarket.
Business associations have not been slow in warning of the dire consequences of the IVA rise. From loss of general competitiveness to tourism taking a hit to hairdressing salons being cut and blown away, everyone is speaking with one voice, which even includes the government; its ministers admit that the IVA rise isn't going to be good for business, but then we all know that Spain's ministers don't have any say in how the economy is run.
Is the IVA rise going to have as harmful an impact on tourism as it is being suggested it might? In one respect, it is unlikely to. Tourism to Mallorca is remarkably durable, even if the level of tourism spend has been less durable. Putting up prices because of higher IVA rates will make this spend lower, but it doesn't follow that tourism itself would fall.
There is some validity in the argument that countries (Portugal, Greece) which have reduced VAT in the tourist sector will benefit at the expense of Mallorca and Spain, but they can benefit only by so much, the benefit being determined by supply. There again, do tourists make decisions based on rates of value added tax in different countries? They do make them based on price, but the price decision is more one of the cost of the package or the flight and the accommodation rather than how much it might cost to enter an attraction. Though tourists are way more savvy in their budgeting (and necessarily so) than was the case in the good old days of worthless pesetas and a bevvy costing a mere ten of these worthless coins, there is also a psychology of purchasing by the unit; hence, x number of meals out or y number of excursions (y probably equalling one nowadays) for which the decision is of course price sensitive but not exclusively so.
Tourism will be affected (and one might point out that golf could really lose out if the greens fees, already considered high in Mallorca, were to go up markedly) but not as much as is feared. The real killer isn't for tourism, it is for the domestic market. The constant rise in the cost of living is reaching a point, if it hasn't already, where it cannot be sustained without dire consequences of a different nature to those predicted for businesses. It isn't only IVA. If you pay 20 euros to put petrol into your car, you now get one euro's worth less, ever since the tax to pay for the health service was introduced in the Balearics. This is just one example.
Summer and the tourism season give false impressions. The season will finish soon enough. Then what? Unemployment going up, benefits down, IVA effects coming in, the tourism season is still in full swing in Andalucia and yet unionists have been helping themselves to supermarket goods and handing them out to those who have no means. Such Robin Hood acts could catch on, rather like a less benign form of robbery already has - house break-ins up massively in Mallorca. Things are about to get nasty.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, August 09, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Wiggins in Puerto Pollensa
Oh lummy, we're going to have to put up with all of this - Wiggo Fever in Puerto Pollensa. Here is Juan Carlos of "Ultima Hora" writing about Wiggins' achievements when he would rather have been writing about what Wiggo said to him last night. But he said nothing, other than "no press".
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 9 August 2012
Quite cloudy but warm, a top of 26.6 at 08.45. The cloud should break up quickly and the temperatures rise into the low 30s ahead of hotter values tomorrow, thanks to that good old Saharan air.
Afternoon update: 35.9 the inland high in Sa Pobla. Around four degrees lower on the coast. On this basis, as the met office is suggesting an increase of three degrees tomorrow, we could see 39 inland and 35 on the coasts.
Afternoon update: 35.9 the inland high in Sa Pobla. Around four degrees lower on the coast. On this basis, as the met office is suggesting an increase of three degrees tomorrow, we could see 39 inland and 35 on the coasts.
Exasperated.com
I had thought to go off on one, to launch into a diatribe, to sound off, to engage in a rant. But then I thought better of it. I could have gone off on one by announcing the fact, because this is how going off on one is. It requires a topping or tailing - "I'm having a rant" or "rant over". Why does anyone do this? If it is a rant, then is it not obvious?
The reason lies, at least I suspect it lies, in a conspiratorial alliance with the reader. Rant announcement equals pay attention, or the promise of revelatory riches, even if there are none, or an expectation of empathetic appreciation of the ranter's subject matter by an unseen, reading interlocutor whose part in the ranter's conspiracy is heightened by the tricks of involvement as set out in the bible according to Littlejohn - the "you couldn't make it up" clichéd standby of the ranter that brooks no suggestion that actually, yes, you could make it up or that the subject matter is in fact of no consequence to the reader or is totally opposite to the reader's views. Which would make the conspiratorial alliance fall flat on the page.
What I had been thinking that I would go off on was what I had earlier in the day indeed gone off on, at the end of a drink (non-alcoholic) with some people from a well-known attraction (and no, I'm not mentioning which one). What this involved was a declaration of exasperation. Not so much with the subject but with the illogic, exaggeration and disregard for an alternative perspective.
The subject was the Mallorca hoteliers' federation thing about 40% of tourists arriving at Palma airport who head off to stay in illegal accommodation (or, more diplomatically, accommodation which is not registered by the tourism ministry). It was exasperation because - and I even used the words "until I'm blue in the face", which I would never do in the written form but now have - nowhere is there any clue as to where all the tourists who arrive at the airport are in fact meant to stay. I have said it before. On more than one occasion. The illogic of the hoteliers' argument is plain to see; at least it is to me. There are way more tourists at the height of summer than there are hotel (registered) places. If you want the figures, I refer you honourable ladies and gentlemen to articles I have written before; I'm not going to repeat myself.
Further illogic lies with the hoteliers' justification for the government's stance against this illegal offer (by which they mean the stance they have told the government, Delgado in particular, that it must adopt). For the president of the federation to say that some illegal accommodation is not up to scratch and so therefore would give a poor image of Mallorca is illogical because it recognises a reason for regulating and monitoring accommodation which is illegal in any event. By the same token, it suggests inadvertently that some accommodation is up to scratch. The argumentation is, therefore, flawed.
Having gone off on this, I thought afterwards, why did I? The subject is of no personal interest to me in that I do not have accommodation that I am making available either legally or illegally. Why should I care?
The discussion had touched on some other issues, one of which was marketing. It was putting this together with the hoteliers' propaganda (and the 40% is surely an exaggerated headliner) that made me conclude that what I do care about is misrepresentation, is stupidity, is mediocrity, is myopia, is the unchallenged dogma that springs from groupthink.
Blimey, where the hell do I start with this lot?
Frankly, I'm disinclined to start with any of it, because to do so would amount to going off on one. I could embellish the above, I could give chapter and verse, I could dissect the minutiae of the inadequacies of much that passes for tourism marketing in Mallorca, of what passes for an understanding of who tourists are (which isn't a great deal), of what is a blind adherence to tourism product that misses the point entirely, which is that the great unwashed majority of tourists want only to spend a couple of hours in a plane, get shipped to a resort, get extraordinarily red and get extraordinarily pissed.
I could do all this, but I have done it many times. Therefore, I'm thinking of changing the name of this blog to exasperated.com. But then I would need to be constantly exasperated, and I'm not; only when I go off on one.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The reason lies, at least I suspect it lies, in a conspiratorial alliance with the reader. Rant announcement equals pay attention, or the promise of revelatory riches, even if there are none, or an expectation of empathetic appreciation of the ranter's subject matter by an unseen, reading interlocutor whose part in the ranter's conspiracy is heightened by the tricks of involvement as set out in the bible according to Littlejohn - the "you couldn't make it up" clichéd standby of the ranter that brooks no suggestion that actually, yes, you could make it up or that the subject matter is in fact of no consequence to the reader or is totally opposite to the reader's views. Which would make the conspiratorial alliance fall flat on the page.
What I had been thinking that I would go off on was what I had earlier in the day indeed gone off on, at the end of a drink (non-alcoholic) with some people from a well-known attraction (and no, I'm not mentioning which one). What this involved was a declaration of exasperation. Not so much with the subject but with the illogic, exaggeration and disregard for an alternative perspective.
The subject was the Mallorca hoteliers' federation thing about 40% of tourists arriving at Palma airport who head off to stay in illegal accommodation (or, more diplomatically, accommodation which is not registered by the tourism ministry). It was exasperation because - and I even used the words "until I'm blue in the face", which I would never do in the written form but now have - nowhere is there any clue as to where all the tourists who arrive at the airport are in fact meant to stay. I have said it before. On more than one occasion. The illogic of the hoteliers' argument is plain to see; at least it is to me. There are way more tourists at the height of summer than there are hotel (registered) places. If you want the figures, I refer you honourable ladies and gentlemen to articles I have written before; I'm not going to repeat myself.
Further illogic lies with the hoteliers' justification for the government's stance against this illegal offer (by which they mean the stance they have told the government, Delgado in particular, that it must adopt). For the president of the federation to say that some illegal accommodation is not up to scratch and so therefore would give a poor image of Mallorca is illogical because it recognises a reason for regulating and monitoring accommodation which is illegal in any event. By the same token, it suggests inadvertently that some accommodation is up to scratch. The argumentation is, therefore, flawed.
Having gone off on this, I thought afterwards, why did I? The subject is of no personal interest to me in that I do not have accommodation that I am making available either legally or illegally. Why should I care?
The discussion had touched on some other issues, one of which was marketing. It was putting this together with the hoteliers' propaganda (and the 40% is surely an exaggerated headliner) that made me conclude that what I do care about is misrepresentation, is stupidity, is mediocrity, is myopia, is the unchallenged dogma that springs from groupthink.
Blimey, where the hell do I start with this lot?
Frankly, I'm disinclined to start with any of it, because to do so would amount to going off on one. I could embellish the above, I could give chapter and verse, I could dissect the minutiae of the inadequacies of much that passes for tourism marketing in Mallorca, of what passes for an understanding of who tourists are (which isn't a great deal), of what is a blind adherence to tourism product that misses the point entirely, which is that the great unwashed majority of tourists want only to spend a couple of hours in a plane, get shipped to a resort, get extraordinarily red and get extraordinarily pissed.
I could do all this, but I have done it many times. Therefore, I'm thinking of changing the name of this blog to exasperated.com. But then I would need to be constantly exasperated, and I'm not; only when I go off on one.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Wednesday, August 08, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Clubs threaten delay to start of La Liga
Thirteen clubs, including Real Mallorca, are threatening to delay the start of the new La Liga season unless they get agreements from television operators regarding audiovisual rights and of times and days for matches.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - One hundred years of Pollensa's fishermen's guild
On 1 November, the guild (some say brotherhood) of fishermen in Puerto Pollensa will celebrate one hundred years. Various events are to take place that will include an exhibition of old photos.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 8 August 2012
24.5 the local high at 07.15. Clear skies, barely a breeze (northerlies dominating at present) and staying clear. Very warm later, but the real heat is set to come in Friday - 35 and up.
Afternoon update: Up around the 30 mark and above. Fine day but watch out for Friday.
Afternoon update: Up around the 30 mark and above. Fine day but watch out for Friday.
Fatal Attractions: IVA, weather and seasonality
You will know that the British can blame the wrong sort of snow for interruptions to public transport services. Did you also know that the Mallorcans can blame the wrong sort of heat for not getting punters through the turnstiles at attractions? If it's too hot and too sunny, then waterparks win out over other attractions that are indoors or mainly under cover. Well, blow me, I would never have thought this. And nor would I ever have thought that during a Mallorcan summer the weather might be hot and sunny.
The Asociación Mallorquina de Actividades Turísticas (AMAT) was formed in 2001 and it comprises nineteen businesses engaged in different types of attraction, outdoors and indoors, daytime and evening. It is an association whose voice was rarely raised loudly until recently. This raising in volume coincided with the appointment of Palma Aquarium's Antonio González as its president. In April this year, as an example, the association launched an attack on the harm that all-inclusives were having on the island's attractions. It has now met with President Bauzá and has been telling the media about the problems that attractions face, one of which is the weather.
Hot and sunny weather is a lame reason to give for the fact that waterparks might perform better than other attractions. It would be a good reason if hot and sunny weather was not common, but it is. Surely, the association has noticed this, but then among its members there is one business that appears to be absent which might be able to make the point: Aspro Ocio, which, with the exception of Hidropark, runs the island's waterparks as well as Marineland.
There are other reasons why AMAT has wanted to have a word with the president: the small number of hotels open in winter and the reduced number of flights; the rise in IVA (VAT) from September; and promotion towards a youth market, as opposed to a family market, which has lower spending power and is interested only in night-time entertainment.
This last aspect is curious. Firstly, because Mallorca is still considered to be and is promoted as a family destination far more so than as a youth one. Secondly, because one of AMAT's members is Cursach. And what are their attractions? Well, Magalluf's BCM for a kick off.
AMAT's meeting with President Bauzá and the resultant attention in the media comes close on the heels of the announcement by the travel agencies' association, AVIBA, that sales of excursions are down. The two are not coincidental, as both associations represent parts of the tourism industry which are none too impressed by the government's new tourism law or by the IVA increase.
But as I pointed out in a recent article about AVIBA, its travel agencies are only part of the attractions' sales distribution channel, while the main reasons why the sale of excursions is down are very simple - lower tourist spend and economic crisis. The complaints that AMAT has, except the strange one about the weather and the curious one to do with youth promotion, are not unreasonable, but they ignore the underlying reasons why some attractions, in particular the evening ones, are finding that the going has got tough.
One should, though, have sympathy for the attractions. Most of them are open all year and so provide a basis for off-season tourism. An attraction such as the Aquarium can't just shut down in winter. Its sharks, fish, turtles are on fixed, annual contracts; they are not temporary workers that can be laid off when winter comes. Rancho Grande has its resident horses and other animals, the Sóller train chugs away, Costa Nord and La Granja don't shift themselves to different locations in winter. They all require investment and cost, some of it enormous. They cannot get away with being closed in winter, unlike many of the hotel chains. And if the regional government doesn't appreciate this, then it should do. Who owns Costa Nord?
And where IVA is concerned, though the reduced rate that applies to the tourist sector will go up by two points to 10%, categories of business that have benefited from the lower rate have been changed. Consequently, clubs, such as BCM, as well as theatre and other "spectaculars" will be liable to the new higher rate of 21%. If the evening excursion hadn't already been affected (which it has been), it now definitely will be.
AMAT making its voice heard is a good thing, but it has been stung into making its voice heard because so many factors are conspiring against some of its members. It should have shouted a lot more loudly a lot earlier.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
The Asociación Mallorquina de Actividades Turísticas (AMAT) was formed in 2001 and it comprises nineteen businesses engaged in different types of attraction, outdoors and indoors, daytime and evening. It is an association whose voice was rarely raised loudly until recently. This raising in volume coincided with the appointment of Palma Aquarium's Antonio González as its president. In April this year, as an example, the association launched an attack on the harm that all-inclusives were having on the island's attractions. It has now met with President Bauzá and has been telling the media about the problems that attractions face, one of which is the weather.
Hot and sunny weather is a lame reason to give for the fact that waterparks might perform better than other attractions. It would be a good reason if hot and sunny weather was not common, but it is. Surely, the association has noticed this, but then among its members there is one business that appears to be absent which might be able to make the point: Aspro Ocio, which, with the exception of Hidropark, runs the island's waterparks as well as Marineland.
There are other reasons why AMAT has wanted to have a word with the president: the small number of hotels open in winter and the reduced number of flights; the rise in IVA (VAT) from September; and promotion towards a youth market, as opposed to a family market, which has lower spending power and is interested only in night-time entertainment.
This last aspect is curious. Firstly, because Mallorca is still considered to be and is promoted as a family destination far more so than as a youth one. Secondly, because one of AMAT's members is Cursach. And what are their attractions? Well, Magalluf's BCM for a kick off.
AMAT's meeting with President Bauzá and the resultant attention in the media comes close on the heels of the announcement by the travel agencies' association, AVIBA, that sales of excursions are down. The two are not coincidental, as both associations represent parts of the tourism industry which are none too impressed by the government's new tourism law or by the IVA increase.
But as I pointed out in a recent article about AVIBA, its travel agencies are only part of the attractions' sales distribution channel, while the main reasons why the sale of excursions is down are very simple - lower tourist spend and economic crisis. The complaints that AMAT has, except the strange one about the weather and the curious one to do with youth promotion, are not unreasonable, but they ignore the underlying reasons why some attractions, in particular the evening ones, are finding that the going has got tough.
One should, though, have sympathy for the attractions. Most of them are open all year and so provide a basis for off-season tourism. An attraction such as the Aquarium can't just shut down in winter. Its sharks, fish, turtles are on fixed, annual contracts; they are not temporary workers that can be laid off when winter comes. Rancho Grande has its resident horses and other animals, the Sóller train chugs away, Costa Nord and La Granja don't shift themselves to different locations in winter. They all require investment and cost, some of it enormous. They cannot get away with being closed in winter, unlike many of the hotel chains. And if the regional government doesn't appreciate this, then it should do. Who owns Costa Nord?
And where IVA is concerned, though the reduced rate that applies to the tourist sector will go up by two points to 10%, categories of business that have benefited from the lower rate have been changed. Consequently, clubs, such as BCM, as well as theatre and other "spectaculars" will be liable to the new higher rate of 21%. If the evening excursion hadn't already been affected (which it has been), it now definitely will be.
AMAT making its voice heard is a good thing, but it has been stung into making its voice heard because so many factors are conspiring against some of its members. It should have shouted a lot more loudly a lot earlier.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Tuesday, August 07, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - 40% of tourists stay in illegal accommodation
According to the Mallorcan hotel federation, 40% of tourists who arrive at Palma airport stay in accommodation that is not regulated by the Balearics tourism ministry - in illegal accommodation in other words.
This news is all designed presumably to add weight to the government's clampdown on illegal accommodation. Though the percentage is probably being exaggerated, it isn't surprising. What the hotels don't say, and yet what I have shown, is that at peak times especially there is a significant shortfall in terms of hotel accommodation relative to the number of tourists.
See more: Ultima Hora
This news is all designed presumably to add weight to the government's clampdown on illegal accommodation. Though the percentage is probably being exaggerated, it isn't surprising. What the hotels don't say, and yet what I have shown, is that at peak times especially there is a significant shortfall in terms of hotel accommodation relative to the number of tourists.
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - Royals take Sóller train trip
Crown-Prince Felipe and Princess Letizia, together with their daughters, Leonor and Sofia, took a ride yesterday evening on the train to Sóller from Palma, then took the tram to the port before finally returning to the Marivent palace, home to the Spanish royal family in Mallorca.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Wellies staff call off strike
Workers at Wellies, the well-known restaurant in Puerto Portals, have called off a strike that had been threatened because of outstanding non-payment of salaries.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Irish tourist in Santa Ponsa balcony fall
A familiar enough story. Young tourist (20 years old in this instance) usually from Britain (but this time from Ireland) arrives in Mallorca, goes out and has too much to drink and then falls from balcony of a Magalluf hotel (this time a Santa Ponsa) one. The incident happened yesterday morning at around half past midnight.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 7 August 2012
Feeling a bit fresher this morning. Mostly sunny, a high of 24.9 by 08.30. Still looking as though another heatwave is coming in from Thursday.
Afternoon update: Highs inland up to 29.9 and coastal to 28.8. The heatwave, says the met office, will really start to be felt on Friday but should last only till Sunday when temperatures will drop again.
Afternoon update: Highs inland up to 29.9 and coastal to 28.8. The heatwave, says the met office, will really start to be felt on Friday but should last only till Sunday when temperatures will drop again.
Problem At Pollensa Bay
"Parker Pyne." "Bath chair for Parker Pyne," the hotel concierge announced.
"What!? Where am I?" The one-time, lesser-known great mind of Agatha Christie's creations was roused from an afternoon snooze by the booming voice of the concierge.
"Pollensa, Pyne. Near the pine walk, Pyne," Wiggins said usefully.
"Did they name it after me? I am very famous, don't you know".
"I think it was named after some pines, Pyne. Pine trees, Pyne."
Wiggins, Pyne's faithful and long-suffering retainer, mopped the cream that had missed the old buffer's mouth and had deposited itself on his chin when he had fallen asleep in mid cream tea. "Dashed fine scones, Wiggins. What a home from home this is. Just like Eastbourne."
"And everyone is just as old as in Eastbourne," muttered Wiggins to himself.
"What? What was that?"
"Nothing, Pyne. Time for your walk. Along the pine walk, Pyne."
"Ah yes. I need to find some problems, Wiggins."
"Why is that, Pyne?"
"It's why I'm here. It's why I've always been here. In Pollensa. Solving a problem at Pollensa Bay. It's why I'm famous, you know."
"You're not really that famous, Pyne. Not like Miss Marple, for example."
"Miss Marple!" exclaimed Pyne, his face reddening with rage. "Ridiculous old trout. Whoever heard of an old maid solving murder mysteries. It's a total nonsense."
"The same person who made you, er, famous, Pyne. And at least Miss Marple did solve murder mysteries. The problem at Pollensa Bay wasn't actually a murder story, was it. All you did was to get a mother and son to see eye to eye when it came to the son's lady friend. Strange then that they should be using 'Problem At Pollensa Bay' to justify all this discussion of the crime novel at the Pollensa Festival. Don't you think, Pyne?"
"What? What are you talking about? It still shows I am famous. Now get this Bath chair moving. I have problems to find."
"Yes, Pyne."
Wiggins wheeled Pyne past the pines. It was a splendid summer's afternoon, but the idyll was shattered by a sudden squelching noise. "I think we may have found your problem, Pyne."
"Dog mess. Not the sort of problem to exercise the wizard mind of Parker Pyne, Wiggins. Wheel on. There must be other problems to unearth, like ... . Look, over there, Wiggins. A foreigner. Call the police immediately."
"I don't think merely being a foreigner is sufficient grounds to merit the attention of the forces of the law, Pyne."
"It would have been in my day, Wiggins. This modern world. It's not like 80 years ago. When things were more civilised, genteel and foreigners knew their place. And ... . Wiggins, what in the name of heaven is this thing coming towards us?"
"It's a mobility scooter, Pyne. A motorised Bath chair."
"And look at this frightful woman, Wiggins. Smoking a cigarette, sunburned to a leathery crisp. What does she look like?"
Pyne stared at the woman, and she stared back before shouting: "Who the frig are you looking at?"
"Oh no, Wiggins. I've been transported into a 21st century comedy series about British people on holiday in Spain. I've found the problem, Wiggins. My beloved Pollensa. Men with tattoos. Women with tattoos. Karaoke. Aaargh. Take me back, Wiggins. Take me back."
Footnote: A course on the crime novel, from Agatha Christie to the current day, is currently taking place at the events hall of Colonya bank in Pollensa.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
"What!? Where am I?" The one-time, lesser-known great mind of Agatha Christie's creations was roused from an afternoon snooze by the booming voice of the concierge.
"Pollensa, Pyne. Near the pine walk, Pyne," Wiggins said usefully.
"Did they name it after me? I am very famous, don't you know".
"I think it was named after some pines, Pyne. Pine trees, Pyne."
Wiggins, Pyne's faithful and long-suffering retainer, mopped the cream that had missed the old buffer's mouth and had deposited itself on his chin when he had fallen asleep in mid cream tea. "Dashed fine scones, Wiggins. What a home from home this is. Just like Eastbourne."
"And everyone is just as old as in Eastbourne," muttered Wiggins to himself.
"What? What was that?"
"Nothing, Pyne. Time for your walk. Along the pine walk, Pyne."
"Ah yes. I need to find some problems, Wiggins."
"Why is that, Pyne?"
"It's why I'm here. It's why I've always been here. In Pollensa. Solving a problem at Pollensa Bay. It's why I'm famous, you know."
"You're not really that famous, Pyne. Not like Miss Marple, for example."
"Miss Marple!" exclaimed Pyne, his face reddening with rage. "Ridiculous old trout. Whoever heard of an old maid solving murder mysteries. It's a total nonsense."
"The same person who made you, er, famous, Pyne. And at least Miss Marple did solve murder mysteries. The problem at Pollensa Bay wasn't actually a murder story, was it. All you did was to get a mother and son to see eye to eye when it came to the son's lady friend. Strange then that they should be using 'Problem At Pollensa Bay' to justify all this discussion of the crime novel at the Pollensa Festival. Don't you think, Pyne?"
"What? What are you talking about? It still shows I am famous. Now get this Bath chair moving. I have problems to find."
"Yes, Pyne."
Wiggins wheeled Pyne past the pines. It was a splendid summer's afternoon, but the idyll was shattered by a sudden squelching noise. "I think we may have found your problem, Pyne."
"Dog mess. Not the sort of problem to exercise the wizard mind of Parker Pyne, Wiggins. Wheel on. There must be other problems to unearth, like ... . Look, over there, Wiggins. A foreigner. Call the police immediately."
"I don't think merely being a foreigner is sufficient grounds to merit the attention of the forces of the law, Pyne."
"It would have been in my day, Wiggins. This modern world. It's not like 80 years ago. When things were more civilised, genteel and foreigners knew their place. And ... . Wiggins, what in the name of heaven is this thing coming towards us?"
"It's a mobility scooter, Pyne. A motorised Bath chair."
"And look at this frightful woman, Wiggins. Smoking a cigarette, sunburned to a leathery crisp. What does she look like?"
Pyne stared at the woman, and she stared back before shouting: "Who the frig are you looking at?"
"Oh no, Wiggins. I've been transported into a 21st century comedy series about British people on holiday in Spain. I've found the problem, Wiggins. My beloved Pollensa. Men with tattoos. Women with tattoos. Karaoke. Aaargh. Take me back, Wiggins. Take me back."
Footnote: A course on the crime novel, from Agatha Christie to the current day, is currently taking place at the events hall of Colonya bank in Pollensa.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Monday, August 06, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Pollensa policeman faces prison following fight
An incident that occurred back in 2007 in Pollensa town is finally due to come to court. It relates to a fight between a local policeman and a young man which resulted in both sustaining injuries. Public prosecutors have called for two years imprisonment for the officer and three years and nine months for the young man, whose lawyer has called for sentences of 52 years for the policeman and a fellow officer.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 6 August 2012
Sticky old morning with plenty of cloud, and there has been a bit of rain. Due to clear though and the afternoon should be mostly sunny with temperatures still in the low 30s. The high at 08.30 - 26.3.
Afternoon update: Cloud persisted with only occasional sunny bursts and the odd drop of rain now and then. A high of 29.4 inland, slightly lower on the coasts.
Afternoon update: Cloud persisted with only occasional sunny bursts and the odd drop of rain now and then. A high of 29.4 inland, slightly lower on the coasts.
The Spirit Of 1992: Spain at the Olympics
Great Britain and Northern Ireland's failure to put numbers into the medals table during the first days of the Olympics suggested that the achievements of Beijing might have been exceptional. Then the medals started to flow. Beijing had not been a one-off.
Team GB is meeting the expectations of a nation in much the same way as a previous host nation's athletes fulfilled the hopes of a people. In fact, Spain's achievements in 1992 in Barcelona exceeded these expectations. Spain won 22 medals, 13 of them gold. It was its best ever medal haul. Prior to 1992, Spain had won only five golds at the 15 Olympic Games in which it had participated. Though Spain hasn't performed badly since 1992, it has come nowhere near capturing the same number of golds. And in London, as of yesterday morning, it had managed not a single gold and only three medals in all.
Spain's performance may improve but its hoped-for tally was not helped by Nadal's withdrawal or by the failure of the men's football team to qualify from the first round of matches. The shock of a national side that has won so much in other competitions missing out brought back bad memories - of a team that always underachieved, yet which first showed it could be champions by winning gold in Barcelona, a side blessed by players such as Pep Guardiola.
But why is Spain doing as poorly as it is? In numerical terms, it has the ninth largest team at the London Olympics. Sheer size doesn't automatically mean success - on this basis, Team GB, which has more athletes than any other nation, should be heading the medals table - but it does help, as it did in 1992 when Spain had the second largest contingent behind the USA.
Expectations of Spanish Olympic success were skewed dramatically by what happened in 1992. In addition to the investment that went in to transforming Barcelona, it was recognised that a nation with little success at previous Olympics had to do something in order to create pride in the athletes as well as in the facilities.
Prior to 1992, there had been no coherent training schemes for Spanish athletes. This was to all change, aided by huge sponsorship co-ordinated through the state television company TVE, which was able to bring in the best coaches from across the world. Though funding was continued and still does through the national Higher Sports Council, Spain's Olympians and their coaches have received only 50 million euros of funding over the past four years; the final calculation for Team GB's efforts in Beijing was put at 235 million pounds of Lottery funding.
Barcelona, though there was real funding for the first time, was a freak. Spain took four sailing golds in 1992, partly because the seas were familiar. Wins, such as that in the decathlon, were simply unexpected. Who now remembers Spain's tennis silver medallist, Jordi Arrese? Home advantage and home crowds and their passion counted for much, and the success in Barcelona is unlikely to ever be repeated, unless perhaps Madrid finally succeeds in its Olympic bid and gets the 2020 Games.
But funding for athletes would have to be totally reconsidered. Team GB is a perfect example of how co-ordinated and consistent funding can pay off. If Madrid is selected for 2020 and if Spain wants once more to rank among the elite of Olympic sports, then this reconsideration should be happening now.
Before the London Games, a group of statisticians, gathered from the Higher Sports Council and the banking, consulting and academic worlds, estimated that Spain would not win more than 19 medals (which would be one more than in Beijing). The athletes will need to go some to meet this. The head of elite development at the HSC has admitted that economic crisis has meant lower funding, and with Spain showing no signs of ridding itself of this crisis, it is difficult to see where the necessary funding would come from. Indeed, it is difficult to know where the funding would come from to stage the Games in Madrid.
It would be simple to say that the 2020 bid should be abandoned. Common sense would suggest that it should be, but common sense can go out the window when presented with the possibility of great events and of the achievements of home athletes. The London Olympics are proving the point.
We should hope that Spain was doing better. By extension to Mallorca, a Spain which achieves at the Olympics raises the profile of sport and therefore to the hope for sports tourism. Spanish Olympic sport needs to rediscover the joy and spirit of 1992, but can it?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Team GB is meeting the expectations of a nation in much the same way as a previous host nation's athletes fulfilled the hopes of a people. In fact, Spain's achievements in 1992 in Barcelona exceeded these expectations. Spain won 22 medals, 13 of them gold. It was its best ever medal haul. Prior to 1992, Spain had won only five golds at the 15 Olympic Games in which it had participated. Though Spain hasn't performed badly since 1992, it has come nowhere near capturing the same number of golds. And in London, as of yesterday morning, it had managed not a single gold and only three medals in all.
Spain's performance may improve but its hoped-for tally was not helped by Nadal's withdrawal or by the failure of the men's football team to qualify from the first round of matches. The shock of a national side that has won so much in other competitions missing out brought back bad memories - of a team that always underachieved, yet which first showed it could be champions by winning gold in Barcelona, a side blessed by players such as Pep Guardiola.
But why is Spain doing as poorly as it is? In numerical terms, it has the ninth largest team at the London Olympics. Sheer size doesn't automatically mean success - on this basis, Team GB, which has more athletes than any other nation, should be heading the medals table - but it does help, as it did in 1992 when Spain had the second largest contingent behind the USA.
Expectations of Spanish Olympic success were skewed dramatically by what happened in 1992. In addition to the investment that went in to transforming Barcelona, it was recognised that a nation with little success at previous Olympics had to do something in order to create pride in the athletes as well as in the facilities.
Prior to 1992, there had been no coherent training schemes for Spanish athletes. This was to all change, aided by huge sponsorship co-ordinated through the state television company TVE, which was able to bring in the best coaches from across the world. Though funding was continued and still does through the national Higher Sports Council, Spain's Olympians and their coaches have received only 50 million euros of funding over the past four years; the final calculation for Team GB's efforts in Beijing was put at 235 million pounds of Lottery funding.
Barcelona, though there was real funding for the first time, was a freak. Spain took four sailing golds in 1992, partly because the seas were familiar. Wins, such as that in the decathlon, were simply unexpected. Who now remembers Spain's tennis silver medallist, Jordi Arrese? Home advantage and home crowds and their passion counted for much, and the success in Barcelona is unlikely to ever be repeated, unless perhaps Madrid finally succeeds in its Olympic bid and gets the 2020 Games.
But funding for athletes would have to be totally reconsidered. Team GB is a perfect example of how co-ordinated and consistent funding can pay off. If Madrid is selected for 2020 and if Spain wants once more to rank among the elite of Olympic sports, then this reconsideration should be happening now.
Before the London Games, a group of statisticians, gathered from the Higher Sports Council and the banking, consulting and academic worlds, estimated that Spain would not win more than 19 medals (which would be one more than in Beijing). The athletes will need to go some to meet this. The head of elite development at the HSC has admitted that economic crisis has meant lower funding, and with Spain showing no signs of ridding itself of this crisis, it is difficult to see where the necessary funding would come from. Indeed, it is difficult to know where the funding would come from to stage the Games in Madrid.
It would be simple to say that the 2020 bid should be abandoned. Common sense would suggest that it should be, but common sense can go out the window when presented with the possibility of great events and of the achievements of home athletes. The London Olympics are proving the point.
We should hope that Spain was doing better. By extension to Mallorca, a Spain which achieves at the Olympics raises the profile of sport and therefore to the hope for sports tourism. Spanish Olympic sport needs to rediscover the joy and spirit of 1992, but can it?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Sunday, August 05, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Melons to be added to Can Picafort's rubber ducks
No one in Can Picafort and Santa Margalida appears to agree with the ban on real ducks being released during the duck race of Can Picafort's fiestas on 15 August, but faced with it, the town hall has opted to add melons to the rubber-duck trophies to be swum for. The town hall had been hoping for a modification to animal-protection law to permit the return of real ducks.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 5 August 2012
The 08.00 highs on a partially cloudy and very humid morning are around 23 degrees. The breezes are predominantly southerly and it may be warmer today than yesterday's coastal high of 32 as a result. Sunny for most of the day but cloud returning and tomorrow looks gloomy but with only a small chance of rain. The cloud is set to persist into Tuesday but then clear, giving a fine and hot week.
Afternoon update: 30.9 the best on the coasts on a mostly sunny day in the end, but also still humid. Inland, quite a bit warmer, Sa Pobla knocking in 34.3.
Afternoon update: 30.9 the best on the coasts on a mostly sunny day in the end, but also still humid. Inland, quite a bit warmer, Sa Pobla knocking in 34.3.
The Road To Wigan Pier
George Orwell made famous a landmark that no longer existed. If Iván Ramis is thinking that he might spend some leisure time soaking in local Lancastrian culture, he will be disappointed to know that there is no pier as such in Wigan.
Ramis' cultural indoctrination will probably stretch no further than the DW Stadium, to the inevitable nickname of Ivan The Terrible, which could be because he either is terrible or terrorises forwards, and to the informed (sic) comments of callers to 6-0-6. Welcome, therefore, to Wigan, welcome to the Premier League, this son of Sa Pobla.
The transfer of Ramis has been a curious affair, not because a player being transferred is curious but because of the attention it has received. But then, it isn't every day that a Real Mallorca player is transferred to an English club and even less of an everyday event that a player from Sa Pobla is. Nevertheless, player from average La Liga side moves to average Premier League side hardly ranks as being momentous by the standards of the two respectively puffed-up leagues.
This didn't stop the local television station, IB3, pitching up in Sa Pobla to gather local opinion for what ranks as one of the more important moments in Sa Pobla's history, ones that don't come around that often. They have just celebrated the hundredth anniversary of the arrival of electricity in the town, and one hundred years on from this, there is finally something else to celebrate, if a player being transferred to Wigan can be considered something worthy of celebration.
Apart from the cultural banter that Ramis will now be able to engage in with Wayne Rooney, what awaits him culturally? There is some home from home in that Sa Pobla's greatest claim to fame, the potato, will be available in chipped form, between two slabs of bread and with a ton of ketchup poured onto it. Sa Pobla's other achievements, in the culinary scheme of things, namely eels and rice, will be less available. There are eels in Lancashire, but they don't as a rule do to them what Londoners do, which is to make them doubly stomach-churning by adding jelly. Rice there most certainly is, but not of the paella and arroz brut style, merely the pilau variety of the local curry house.
Cultural culinary references, such as that to the chip butty, universal in the UK though it may well have originated in either Yorkshire or Lancashire, belong to the Eddie Waring School of All Things Northern, and in the case of Wigan to the way that Eddie pronounced it. The Waring Wigan became a leitmotif of Northernness, one impersonated repeatedly and one from which the town has never truly escaped.
The North, as we know, and Ramis might even think that it is, is a place of Danny Boyle's chimneys and dark satanic mills, men with cloth caps and whippets, and pigeon-fanciers. While the British hold to cultural stereotypes for other nations, so they also hold to them for regions of Britain. Wigan is North, which can mean all sorts of things that Wigan may well not and does not actually represent.
Accordingly, Ramis may encounter a man with a whippet who greets him thus: "ey up, Iván". "Ey up" isn't a Lancashire expression. It may well be spoken in Lancashire, but it certainly didn't originate there. There is, though, a potential Balearics link, or so a good friend of mine from Barcelona has suggested it. This is that the Mallorcan greeting of "uep" is derived from "ey up" and that the derivation was one that the Menorcans initially made when Menorca was under British occupation. Whether there is any basis to this idea or not, and I somewhat suspect there isn't, Iván won't necessarily think he is being greeted in a style similar to that in Mallorca, as "ey up" is not native to Wigan.
Of course, he probably won't set foot in Wigan, other than to play football, and will prefer to be housed and gated somewhere on the Wirral. And from there he'll be able to send his tweets to all those back in Mallorca, saying how much he's enjoying the wonderful Lancashire (Cheshire) climate. It should do wonders for Wigan in promoting the town to the Mallorcans.
Wigan will assume a very much higher profile in Mallorca than it has previously enjoyed, Ramis' exploits will be reported by the Mallorcan media and, who knows, maybe Wigan will enjoy a sudden burst of tourism from the people of Sa Pobla and elsewhere. Not that these tourists will ever find a pier, but might be fooled into thinking they would do - "el camí a moll de Wigan".
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Ramis' cultural indoctrination will probably stretch no further than the DW Stadium, to the inevitable nickname of Ivan The Terrible, which could be because he either is terrible or terrorises forwards, and to the informed (sic) comments of callers to 6-0-6. Welcome, therefore, to Wigan, welcome to the Premier League, this son of Sa Pobla.
The transfer of Ramis has been a curious affair, not because a player being transferred is curious but because of the attention it has received. But then, it isn't every day that a Real Mallorca player is transferred to an English club and even less of an everyday event that a player from Sa Pobla is. Nevertheless, player from average La Liga side moves to average Premier League side hardly ranks as being momentous by the standards of the two respectively puffed-up leagues.
This didn't stop the local television station, IB3, pitching up in Sa Pobla to gather local opinion for what ranks as one of the more important moments in Sa Pobla's history, ones that don't come around that often. They have just celebrated the hundredth anniversary of the arrival of electricity in the town, and one hundred years on from this, there is finally something else to celebrate, if a player being transferred to Wigan can be considered something worthy of celebration.
Apart from the cultural banter that Ramis will now be able to engage in with Wayne Rooney, what awaits him culturally? There is some home from home in that Sa Pobla's greatest claim to fame, the potato, will be available in chipped form, between two slabs of bread and with a ton of ketchup poured onto it. Sa Pobla's other achievements, in the culinary scheme of things, namely eels and rice, will be less available. There are eels in Lancashire, but they don't as a rule do to them what Londoners do, which is to make them doubly stomach-churning by adding jelly. Rice there most certainly is, but not of the paella and arroz brut style, merely the pilau variety of the local curry house.
Cultural culinary references, such as that to the chip butty, universal in the UK though it may well have originated in either Yorkshire or Lancashire, belong to the Eddie Waring School of All Things Northern, and in the case of Wigan to the way that Eddie pronounced it. The Waring Wigan became a leitmotif of Northernness, one impersonated repeatedly and one from which the town has never truly escaped.
The North, as we know, and Ramis might even think that it is, is a place of Danny Boyle's chimneys and dark satanic mills, men with cloth caps and whippets, and pigeon-fanciers. While the British hold to cultural stereotypes for other nations, so they also hold to them for regions of Britain. Wigan is North, which can mean all sorts of things that Wigan may well not and does not actually represent.
Accordingly, Ramis may encounter a man with a whippet who greets him thus: "ey up, Iván". "Ey up" isn't a Lancashire expression. It may well be spoken in Lancashire, but it certainly didn't originate there. There is, though, a potential Balearics link, or so a good friend of mine from Barcelona has suggested it. This is that the Mallorcan greeting of "uep" is derived from "ey up" and that the derivation was one that the Menorcans initially made when Menorca was under British occupation. Whether there is any basis to this idea or not, and I somewhat suspect there isn't, Iván won't necessarily think he is being greeted in a style similar to that in Mallorca, as "ey up" is not native to Wigan.
Of course, he probably won't set foot in Wigan, other than to play football, and will prefer to be housed and gated somewhere on the Wirral. And from there he'll be able to send his tweets to all those back in Mallorca, saying how much he's enjoying the wonderful Lancashire (Cheshire) climate. It should do wonders for Wigan in promoting the town to the Mallorcans.
Wigan will assume a very much higher profile in Mallorca than it has previously enjoyed, Ramis' exploits will be reported by the Mallorcan media and, who knows, maybe Wigan will enjoy a sudden burst of tourism from the people of Sa Pobla and elsewhere. Not that these tourists will ever find a pier, but might be fooled into thinking they would do - "el camí a moll de Wigan".
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Saturday, August 04, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 4 August 2012
25.8 at 08.30 on a sunny and calm morning. Blue skies all day and highs just into the 30s. The weekend staying sunny and hot with the forecast for Monday a bit better (less cloud on the cards) and for a rise in temperature during the week.
Afternoon update: 33.3 in Sa Pobla and 32.1 on the coast, the highs today. Remaining humid, the forecast has now decided that the cloud on Monday will be heavy after all, with some build up tomorrow.
Afternoon update: 33.3 in Sa Pobla and 32.1 on the coast, the highs today. Remaining humid, the forecast has now decided that the cloud on Monday will be heavy after all, with some build up tomorrow.
Separate Development In Alcúdia
Something definitely is stirring, nautically speaking, in Alcúdia. The appearance of "Sea Cloud" may have been a bit of a non-event, but in a week or so's time, there is to be an event which is anything but non. It is the 28th staging of the Trofeu Almirall Comte de Barcelona, a regatta for boats built before 1950 (or replicas thereof), and it is serious stuff.
So serious is it that you wonder why little is being said about it. There may yet of course be some grand fanfare and some grand splurge of publicity, but the only notice locally that I have seen for it is in a PDF for Alcúdia's "Agost a la fresca" which apparently is only available online.
The website for the regatta, that of the Fundación Hispania, does a throughly good gushing job in bigging up Alcúdia and its advantages for sailing: "insuperable conditions for sailing"; "exceptional wind"; "beauty of the bay of Alcúdia". So gushing is it, you wonder why they've not staged the event in Alcúdia before. Always assuming they haven't, because finding some really good historical information about the regatta has proven difficult. It's there, just that it doesn't say very much.
The regatta is unquestionably a feather in Alcúdia's cap and assists further with the resort's ambitions as a centre for watersports. It is also a confirmation of the existence of an Alcúdia which is removed from the experiences of many holidaymakers. The "magnificent enclave" of the marina with its "lounge" that will be "managed by the (Michelin-starred) Restaurant Jardín" is an example of the description of the regatta's venue for those participating.
But, and notwithstanding the fact that Jardín itself is located quite close to The Mile, it is a description that conflicts with how the average punter around The Mile (and Magic) will think of Alcúdia. The marina is a part of Alcúdia all on its own. It's even in conflict with other parts of the port area where restaurant owners object to apparent preferential treatment. The marina is a part of Alcúdia and it is apart.
The regatta, hugely welcome, does, nevertheless, highlight Alcúdia's diversity. In one respect, this is a good thing, but in another, it isn't. There is a lack of uniformity in the way in which resources have been devoted to the resort, and The Mile area is right down the list of priorities, despite its being the main centre of tourism.
This lack of uniformity is such that one gets an uneasy feeling of the hoi-polloi having to watch on while the rich, as typified by the regatta, are at play. There is a tension in Alcúdia, not widely spoken, but existing all the same, and the fact that restaurant owners and other tourist businesses, primarily located around The Mile, are talking of staging protests at the tourism ministry against the effects of all-inclusives suggests that it is now going to be spoken more loudly. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer, or something like this; the rich being the marina and some hotels, the poor being many of the restaurant and bar owners, especially if they have no presence among the glitterati of the marina's regatta brigade.
The story in Alcúdia is likely to be one of growing division. The marina, together with its sport, typifies the government's drive towards modernisation of the resorts and of their gentrification. But resorts cannot all be like Alcúdia's marina, and not all of Alcúdia can be like the marina. It is difficult to see, despite the legal reforms and despite taxes for conversion work being earmarked for resort renewal, how areas of Alcúdia - The Mile and parts around Magic - can be upgraded significantly, unless there is massive investment of the sort that Melià is pumping into Magalluf. There is no Melià in Alcúdia though, and while some hotels will be in a position to upgrade. modernise, convert or whatever, other will not be. How, for example, do you solve a problem like Bellevue?
The regatta is good news. It genuinely is. But it is news that informs us of the have and have-not differences in Alcúdia. That informs us of the resort's separate development. Something has to be done about The Mile, but will it?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
So serious is it that you wonder why little is being said about it. There may yet of course be some grand fanfare and some grand splurge of publicity, but the only notice locally that I have seen for it is in a PDF for Alcúdia's "Agost a la fresca" which apparently is only available online.
The website for the regatta, that of the Fundación Hispania, does a throughly good gushing job in bigging up Alcúdia and its advantages for sailing: "insuperable conditions for sailing"; "exceptional wind"; "beauty of the bay of Alcúdia". So gushing is it, you wonder why they've not staged the event in Alcúdia before. Always assuming they haven't, because finding some really good historical information about the regatta has proven difficult. It's there, just that it doesn't say very much.
The regatta is unquestionably a feather in Alcúdia's cap and assists further with the resort's ambitions as a centre for watersports. It is also a confirmation of the existence of an Alcúdia which is removed from the experiences of many holidaymakers. The "magnificent enclave" of the marina with its "lounge" that will be "managed by the (Michelin-starred) Restaurant Jardín" is an example of the description of the regatta's venue for those participating.
But, and notwithstanding the fact that Jardín itself is located quite close to The Mile, it is a description that conflicts with how the average punter around The Mile (and Magic) will think of Alcúdia. The marina is a part of Alcúdia all on its own. It's even in conflict with other parts of the port area where restaurant owners object to apparent preferential treatment. The marina is a part of Alcúdia and it is apart.
The regatta, hugely welcome, does, nevertheless, highlight Alcúdia's diversity. In one respect, this is a good thing, but in another, it isn't. There is a lack of uniformity in the way in which resources have been devoted to the resort, and The Mile area is right down the list of priorities, despite its being the main centre of tourism.
This lack of uniformity is such that one gets an uneasy feeling of the hoi-polloi having to watch on while the rich, as typified by the regatta, are at play. There is a tension in Alcúdia, not widely spoken, but existing all the same, and the fact that restaurant owners and other tourist businesses, primarily located around The Mile, are talking of staging protests at the tourism ministry against the effects of all-inclusives suggests that it is now going to be spoken more loudly. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer, or something like this; the rich being the marina and some hotels, the poor being many of the restaurant and bar owners, especially if they have no presence among the glitterati of the marina's regatta brigade.
The story in Alcúdia is likely to be one of growing division. The marina, together with its sport, typifies the government's drive towards modernisation of the resorts and of their gentrification. But resorts cannot all be like Alcúdia's marina, and not all of Alcúdia can be like the marina. It is difficult to see, despite the legal reforms and despite taxes for conversion work being earmarked for resort renewal, how areas of Alcúdia - The Mile and parts around Magic - can be upgraded significantly, unless there is massive investment of the sort that Melià is pumping into Magalluf. There is no Melià in Alcúdia though, and while some hotels will be in a position to upgrade. modernise, convert or whatever, other will not be. How, for example, do you solve a problem like Bellevue?
The regatta is good news. It genuinely is. But it is news that informs us of the have and have-not differences in Alcúdia. That informs us of the resort's separate development. Something has to be done about The Mile, but will it?
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Friday, August 03, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Son Vida fire not threatening homes
A huge plume of smoke from a fire near Son Vida in Palma will probably have been causing some disruption to air traffic. The fire, which started some time after 2pm, is at a low level of risk as homes are not threatened, but it is requiring the attention of Canadair, water-bombing helicopters as well as several fire crews. It is not known yet if the fire was intentional.
Update: The fire was under control by yesterday evening, some nine to ten hectares of wood land having been affected.
See photo with the short report: El Mundo
Update: The fire was under control by yesterday evening, some nine to ten hectares of wood land having been affected.
See photo with the short report: El Mundo
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 3 August 2012
A clear morning with lower humidity and a local high of 26.3 at 08.00. Sunny all day and into Saturday, cloud is due to build on Sunday and then particularly on Monday. Temperatures remaining around 30 or higher.
Afternoon update: Just topping 30 on the coasts this afternoon, still quite humid. Likely to be hotter tomorrow and forecast into the middle of next week suggests that another mini-heatwave may be on its way.
Afternoon update: Just topping 30 on the coasts this afternoon, still quite humid. Likely to be hotter tomorrow and forecast into the middle of next week suggests that another mini-heatwave may be on its way.
Catatonic: Mallorca and celebrity
Kerry Katona has been in Mallorca. Lucky old Mallorca. Natasha Hamilton has also been in Mallorca. Lucky old Mallorca twice over. It is not known if Kerry and Natasha met up to compare reality-show notes whilst on the island, though it is doubtful; Kerry wasn't invited to Natasha's wedding, and one imagines that Natasha hasn't been invited to Kerry's various nuptials and divorce celebrations.
If you have no idea who either of these ladies are, then you clearly do not spend your entire lives attached to a television reality show, dissecting the celebrity pages of magazines and newspapers or having old Atomic Kitten CDs on endless play in the car. They would actually have to be very old CDs where Kerry was concerned. The remarkable thing about her, and there is much that is remarkable, is that she left before the girl group achieved real success; the single most remarkable thing about Kerry is that she acquired celebrityhood through having done absolutely nothing of any note.
Mallorca is especially lucky as Kerry has been saying how much she liked the island. On the principle that all publicity is good publicity, then one supposes this is positive. And as Kerry has been a sage to a generation, then it has to be. Indeed, given Kerry's attributes as a role model, it would be surprising were the tourism ministry not inclined to rope her in as a promotional face of Mallorca. Forget the clean-cut sideburns of an Olympic and Tour de France champion, get someone with four children, two failed marriages, a bankruptcy, a bipolar disorder, a drug and drink habit (no longer of course), and you have almost the perfect image for just the sort of tourist Mallorca craves.
Kerry's one of those easy targets. When you have a surname such as hers and a previous drug habit, then it is a simple leap to arrive at Kerry Catatonic. Less simple, because you have to have made the original leap, is to think that Catatonic is some form of hair restorer for young pussies, by which I do of course mean kittens. Atomic or otherwise.
Kerry may be an easy target, but I have a lot of admiration for her. It's not her fault that she is a product of times that elevate someone to celebrity status for all the wrong reasons. It is also not her fault that, in the pursuit of celebritist vacuity, the local media (and others) should attach themselves to her moments on Mallorca.You go for it, girl. Play it for all it's worth.
It is getting worse, the Mallorcan addiction to celebrity. It has long been an affliction, but it has become an epidemic. Summer brings out the worst of this disease, as there are more names around who can be dropped, but the superficiality of Mallorca's celebritism is now spreading even thinner than it used to. The island is no longer founded on limestone but on the shallow shale of the celebrity, and as such it is an appropriate reflection of much of the shallowness that passes for everyday life.
My old idea of a "Celebritarium" attraction/theme park does need revisiting. I quite overlooked (how could I have?) Kerry's place alongside Lempit Öpik as a regular in the Celebritarium, the concept for which is that celebrities are released back into their natural habitats - well-known clubs and shows on the island, Portals Nous (for the very good reason that Louise Redknapp once considered it "authentic"), various yachts and yacht clubs, anything with five stars appended to it, something for charity naturally enough - while Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughbooby provide an endless, running commentary and conduct interviews regarding their latest books/drug addiction/new video/Twitter trolling/run with the Olympic torch/charitable foundation, or all of these.
I'm convinced that the Celebritarium would be a huge success. And where better to locate it than on Celebrity Island, home to the vacuous. Indeed, given that that other theme park idea - you'll remember the one - seems to have dropped off the publicity agenda (tourism minister Delgado has suggested that it isn't a dead duck, but there is a distinct lack of quacking going on, which suggests otherwise), then the Celebritarium would fill the void perfectly. And it would be a major boost to winter tourism, too.
Such a good idea is it that people need to move quickly before somewhere else nicks the idea. Somewhere like, for example, Catalonia. Which sounds remarkably similar to catatonia.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
If you have no idea who either of these ladies are, then you clearly do not spend your entire lives attached to a television reality show, dissecting the celebrity pages of magazines and newspapers or having old Atomic Kitten CDs on endless play in the car. They would actually have to be very old CDs where Kerry was concerned. The remarkable thing about her, and there is much that is remarkable, is that she left before the girl group achieved real success; the single most remarkable thing about Kerry is that she acquired celebrityhood through having done absolutely nothing of any note.
Mallorca is especially lucky as Kerry has been saying how much she liked the island. On the principle that all publicity is good publicity, then one supposes this is positive. And as Kerry has been a sage to a generation, then it has to be. Indeed, given Kerry's attributes as a role model, it would be surprising were the tourism ministry not inclined to rope her in as a promotional face of Mallorca. Forget the clean-cut sideburns of an Olympic and Tour de France champion, get someone with four children, two failed marriages, a bankruptcy, a bipolar disorder, a drug and drink habit (no longer of course), and you have almost the perfect image for just the sort of tourist Mallorca craves.
Kerry's one of those easy targets. When you have a surname such as hers and a previous drug habit, then it is a simple leap to arrive at Kerry Catatonic. Less simple, because you have to have made the original leap, is to think that Catatonic is some form of hair restorer for young pussies, by which I do of course mean kittens. Atomic or otherwise.
Kerry may be an easy target, but I have a lot of admiration for her. It's not her fault that she is a product of times that elevate someone to celebrity status for all the wrong reasons. It is also not her fault that, in the pursuit of celebritist vacuity, the local media (and others) should attach themselves to her moments on Mallorca.You go for it, girl. Play it for all it's worth.
It is getting worse, the Mallorcan addiction to celebrity. It has long been an affliction, but it has become an epidemic. Summer brings out the worst of this disease, as there are more names around who can be dropped, but the superficiality of Mallorca's celebritism is now spreading even thinner than it used to. The island is no longer founded on limestone but on the shallow shale of the celebrity, and as such it is an appropriate reflection of much of the shallowness that passes for everyday life.
My old idea of a "Celebritarium" attraction/theme park does need revisiting. I quite overlooked (how could I have?) Kerry's place alongside Lempit Öpik as a regular in the Celebritarium, the concept for which is that celebrities are released back into their natural habitats - well-known clubs and shows on the island, Portals Nous (for the very good reason that Louise Redknapp once considered it "authentic"), various yachts and yacht clubs, anything with five stars appended to it, something for charity naturally enough - while Phillip Schofield and Holly Willoughbooby provide an endless, running commentary and conduct interviews regarding their latest books/drug addiction/new video/Twitter trolling/run with the Olympic torch/charitable foundation, or all of these.
I'm convinced that the Celebritarium would be a huge success. And where better to locate it than on Celebrity Island, home to the vacuous. Indeed, given that that other theme park idea - you'll remember the one - seems to have dropped off the publicity agenda (tourism minister Delgado has suggested that it isn't a dead duck, but there is a distinct lack of quacking going on, which suggests otherwise), then the Celebritarium would fill the void perfectly. And it would be a major boost to winter tourism, too.
Such a good idea is it that people need to move quickly before somewhere else nicks the idea. Somewhere like, for example, Catalonia. Which sounds remarkably similar to catatonia.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Thursday, August 02, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Judge says Nueva Rumasa diverted mortgage money
The truly bizarre case of Nueva Rumasa and its "colourful" owner, José María Ruiz-Mateos, gets more bizarre and more serious. The judge in Palma investigating the affairs of Nueva Rumasa has ordered Ruiz-Mateos' arrest after he failed to appear at court on Friday, claiming that a fractured foot meant that he could not travel. The judge has now also confirmed that money raised through mortgaging hotels in the Hotasa chain in the Balearics was diverted.
See more: El Mundo
See more: El Mundo
MALLORCA TODAY - Palma binmen's strike is called off
As had been anticipated, strikes on eleven days this month by Emaya employees who provide refuse collection and cleaning services in Palma, Llucmajor and Sóller have been called off.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Dramatic rise in house robberies in the Balearics
Crime figures for the period from January to June show a dramatic rise in the number of house robberies with force - up by almost 60%. Otherwise, there has been a general fall in crime levels.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - No fireworks for Pollensa's Patrona
Despite residents having raised money for a fireworks display, there will not be one at the end of Pollensa's Patrona festivities this evening as it was too late to obtain the necessary permissions. The display, cancelled last year and this on financial grounds, has been replaced by a "traca", which is a string of fire crackers.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - Image of the Virgin Sanctuary of Pollensa restored
A fourteenth century icon of the Virgin that had fallen into a very poor state has been restored thanks to support from the Council of Mallorca's culture department and will now be placed back on display in Pollensa Museum.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - Swimmers complete crossing to Alcúdia from mainland
Four swimmers, swimming in relay for four days, yesterday completed the 220 kilometre crossing from Mataró, north of Barcelona, to Puerto Alcúdia.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Intentional fires in Peguera
Two more fires yesterday, started at the same time and in the Peguera area, leading to the belief that they were, as with others, deliberate. The fires, on this occasion, caused relatively little damage.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 2 August 2012
Some cloud this morning. High humidity levels and temperatures of 24 and 25 at 08.30, rising to the 30 mark or higher later. Due to be quite windy tomorrow and also to be cooler.
Afternoon update: 32.8 the inland high and a couple of degrees lower on the coast. The humidity has continued through the day but at least the coastal breezes have helped to counteract it.
Afternoon update: 32.8 the inland high and a couple of degrees lower on the coast. The humidity has continued through the day but at least the coastal breezes have helped to counteract it.
Nothing Changes: All-inclusives
I have a system which highlights the subject matter of every article I have written since 2006 about Mallorca. It won't come as any surprise to know that Mallorca itself is way in the lead when it comes to themes within this archive. Other than similarly general references to the Balearics, to certain towns (Alcúdia and Pollensa most obviously), to the Balearic Government and to tourism, all of which also command particularly high numbers, of specific topics, there, more or less at number one on the list, is the subject of all-inclusives. It beats even corruption and Catalan, though admittedly not by much.
There are roughly 2000 articles in this archive. 3.6% of them have had to do with all-inclusives. Expressed as a percentage, this may not sound a lot, but some 70 or so articles over the years amount to a confirmation of the importance of the subject and also to the fact that there is probably very little more that either I or anyone could actually say on the subject. It has all been said many, many times, and if you were go back before 2006, it would have been said then as well.
It does come, therefore, not as a total surprise but as an exercise of far-too-late futility that tourist businesses in Alcúdia have decided to form a platform from which they intend to express their discontent with not just all-inclusives and their impact but also much of the regional government's new tourism law.
Such a platform is far too late by a good 15 years; more maybe. Expressions of concern as to the impact of all-inclusives date back to the 1990s, but expressions were all they were. It wasn't necessarily the case that there was a lack of foresight as to how the all-inclusive development might pan out, but it was the case that, lulled by the complacency that has dogged Mallorca's tourism and by the still easy money that was to be made, no strong objections were raised that might - one says might - have caused the history of all-inclusives to be rather different. If all-inclusives were to have been challenged, if they were to have been subject to strict controls, if they were to have been a priority for discussion with the all-powerful tour operators, the 1990s were when the challenge should have been made.
What does this Alcúdia platform intend doing? One thing is that it may demonstrate outside the tourism ministry in September. I'm sure Delgado will be sleeping uneasily at the prospect. Another thing is that it wishes to make this platform an island-wide movement, islands' wide probably. And then what?
It is not that I am not supportive of the Alcúdia businesses, not that I am not, as I have been for years, deeply concerned as to the effects of all-inclusives, but I have heard all of the protest talk, the forming of pressure groups talk, the this, that or the next action against all-inclusives that many times that it no longer has the capacity to make me believe that any effort will produce anything other than the normal bluster, hot air, anger, same-old arguments that all the other ones have. Indeed, where Alcúdia is concerned, there was talk this time last year of a protest in the form of a day of restaurant closure. There was never any chance of it happening, though when it was being spoken about was when I was aiding the BBC with a feature on all-inclusives (centred on Alcúdia and Can Picafort), and the BBC were sufficiently interested to know if anything came of it. Why? Because it would have been a dramatic form of protest. So dramatic that there was no possibility of it ever materialising.
The all-inclusive polemic shifts only in the scale of the problem. Economic crisis has made the impact more acute and the availability of all-inclusive more apparent. To add to this, there are the changes in the tourism law which will allow hotels to include in their grounds more of which was only to be found outside them, thus potentially further harming tourist businesses. To cap it all, there is the IVA increase.
Many of these businesses will be headed by people who voted for the Partido Popular, but they did so knowing that Delgado was on a mission for change. They knew, or should have done, that there was precious little that he would or could do about all-inclusives, and the precious little that is contained in the tourism law is little indeed. They might not have envisaged the IVA increase, especially as a reduction had been promised, but whether they did or they didn't, they voted for a government that is doing nothing for them. Well, to be honest, they should have known better.
Maybe the tourism law's insistence on hotels having quality plans will have an effect and lead to some hotels having to abandon all-inclusive. But no one is surely relying on this as an outcome as, in the same way, they are not relying on the daft prohibition of food and drink being taken out of hotels making one iota of difference.
Doubtless I will write further articles about all-inclusives, but this one - number 71 in a series - only really adds to what is already known. 71 articles, enough material for a book. A book with a familiar story line, a familiar plot and a familiar ending. Nothing will change.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
There are roughly 2000 articles in this archive. 3.6% of them have had to do with all-inclusives. Expressed as a percentage, this may not sound a lot, but some 70 or so articles over the years amount to a confirmation of the importance of the subject and also to the fact that there is probably very little more that either I or anyone could actually say on the subject. It has all been said many, many times, and if you were go back before 2006, it would have been said then as well.
It does come, therefore, not as a total surprise but as an exercise of far-too-late futility that tourist businesses in Alcúdia have decided to form a platform from which they intend to express their discontent with not just all-inclusives and their impact but also much of the regional government's new tourism law.
Such a platform is far too late by a good 15 years; more maybe. Expressions of concern as to the impact of all-inclusives date back to the 1990s, but expressions were all they were. It wasn't necessarily the case that there was a lack of foresight as to how the all-inclusive development might pan out, but it was the case that, lulled by the complacency that has dogged Mallorca's tourism and by the still easy money that was to be made, no strong objections were raised that might - one says might - have caused the history of all-inclusives to be rather different. If all-inclusives were to have been challenged, if they were to have been subject to strict controls, if they were to have been a priority for discussion with the all-powerful tour operators, the 1990s were when the challenge should have been made.
What does this Alcúdia platform intend doing? One thing is that it may demonstrate outside the tourism ministry in September. I'm sure Delgado will be sleeping uneasily at the prospect. Another thing is that it wishes to make this platform an island-wide movement, islands' wide probably. And then what?
It is not that I am not supportive of the Alcúdia businesses, not that I am not, as I have been for years, deeply concerned as to the effects of all-inclusives, but I have heard all of the protest talk, the forming of pressure groups talk, the this, that or the next action against all-inclusives that many times that it no longer has the capacity to make me believe that any effort will produce anything other than the normal bluster, hot air, anger, same-old arguments that all the other ones have. Indeed, where Alcúdia is concerned, there was talk this time last year of a protest in the form of a day of restaurant closure. There was never any chance of it happening, though when it was being spoken about was when I was aiding the BBC with a feature on all-inclusives (centred on Alcúdia and Can Picafort), and the BBC were sufficiently interested to know if anything came of it. Why? Because it would have been a dramatic form of protest. So dramatic that there was no possibility of it ever materialising.
The all-inclusive polemic shifts only in the scale of the problem. Economic crisis has made the impact more acute and the availability of all-inclusive more apparent. To add to this, there are the changes in the tourism law which will allow hotels to include in their grounds more of which was only to be found outside them, thus potentially further harming tourist businesses. To cap it all, there is the IVA increase.
Many of these businesses will be headed by people who voted for the Partido Popular, but they did so knowing that Delgado was on a mission for change. They knew, or should have done, that there was precious little that he would or could do about all-inclusives, and the precious little that is contained in the tourism law is little indeed. They might not have envisaged the IVA increase, especially as a reduction had been promised, but whether they did or they didn't, they voted for a government that is doing nothing for them. Well, to be honest, they should have known better.
Maybe the tourism law's insistence on hotels having quality plans will have an effect and lead to some hotels having to abandon all-inclusive. But no one is surely relying on this as an outcome as, in the same way, they are not relying on the daft prohibition of food and drink being taken out of hotels making one iota of difference.
Doubtless I will write further articles about all-inclusives, but this one - number 71 in a series - only really adds to what is already known. 71 articles, enough material for a book. A book with a familiar story line, a familiar plot and a familiar ending. Nothing will change.
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
Wednesday, August 01, 2012
MALLORCA TODAY - Cleaning and refuse strike in Palma likely to be called off
It is expected that, following a meeting with Mayor Isern, workers with Palma's Emaya environment division, responsible for street cleaning and refuse collection, will tomorrow call off their planned strikes for August.
See more: Ultima Hora
See more: Ultima Hora
MALLORCA TODAY - Closing speeches in Hirst trial
The jury at the trial of John Hirst and others accused of involvement with Hirst's Ponzi investment scheme is expected to start its deliberations next week, having heard closing speeches and the judge's summing up.
See more: Huddersfield Daily Examiner
See more: Huddersfield Daily Examiner
MALLORCA TODAY - What to eat for a Mallorcan summer lunch
"The Diario" has consulted head chefs at five restaurants, not exactly known for being at the economy end of the food chain, as to their favoured dishes at lunchtime. So, for those of you really interested, get your Google Translate out to discover the best of Mallorcan lunch cuisine and what to drink; the chefs suggest local whites, rosés or sparkling wines, which won't exactly come as a surprise, though given that any alcohol contributes to dehydration on a hot day, then maybe the wines should be avoided.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Alcúdia tourist businesses plan action against all-inclusives
A meeting in Alcúdia yesterday, convened by Acotur, the association of tourist businesses, has agreed to form a platform to voice dissatisfaction with the new tourism law and the ongoing impact of all-inclusive hotels. The Alcúdia businesses hope to make this an island-wide movement, are considering protests in September, e.g. at the tourism ministry, and are looking at gaining union involvement and support.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Petrol in the Balearics costs more than in rest of Spain
According to a survey by the Consumers and Users Organisation, diesel in the Balearics costs 8,4 cents more per litre than the region with the lowest price in Spain, Navarre, while 95 petrol is 7.2 cents more expensive than in the province of Huesca, where it is the most economic.
See more: Diario de Mallorca
See more: Diario de Mallorca
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 1 August 2012
24 degrees the local high at 08.15. A cloudless sky and remaining clear and getting hot, the yellow alert suggesting temperatures into the mid-30s. The dominant breeze, not that there is one this morning, is now northerly, so the heat shouldn't be as suffocating as when there is a southerly. The outlook stays fine, though there is the likelihood of some cloud later today and into tomorrow, and very warm, the heatwave due to give way to a fall in temperature on Friday, especially in the north-east of the island.
Afternoon update: So, pretty serious heat today. In the Muro area, it peaked at 100F (37.9), coastal highs at 34.2.
Afternoon update: So, pretty serious heat today. In the Muro area, it peaked at 100F (37.9), coastal highs at 34.2.
The Dying Art Of The Fiesta Poster
One says, "has a status", but the past tense is now more appropriate. The posters had this status until crisis came along. Even this has taken a time to have an effect, but fiesta posters and their accompanying programmes are noticeably less elaborate. It has really only been this year, though, that there has been a marked austerity that has crept into fiesta publicity, while town halls might also be more aware of what they are commissioning, ever since Palma was caught out by a poster design for Sant Sebastià that had been nicked.
Sant Sebastià is some way off, but Palma has already announced a massive cut to the budget, which includes a saving of 100,000 euros on the fireworks. As one councillor sort of put it, it is difficult to justify spending 100,000 euros for half-an-hour's worth of going up in smoke. One might well ask if such spend had ever been justifiable. But with such a knife having been taken to the total budget, one can anticipate far less grand a publicity effort as well.
Palma might well take a lead from northern fiestas. Puerto Alcúdia's Sant Pere fiesta had a perfectly decent poster and programme this year, one that used images from the past and that were representative of tourism, fishing and the port's patron. What the town hall hadn't commissioned (or quite probably hadn't been encouraged to commission) was what had been the publicity for the two previous fiestas - one, a programme that was in the shape of a fish, the other, one that could be folded and made into a hat.
Both were all well and innovative, but as anyone who has ever had anything to do with printing in Mallorca can tell you, print costs are excessive (and unreasonable) enough as they are, without having to then factor in costs for complicated cutting and folding.
Pollensa's Patrona this year has made do with a very much simpler design approach. The poster shows the symbol of the town's "gall" (cock to you and me) with crossed swords to denote the Moors and Christians. Otherwise, the programme is largely stripped of colour, which compares with last year's reliance on colour photography. The saving won't necessarily be huge, but the design and the programme send out a message of austerity being applied.
Then there is the publicity for Can Picafort's Mare de Déu d'Agost fiestas. This year's efforts have taken on such an appearance of austerity that the poster looks as though it has been scanned from some old design, which it may well have been. The result, though, is shoddy, while the programme's use of colour is minimal to say the least.
Can Picafort, or rather Santa Margalida, spends a fair old wedge on fiestas, with a sizable chunk going on what is the most spectacular of all the northern fireworks displays. This seems to have escaped drastic cuts, but the publicity most definitely hasn't. It is a shame, because Can Picafort, rare for a Mallorcan fiesta, has in the past been able to graphically convey a sense of humour. The year after the naughty boys first released live ducks during the duck-tossing race and wore Power Rangers masks to disguise themselves, the fiesta poster showed two children with the same type of mask and a real duck. It was arguably the best poster that any fiesta had ever produced, probably helped by a town hall that had to be threatened with legal action if it didn't comply with the banning of live ducks, which it eventually did.
Both the posters and the programmes are pieces of publicity for imparting information. In this respect, elaborate productions are unnecessary, while printing either of them is questionable when the information is easily disseminated via the internet. But such a pragmatic approach misses the point. The programmes can be more minimalist, but the posters should still be of high impact. Apart from encouraging creative design, they serve as expressions for local communities, and in Mallorca, great emphasis is placed on artistic endeavour as an aspect of these communities, not least in Pollensa with its long association with art.
Posters are more than just a means of communicating, they have their own intrinsic worth not just as pieces of art but as a reminder of how communication once was, of a time when the poster was fundamental and very often was "iconic".
Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.
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