Just any old week in tourism. SNAFU. Situation normal, all ... you know the rest. I feel that my assertions that the tourist tax is solely a political tax are totally vindicated. The politics have moved on from the ideology of its introduction to the ideologies of the squawking that has emanated from the political parties this week. It has been pathetic.
There was, so it seemed, just a possibility that the amendment motion to the tourist tax bill led by the Partido Popular, with Ciudadanos (C's) hanging on to their coat tails, might have been passed. Had it been, then the bill would at the very least have needed to have been redrafted, thus removing any possibility of the tax being introduced this summer. The possibility, in truth, was just grandstanding. The key party in the vote wasn't Podemos, it was El Pi. Had Jaume Font's party (three parliamentary deputies) voted with the PP and the C's, then there would have been a majority of one and the tax bill would have been booted out. This didn't happen because El Pi is, with some reservations, in favour of the tax but also because had it supported the motion, Podemos would have rescued the government and found two sacrificial lamb deputies to vote against the amendment rather than abstain. Font concluded that El Pi may as well abstain. He was surely right in his conclusion.
That is how these things work, though Podemos would no doubt deny that this would have been the outcome. But much as it has differences with the government, it could not let the bill die. Podemos needed it to fight another day, because Podemos knows best and will look, by hook or by crook, to eventually get its way.
But what were they actually squabbling about? Principally, but by no means exclusively, it was to do with a geographical allocation of revenue from the tax. On the face of it, this proposal from Podemos (and actually supported by the PP) has some merit. A major problem with it, though, has nothing directly to do with the tax. It has instead to do with the system of regional financing through national government, a system that the Balearic government has been railing against ever since it became a government. The inherent unfairness of this system is that regions with greater tax-raising capacities (such as the Balearics) effectively subsidise poorer regions. Under the tourist tax distribution proposal by Podemos, a similar situation would obtain, with tourist areas of the Balearics with greater tax-raising capacity paying for those with lesser capacity. This is one reason why the government finds it hard to go along with the proposal. It would be hypocritical for it do so.
There was also, however, the political clash within a clash. The arguments were as much about Podemos versus Més as they were Podemos versus PSOE and Més (i.e. the government). The real anger that surfaced in parliament was coming from Més. But why? Two reasons. One is that Més is a party that prides itself on its eco-credentials. These have been exposed by the tax bill, though, as the revenue is due to be used for various purposes, only one of them being the environment. Podemos, by insisting that the tax should be a genuine "eco-tax" for the environment alone, has thus taken the Més environmental moral high ground, and Més doesn't like it. There is also the fact that the tax is very much a Més baby and one of Biel Barceló's in particular. Why do you think he was so keen to get the tourism portfolio in this government? The tourist tax; that's why. Regardless of what might be said about the agreements for government signed up to by PSOE, Més and Podemos, there is still the potential for battles over one or the other's territory. Més has not taken kindly to the attempt by Podemos to usurp its domain.
It's all about the politics. Pure and simple.
Saturday, February 20, 2016
Friday, February 19, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 19 February 2016
Morning high (7.43am): 7.6C
Forecast high: 14C; UV: 3
Three-day forecast: 20 February - Sun, 15C; 21 February - Sun, 16C; 22 February - Sun, cloud, 16C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): East-Northeast 4, occasionally 5.
Greyish start and like yesterday the forecast suggests little by way of sun, but yesterday there was sun, and quite a lot of it. Weekend's prospects - very good.
Forecast high: 14C; UV: 3
Three-day forecast: 20 February - Sun, 15C; 21 February - Sun, 16C; 22 February - Sun, cloud, 16C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): East-Northeast 4, occasionally 5.
Greyish start and like yesterday the forecast suggests little by way of sun, but yesterday there was sun, and quite a lot of it. Weekend's prospects - very good.
In Praise Of Hotel Receptionists
Hotel receptionist. Can't be that difficult a job. Can it? Name? You're room number xxx. Here's your key. I wrote a comedy sketch entitled "Club Allinclusivana" which had such a receptionist. One from hell, along with the family she was dealing with. Was it based on anywhere in particular? That would be telling. But before one gets the impression that I'm doing receptionists down, which I'm not, let me point to an example of how difficult it can be, when faced with a particular breed of client. In the same resort there was the case of the receptionist reduced to tears by guests berating her for there being nothing to do because it was raining. Should she have been more thick-skinned? No. The guests shouldn't have been so thick. And so downright unpleasant.
A receptionist is at the front line in the customer encounter. There are others who occupy this front line: reps most obviously. They're the ones who are the faces of hotels and tour operators. They're the ones who get the brickbats when something goes wrong (and occasionally bouquets when it goes right). Hotel directors, tour operator marketing teams and executives are off this front line. In the latter case, they are rarely anywhere near the front line, bunkered in offices in a different land. But woe betide a rep (or receptionist) who should be the cause of opprobrium plastered all over Trip Advisor. It can seem at times that the front liners are sent over the top while the Melchetts and Field Marshal Haigs are tending to their drinks cabinets in a "Blackadder" style. It's a battle out there.
There are hotel receptionists and there are hotel receptionists. Just as there are hotels and there are hotels. Into one of these categories fall the Hotel Villa Manga in Madrid and Sofia Barroso. She has been named the best receptionist in the world. By whom? By AICR, Amicale Internationale des Sous-Directeurs et Chefs de Reception des Grands Hotels, of course. She was awarded the David Campbell Trophy at the AICR international congress in Vienna the other day: the late David Campbell was Chef de Reception at the Paris Ritz.
What has Sofia got that makes her the world's best receptionist? In an interview she made it appear that the job really wasn't that difficult: it wasn't front line, customer encounter, marketing-rocket science. Personality, putting oneself in the shoes of the other person (the guest), listening to needs and fulfilling them, being communicative. Shouldn't be so difficult? Should it? There again, one has to suppose that the Hotel Villa Manga attracts a clientele which, while very demanding, is unlikely to trade in streams of abuse, vomit all over the reception desk or be of the compensation-chasing variety that resorts to Trip Advisor blackmail.
Whatever it is that Sofia has, she saw off rivals from the likes of Raffles in Singapore and won a 3,000 euro-value masters in hospitality. She will add this to her degree in tourism and a masters she already has in commercial and marketing management. Which is a pretty impressive collection of qualifications, and she can no doubt do English well: she was three years at the Cumberland in London.
I've no idea what Sofia earns, but it will be at the higher end of the scale for a receptionist position. How much any receptionist can earn will depend on various factors. A head receptionist obviously earns more. The star categorisation will come into the equation. And there are the qualifications and experience. Just at random I found an offer for a receptionist in a four-star. Salary between 18,000 and 24,000. At least one language (fluent) needed. A minimum of three years experience and also a minimum of a degree in tourism.
It has been said of students who qualify with tourism degrees at the University of the Balearic Islands that many can get no more than receptionist jobs, assuming they can find one: they can be like gold dust. A criticism of the university's degree has been that it is too theoretical. A receptionist, even one with Sofia's qualifications, needs high levels of practicality. All the stuff about personality, listening to needs and what have you: some can be taught, but it's mostly innate. You either are or you aren't suited.
The qualification is, however, a mark of the importance placed on the job. Which is how it should be. Professionalism in all aspects marks out the excellent hotel, and in my experience, admittedly from observation rather than as a guest, in a whole host of hotels in Mallorca this professionalism is high. It's a job that can perhaps be undervalued, but the actual value attached to it can be skewed by the nature of the hotel. In Mallorca, I'd suggest that there are some of the best in the world and they're being the best in some pretty trying circumstances.
A receptionist is at the front line in the customer encounter. There are others who occupy this front line: reps most obviously. They're the ones who are the faces of hotels and tour operators. They're the ones who get the brickbats when something goes wrong (and occasionally bouquets when it goes right). Hotel directors, tour operator marketing teams and executives are off this front line. In the latter case, they are rarely anywhere near the front line, bunkered in offices in a different land. But woe betide a rep (or receptionist) who should be the cause of opprobrium plastered all over Trip Advisor. It can seem at times that the front liners are sent over the top while the Melchetts and Field Marshal Haigs are tending to their drinks cabinets in a "Blackadder" style. It's a battle out there.
There are hotel receptionists and there are hotel receptionists. Just as there are hotels and there are hotels. Into one of these categories fall the Hotel Villa Manga in Madrid and Sofia Barroso. She has been named the best receptionist in the world. By whom? By AICR, Amicale Internationale des Sous-Directeurs et Chefs de Reception des Grands Hotels, of course. She was awarded the David Campbell Trophy at the AICR international congress in Vienna the other day: the late David Campbell was Chef de Reception at the Paris Ritz.
What has Sofia got that makes her the world's best receptionist? In an interview she made it appear that the job really wasn't that difficult: it wasn't front line, customer encounter, marketing-rocket science. Personality, putting oneself in the shoes of the other person (the guest), listening to needs and fulfilling them, being communicative. Shouldn't be so difficult? Should it? There again, one has to suppose that the Hotel Villa Manga attracts a clientele which, while very demanding, is unlikely to trade in streams of abuse, vomit all over the reception desk or be of the compensation-chasing variety that resorts to Trip Advisor blackmail.
Whatever it is that Sofia has, she saw off rivals from the likes of Raffles in Singapore and won a 3,000 euro-value masters in hospitality. She will add this to her degree in tourism and a masters she already has in commercial and marketing management. Which is a pretty impressive collection of qualifications, and she can no doubt do English well: she was three years at the Cumberland in London.
I've no idea what Sofia earns, but it will be at the higher end of the scale for a receptionist position. How much any receptionist can earn will depend on various factors. A head receptionist obviously earns more. The star categorisation will come into the equation. And there are the qualifications and experience. Just at random I found an offer for a receptionist in a four-star. Salary between 18,000 and 24,000. At least one language (fluent) needed. A minimum of three years experience and also a minimum of a degree in tourism.
It has been said of students who qualify with tourism degrees at the University of the Balearic Islands that many can get no more than receptionist jobs, assuming they can find one: they can be like gold dust. A criticism of the university's degree has been that it is too theoretical. A receptionist, even one with Sofia's qualifications, needs high levels of practicality. All the stuff about personality, listening to needs and what have you: some can be taught, but it's mostly innate. You either are or you aren't suited.
The qualification is, however, a mark of the importance placed on the job. Which is how it should be. Professionalism in all aspects marks out the excellent hotel, and in my experience, admittedly from observation rather than as a guest, in a whole host of hotels in Mallorca this professionalism is high. It's a job that can perhaps be undervalued, but the actual value attached to it can be skewed by the nature of the hotel. In Mallorca, I'd suggest that there are some of the best in the world and they're being the best in some pretty trying circumstances.
Thursday, February 18, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 18 February 2016
Morning high (8.18am): 6.6C
Forecast high: 14C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 19 February - Cloud, sun, 13C; 20 February - Sun, 13C; 21 February - Sun, cloud, 16C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Southwest 3 to 4 easing North 2 to 3.
Rather grey and chilly. Not much sun expected but unlikely to be any rain.
Forecast high: 14C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 19 February - Cloud, sun, 13C; 20 February - Sun, 13C; 21 February - Sun, cloud, 16C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Southwest 3 to 4 easing North 2 to 3.
Rather grey and chilly. Not much sun expected but unlikely to be any rain.
Mallorca's Maritime Museum To Return
The Royal Spanish Naval League was originally known as the Spanish Maritime League and was founded just before Christmas in 1900. The context of its founding were the losses of colonies at the end of the nineteenth century and the considerable battering that Spanish prestige had taken along with that of the Navy (vastly reduced because of its own losses) and the national merchant fleet, which was considered to be deficient. Such loss of esteem for a nation that had once been so prominent, both militarily and commercially, was hard to take.
Faced with a moribund naval presence, the League was to help in restoring some pride. It received official government recognition three years later and was to subsequently be influential in various laws that were introduced regarding the Navy and the merchant fleet. It was to more or less disappear as a result of the Civil War, but its reactivation was to begin in 1970 under the new name of the Spanish Naval League.
Nowadays, its aims are focused on the promotion and defence of Spanish maritime interests in their broadest sense. Private, non-political, not-for-profit, the League's activities include the promotion of nautical tourism and culture. From those roots of loss of prestige, it became and is a highly prestigious organisation. As such, therefore, that it is taking a keen interest in Mallorca is to be greatly welcomed.
Last December the League issued a statement in which it said that it was necessary for Mallorca to have a maritime museum. This had been spoken about for years, but the talking is now ending and the reality is emerging. Representatives of the League, together with members of the Association of Friends of the Mallorcan Maritime Museum, have met with representatives from the regional government, the Council of Mallorca and the town hall in Palma as well as the president of the Balearic Ports Authority, Joan Gual de Torrella, in moving towards the establishment of a roadmap through which the museum will finally be realised.
The intention is for there to be a facility that will explain the past and present of maritime Mallorca and to address the deficit that there has been so long in there being a place for all the patrimony and examples that have been donated for such a museum. The president of the Council of Mallorca, Miquel Ensenyat, is said to be particularly well disposed to the project, while the ports authority will be looking to cede property (a site at the Moll Vell in Palma has been spoken of as a possibility in the past). As ever, money will be a factor, but the hope is for a funding agreement between the government and other stakeholders.
There are maritime museums across Spain. Barcelona has one, for instance. Its exhibitions are complemented by facilities for conferences, dinners and other events. Bilbao is somewhere else with one, its museum designed to preserve and spread the history, culture and identity of the men and women who are bound to the maritime tradition of the city.
The Barcelona museum, now much improved, goes back some eighty or so years, and it has been dedicated to the preservation, study and diffusion of the maritime culture of the city and Catalonia. The fact that it has had a museum for so long and the further fact of cities like Bilbao also having one have led many to despair of Mallorca. Here is an island with a rich tradition but nothing to back it up save for the small museum of the sea in Soller. It has been the even more galling when it is recalled that there used to be a museum. Where? In the very same building that has been where politicians have been failing for the past thirty years to come to some accord to facilitate the creation of a museum: the headquarters of the Balearic president and government, the Consolat de la Mar in Palma.
There used to be a maritime museum there, and it existed between 1951 and 1972. It was closed when first the provincial offices of the Movimiento (Franco's party, if you like) moved in and then, some years later, it became the HQ of the newly democratic government of the Balearics. So what happened to its contents? Some can still be seen in the building, such as a statue to the navigator, Jaume Ferrer. Otherwise, they've been in storage, with the Association of Friends of the Mallorcan Maritime Museum, ever since 1973, been pushing for the museum somewhere. Anywhere.
It now looks as though the association will finally get its wish. While there is in fact barely a part of coastal Spain that doesn't have a museum, Mallorca has been without, a terrible condemnation of the lack of political will to support a tradition so engrained into the culture of the island. Until now.
Faced with a moribund naval presence, the League was to help in restoring some pride. It received official government recognition three years later and was to subsequently be influential in various laws that were introduced regarding the Navy and the merchant fleet. It was to more or less disappear as a result of the Civil War, but its reactivation was to begin in 1970 under the new name of the Spanish Naval League.
Nowadays, its aims are focused on the promotion and defence of Spanish maritime interests in their broadest sense. Private, non-political, not-for-profit, the League's activities include the promotion of nautical tourism and culture. From those roots of loss of prestige, it became and is a highly prestigious organisation. As such, therefore, that it is taking a keen interest in Mallorca is to be greatly welcomed.
Last December the League issued a statement in which it said that it was necessary for Mallorca to have a maritime museum. This had been spoken about for years, but the talking is now ending and the reality is emerging. Representatives of the League, together with members of the Association of Friends of the Mallorcan Maritime Museum, have met with representatives from the regional government, the Council of Mallorca and the town hall in Palma as well as the president of the Balearic Ports Authority, Joan Gual de Torrella, in moving towards the establishment of a roadmap through which the museum will finally be realised.
The intention is for there to be a facility that will explain the past and present of maritime Mallorca and to address the deficit that there has been so long in there being a place for all the patrimony and examples that have been donated for such a museum. The president of the Council of Mallorca, Miquel Ensenyat, is said to be particularly well disposed to the project, while the ports authority will be looking to cede property (a site at the Moll Vell in Palma has been spoken of as a possibility in the past). As ever, money will be a factor, but the hope is for a funding agreement between the government and other stakeholders.
There are maritime museums across Spain. Barcelona has one, for instance. Its exhibitions are complemented by facilities for conferences, dinners and other events. Bilbao is somewhere else with one, its museum designed to preserve and spread the history, culture and identity of the men and women who are bound to the maritime tradition of the city.
The Barcelona museum, now much improved, goes back some eighty or so years, and it has been dedicated to the preservation, study and diffusion of the maritime culture of the city and Catalonia. The fact that it has had a museum for so long and the further fact of cities like Bilbao also having one have led many to despair of Mallorca. Here is an island with a rich tradition but nothing to back it up save for the small museum of the sea in Soller. It has been the even more galling when it is recalled that there used to be a museum. Where? In the very same building that has been where politicians have been failing for the past thirty years to come to some accord to facilitate the creation of a museum: the headquarters of the Balearic president and government, the Consolat de la Mar in Palma.
There used to be a maritime museum there, and it existed between 1951 and 1972. It was closed when first the provincial offices of the Movimiento (Franco's party, if you like) moved in and then, some years later, it became the HQ of the newly democratic government of the Balearics. So what happened to its contents? Some can still be seen in the building, such as a statue to the navigator, Jaume Ferrer. Otherwise, they've been in storage, with the Association of Friends of the Mallorcan Maritime Museum, ever since 1973, been pushing for the museum somewhere. Anywhere.
It now looks as though the association will finally get its wish. While there is in fact barely a part of coastal Spain that doesn't have a museum, Mallorca has been without, a terrible condemnation of the lack of political will to support a tradition so engrained into the culture of the island. Until now.
Wednesday, February 17, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 17 February 2016
Morning high (7.52am): 6.7C
Forecast high: 15C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 18 February - Cloud, 15C; 19 February - Cloud, sun, 11C; 20 February - Sun, cloud, 12C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): West-Southwest 3 to 4, locally 5 by evening.
Patchy cloud first thing. Not much by way of sun expected. Staying mostly cloudy over the next couple of days and getting colder.
Evening update (19.45): Rather sunnier than had been forecast. High of 15.7C.
Forecast high: 15C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 18 February - Cloud, 15C; 19 February - Cloud, sun, 11C; 20 February - Sun, cloud, 12C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): West-Southwest 3 to 4, locally 5 by evening.
Patchy cloud first thing. Not much by way of sun expected. Staying mostly cloudy over the next couple of days and getting colder.
Evening update (19.45): Rather sunnier than had been forecast. High of 15.7C.
Don't Know What To Do: Holiday rentals
It is, you would have to say, a bit rich of the Partido Popular to be criticising the government for not having introduced any new regulation of holiday rentals in the Balearics. This was, after all, the party that spent four years in denial of there being any need for new (or different) regulation. Still, oppositions do what oppositions must do, which is to oppose or to simply make jibes.
The PP was disinclined to liberalise the market. Ideologically, it was curious, given that its instincts are for de-regulation and the free market. But it had a very good reason to be market illiberal, given that its policies were being guided by the hoteliers. We now have the situation whereby a left-wing administration may be considering liberalisation, a consequence in part of its policies not being guided by the hoteliers. However way you look at it, market attitudes and ideologies seem skew-whiff.
If these ideologies could, just for once, be stripped out of the argument, then there might be grounds for believing that some sort of sensible resolution could be arrived at. But these ideologies won't be, and nor will the power of the hoteliers be denied, despite what Alberto Jarabo of Podemos might like to believe. This is frankly a disastrous state of antagonism and of total inability to arrive at anything approximating the mantra of the day (year), i.e. consensus. It is disastrous because Balearic tourism faces a massive problem that cannot and will not be solved by the dominance of one line of argumentation over the other.
The PP's Alvaro Gijón has said that the government, by which he primarily means the tourism-wielding vice-president, Biel Barceló, appears not to know what to do about holiday rental regulation. The fact is that he is almost certainly right: it doesn't know. Had it known, it might at least have had some framework in place for new regulation prior to or around the same time as the introduction of the tourist tax. When such a framework might even be debated is anyone's guess. Yet regulation was at one time deemed necessary by Barceló before the tax came in. How priorities can change in the face of ideology or what might have seemed an easier legislative process, which the tourist tax is proving to be anything but.
The issue of holiday rentals is a huge headache for all administrations in Spain, but it is an especially major one for the Balearics. It did cross my mind that Francina Armengol's warning about not being able to guarantee water supplies this summer was either a deliberate attempt to try and stop people coming to the islands in the vast numbers that are anticipated or was the opening gambit for a whole discussion about the need to limit numbers and how this might be done. Whatever the motive, there has to be recognition of the fact that Mallorca and the other islands are at risk of being swamped to the extent that services can no longer cope. There also has to be recognition of the fact that it hasn't been the hoteliers who have brought this situation about.
While the Balearics face this headache, the politicians manage to invent problems for themselves. The tourist tax is a case in point. A problem has been posed that didn't exist before, so the politicians now have to deal with all the complexities that it raises. The problem of holiday rentals is not one that has been invented. It has always existed, but good regulation never has. Because of the pressures now being added because of P2P, it is absolutely essential that a sensible regulatory solution can be found. In the fractious world of Balearic tourism politics, such a solution will always be difficult, but it might just have proved possible for some consensus to be achieved, even with the hoteliers. The government and the hoteliers do, after all, agree that something needs to be done about private accommodation, even if they are coming at the subject with differing perspectives.
But the tourist tax has created a situation of ever greater loggerheads, and not only where the hoteliers are concerned: the government so-called partners are all over the place. The invented problem and its controversy means that the existing one will never be addressed properly because of the festering sore that is being made: the existing one that is of far greater importance than the tax.
And meanwhile, we have a situation in which Barceló seems to go to ground, just like Carlos Delgado used to when the going got tough. The government doesn't know what to do, which is why it should look to draw on all the support it can. Moreover, if it ever really had a hold of the tourism agenda, it is rapidly losing it.
The PP was disinclined to liberalise the market. Ideologically, it was curious, given that its instincts are for de-regulation and the free market. But it had a very good reason to be market illiberal, given that its policies were being guided by the hoteliers. We now have the situation whereby a left-wing administration may be considering liberalisation, a consequence in part of its policies not being guided by the hoteliers. However way you look at it, market attitudes and ideologies seem skew-whiff.
If these ideologies could, just for once, be stripped out of the argument, then there might be grounds for believing that some sort of sensible resolution could be arrived at. But these ideologies won't be, and nor will the power of the hoteliers be denied, despite what Alberto Jarabo of Podemos might like to believe. This is frankly a disastrous state of antagonism and of total inability to arrive at anything approximating the mantra of the day (year), i.e. consensus. It is disastrous because Balearic tourism faces a massive problem that cannot and will not be solved by the dominance of one line of argumentation over the other.
The PP's Alvaro Gijón has said that the government, by which he primarily means the tourism-wielding vice-president, Biel Barceló, appears not to know what to do about holiday rental regulation. The fact is that he is almost certainly right: it doesn't know. Had it known, it might at least have had some framework in place for new regulation prior to or around the same time as the introduction of the tourist tax. When such a framework might even be debated is anyone's guess. Yet regulation was at one time deemed necessary by Barceló before the tax came in. How priorities can change in the face of ideology or what might have seemed an easier legislative process, which the tourist tax is proving to be anything but.
The issue of holiday rentals is a huge headache for all administrations in Spain, but it is an especially major one for the Balearics. It did cross my mind that Francina Armengol's warning about not being able to guarantee water supplies this summer was either a deliberate attempt to try and stop people coming to the islands in the vast numbers that are anticipated or was the opening gambit for a whole discussion about the need to limit numbers and how this might be done. Whatever the motive, there has to be recognition of the fact that Mallorca and the other islands are at risk of being swamped to the extent that services can no longer cope. There also has to be recognition of the fact that it hasn't been the hoteliers who have brought this situation about.
While the Balearics face this headache, the politicians manage to invent problems for themselves. The tourist tax is a case in point. A problem has been posed that didn't exist before, so the politicians now have to deal with all the complexities that it raises. The problem of holiday rentals is not one that has been invented. It has always existed, but good regulation never has. Because of the pressures now being added because of P2P, it is absolutely essential that a sensible regulatory solution can be found. In the fractious world of Balearic tourism politics, such a solution will always be difficult, but it might just have proved possible for some consensus to be achieved, even with the hoteliers. The government and the hoteliers do, after all, agree that something needs to be done about private accommodation, even if they are coming at the subject with differing perspectives.
But the tourist tax has created a situation of ever greater loggerheads, and not only where the hoteliers are concerned: the government so-called partners are all over the place. The invented problem and its controversy means that the existing one will never be addressed properly because of the festering sore that is being made: the existing one that is of far greater importance than the tax.
And meanwhile, we have a situation in which Barceló seems to go to ground, just like Carlos Delgado used to when the going got tough. The government doesn't know what to do, which is why it should look to draw on all the support it can. Moreover, if it ever really had a hold of the tourism agenda, it is rapidly losing it.
Tuesday, February 16, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 16 February 2016
Morning high (7.47am): 9.1C
Forecast high: 13C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 17 February - Sun, cloud, 15C; 18 February - Cloud, 13C; 19 February - Cloud, sun, 11C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North 7 to 8 easing 5 to 7 during the morning and veering Northeast 3 to 4 in the afternoon.
Wild overnight and still pretty wild. Dry though. Alerts staying in place for wind and coasts (amber), but things will quieten down by midday.
Evening update (21.45): Didn't turn out so bad in that there was a fair amount of sun, but a biting and strong northerly didn't help. High of 13.7C.
Forecast high: 13C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 17 February - Sun, cloud, 15C; 18 February - Cloud, 13C; 19 February - Cloud, sun, 11C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North 7 to 8 easing 5 to 7 during the morning and veering Northeast 3 to 4 in the afternoon.
Wild overnight and still pretty wild. Dry though. Alerts staying in place for wind and coasts (amber), but things will quieten down by midday.
Evening update (21.45): Didn't turn out so bad in that there was a fair amount of sun, but a biting and strong northerly didn't help. High of 13.7C.
Managing Palma, Managing People
Should questions be being asked about the management of the Mallorcan and Balearic capital? While Palma can rightly bask in the warm glow of its increasing reputation as a tourist destination and while there are some - non-politicians - who can rightly be praised for this, there are matters which place a question mark over what is going on at the town hall.
Firstly, some mitigation. Being a mayor or a leading councillor in a Mallorcan town hall administration is far from being a piece of cake. The demands are great and the pitfalls even greater. The liability that a mayor in particular has can land even the most assiduous of public officials in deep water: not by any deviousness or abuse of office, but because of the way that liability can suddenly appear from nowhere.
One can think of examples over the years. In Capdepera, the one-time mayor, Tomeu Alzina, was disqualified from public office for eight years following the 2008 accident at the old Son Moll hotel in Cala Ratjada in which four workers lost their lives. He was found guilty by a criminal court of negligence in not having stopped work at the hotel when the licence for building permission had yet to be issued. By the letter of the law he was guilty, but as became evident at the time of the accident, the practice of allowing work to proceed while waiting for licences to be settled was commonplace. It was happening in other municipalities because of the sheer length of bureaucratic delays associated with the granting of licences.
A mayor faces all manner of complexities, as do his or her advisors and fellow councillors. The need for there to be a dotting of i's and the crossing of t's has unquestionably been playing a part in the never-ending saga of Palma's Palacio de Congresos. But these complexities are separate from the political process and from day-to-day management, not least the management of human relations.
To have one senior official resign after only a few months may be regarded as a misfortune, to have another one wish to resign also after only a few months might look like carelessness. The ex-director of the Palacio company walked out and later left it in no doubt that he had done so because he had felt pressurised in arriving at a solution for the Palacio's operation and management that he, in his professional capacity, could not agree with. This has been just one of the reasons he has given.
The chief of the local police, brought in when his predecessor was dismissed, wants to resign. There are undoubted tensions between him and the councillor for public safety, Angelica Pastor. He has gone on record as saying that he has felt that he has been treated like a half-wit.
The relationship with the police in Palma is certainly a delicate one. The corruption allegations made against members of the force were bound to create difficulties for an incoming administration. But for its appointee to express the things he has needs to be treated with some seriousness: the relationship with the local police is absolutely crucial.
That there may be some distance in the relationship is perhaps understandable. Pastor's predecessor (from the Partido Popular) has been implicated in the ongoing investigations. But the impression formed is one of an antagonistic relationship and one that is not being terribly well handled. From what Josep Sintes, the ex-director of the Palacio company has had to say, a similar tension seemed to be at play where he was concerned.
In the case of the Palacio, executive responsibility at the town hall falls to the councillor for tourism (and work and trade), Joana María Adrover. When appointments were made following the municipal election last May, there was some surprise expressed at the fact that tourism was no longer the responsibility for a deputy mayor. Under Mateo Isern, his number two, Alvaro Gijón, had been the tourism councillor as well as the president of the Palacio company (which Adrover now is). Though Isern and Gijón were to have their falling-out, for most of the administration Gijón was a trusted number two in charge of tourism: he is now the chief spokesperson on tourism for the PP in the Balearic parliament.
Adrover has stoutly defended herself against accusations made by Sintes. It's one side against another, but when one puts the two cases - the Palacio and the police - together, one does have to start asking questions about the management of relationships and perhaps also about political motives dominating. The coincidence is too great to not ask the questions.
And presiding over all this is José Hila, about whom there have been mutterings regarding his effectiveness. Some of his constantly expressed consensus might come in useful. Managing a city is more than just avoiding liability.
Firstly, some mitigation. Being a mayor or a leading councillor in a Mallorcan town hall administration is far from being a piece of cake. The demands are great and the pitfalls even greater. The liability that a mayor in particular has can land even the most assiduous of public officials in deep water: not by any deviousness or abuse of office, but because of the way that liability can suddenly appear from nowhere.
One can think of examples over the years. In Capdepera, the one-time mayor, Tomeu Alzina, was disqualified from public office for eight years following the 2008 accident at the old Son Moll hotel in Cala Ratjada in which four workers lost their lives. He was found guilty by a criminal court of negligence in not having stopped work at the hotel when the licence for building permission had yet to be issued. By the letter of the law he was guilty, but as became evident at the time of the accident, the practice of allowing work to proceed while waiting for licences to be settled was commonplace. It was happening in other municipalities because of the sheer length of bureaucratic delays associated with the granting of licences.
A mayor faces all manner of complexities, as do his or her advisors and fellow councillors. The need for there to be a dotting of i's and the crossing of t's has unquestionably been playing a part in the never-ending saga of Palma's Palacio de Congresos. But these complexities are separate from the political process and from day-to-day management, not least the management of human relations.
To have one senior official resign after only a few months may be regarded as a misfortune, to have another one wish to resign also after only a few months might look like carelessness. The ex-director of the Palacio company walked out and later left it in no doubt that he had done so because he had felt pressurised in arriving at a solution for the Palacio's operation and management that he, in his professional capacity, could not agree with. This has been just one of the reasons he has given.
The chief of the local police, brought in when his predecessor was dismissed, wants to resign. There are undoubted tensions between him and the councillor for public safety, Angelica Pastor. He has gone on record as saying that he has felt that he has been treated like a half-wit.
The relationship with the police in Palma is certainly a delicate one. The corruption allegations made against members of the force were bound to create difficulties for an incoming administration. But for its appointee to express the things he has needs to be treated with some seriousness: the relationship with the local police is absolutely crucial.
That there may be some distance in the relationship is perhaps understandable. Pastor's predecessor (from the Partido Popular) has been implicated in the ongoing investigations. But the impression formed is one of an antagonistic relationship and one that is not being terribly well handled. From what Josep Sintes, the ex-director of the Palacio company has had to say, a similar tension seemed to be at play where he was concerned.
In the case of the Palacio, executive responsibility at the town hall falls to the councillor for tourism (and work and trade), Joana María Adrover. When appointments were made following the municipal election last May, there was some surprise expressed at the fact that tourism was no longer the responsibility for a deputy mayor. Under Mateo Isern, his number two, Alvaro Gijón, had been the tourism councillor as well as the president of the Palacio company (which Adrover now is). Though Isern and Gijón were to have their falling-out, for most of the administration Gijón was a trusted number two in charge of tourism: he is now the chief spokesperson on tourism for the PP in the Balearic parliament.
Adrover has stoutly defended herself against accusations made by Sintes. It's one side against another, but when one puts the two cases - the Palacio and the police - together, one does have to start asking questions about the management of relationships and perhaps also about political motives dominating. The coincidence is too great to not ask the questions.
And presiding over all this is José Hila, about whom there have been mutterings regarding his effectiveness. Some of his constantly expressed consensus might come in useful. Managing a city is more than just avoiding liability.
Monday, February 15, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 15 February 2016
Morning high (6.50am): 10.1C
Forecast high: 14C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 16 February - Sun, cloud, wind, 13C; 17 February - Sun, cloud, wind, 13C; 18 February - Cloud, 13C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North 6 to 7 increasing gale force 8 around midday. Waves of three to five metres.
Windy and damp first thing. Alerts in place for rain, wind and especially the coasts. Limited chance of seeing the sun today. The risk of rain lessening through the day and into tomorrow but the wind will still be a factor.
Evening update (20.00): The rain mostly fell this morning and quite heavily in areas - up to 30mms. - with wind reaching 70kph and above. High of 13.7C.
Forecast high: 14C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 16 February - Sun, cloud, wind, 13C; 17 February - Sun, cloud, wind, 13C; 18 February - Cloud, 13C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North 6 to 7 increasing gale force 8 around midday. Waves of three to five metres.
Windy and damp first thing. Alerts in place for rain, wind and especially the coasts. Limited chance of seeing the sun today. The risk of rain lessening through the day and into tomorrow but the wind will still be a factor.
Evening update (20.00): The rain mostly fell this morning and quite heavily in areas - up to 30mms. - with wind reaching 70kph and above. High of 13.7C.
Libraries Of Mallorca: Old and new
They opened the library in Deia the other day. This village of the Tramuntana with its long and rich cultural associations had oddly not been home to a library. It now is, and it bears a name that resonates with those associations. It is dedicated to Juan Graves, one of the sons of Robert, who died last year. The mayor, Magdalena López, said that they wanted the library to harvest the love that Juan had for culture. The library is not so far, because nothing is so far in Deia village, from the Casa Robert Graves, where Juan grew up, surrounded by books. They are still there, the Graves' house library of works by the author and by many others, some of which speak of those with whom Robert was familiar, such as "The Alice B. Toklas Cook Book". Alice was Gertrude Stein's partner. There are few more famous quotes than Stein's when she directed Robert towards Mallorca. "It's paradise, if you can stand it."
The vice-president for culture at the Council of Mallorca, Francesc Miralles, observed that it wasn't every day that a library was opened. In an era when the role of libraries can seem somewhat diminished, it is reassuring to know that a place still exists for them. Deia was incomplete without one. Now it is whole, the cultural hole of an absent library filled under this famous name.
Of course it didn't used to be like it is today with the access of the internet. Libraries were the repositories of knowledge, learning and refinement. But when was Mallorca's first public library opened?
In the nineteenth century there was a process of confiscation of church and religious order property. From this came the establishment of a network of public libraries, which were stocked with books that had belonged to the church. The Provincial Library in Palma was thought to have been the very first in 1835. However, recent research points to a library having been established several decades earlier. This was the library of the Literary University of Mallorca, which came into being following an earlier series of confiscations: those of Jesuit schools in Palma and Pollensa when suppression of the Jesuits was enforced by Carlos III in 1767. The library, documents reveal, was being put together three years later and in 1785 it was opened as a public library. The university itself had been founded in the late fifteenth century but it, along with its library, was not to survive the illiberal persecutions of Ferdinand VII, and so it, has had been the case with the Jesuits, was suppressed.
This wasn't, of course, the first library. That came into being centuries before and was linked to the story of the Royal Monastery in the Secar de la Real area of Palma. This monastery was originally due to have been built away from the "Ciutat" in Esporles, but its location near to the city was finally agreed upon. There is some debate about when the monastery came into existence, but 1239 seems as though it was the date. The library was to come later, though when it was first being stocked is hard to say. By 1386, it had become of enough importance for an inventory to have been created and circulated for the first time. However, there are sufficient documentary hints to suggest that by the second half of the thirteenth century it had already become a significant place of knowledge. Indeed, it seems that Ramon Llull used the library to access texts in Arabic around the time that he was persuading the Mallorcan kings to build the Miramar monastery in Valldemossa. In that village, another important library was to be established at the Charterhouse. A major inventory of its books, texts and other documents was published in 1548.
To return to more modern times, in the Franco era Mallorca was not awash with public libraries. In 1950s' Palma, for instance, there was one at the town hall and another at the Casa de Cultura in the Calle Ramon Llull. This was in fact the successor to that provincial library that had been created in 1835 as the State Public Library of Palma and had been housed in the convent of Montesión before being relocated in 1955. Almost fifty years later, in 2004, it was given a new home, which is where it now is, in the Plaça Porta Santa Catalina.
The vice-president for culture at the Council of Mallorca, Francesc Miralles, observed that it wasn't every day that a library was opened. In an era when the role of libraries can seem somewhat diminished, it is reassuring to know that a place still exists for them. Deia was incomplete without one. Now it is whole, the cultural hole of an absent library filled under this famous name.
Of course it didn't used to be like it is today with the access of the internet. Libraries were the repositories of knowledge, learning and refinement. But when was Mallorca's first public library opened?
In the nineteenth century there was a process of confiscation of church and religious order property. From this came the establishment of a network of public libraries, which were stocked with books that had belonged to the church. The Provincial Library in Palma was thought to have been the very first in 1835. However, recent research points to a library having been established several decades earlier. This was the library of the Literary University of Mallorca, which came into being following an earlier series of confiscations: those of Jesuit schools in Palma and Pollensa when suppression of the Jesuits was enforced by Carlos III in 1767. The library, documents reveal, was being put together three years later and in 1785 it was opened as a public library. The university itself had been founded in the late fifteenth century but it, along with its library, was not to survive the illiberal persecutions of Ferdinand VII, and so it, has had been the case with the Jesuits, was suppressed.
This wasn't, of course, the first library. That came into being centuries before and was linked to the story of the Royal Monastery in the Secar de la Real area of Palma. This monastery was originally due to have been built away from the "Ciutat" in Esporles, but its location near to the city was finally agreed upon. There is some debate about when the monastery came into existence, but 1239 seems as though it was the date. The library was to come later, though when it was first being stocked is hard to say. By 1386, it had become of enough importance for an inventory to have been created and circulated for the first time. However, there are sufficient documentary hints to suggest that by the second half of the thirteenth century it had already become a significant place of knowledge. Indeed, it seems that Ramon Llull used the library to access texts in Arabic around the time that he was persuading the Mallorcan kings to build the Miramar monastery in Valldemossa. In that village, another important library was to be established at the Charterhouse. A major inventory of its books, texts and other documents was published in 1548.
To return to more modern times, in the Franco era Mallorca was not awash with public libraries. In 1950s' Palma, for instance, there was one at the town hall and another at the Casa de Cultura in the Calle Ramon Llull. This was in fact the successor to that provincial library that had been created in 1835 as the State Public Library of Palma and had been housed in the convent of Montesión before being relocated in 1955. Almost fifty years later, in 2004, it was given a new home, which is where it now is, in the Plaça Porta Santa Catalina.
Sunday, February 14, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 14 February 2016
Morning high (8.20am): 18C
Forecast high: 18C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 15 February - Sun, cloud, wind, 15C; 16 February - Sun, cloud, wind, 11C; 17 February - Cloud, sun, 12C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northwest 5 to 6 easing Variable 2 to 3 during the afternoon.
Strong gusts of wind have died down, but wind may be a factor at times during the day. Some risk of a shower later on and into tomorrow when wind is due to pick up significantly and could be damaging. Alerts in place for today and tomorrow for caution in coastal areas.
Evening update (22.00): Some showers and some sun. Temperatures dropping from what remained a high of 18C. Kitchen sink likely tomorrow: rain, wind and rough coastal conditions.
Forecast high: 18C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 15 February - Sun, cloud, wind, 15C; 16 February - Sun, cloud, wind, 11C; 17 February - Cloud, sun, 12C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northwest 5 to 6 easing Variable 2 to 3 during the afternoon.
Strong gusts of wind have died down, but wind may be a factor at times during the day. Some risk of a shower later on and into tomorrow when wind is due to pick up significantly and could be damaging. Alerts in place for today and tomorrow for caution in coastal areas.
Evening update (22.00): Some showers and some sun. Temperatures dropping from what remained a high of 18C. Kitchen sink likely tomorrow: rain, wind and rough coastal conditions.
When Mariano Met Pedro
Oh how the sports pages love it when Arsene Wenger fails to shake the hand of Jose Mourinho / Sir Alex Ferguson / Sam Allardyce (choose as applicable). Come on, Arsene, stop arsin' about and shake the bloke's hand. It's only a game after all. Football is, and some might disagree, not that important in the general scheme of living. It might be better were football managers to become prime ministers or presidents, but with one notable exception, this is unlikely to ever transpire. There is, though, Pep Guardiola, the footballing world's champion of Catalonian independence. One day Pep will be president. The man walks on water as it is, apparently, so why not?
The general scheme of things means that politicians are raised to greater levels of significance than mere to-become managers (head coaches or whatever) of Manchester City. Accordingly, a Wenger-like snub of the hand acquires a correspondingly greater level of significance. Mariano Rajoy, being a good patriot and former member of the Alianza Popular, the party hewn from the wreckage of Francoism, is naturally enough a Real Madrid supporter: Real Madrid, Spain's national team. The good patriot thus delivered an Arsene avoidance. For when Mazza met Pedro, in the full glare of the media, Pedro offered his hand, Mazza sold him a dummy and assertively buttoned up his suit jacket.
Body language gurus would have been salivating. Rajoy was defiantly shielding himself in that brief buttoning act and announcing that he was still the man. Pedro's reaction, a frustrated tap of a thigh and a grim countenance, spoke of being absolutely bloody furious. Not only had he been snubbed, the world had captured the non-accepted hand for all time: Sánchez was being humiliated.
This preposterous lack of respect from Rajoy must surely mark the final moment, the final moment of his ever less likely retention of the presidency. If the meeting between the two had been intended to be the occasion for the good patriot to extend the hand of fraternal Spanishness and to walk hand-in-hand to a promised land (replete with Catalonia) in the pursuit of national salvation (minus Podemos), then it failed utterly. What was Rajoy thinking? Has he stopped thinking? Is he so totally blind to realities that he seriously believes he can remain president? Seemingly, he does. When the two actually started talking, this was the Rajoy red line. It was Margaret Thatcher, Paris, 1990. Mariano fighting on, when all the evidence tells him to quit.
But even worse was what it told us of the speciousness of the dialogue and consensus narrative that has been blurted out of every politician's mouth since Podemos became more than a mere irritant. Consensus? When they can't even shake hands? Rajoy, rather than acting in a grand statesman-like fashion and in, as he would insist, the interests of the country above all, provided Sánchez with all the ammunition and justification (if he did really need it) to phone The Hairy One and propose marriage. Rajoy has been criticised for his irresponsibility in having not put himself before parliament and sought investiture, but now his irresponsibility was greater still.
The general scheme of things means that politicians are raised to greater levels of significance than mere to-become managers (head coaches or whatever) of Manchester City. Accordingly, a Wenger-like snub of the hand acquires a correspondingly greater level of significance. Mariano Rajoy, being a good patriot and former member of the Alianza Popular, the party hewn from the wreckage of Francoism, is naturally enough a Real Madrid supporter: Real Madrid, Spain's national team. The good patriot thus delivered an Arsene avoidance. For when Mazza met Pedro, in the full glare of the media, Pedro offered his hand, Mazza sold him a dummy and assertively buttoned up his suit jacket.
Body language gurus would have been salivating. Rajoy was defiantly shielding himself in that brief buttoning act and announcing that he was still the man. Pedro's reaction, a frustrated tap of a thigh and a grim countenance, spoke of being absolutely bloody furious. Not only had he been snubbed, the world had captured the non-accepted hand for all time: Sánchez was being humiliated.
This preposterous lack of respect from Rajoy must surely mark the final moment, the final moment of his ever less likely retention of the presidency. If the meeting between the two had been intended to be the occasion for the good patriot to extend the hand of fraternal Spanishness and to walk hand-in-hand to a promised land (replete with Catalonia) in the pursuit of national salvation (minus Podemos), then it failed utterly. What was Rajoy thinking? Has he stopped thinking? Is he so totally blind to realities that he seriously believes he can remain president? Seemingly, he does. When the two actually started talking, this was the Rajoy red line. It was Margaret Thatcher, Paris, 1990. Mariano fighting on, when all the evidence tells him to quit.
But even worse was what it told us of the speciousness of the dialogue and consensus narrative that has been blurted out of every politician's mouth since Podemos became more than a mere irritant. Consensus? When they can't even shake hands? Rajoy, rather than acting in a grand statesman-like fashion and in, as he would insist, the interests of the country above all, provided Sánchez with all the ammunition and justification (if he did really need it) to phone The Hairy One and propose marriage. Rajoy has been criticised for his irresponsibility in having not put himself before parliament and sought investiture, but now his irresponsibility was greater still.
Saturday, February 13, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 13 February 2016
Morning high (6.59am): 18.9C
Forecast high: 21C; UV: 3
Three-day forecast: 14 February - Sun, cloud, wind, 18C; 15 February - Rain, 12C; 16 February - Cloud, sun, 11C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): West-Southwest 5 to 6.
Exceptionally mild morning, breezy too. Sunny intervals but mainly cloudy during the day. Chance of showers tomorrow and for a few days to come.
Evening update (20.00): Not a lot of sun. High of 20.2C.
Forecast high: 21C; UV: 3
Three-day forecast: 14 February - Sun, cloud, wind, 18C; 15 February - Rain, 12C; 16 February - Cloud, sun, 11C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): West-Southwest 5 to 6.
Exceptionally mild morning, breezy too. Sunny intervals but mainly cloudy during the day. Chance of showers tomorrow and for a few days to come.
Evening update (20.00): Not a lot of sun. High of 20.2C.
Intelligent Tourism: What are the Balearics doing?
While the regional government can give the impression that all it is concerned with is its arguments over the tourist tax, it does occasionally show signs of devoting itself to other tourism issues, one aspect of which is the use of technology. This said, the tourism technology equation has not been well managed over the years, and there hasn't been a great deal of evidence of improvement with the current government, as was typified by the flop with its demonstrating its tourism "escarparate turístico intelligente" showcase at London's World Travel Market. It wasn't that someone forgot to plug it in, they didn't bother taking it at all, despite making a song and dance about its appearance. The no-show, said the official version, was due to some "errors". These were due, apparently, to deficient information contained in this showcase, in particular that which town halls were meant to have input to the system, as well as poor translations. There are certain things which never get any better, and translating is one of them. What had they done? Tried putting into Google or Bing? Quite possibly.
The Balearic Tourism Agency said at the time that the information will be invaluable. It's impossible to say if it will be or it won't be. No one, apart from some ministry types and developers, has set eyes on this wonder of touristic technology. And they might not see it this year either.
This "escarparate turístico intelligente" is a system of touch screens (we are led to believe) that will give everything that could possibly be needed to be known about tourist resources in the Balearics. Where it might actually be deployed, other than at travel fairs, is another unknown. It is a project, the genesis of which was firmly with the previous government, and one goes back to 2012 when it was first being hailed as the great technological innovation of the modern tourism world.
The experience with the "escarparate" (which means showcase) might serve as something of a warning. That's because the government has this week signed an agreement for collaboration with the University of the Balearic Islands which has to do with the use of technology for tourism. Specifically, there is to be a project for the processing of "big data" in segmenting tourist product demand and individual overseas markets which provide the islands' tourists. There are also going to be multimedia projects, video projects, while market intelligence will be significantly enhanced.
If it sounds like a lot of jargon, then it probably is. But the warning should come from the fact that the "escarparate" involved, from the outset, the university. It then involved the Fundación Bit (or ParcBit, if you prefer). Which isn't to say that there aren't very good people at both the university and the technology park who can come up with some highly advanced tourism technology systems. But the fact that the "escarparate" remains a mystery requires some explaining, and it is the ministry which should be giving it. Why on earth have there been these "errors" and why has there been such a delay? Is it a case of the ministry being incapable of managing a project? Someone should say and hold up his or her hands.
Moreover, is it not about time that we heard from Biel Barceló, who is minister for innovation and research as well as for tourism, about what he's actually doing in respect of the coming-together of tourism and technology? When he appointed social media guru Benjamí Villoslada as director-general for technological development, it seemed a good move. Yet we know nothing of what Villoslada does. Indeed, apart from him being a fairly prolific user of Twitter, we never hear from him.
One element of the Fundación Bit's collaboration with the "escarparate" has been a "Twitter Report". We were first made aware of this a year ago and also made aware of the fact that tweets (almost ten million of them) had been analysed since August 2013. This is all an exercise in extracting something useful from the big data that Twitter and social media offer. But what are they doing with it? We now learn, because it has been reported this week, that a further eight million or so tweets in 2015 have been analysed. They will help to "optimise the strategy of our destination", says the director of the tourism agency, Miquel Ángel Roig. Which all sounds very impressive, but what actually is the strategy? Has it ever been elucidated?
Still, there may yet be a great deal of good to come from all of this. But it would help us all in assessing this goodness if the government were to adequately explain what it is doing with all this technological effort.
The Balearic Tourism Agency said at the time that the information will be invaluable. It's impossible to say if it will be or it won't be. No one, apart from some ministry types and developers, has set eyes on this wonder of touristic technology. And they might not see it this year either.
This "escarparate turístico intelligente" is a system of touch screens (we are led to believe) that will give everything that could possibly be needed to be known about tourist resources in the Balearics. Where it might actually be deployed, other than at travel fairs, is another unknown. It is a project, the genesis of which was firmly with the previous government, and one goes back to 2012 when it was first being hailed as the great technological innovation of the modern tourism world.
The experience with the "escarparate" (which means showcase) might serve as something of a warning. That's because the government has this week signed an agreement for collaboration with the University of the Balearic Islands which has to do with the use of technology for tourism. Specifically, there is to be a project for the processing of "big data" in segmenting tourist product demand and individual overseas markets which provide the islands' tourists. There are also going to be multimedia projects, video projects, while market intelligence will be significantly enhanced.
If it sounds like a lot of jargon, then it probably is. But the warning should come from the fact that the "escarparate" involved, from the outset, the university. It then involved the Fundación Bit (or ParcBit, if you prefer). Which isn't to say that there aren't very good people at both the university and the technology park who can come up with some highly advanced tourism technology systems. But the fact that the "escarparate" remains a mystery requires some explaining, and it is the ministry which should be giving it. Why on earth have there been these "errors" and why has there been such a delay? Is it a case of the ministry being incapable of managing a project? Someone should say and hold up his or her hands.
Moreover, is it not about time that we heard from Biel Barceló, who is minister for innovation and research as well as for tourism, about what he's actually doing in respect of the coming-together of tourism and technology? When he appointed social media guru Benjamí Villoslada as director-general for technological development, it seemed a good move. Yet we know nothing of what Villoslada does. Indeed, apart from him being a fairly prolific user of Twitter, we never hear from him.
One element of the Fundación Bit's collaboration with the "escarparate" has been a "Twitter Report". We were first made aware of this a year ago and also made aware of the fact that tweets (almost ten million of them) had been analysed since August 2013. This is all an exercise in extracting something useful from the big data that Twitter and social media offer. But what are they doing with it? We now learn, because it has been reported this week, that a further eight million or so tweets in 2015 have been analysed. They will help to "optimise the strategy of our destination", says the director of the tourism agency, Miquel Ángel Roig. Which all sounds very impressive, but what actually is the strategy? Has it ever been elucidated?
Still, there may yet be a great deal of good to come from all of this. But it would help us all in assessing this goodness if the government were to adequately explain what it is doing with all this technological effort.
Friday, February 12, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 12 February 2016
Morning high (7.47am): 10.5C
Forecast high: 19C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 13 February - Sun, cloud, wind, 21C; 14 February - Cloud, sun, 17C; 15 February - Rain, 12C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): West-Southwest 2 to 3 increasing West 5, locally 6.
Pleasant morning, little bit nippy otherwise good. Wind picking up later and becoming strong. Mainly sunny. Weekend outlook - windy with possible showers on Sunday.
Evening update (23.30): Blowy for much of the day. Only occasional sun. High of 19.7C.
Forecast high: 19C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 13 February - Sun, cloud, wind, 21C; 14 February - Cloud, sun, 17C; 15 February - Rain, 12C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): West-Southwest 2 to 3 increasing West 5, locally 6.
Pleasant morning, little bit nippy otherwise good. Wind picking up later and becoming strong. Mainly sunny. Weekend outlook - windy with possible showers on Sunday.
Evening update (23.30): Blowy for much of the day. Only occasional sun. High of 19.7C.
The Shambles Of The Tourist Tax
If there was any question over the tourist tax being a political tax and only a political, as I suggested the other day, it has now been removed. The politics of the tax do not solely reside with the motives for its introduction, they are also firmly at the centre of the mess that is passing for government in the Balearics, one created by the unworkable nature of a government held hostage by a party that is not even part of it. This is the government and model of government that Francina Armengol insists is working so well that the national government should be based on it as well. She's either having a laugh or she really is in cloud cuckoo land.
Much as it might pain me to side with the Partido Popular, when its general secretary in the Balearics, Andreu Ferrer, says that it is "worrying" that Armengol should suggest this model to Pedro Sánchez, I cannot disagree. I had, after all, said much the same thing, just as I had suggested, before Jaume Font of El Pi did, that the tax would end up being this government's TIL: its own omnishambles.
It was all so predictable. Another of Armengol's crutches is her regular reference to the accords for change that underpin (supposedly) the way this government works. These accords, for which there is the ominous-sounding monitoring committee to ensure their compliance, were cobbled together in the days of desperation following the May regional election in order to form a government with Armengol theoretically at its head. They are accords subject to, as the president parrots, dialogue and consensus, when all along they have been a means by which the government could be collapsed and have been the principles through which Podemos controls Armengol, controls PSOE and controls Biel Barceló.
The arguments over the tax are no longer confined to the rights and wrongs of its introduction. They have moved on to who it is that defines it and controls it, and the past few days have revealed who this is: not the government, not Armengol, not Barceló, but Podemos. The tax is a defining piece of legislation, as it was always destined to be. Podemos wants it all its way and no one else's. If it fails to get its way, then the unworkable working-well government of Francina Armengol's fantasy may well collapse in the great heap that had been predicted.
Laura Camargo of Podemos, expressing her surprise at disagreements over the tax, its purpose, its potential discounts and more, was voicing surprise at the temerity of the government to be contemplating uses that differ to those that Podemos demands. This is not government through consensus, this is government through command and strong-arm tactics, and it was all so very predictable.
Camargo said earlier this week that were there to be a vote on the tax legislation right now, this would not be a vote in favour of an eco-tax. The semantics are important, as the government has gone on record as having said that it will not be an eco-tax, i.e. not one in the image of Eco-Tax Mark I of 2002-2003. Catalina Cladera, the PSOE finance minister, has been one of those to have insisted that it will not be an eco-tax: one to be used solely for environmental purposes.
So, what Camargo was getting at was that Podemos will not accept anything which isn't an eco-tax. The deadlock that has been caused through the stand-off on the purpose of the tax (but not only this) can be resolved, suggests Camargo, through the forming of another monitoring committee, one expressly for the tax and which would presumably be separate to the planned committee for supervising the distribution of tax revenue. This would be a political committee to make damn sure that the tax becomes an eco-tax. Not that it would comprise only politicians. Oh no, Camargo wants experts and environmental activists. Now, who might she have in mind? GOB perhaps? Gurus from the university's geography department?
Biel Barceló, who himself has said in the past that environmental purposes would be only one of a range of uses of the tax revenue, now says that the environment is a priority. But Barceló is hostage to not only Podemos but also to his own eco-influenced party. He keeps changing his mind because he is forced into doing so. A member of his party, David Abril, finds it curious that Podemos should be siding with the enemy, the Partido Popular, in some aspects of the tax legislation. It isn't curious, because the PP is well aware that it can make mischief to the point of ensuring that the tax is at least held over until next year.
Meanwhile, the arguments over the tax create the metaphor for this government. Shambles.
Much as it might pain me to side with the Partido Popular, when its general secretary in the Balearics, Andreu Ferrer, says that it is "worrying" that Armengol should suggest this model to Pedro Sánchez, I cannot disagree. I had, after all, said much the same thing, just as I had suggested, before Jaume Font of El Pi did, that the tax would end up being this government's TIL: its own omnishambles.
It was all so predictable. Another of Armengol's crutches is her regular reference to the accords for change that underpin (supposedly) the way this government works. These accords, for which there is the ominous-sounding monitoring committee to ensure their compliance, were cobbled together in the days of desperation following the May regional election in order to form a government with Armengol theoretically at its head. They are accords subject to, as the president parrots, dialogue and consensus, when all along they have been a means by which the government could be collapsed and have been the principles through which Podemos controls Armengol, controls PSOE and controls Biel Barceló.
The arguments over the tax are no longer confined to the rights and wrongs of its introduction. They have moved on to who it is that defines it and controls it, and the past few days have revealed who this is: not the government, not Armengol, not Barceló, but Podemos. The tax is a defining piece of legislation, as it was always destined to be. Podemos wants it all its way and no one else's. If it fails to get its way, then the unworkable working-well government of Francina Armengol's fantasy may well collapse in the great heap that had been predicted.
Laura Camargo of Podemos, expressing her surprise at disagreements over the tax, its purpose, its potential discounts and more, was voicing surprise at the temerity of the government to be contemplating uses that differ to those that Podemos demands. This is not government through consensus, this is government through command and strong-arm tactics, and it was all so very predictable.
Camargo said earlier this week that were there to be a vote on the tax legislation right now, this would not be a vote in favour of an eco-tax. The semantics are important, as the government has gone on record as having said that it will not be an eco-tax, i.e. not one in the image of Eco-Tax Mark I of 2002-2003. Catalina Cladera, the PSOE finance minister, has been one of those to have insisted that it will not be an eco-tax: one to be used solely for environmental purposes.
So, what Camargo was getting at was that Podemos will not accept anything which isn't an eco-tax. The deadlock that has been caused through the stand-off on the purpose of the tax (but not only this) can be resolved, suggests Camargo, through the forming of another monitoring committee, one expressly for the tax and which would presumably be separate to the planned committee for supervising the distribution of tax revenue. This would be a political committee to make damn sure that the tax becomes an eco-tax. Not that it would comprise only politicians. Oh no, Camargo wants experts and environmental activists. Now, who might she have in mind? GOB perhaps? Gurus from the university's geography department?
Biel Barceló, who himself has said in the past that environmental purposes would be only one of a range of uses of the tax revenue, now says that the environment is a priority. But Barceló is hostage to not only Podemos but also to his own eco-influenced party. He keeps changing his mind because he is forced into doing so. A member of his party, David Abril, finds it curious that Podemos should be siding with the enemy, the Partido Popular, in some aspects of the tax legislation. It isn't curious, because the PP is well aware that it can make mischief to the point of ensuring that the tax is at least held over until next year.
Meanwhile, the arguments over the tax create the metaphor for this government. Shambles.
Thursday, February 11, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 11 February 2016
Morning high (6.52am): 13.6C
Forecast high: 19C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 12 February - Cloud, sun, 20C; 13 February - Cloud, sun, 19C; 14 February - Cloud, sun, 17C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): West 2 to 4 occasionally 5 off Formentor.
Wind is down. Mix of cloud and sun, possible rain, and mild. The wind's due to return tomorrow. Otherwise the same sort of combination.
Evening update (20.30): Mainly cloudy with a burst of rain this afternoon. Very mild though. High of 21.2C.
Forecast high: 19C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 12 February - Cloud, sun, 20C; 13 February - Cloud, sun, 19C; 14 February - Cloud, sun, 17C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): West 2 to 4 occasionally 5 off Formentor.
Wind is down. Mix of cloud and sun, possible rain, and mild. The wind's due to return tomorrow. Otherwise the same sort of combination.
Evening update (20.30): Mainly cloudy with a burst of rain this afternoon. Very mild though. High of 21.2C.
Privatisation Of The Sea: Waterparks
Beaches are suddenly very much in political vogue. To the question of chiringuitos and items of beach furniture on rustic beaches can be added things that lie off beaches. One thing in particular: a floating waterpark. Calvia has, in effect, banned these waterparks. Good for Calvia.
In fact, banning is too strong a word, even if this would be the outcome. The waterparks off Calvia beaches, of which there have been several, are not illegal. The town hall, in addressing the issue, is to consider their suitability and to make void contracts that do not meet requirements; however "requirements" might be defined. The wording seems rather loose. Deliberately so perhaps, as it leaves room for manoeuvre in removing the waterparks on grounds that might seem more subjective than objective. A legal challenge may be raised, one fancies.
In principle, however, Calvia is adopting the right line. The waterparks off municipal beaches were the consequence of a 2014 decision to put out to tender the so-called occupation of public domain marine space close to shore. Calvia was not alone. There have been floating waterparks dotted around Mallorca's coastline.
When they were first being mentioned - and the first one I was aware of was off Playa de Muro - they didn't sound such a bad idea. They would be environmentally neutral in that they would not be permanent, would not be anchored in a way that might harm seabed flora, e.g. posidonia, while access (other than by wading or swimming) would be with rowing boats and nothing that was using fuel or was noisy. They sounded reasonable insofar as they would be an additional attraction, something that might have been thought good for a family tourism market.
It was when they became visible that the idea seemed less good. Did the beaches of Mallorca really want a load of floating giant pieces of plastic bobbing on the gentle waves in the full glare of the beachgoing public? General reaction was less than positive.
In Colonia Sant Jordi, as an example, a local pressure group - Salvem Sa Colonia - staged a protest on the beach against the plan to install a waterpark. There were a variety of reasons for objecting: ecological, the use of the sea by the public and navigation by boats. There was an additional element to the protest, the establishment of platforms for jet skis as well.
The regional government, via the natural spaces and biodiversity department of its environment ministry, might now be said to have such installations firmly in its sights. Its desire to ensure there are no chiringuitos on rustic beaches is just one aspect of a far wider consideration of protected areas included under the Natura Network, a European Union device that was adopted for environmental conservation purposes. Under this, most of the Mallorcan coastline is defined as protected. But not all of it. Much of the Calvia coast isn't, for instance. Where the provisions are more evident are, for instance, in the whole of the bays of Alcudia and Pollensa and along the coast that stretches from Santanyi through Es Trenc towards Arenal. This is coast which therefore embraces Colonia Sant Jordi and, in the north, the beaches of Puerto Pollensa, Puerto Alcudia, Playa de Muro and Can Picafort, all of which have had floating waterparks off them.
Does this sound as if the environment ministry, controlled by the eco-nationalists of Més, is getting into a zealous fervour, as was the case when the PSM socialists (part of Més) took control of the ministry in the latter half of the previous PSOE-led administration of 2007 to 2011? Perhaps it does. The minister, Vicenç Vidal, appears to be even more of an eco-warrior than the PSM minister, Gabriel Vicens, was.
But there is much to potentially praise in the ministry getting to grips with the Mallorcan coast. Fundamentally, the beaches are public domain. It is a Spanish birthright to have free and unfettered access to and use of the country's beaches. It is a birthright enshrined in law. It has not prevented the exploitation of beaches, of course it hasn't, and it surely isn't the case that any minister would propose getting rid of sunbeds and what have you from the main, urban beaches. But there is and can be excessiveness, and when this "privatisation" involves the sea as well, one can argue that things have gone too far. Yes, there is privatisation, as with charging for anchoring and so on, but boats are a rather different matter to the likes of floating waterparks. They may cause environmental damage but they are not in themselves unappealing. A waterpark on the other hand ... .
Calvia's initiative is, therefore, to be applauded, even if the beaches involved are not deemed to form part of the protected coast. As such, specific intervention is required. More general intervention, on behalf of the ministry, may well be looming on the horizon.
In fact, banning is too strong a word, even if this would be the outcome. The waterparks off Calvia beaches, of which there have been several, are not illegal. The town hall, in addressing the issue, is to consider their suitability and to make void contracts that do not meet requirements; however "requirements" might be defined. The wording seems rather loose. Deliberately so perhaps, as it leaves room for manoeuvre in removing the waterparks on grounds that might seem more subjective than objective. A legal challenge may be raised, one fancies.
In principle, however, Calvia is adopting the right line. The waterparks off municipal beaches were the consequence of a 2014 decision to put out to tender the so-called occupation of public domain marine space close to shore. Calvia was not alone. There have been floating waterparks dotted around Mallorca's coastline.
When they were first being mentioned - and the first one I was aware of was off Playa de Muro - they didn't sound such a bad idea. They would be environmentally neutral in that they would not be permanent, would not be anchored in a way that might harm seabed flora, e.g. posidonia, while access (other than by wading or swimming) would be with rowing boats and nothing that was using fuel or was noisy. They sounded reasonable insofar as they would be an additional attraction, something that might have been thought good for a family tourism market.
It was when they became visible that the idea seemed less good. Did the beaches of Mallorca really want a load of floating giant pieces of plastic bobbing on the gentle waves in the full glare of the beachgoing public? General reaction was less than positive.
In Colonia Sant Jordi, as an example, a local pressure group - Salvem Sa Colonia - staged a protest on the beach against the plan to install a waterpark. There were a variety of reasons for objecting: ecological, the use of the sea by the public and navigation by boats. There was an additional element to the protest, the establishment of platforms for jet skis as well.
The regional government, via the natural spaces and biodiversity department of its environment ministry, might now be said to have such installations firmly in its sights. Its desire to ensure there are no chiringuitos on rustic beaches is just one aspect of a far wider consideration of protected areas included under the Natura Network, a European Union device that was adopted for environmental conservation purposes. Under this, most of the Mallorcan coastline is defined as protected. But not all of it. Much of the Calvia coast isn't, for instance. Where the provisions are more evident are, for instance, in the whole of the bays of Alcudia and Pollensa and along the coast that stretches from Santanyi through Es Trenc towards Arenal. This is coast which therefore embraces Colonia Sant Jordi and, in the north, the beaches of Puerto Pollensa, Puerto Alcudia, Playa de Muro and Can Picafort, all of which have had floating waterparks off them.
Does this sound as if the environment ministry, controlled by the eco-nationalists of Més, is getting into a zealous fervour, as was the case when the PSM socialists (part of Més) took control of the ministry in the latter half of the previous PSOE-led administration of 2007 to 2011? Perhaps it does. The minister, Vicenç Vidal, appears to be even more of an eco-warrior than the PSM minister, Gabriel Vicens, was.
But there is much to potentially praise in the ministry getting to grips with the Mallorcan coast. Fundamentally, the beaches are public domain. It is a Spanish birthright to have free and unfettered access to and use of the country's beaches. It is a birthright enshrined in law. It has not prevented the exploitation of beaches, of course it hasn't, and it surely isn't the case that any minister would propose getting rid of sunbeds and what have you from the main, urban beaches. But there is and can be excessiveness, and when this "privatisation" involves the sea as well, one can argue that things have gone too far. Yes, there is privatisation, as with charging for anchoring and so on, but boats are a rather different matter to the likes of floating waterparks. They may cause environmental damage but they are not in themselves unappealing. A waterpark on the other hand ... .
Calvia's initiative is, therefore, to be applauded, even if the beaches involved are not deemed to form part of the protected coast. As such, specific intervention is required. More general intervention, on behalf of the ministry, may well be looming on the horizon.
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 10 February 2016
Morning high (7.38am): 15C
Forecast high: 19C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 11 February - Cloud, sun, 20C; 12 February - Cloud, sun, 17C; 13 February - Cloud, sun, 19C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northwest 4 to 6 easing South-Southwest 3 to 4 by the afternoon.
Mild morning, fairly cloudy, the wind has dropped. Sunny periods today. Staying mild but forecast to turn cold by the end of the weekend.
Evening update (21.30): Became increasingly windy and still is. Not a great deal of sun but warm enough - a high of 20.6C.
Forecast high: 19C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 11 February - Cloud, sun, 20C; 12 February - Cloud, sun, 17C; 13 February - Cloud, sun, 19C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northwest 4 to 6 easing South-Southwest 3 to 4 by the afternoon.
Mild morning, fairly cloudy, the wind has dropped. Sunny periods today. Staying mild but forecast to turn cold by the end of the weekend.
Evening update (21.30): Became increasingly windy and still is. Not a great deal of sun but warm enough - a high of 20.6C.
Environment vs. Ambience: Beach chiringuitos
Legend informs us that the first beach-bar or chiringuito in Mallorca appeared on the beach at S'Illot in 1951. It was in the days when beach and non-beach were indistinguishable and when the means of running it would have been primitive to say the least. Despite it having been on the east coast and well off what was mostly beaten track in any event in those days, it proved to be popular and wasn't apparently just solely a place for cooling refreshment. For all that it would have been rudimentary, it was a beach-bar to which people would travel and where they would meet. It had ambience, the product of what seems like a natural collision - bar and beach.
The chiringuito, as in the traditional sort with thatch and a shape vaguely reminiscent of a boat, can be distinguished from other beach-bars, such as the wooden-roofed balneario, which is a misleading term in that the word means spa but which has acquired official status for its beach locations. Resorts are mapped according to balnearios: Playa de Palma, for instance. These balnearios have become part of the beach urban environment. A chiringuito implies a construction of a more rustic beach nature, to which can be assigned certain characteristics: laid-back, relaxed, cool.
This is the implication, though it isn't always the reality, while the word chiringuito may or may not mean that traditional image. And into this realm of uncertainty has ridden the controversy of Son Serra de Marina, where the town hall (Santa Margalida) has been thinking about plonking a chiringuito and other beach paraphernalia, such as sunbeds. It is not known what the chiringuito structure might be (or might have been), while its positioning would not necessarily have been rustic in that its location was in front of or very close to the final urban development in this resort.
One can talk about this plan in the past tense, as the regional government would appear to have scuppered it. The protesters, several thousand of them, who formed a human chain against the plan can breathe a sigh of relief. The rustic nature of Son Serra is to be conserved.
The cause célèbre that has been the Son Serra plan might seem to have been what has provoked the environment ministry into tightening up on chiringuitos and what have you on rustic beaches. In fact, the ministry's natural spaces and biodiversity department have been on the case in any event. Son Serra is a clear case in point, but it isn't the only one.
The objection that the ministry has to the project is that one hundred sunbeds plus bar and other facilities would "appreciably affect" an area of "community interest". The objection isn't so much that there would be the risk of environmental harm through pollution (though there might be some small risk), it is more the damage to the visual environment: unspoiled should mean and remain unspoiled.
Santa Margalida have given out different justifications for the plan. One was (bizarrely enough) to obtain a Blue Flag. Another was that the revenue from the concessions would pay for the maintenance of the beach. These may well have been reasonable grounds, but the chiringuito was surely unnecessary. Indeed, it would have represented a kick in the teeth to the one or two bars (not on the beach of course) which have, over several years, contributed to a laid-back atmosphere which so many thousands were prepared to defend.
But while this particular bar was questionable, can the same be said for chiringuitos on other beaches of a rustic style? A full invasion of beaches by sunbeds and other facilities is one thing, but a chiringuito on its own? Yes, there are many tourists (and residents) who crave unspoiled beaches. Likewise, there are those who quite enjoy there being a bar. It can be positive in that it adds to the ambience rather than subtracts. It can also be positive in preventing a need to haul any amount of containers and plastic which might end up being discarded and so pose more of an environmental risk than a chiringuito, so long as the latter is subject to strict control.
What will now happen is that the ministry is going to say yea or nay to new applications and existing ones. Son Serra, representative of the former, is almost certainly out of the question. But what of, just as an example, Es Trenc's famed S'Embat?
My guess would be that a great majority of tourists and residents will approve of the government's aims (and I would be included in that majority), but being too dogmatic and too universal in treating each beach as the same would mean missing a point about how many have enjoyed beach life for so long. Chiringuitos have their role and it is one of ambience created decades ago.
The chiringuito, as in the traditional sort with thatch and a shape vaguely reminiscent of a boat, can be distinguished from other beach-bars, such as the wooden-roofed balneario, which is a misleading term in that the word means spa but which has acquired official status for its beach locations. Resorts are mapped according to balnearios: Playa de Palma, for instance. These balnearios have become part of the beach urban environment. A chiringuito implies a construction of a more rustic beach nature, to which can be assigned certain characteristics: laid-back, relaxed, cool.
This is the implication, though it isn't always the reality, while the word chiringuito may or may not mean that traditional image. And into this realm of uncertainty has ridden the controversy of Son Serra de Marina, where the town hall (Santa Margalida) has been thinking about plonking a chiringuito and other beach paraphernalia, such as sunbeds. It is not known what the chiringuito structure might be (or might have been), while its positioning would not necessarily have been rustic in that its location was in front of or very close to the final urban development in this resort.
One can talk about this plan in the past tense, as the regional government would appear to have scuppered it. The protesters, several thousand of them, who formed a human chain against the plan can breathe a sigh of relief. The rustic nature of Son Serra is to be conserved.
The cause célèbre that has been the Son Serra plan might seem to have been what has provoked the environment ministry into tightening up on chiringuitos and what have you on rustic beaches. In fact, the ministry's natural spaces and biodiversity department have been on the case in any event. Son Serra is a clear case in point, but it isn't the only one.
The objection that the ministry has to the project is that one hundred sunbeds plus bar and other facilities would "appreciably affect" an area of "community interest". The objection isn't so much that there would be the risk of environmental harm through pollution (though there might be some small risk), it is more the damage to the visual environment: unspoiled should mean and remain unspoiled.
Santa Margalida have given out different justifications for the plan. One was (bizarrely enough) to obtain a Blue Flag. Another was that the revenue from the concessions would pay for the maintenance of the beach. These may well have been reasonable grounds, but the chiringuito was surely unnecessary. Indeed, it would have represented a kick in the teeth to the one or two bars (not on the beach of course) which have, over several years, contributed to a laid-back atmosphere which so many thousands were prepared to defend.
But while this particular bar was questionable, can the same be said for chiringuitos on other beaches of a rustic style? A full invasion of beaches by sunbeds and other facilities is one thing, but a chiringuito on its own? Yes, there are many tourists (and residents) who crave unspoiled beaches. Likewise, there are those who quite enjoy there being a bar. It can be positive in that it adds to the ambience rather than subtracts. It can also be positive in preventing a need to haul any amount of containers and plastic which might end up being discarded and so pose more of an environmental risk than a chiringuito, so long as the latter is subject to strict control.
What will now happen is that the ministry is going to say yea or nay to new applications and existing ones. Son Serra, representative of the former, is almost certainly out of the question. But what of, just as an example, Es Trenc's famed S'Embat?
My guess would be that a great majority of tourists and residents will approve of the government's aims (and I would be included in that majority), but being too dogmatic and too universal in treating each beach as the same would mean missing a point about how many have enjoyed beach life for so long. Chiringuitos have their role and it is one of ambience created decades ago.
Tuesday, February 09, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 9 February 2016
Morning high (7.42am): 9.2C
Forecast high: 18C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 10 February - Cloud, sun, wind, 18C; 11 February - Cloud, sun, 17C; 12 February - Cloud, sun, 17C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Southwest 4 to 5 increasing 5 to 6 around midday, occasionally 7. Waves to three or four metres.
Quite breezy and mostly clear first thing. Sun during the day plus wind, with alerts out for high winds and for the coasts. Similar tomorrow.
Evening update (23.15): Very windy this evening, but a fairly warm wind. High today of 19.3C.
Forecast high: 18C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 10 February - Cloud, sun, wind, 18C; 11 February - Cloud, sun, 17C; 12 February - Cloud, sun, 17C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Southwest 4 to 5 increasing 5 to 6 around midday, occasionally 7. Waves to three or four metres.
Quite breezy and mostly clear first thing. Sun during the day plus wind, with alerts out for high winds and for the coasts. Similar tomorrow.
Evening update (23.15): Very windy this evening, but a fairly warm wind. High today of 19.3C.
Why Not The Green Taxes Instead?
In the scheme of things, the revenue to be derived from the sustainable tourism tax would represent a modest, albeit welcome boost to regional finances. It has to be seen for what it is: a regional tax for which the regional government has every right to charge.
The rights to tax-raising ceded to regional governments mean that, for instance, the tax revenue for property sales goes directly to Palma and isn't included in Madrid's calculations for regional financing that are linked to national tax raising, e.g. IVA. Property transfer tax is one of the most significant of these regional taxes, and in 2015 the revenue from it increased by almost 100 million euros, a figure which is likely to show a further rise in 2016. To place the sustainable tourism tax in context, the upper estimate of revenue from this would equate to 12% of property transfer tax revenue. It isn't small beer but it also isn't the whole brewery. The amount would be roughly the same as the revenue from inheritance tax and also from the water tax, one that the previous government of José Ramón Bauzá amplified as part of a package of "green" taxes and ended up being the only one to actually have been applied.
Those green taxes were to have included ones for large retailers (because of the pollution caused by cars being driven to and parked by large retail outlets), for non-returnable plastic bottles and for car hire. The latter of these, when its introduction was being discussed, was referred to as a tourist tax. It was to have been a charge made because of emissions from vehicles and was due to have raised 15 million euros per annum. In the end, it was not introduced. The fuss caused was not a wide one. The public, tourists would have barely noticed the fuss. It was one made mainly by businesses affected - the retailers and the car-hire agencies. Under the threat of legal action and faced by the combined might of the major companies, Bauzá buckled.
The various taxes as a package would, had they been introduced, have raised an annual revenue of roughly 70 million euros, a figure not so different to the estimate for the sustainable tourism tax. Had they been established within the framework of regional tax legislation, it is most unlikely that the current government would now be seeking to repeal them. It has been repealing a great deal of the Bauzá legacy, but green taxes would hold appeal and one that would not be for a repeal.
The point with the green taxes was that they were not political taxes. They were ones dreamt up to address the parlous funding shortfall that the Bauzá regime faced. That it failed utterly in addressing this by rolling over and being tickled by Madrid into not demanding funding that was due to the Balearics should not disguise the reasons for the green taxes. But they were contrary to PP philosophy. They were deemed necessary (until they were later deemed unnecessary).
The sustainable tourism tax is a wholly different beast. It is a political tax, and to appreciate the extent to which it is, one only has to be aware of the rows now emanating from parliament regarding the application of revenue. It is a tax which, had PSOE been governing alone, would almost certainly not have been revisited. It has been because other parties demanded that it should be.
While it is argued that it is a tax for specific purposes, such an argument is disingenuous. Individual taxes cannot be divorced from the overall funding pot, and indeed the tax hasn't been insofar as it has been linked to funding shortfall. Yet we now have a situation in which the government discovers that overall tax receipts shot up last year and will continue to rise. Allied to this are the investment payments of 80 million per year for three years that Madrid had previously withheld. An alteration to Balearic status under the special regime provisions should release yet more funding.
The political nature of the tax has been exposed by the fighting over its application which, if Podemos gets it way, would mean Mallorca being discriminated against, hotel workers having to pay the tax to stay in hotel accommodation and there being no reduction of the tax in winter. PSOE in particular are livid with all this. They'll say there'll be dialogue, but there are a great deal of politics at stake. If there were really still a case for the need for additional funding, then why not revisit the Bauzá taxes? The amount would be similar, but then the politics would be different. For Podemos, large retailers and car-hire agencies seem not to be the great enemies that the hoteliers are or, as it seems more and more intent in demonstrating, that tourists themselves are.
The rights to tax-raising ceded to regional governments mean that, for instance, the tax revenue for property sales goes directly to Palma and isn't included in Madrid's calculations for regional financing that are linked to national tax raising, e.g. IVA. Property transfer tax is one of the most significant of these regional taxes, and in 2015 the revenue from it increased by almost 100 million euros, a figure which is likely to show a further rise in 2016. To place the sustainable tourism tax in context, the upper estimate of revenue from this would equate to 12% of property transfer tax revenue. It isn't small beer but it also isn't the whole brewery. The amount would be roughly the same as the revenue from inheritance tax and also from the water tax, one that the previous government of José Ramón Bauzá amplified as part of a package of "green" taxes and ended up being the only one to actually have been applied.
Those green taxes were to have included ones for large retailers (because of the pollution caused by cars being driven to and parked by large retail outlets), for non-returnable plastic bottles and for car hire. The latter of these, when its introduction was being discussed, was referred to as a tourist tax. It was to have been a charge made because of emissions from vehicles and was due to have raised 15 million euros per annum. In the end, it was not introduced. The fuss caused was not a wide one. The public, tourists would have barely noticed the fuss. It was one made mainly by businesses affected - the retailers and the car-hire agencies. Under the threat of legal action and faced by the combined might of the major companies, Bauzá buckled.
The various taxes as a package would, had they been introduced, have raised an annual revenue of roughly 70 million euros, a figure not so different to the estimate for the sustainable tourism tax. Had they been established within the framework of regional tax legislation, it is most unlikely that the current government would now be seeking to repeal them. It has been repealing a great deal of the Bauzá legacy, but green taxes would hold appeal and one that would not be for a repeal.
The point with the green taxes was that they were not political taxes. They were ones dreamt up to address the parlous funding shortfall that the Bauzá regime faced. That it failed utterly in addressing this by rolling over and being tickled by Madrid into not demanding funding that was due to the Balearics should not disguise the reasons for the green taxes. But they were contrary to PP philosophy. They were deemed necessary (until they were later deemed unnecessary).
The sustainable tourism tax is a wholly different beast. It is a political tax, and to appreciate the extent to which it is, one only has to be aware of the rows now emanating from parliament regarding the application of revenue. It is a tax which, had PSOE been governing alone, would almost certainly not have been revisited. It has been because other parties demanded that it should be.
While it is argued that it is a tax for specific purposes, such an argument is disingenuous. Individual taxes cannot be divorced from the overall funding pot, and indeed the tax hasn't been insofar as it has been linked to funding shortfall. Yet we now have a situation in which the government discovers that overall tax receipts shot up last year and will continue to rise. Allied to this are the investment payments of 80 million per year for three years that Madrid had previously withheld. An alteration to Balearic status under the special regime provisions should release yet more funding.
The political nature of the tax has been exposed by the fighting over its application which, if Podemos gets it way, would mean Mallorca being discriminated against, hotel workers having to pay the tax to stay in hotel accommodation and there being no reduction of the tax in winter. PSOE in particular are livid with all this. They'll say there'll be dialogue, but there are a great deal of politics at stake. If there were really still a case for the need for additional funding, then why not revisit the Bauzá taxes? The amount would be similar, but then the politics would be different. For Podemos, large retailers and car-hire agencies seem not to be the great enemies that the hoteliers are or, as it seems more and more intent in demonstrating, that tourists themselves are.
Monday, February 08, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 8 February 2016
Morning high (5.56am): 12.5C
Forecast high: 18C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 9 February - Sun, cloud, wind, 18C; 10 February - Sun, cloud, 16C; 11 February - Sun, cloud, 17C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): West-Northwest 3 to 4 backing Southwest 4 during the afternoon.
Seems rather calmer, yesterday's wind having dropped. Should be reasonable today. Tomorrow, the wind will be back with an advice out for the coasts.
Evening update (20.06): High of 20.7C. Good day.
Forecast high: 18C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 9 February - Sun, cloud, wind, 18C; 10 February - Sun, cloud, 16C; 11 February - Sun, cloud, 17C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): West-Northwest 3 to 4 backing Southwest 4 during the afternoon.
Seems rather calmer, yesterday's wind having dropped. Should be reasonable today. Tomorrow, the wind will be back with an advice out for the coasts.
Evening update (20.06): High of 20.7C. Good day.
Soller And Barcelona: Where Basketball Started
There shouldn't be anything curious, though, with being both tall and a basketball player. One of Spain's best known is the Palma-born Rudy Fernández. There shouldn't also be anything curious about basketball in Mallorca. It is, as with the rest of Spain, immensely popular. And yet, I'm guessing that it is a sport which does fly somewhat below the radar of many, especially the foreign communities with greater interests in other sports.
Mallorca's leading basketball team is Palma Air Europa. It competes in the Liga Española de Baloncesto (LEB) Oro, the second division behind La Liga ACB, Spain's premier basketball league. This is the name that the team has for purposes of sponsorship, i.e. that of Air Europa. Its real name is CB Bahía San Agustín, which has its own curious past. In 1972, Father Manuel Carreño founded the Club de Básquet San Agustín, which was a school team. Some ten years later, another team was founded by the Bahía printing company. Both grew and eventually, in 2007, they merged to become CB Bahía San Agustín.
The history of basketball on the island goes back to much earlier times than Father Manuel's school team. The generally accepted version of events is that it all had to do with two brothers - Pere and Joan Reynés - sons of a couple from Soller who had moved to France. When they all returned, in 1931, basketball came with them. A year later - on 8 May, 1932 - the first ever basketball game in Mallorca took place: it was on the Camp d'en Maiol in Soller, which by then had been a football ground for almost ten years.
In 1942, again in Soller, the Congregation of Marian Fathers at the school of the Sacred Hearts (Sagrats Cors) introduced basketball to the school's sports curriculum, and ultimately Joventut Mariana was to become the leading basketball team in the Balearics, even including American military personnel stationed on the island who were employed at the Puig Maria base.
It had taken some years, though, for the basketball bug, courtesy of the Reynés brothers, to catch on in Mallorca. More than twenty years before, Barcelona had been introduced to the sport. The founder of basketball in Spain (though this is disputed) was one Eladi Homs i Oller (pictured here). A teacher and thinker about education, in 1907 he was given a grant by the town hall in Barcelona to go to the United States in order to research new systems of teaching.
While he was in the US, and in Chicago in particular, he came across basketball, a sport which at the time was unknown in Spain. Homs returned to Barcelona in 1910 and at the Escuela Vallparadís in Terrassa in the Barcelona province, some twenty kilometres from the centre of the city, baskets were put up in the school courtyard. It is reckoned that it was 1912 when the first actual game was played, albeit that it was confined to the school itself: there weren't any other schools to play against.
The school was to close in 1915, there being no evidence to suggest that basketball had caught on. And so one comes to Father Eusebio Millán. He had been a missionary in Cuba, where he would have encountered not only American soldiers but also basketball. It is now debated whether there was any link between Homs and Father Eusebio, with the weight of argument tending towards there not having been and Father Eusebio giving his first lessons on basketball in the courtyard of the Pías de San Anton school in Barcelona in 1921.
There is a further version of events that "basket-ball" was originally played by women. Indeed, there is a newspaper report from 1912 which spoke of a "new sport" played by "good-looking sportswomen" at the Instituto Kinesiterápico in Barcelona. This was in fact the first real gym in Spain. Whether Homs had been instrumental in this game is also not known.
Anyway, whoever it actually was who should be honoured with having introduced basketball to Spain, it was to take its time coming over to Mallorca. And by the time that the brothers Reynés returned to Soller - in fact in the very year that they returned - a basketball team was founded on the mainland. Not in Barcelona but in Madrid. Real Madrid's basketball team remains the dominant force in Spanish basketball, and one of its star players is Mallorca's own Rudy Fernández.
Sunday, February 07, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 7 February 2016
Morning high (7.50am): 13.7C
Forecast high: 16C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 8 February - Sun, 18C; 9 February - Sun, cloud, 16C; 10 February - Sun, cloud, 13C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Southwest 5 to 6 veering Northwest occasionally 7 during the morning and easing 3 to 4 during the afternoon.
Raining, and rain may be around during the day. Also windy but easing later. Outlook for the week - generally fine and sunny with the possibility of rain towards the end of the week.
Evening update (19.16): Some sun but not a lot. Wind dying down now. Rain still around. High of 15.4C.
Forecast high: 16C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 8 February - Sun, 18C; 9 February - Sun, cloud, 16C; 10 February - Sun, cloud, 13C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Southwest 5 to 6 veering Northwest occasionally 7 during the morning and easing 3 to 4 during the afternoon.
Raining, and rain may be around during the day. Also windy but easing later. Outlook for the week - generally fine and sunny with the possibility of rain towards the end of the week.
Evening update (19.16): Some sun but not a lot. Wind dying down now. Rain still around. High of 15.4C.
The President Of The Tourist Tax
It can finally be confirmed. There is a new president. No, not one in Madrid, the one the Spanish call a president and the British prefer to term - because the British know best - a prime minister; it is one right here in the Balearics, or what should really be called Greater Mallorca. Sweet FA, sweet (and friendly) Francina Armengol has become Honorary President. For the remainder of the current legislature, Frankie will drift around aimlessly, smiling sweetly, pressing the on-message consensus-dialogue device, fronting up at press conferences and putting the message on repeat but otherwise doing nothing. The new president is President Dave Spart, Alberto Jarabo, ably assisted by Oberkommandant-ess Laura, Boot Girl-in-Chief.
Yes, I know that neither of them is actually in the government. But since when did a government matter? It certainly doesn't in Greater Mallorca. There we were, being British (and not only British), thinking we might just be making rather overmuch of the tourist tax, given that the British (and others) pay for everything in Greater Mallorca. But no. The students union, sometimes referred to as the Balearic (Greater Mallorca) parliament, has revealed that the tax is indeed "finalista", as nominal vice-president Barceló insists on calling it. It is "finalista" because it is the be all and end all. It is the defining legislation of an ill-defined government.
If Honorary President Armengol had thought parliamentary transmission of the sustainable (?) tourism tax law was going to be a piece of ensaimada, then she certainly got it wrong. There is a battle royal taking place. Or should that be battle republican? President Spart, among other things, has placed Mallorca firmly in his sights in seeking to decree how the tax revenue is to be divvied up. And Mallorca, in proportional terms, is going to see little of it. The Spart equation equates to 31 euros per inhabitant (sorry, citizen) of Mallorca, while Formentera will get 420 euros per citizen (of which there aren't many) and Menorca and Ibiza will receive amounts in between.
Why should the number of citizens per island have anything to do with the tax? The only answer can be that the tax doesn't actually have anything to do with tourism. But we had been suspecting that. There is, or appears to be, a further agenda, and it is an ideological one to redress the balance and dispense with the dominant philosophy of Greater Mallorca by ploughing most of the cash into the deprived islands of Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera. Well, up to a point, there is a point to all this. But it has nothing to do with tourism.
The Partido Popular, mischievously, are inclined to see President Spart's point. Not because they are about to rubber-stamp the presidential decree but because they can sense a grand rift when it appears under the students union's feet. They wish to widen it in the hope that it will engulf the non-government and take the tax with it. Alternatively, the PP spy an opportunity to apply sufficient explosive under the tax and blast it into the atmosphere, thus becoming a rainmaker and producing forty days of deluge, with the effects on the non-government (and, as importantly, the tax) being terminal.
Honorary President Armengol has been silent. And it suits her to be, for in truth she would rather the words tax and tourist had never been combined. PSOE remember the appalling mess they made of the last one. Perhaps, all along, she had been counting on there not being consensus and dialogue and had never considered that the parliamentary process would be smooth. She will be trusting that President Spart succeeds in dynamiting the tax by his own hand.
Yes, I know that neither of them is actually in the government. But since when did a government matter? It certainly doesn't in Greater Mallorca. There we were, being British (and not only British), thinking we might just be making rather overmuch of the tourist tax, given that the British (and others) pay for everything in Greater Mallorca. But no. The students union, sometimes referred to as the Balearic (Greater Mallorca) parliament, has revealed that the tax is indeed "finalista", as nominal vice-president Barceló insists on calling it. It is "finalista" because it is the be all and end all. It is the defining legislation of an ill-defined government.
If Honorary President Armengol had thought parliamentary transmission of the sustainable (?) tourism tax law was going to be a piece of ensaimada, then she certainly got it wrong. There is a battle royal taking place. Or should that be battle republican? President Spart, among other things, has placed Mallorca firmly in his sights in seeking to decree how the tax revenue is to be divvied up. And Mallorca, in proportional terms, is going to see little of it. The Spart equation equates to 31 euros per inhabitant (sorry, citizen) of Mallorca, while Formentera will get 420 euros per citizen (of which there aren't many) and Menorca and Ibiza will receive amounts in between.
Why should the number of citizens per island have anything to do with the tax? The only answer can be that the tax doesn't actually have anything to do with tourism. But we had been suspecting that. There is, or appears to be, a further agenda, and it is an ideological one to redress the balance and dispense with the dominant philosophy of Greater Mallorca by ploughing most of the cash into the deprived islands of Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera. Well, up to a point, there is a point to all this. But it has nothing to do with tourism.
The Partido Popular, mischievously, are inclined to see President Spart's point. Not because they are about to rubber-stamp the presidential decree but because they can sense a grand rift when it appears under the students union's feet. They wish to widen it in the hope that it will engulf the non-government and take the tax with it. Alternatively, the PP spy an opportunity to apply sufficient explosive under the tax and blast it into the atmosphere, thus becoming a rainmaker and producing forty days of deluge, with the effects on the non-government (and, as importantly, the tax) being terminal.
Honorary President Armengol has been silent. And it suits her to be, for in truth she would rather the words tax and tourist had never been combined. PSOE remember the appalling mess they made of the last one. Perhaps, all along, she had been counting on there not being consensus and dialogue and had never considered that the parliamentary process would be smooth. She will be trusting that President Spart succeeds in dynamiting the tax by his own hand.
Saturday, February 06, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 6 February 2016
Morning high (8.14am): 11.3C
Forecast high: 19C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 7 February - Cloud, sun, 16C; 8 February - Sun, cloud, 16C; 9 February - Sun, cloud, 17C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): South 3 to 4.
Cloudy and likely to stay cloudy. May well rain tomorrow, with the wind cranking up as well.
Evening update (20.00): High of 18.9C. Some sun but was mainly cloudy, but only light cloud.
Forecast high: 19C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 7 February - Cloud, sun, 16C; 8 February - Sun, cloud, 16C; 9 February - Sun, cloud, 17C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): South 3 to 4.
Cloudy and likely to stay cloudy. May well rain tomorrow, with the wind cranking up as well.
Evening update (20.00): High of 18.9C. Some sun but was mainly cloudy, but only light cloud.
Hotelier Generosity And The Tourist Tax
So, Mallorca's hoteliers are, out of the goodness of the hearts, to bear the cost of the tourist tax this year. Pull the other one. The announcement, timed to coincide with the Balearic parliament's debate on the draft legislation for the tax, was designed to catch politicians (and others) on the hop. It is quite possible that the Partido Popular knew it was coming and also Ciudadanos, but as for the rest ... .
Once it was made, the announcement then needed some tweaking. It will be down to individual hotels or hotel chains, suggested the president of the federation, Inma de Benito, of whom it might well be asked on what authority she had made the original announcement. FEHM (Federación Empresarial Hotelera de Mallorca), i.e. the Mallorca Hoteliers Federation, is a product of its members. These are the associations in all the major tourist areas plus agrotourism and the separate association for hotel chains. Was she speaking for all of them?
Whether she was or wasn't, the fact is that these associations don't necessarily have 100% membership of local hotels or chains. The hoteliers federation does not, therefore, represent all hotel interests, while it certainly doesn't speak for Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera. How easy it can be to forget that there are three other islands, each of which is just as affected by the tourist tax as Mallorca.
This all said, was the announcement made because of concerns over lost business this summer because of the tax? No it was not. The federation and leading figures within the hotel industry had already acknowledged that the short-term impact (this year) would be negligible or non-existent. With overbooking a fear rather than loss of business, this was not the motivation. So, what was it?
The introduction of the tax, as has been noted many times, has been confusing. It is still in a state of confusion, ever more so as the legislation goes through its parliamentary process. The announcement, if anything, was designed to increase this confusion. The regional government's tourism ministry said not so long ago that it would be involving tour operators and others in an information campaign regarding the application of the tax. What will this campaign now consist of, assuming there will indeed be some hotels bearing the cost of the tax? For the poor tourist, it will be a message of the tax may be paid on your behalf or it might not be. In fact, it may well be in any event, because of reservation agreements in place.
The federation may, therefore, have been simply adopting a pragmatic approach in recognising that the burden for the tax has to be carried by its members and others. But what it really wants (other than the tax not being introduced at all) is a delay until 2017, an approach that would be wholly pragmatic, which is why the government appears determined not to adopt it. That the PP has proposed an amendment to this effect comes as no surprise at all.
The announcement wasn't a case of putting a spanner in the works but one of taking politicians by surprise. It has been interesting to note that the vocal ones have come from Podemos. Increasingly, where parliament is concerned, the tax seems to be a battle between Podemos and the PP. The actual government is almost irrelevant. It faces potential amendments that it doesn't want, such as to the discount in the low season. Podemos says there shouldn't be one. It is a party that doesn't disguise its hostility either towards the hated hoteliers or to tourists themselves. Tourist a friend? Hardly.
Common sense would dictate that the tax should be delayed for a year, while the government's general tax receipts - those for 2015 and those anticipated for this year - undermine a principal argument it has been making regarding financing. Common sense, however, seems to be in limited supply.
Once it was made, the announcement then needed some tweaking. It will be down to individual hotels or hotel chains, suggested the president of the federation, Inma de Benito, of whom it might well be asked on what authority she had made the original announcement. FEHM (Federación Empresarial Hotelera de Mallorca), i.e. the Mallorca Hoteliers Federation, is a product of its members. These are the associations in all the major tourist areas plus agrotourism and the separate association for hotel chains. Was she speaking for all of them?
Whether she was or wasn't, the fact is that these associations don't necessarily have 100% membership of local hotels or chains. The hoteliers federation does not, therefore, represent all hotel interests, while it certainly doesn't speak for Menorca, Ibiza and Formentera. How easy it can be to forget that there are three other islands, each of which is just as affected by the tourist tax as Mallorca.
This all said, was the announcement made because of concerns over lost business this summer because of the tax? No it was not. The federation and leading figures within the hotel industry had already acknowledged that the short-term impact (this year) would be negligible or non-existent. With overbooking a fear rather than loss of business, this was not the motivation. So, what was it?
The introduction of the tax, as has been noted many times, has been confusing. It is still in a state of confusion, ever more so as the legislation goes through its parliamentary process. The announcement, if anything, was designed to increase this confusion. The regional government's tourism ministry said not so long ago that it would be involving tour operators and others in an information campaign regarding the application of the tax. What will this campaign now consist of, assuming there will indeed be some hotels bearing the cost of the tax? For the poor tourist, it will be a message of the tax may be paid on your behalf or it might not be. In fact, it may well be in any event, because of reservation agreements in place.
The federation may, therefore, have been simply adopting a pragmatic approach in recognising that the burden for the tax has to be carried by its members and others. But what it really wants (other than the tax not being introduced at all) is a delay until 2017, an approach that would be wholly pragmatic, which is why the government appears determined not to adopt it. That the PP has proposed an amendment to this effect comes as no surprise at all.
The announcement wasn't a case of putting a spanner in the works but one of taking politicians by surprise. It has been interesting to note that the vocal ones have come from Podemos. Increasingly, where parliament is concerned, the tax seems to be a battle between Podemos and the PP. The actual government is almost irrelevant. It faces potential amendments that it doesn't want, such as to the discount in the low season. Podemos says there shouldn't be one. It is a party that doesn't disguise its hostility either towards the hated hoteliers or to tourists themselves. Tourist a friend? Hardly.
Common sense would dictate that the tax should be delayed for a year, while the government's general tax receipts - those for 2015 and those anticipated for this year - undermine a principal argument it has been making regarding financing. Common sense, however, seems to be in limited supply.
Friday, February 05, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 5 February 2016
Morning high (7.18am): 11.3C
Forecast high: 17C; UV: 3
Three-day forecast: 6 February - Sun, cloud, 19C; 7 February - Cloud, 15C; 8 February - Sun, 16C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northwest 3 to 4 easing Variable 2 to 3 by midday.
Clear sky around dawn. Sunny day expected. Cloud due to come in from tomorrow afternoon, with Sunday quite possibly wet, which would be a blow for the many Carnival parades.
Evening update (24.00): High of 19.9C. Good amounts of sun.
Forecast high: 17C; UV: 3
Three-day forecast: 6 February - Sun, cloud, 19C; 7 February - Cloud, 15C; 8 February - Sun, 16C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northwest 3 to 4 easing Variable 2 to 3 by midday.
Clear sky around dawn. Sunny day expected. Cloud due to come in from tomorrow afternoon, with Sunday quite possibly wet, which would be a blow for the many Carnival parades.
Evening update (24.00): High of 19.9C. Good amounts of sun.
Selling Emotion: City branding
Madrid. What does it stand for? If you have any suggestions, you may wish to direct them to Carlos Chaguaceda. He is the director-general for tourism in the community of Madrid, which is the region of Madrid as opposed to just the city.
Interesting chap, Chaguaceda, as he doesn't seem like the normal type you would expect to be appointed as a regional government's head of tourism. He is, dare one say, a professional. Which is not to say that there have never been other professionals in similar positions in other Spanish regions, such as the Balearics. But which is to say that they haven't necessarily been obvious.
Chaguaceda's CV includes having been the director of corporate communications for Coca-Cola España. In other words, he knows a thing or two about marketing. He also been Brussels correspondent for Antena 3 Televisión. He knows a thing or two about journalism and the media.
Last November, a manual written by him was published. Its title in English is "You Can Be News". In explaining the book he observed that in the world of the media, if you're not in the media, then you don't exist. Everything, where the market is concerned (whatever this market might be or how it is defined), is dependent upon communication. From what is communicated comes the prestige that is wished to be created. But it isn't enough to be visible in the media, there has to be an understanding of the roles played by advertising, social media, creating viral communications and so on.
All this should be obvious, but sometimes it does require someone to state the obvious. And there is more. Another book that Chaguaceda has penned translates as "The Happy Monkey". It is more scientific in that it explores brain functions in generating emotions and in considering how there is a common process for finding happiness.
This latter book might all sound rather obscure and technical and perhaps it is, but its message is not. Its application is what Chaguaceda is now considering within the broad context of media management and marketing for the community of Madrid. He wants to make an emotional connection between visitors, the city of Madrid and its surrounding areas.
Though his geographical responsibility is broader, the city is of course crucial. It bears the same name as the region and so it is what the outside world recognises. But while there is recognition and visibility as well as there already being high numbers of visitors, what is that Madrid represents? What does it stand for? What or where is the emotional connection and the impulse towards visitor happiness?
Chaguaceda says that a brand (in this case a city or region) means creating an experience, an expectation and an emotional relationship. But what emotion is Madrid associated with? Indeed, what is it associated with full stop? Other than Real Madrid, in global terms, it's a struggle to think what this might be. The same cannot be said of other major European cities, such as London, Paris or Rome, or even certain cities in the next tier, like Milan or Amsterdam.
Madrid is already a successful city, meaning that the region is successful, but success needs to not only be consolidated it has to be enhanced. What Chaguaceda is aiming to do should, therefore, be of interest to Palma and to Mallorca. If one were to ask the same questions of Palma as of Madrid, then what would the answers be? What actually does Palma stand for? What is it that creates an emotional bond? What is its iconic imagery?
With Palma, though, I would suggest that the challenge is different to the one Chaguaceda is grappling with. While Palma is known and is visible, it is the region (Mallorca) which is far more known and visible. It is also something with which one is well aware that there is an emotional bond, and one that has existed for decades. The same, I would argue, doesn't apply to Palma. Chaguaceda says that co-operation with the city has been straightforward because essentially the city and region are promoting the same thing. In Mallorca, however, it can appear as if Palma is tangential to the rest of the island and is overlooking the strength that the Mallorca "brand" gives it as a city.
Communication for Palma has been getting better, and the city is becoming more successful, but the communication is still well short of what it should be. The same can most certainly be said for Mallorca as a whole and for individual municipalities, whose communication is, in overseas terms, all but non-existent. The two - the city and island - need to dovetail. They draw strength from each other and not separately. The icon of Mallorca is the emotion of decades. The marketers (and politicians) might do well to remember this.
Interesting chap, Chaguaceda, as he doesn't seem like the normal type you would expect to be appointed as a regional government's head of tourism. He is, dare one say, a professional. Which is not to say that there have never been other professionals in similar positions in other Spanish regions, such as the Balearics. But which is to say that they haven't necessarily been obvious.
Chaguaceda's CV includes having been the director of corporate communications for Coca-Cola España. In other words, he knows a thing or two about marketing. He also been Brussels correspondent for Antena 3 Televisión. He knows a thing or two about journalism and the media.
Last November, a manual written by him was published. Its title in English is "You Can Be News". In explaining the book he observed that in the world of the media, if you're not in the media, then you don't exist. Everything, where the market is concerned (whatever this market might be or how it is defined), is dependent upon communication. From what is communicated comes the prestige that is wished to be created. But it isn't enough to be visible in the media, there has to be an understanding of the roles played by advertising, social media, creating viral communications and so on.
All this should be obvious, but sometimes it does require someone to state the obvious. And there is more. Another book that Chaguaceda has penned translates as "The Happy Monkey". It is more scientific in that it explores brain functions in generating emotions and in considering how there is a common process for finding happiness.
This latter book might all sound rather obscure and technical and perhaps it is, but its message is not. Its application is what Chaguaceda is now considering within the broad context of media management and marketing for the community of Madrid. He wants to make an emotional connection between visitors, the city of Madrid and its surrounding areas.
Though his geographical responsibility is broader, the city is of course crucial. It bears the same name as the region and so it is what the outside world recognises. But while there is recognition and visibility as well as there already being high numbers of visitors, what is that Madrid represents? What does it stand for? What or where is the emotional connection and the impulse towards visitor happiness?
Chaguaceda says that a brand (in this case a city or region) means creating an experience, an expectation and an emotional relationship. But what emotion is Madrid associated with? Indeed, what is it associated with full stop? Other than Real Madrid, in global terms, it's a struggle to think what this might be. The same cannot be said of other major European cities, such as London, Paris or Rome, or even certain cities in the next tier, like Milan or Amsterdam.
Madrid is already a successful city, meaning that the region is successful, but success needs to not only be consolidated it has to be enhanced. What Chaguaceda is aiming to do should, therefore, be of interest to Palma and to Mallorca. If one were to ask the same questions of Palma as of Madrid, then what would the answers be? What actually does Palma stand for? What is it that creates an emotional bond? What is its iconic imagery?
With Palma, though, I would suggest that the challenge is different to the one Chaguaceda is grappling with. While Palma is known and is visible, it is the region (Mallorca) which is far more known and visible. It is also something with which one is well aware that there is an emotional bond, and one that has existed for decades. The same, I would argue, doesn't apply to Palma. Chaguaceda says that co-operation with the city has been straightforward because essentially the city and region are promoting the same thing. In Mallorca, however, it can appear as if Palma is tangential to the rest of the island and is overlooking the strength that the Mallorca "brand" gives it as a city.
Communication for Palma has been getting better, and the city is becoming more successful, but the communication is still well short of what it should be. The same can most certainly be said for Mallorca as a whole and for individual municipalities, whose communication is, in overseas terms, all but non-existent. The two - the city and island - need to dovetail. They draw strength from each other and not separately. The icon of Mallorca is the emotion of decades. The marketers (and politicians) might do well to remember this.
Thursday, February 04, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 4 February 2016
Morning high (7.50am): 11.1C
Forecast high: 15C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 5 February - Sun, cloud, 17C; 6 February - Cloud, 18C; 7 February - Cloud, sun, 16C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northeast 5 to 7 decreasing North 2 to 4 in the morning.
Grey and blustery first thing. Should be reasonably sunny later, with the wind lightening and an alert for coastal conditions being stood down.
Evening update (20.00): Perishing by recent standards. A high of just 14.8C. Some sun but not a lot.
Forecast high: 15C; UV: 2
Three-day forecast: 5 February - Sun, cloud, 17C; 6 February - Cloud, 18C; 7 February - Cloud, sun, 16C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northeast 5 to 7 decreasing North 2 to 4 in the morning.
Grey and blustery first thing. Should be reasonably sunny later, with the wind lightening and an alert for coastal conditions being stood down.
Evening update (20.00): Perishing by recent standards. A high of just 14.8C. Some sun but not a lot.
Mallorca's Punxsutawney Phil
On balance, it was probably as well that Punxsutawney Phil didn't emerge from his burrow on 2 February on this fair isle. Apart from having run the risk of encountering some creepy-crawly things creeping and crawling from their own dens, Phil would have been scared half witless by the shadow he would have cast. Winter in Mallorca, almost totally absent, would thus have been assured. Winter weather, in Phil prognostication terms, would have started and be due to last for six weeks, which is about when spring is supposed to begin anyway.
The strong shadow cast because of the bright winter sun in Mallorca would have certainly perplexed Phil, but any forecast he may have offered would have had to have been considered in the context of his abilities as a weather animal. Experts say that Phil isn't terribly good at his job; not much better than some seaweed. But Phil would have got it right in one respect. Everyone would have been and was talking about the weather. Again. And about what the weather should mean (but doesn't) for Mallorca. Again.
In these days of online weather forecasting and data archiving, Phil might have been expected to have been stripped of his meteorological role by now. That he retains it - indeed that he has been able to expand it through global recognition - is something for which he owes Bill Murray a large debt. Not only did Phil attain international fame for his forecasting, he gave a whole new meaning to being a groundhog.
Mallorca, lacking a Phil as such, does have its over-and-over Groundhog Day elements. Well, one notable one, the casting of the reflection of the Cathedral's eastern window on to the western wall in making its rosette piece of eight. Every year it's the same at the same time: Bill Murray could set his clock by it and never be able to break the routine. Forever and ever: same time, same day, same place.
In general religious terms, Phil is a product of Candlemas (which bred the groundhog legend), with its own symbolic repetition. Forty days after Christmas, it falls close to the start of another forty days, those of Lent. Everything seems to come in packages of forty, always repeating themselves and including (almost) Phil's six weeks of extended winter.
There is, however, one other significant repetition on Phil's day. A birthday. Strangely, it isn't one that receives a great deal of attention. Strange, given whose birthday it was. For 808 years this birthday has been celebrated. Or should be. Each year, the same as every year on 2 February. If there is one person in Mallorca's history whose birthday might be deemed more significant than anyone else's, if there is one person about whom the island's entire history can appear to revolve, then it is the 2 February birthday boy: King Jaume I, born in Montpellier in 1208.
That Jaume would now be, had he been capable of mortality, 808 should not disguise the fact that despite long, long being no longer of this Earth and this earth - Mallorca's - he can still seem to be alive and kicking. When you are, as he was, as significant an historical figure, then his shadow might be expected to cast a long shadow. It is one, however, that can give the impression of having caused 808 minus 21 years of extended historical winter. A springtime of renewal, a shedding of centuries ago, can constantly seem elusive. The repetition requires never abandoning the winter of the past. Instead, there is a retreat to the den of ancient familiarity.
In some respects, though, it is good. Identity hewn from the relics of the thirteenth century implies continuity, a valuable resource in a highly movable modern society. On the other hand, it can be less good. It breeds an obsessiveness, from which is derived a great deal of the constant repetition for a culture nuancing its existence on the basis of one important moment in time. And this breeds the counter-obsessiveness, that of styling this existence in ways that dispute the legacy.
It would be grossly exaggerating things to imply that Mallorca lives by some form of Jaume cult, but it is really only through an appreciation of Jaume and all that that some of the modern day makes sense (or doesn't, depending on one's view). Perhaps it boils down to the fact that, despite a rich history, Mallorca's history is limited in terms of seismic events. Accordingly, this limit has created giants of the past that are unshakable and in a constant state of repetition.
Anyway, to return to the more mundane. If it's cloudy on 2 February next year, we will be assured of an early Mallorcan spring. But whatever the conditions, there'll be one thing being discussed in addition to the winter weather. It'll be another winter topic. Every year. Same time. Same place.
The strong shadow cast because of the bright winter sun in Mallorca would have certainly perplexed Phil, but any forecast he may have offered would have had to have been considered in the context of his abilities as a weather animal. Experts say that Phil isn't terribly good at his job; not much better than some seaweed. But Phil would have got it right in one respect. Everyone would have been and was talking about the weather. Again. And about what the weather should mean (but doesn't) for Mallorca. Again.
In these days of online weather forecasting and data archiving, Phil might have been expected to have been stripped of his meteorological role by now. That he retains it - indeed that he has been able to expand it through global recognition - is something for which he owes Bill Murray a large debt. Not only did Phil attain international fame for his forecasting, he gave a whole new meaning to being a groundhog.
Mallorca, lacking a Phil as such, does have its over-and-over Groundhog Day elements. Well, one notable one, the casting of the reflection of the Cathedral's eastern window on to the western wall in making its rosette piece of eight. Every year it's the same at the same time: Bill Murray could set his clock by it and never be able to break the routine. Forever and ever: same time, same day, same place.
In general religious terms, Phil is a product of Candlemas (which bred the groundhog legend), with its own symbolic repetition. Forty days after Christmas, it falls close to the start of another forty days, those of Lent. Everything seems to come in packages of forty, always repeating themselves and including (almost) Phil's six weeks of extended winter.
There is, however, one other significant repetition on Phil's day. A birthday. Strangely, it isn't one that receives a great deal of attention. Strange, given whose birthday it was. For 808 years this birthday has been celebrated. Or should be. Each year, the same as every year on 2 February. If there is one person in Mallorca's history whose birthday might be deemed more significant than anyone else's, if there is one person about whom the island's entire history can appear to revolve, then it is the 2 February birthday boy: King Jaume I, born in Montpellier in 1208.
That Jaume would now be, had he been capable of mortality, 808 should not disguise the fact that despite long, long being no longer of this Earth and this earth - Mallorca's - he can still seem to be alive and kicking. When you are, as he was, as significant an historical figure, then his shadow might be expected to cast a long shadow. It is one, however, that can give the impression of having caused 808 minus 21 years of extended historical winter. A springtime of renewal, a shedding of centuries ago, can constantly seem elusive. The repetition requires never abandoning the winter of the past. Instead, there is a retreat to the den of ancient familiarity.
In some respects, though, it is good. Identity hewn from the relics of the thirteenth century implies continuity, a valuable resource in a highly movable modern society. On the other hand, it can be less good. It breeds an obsessiveness, from which is derived a great deal of the constant repetition for a culture nuancing its existence on the basis of one important moment in time. And this breeds the counter-obsessiveness, that of styling this existence in ways that dispute the legacy.
It would be grossly exaggerating things to imply that Mallorca lives by some form of Jaume cult, but it is really only through an appreciation of Jaume and all that that some of the modern day makes sense (or doesn't, depending on one's view). Perhaps it boils down to the fact that, despite a rich history, Mallorca's history is limited in terms of seismic events. Accordingly, this limit has created giants of the past that are unshakable and in a constant state of repetition.
Anyway, to return to the more mundane. If it's cloudy on 2 February next year, we will be assured of an early Mallorcan spring. But whatever the conditions, there'll be one thing being discussed in addition to the winter weather. It'll be another winter topic. Every year. Same time. Same place.
Wednesday, February 03, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 3 February 2016
Morning high (7.49am): 10.3C
Forecast high: 17C; UV: 3
Three-day forecast: 4 February - Sun, wind, 15C; 5 February - Sun, cloud, 15C; 6 February - Cloud, 18C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 2 to 3 increasing North-Northeast 3 to 4 by the evening.
Fog overnight lingering in parts and becoming cloud. Possible rain later on and getting windy and staying so into tomorrow, with an alert for coastal conditions.
Evening update (20.15): High of 17.6C. Cloud at times, sun at times. Any possible rain has kept away.
Forecast high: 17C; UV: 3
Three-day forecast: 4 February - Sun, wind, 15C; 5 February - Sun, cloud, 15C; 6 February - Cloud, 18C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 2 to 3 increasing North-Northeast 3 to 4 by the evening.
Fog overnight lingering in parts and becoming cloud. Possible rain later on and getting windy and staying so into tomorrow, with an alert for coastal conditions.
Evening update (20.15): High of 17.6C. Cloud at times, sun at times. Any possible rain has kept away.
The Collapsing Roof: Zika and other plagues
Processionary caterpillars, red palm beetles, tiger mosquitoes, Asian hornets, Ebola, bird flu. Go back some time and there was Aids, foot and mouth, Mad Cow Disease. All these things sent to plague us or someone or something else, some of them through transmission, some because that's how it is. Go back even further and there was the Black Death or there were the ten plagues of Egypt. So many plagues, too many to mention, but try a few more of a Mallorcan style: plagues of jellyfish; the plague of phylloxera devastating vines; the potential plague of the Epitrix potato bug.
Not all of these, of course, have a direct consequence or potential consequence on tourism. A processionary caterpillar might be unpleasant but it is far from unique to Mallorca. It's also around when there are comparatively few tourists. Moreover, there is no risk of any transmission. It's a nasty thing, but that's all, and so long as you are aware of it, you avoid it ... like the plague. Tourists (and residents) might be fearful of jellyfish, but again, they are to be feared elsewhere. It's the major risks or plagues, the possible pandemics that arouse the concern. And now we can add the Zika virus to the list.
Plagues have always been visited upon us: just ask the ancient Egyptians. Or, and for a scholarly perspective, ask Thomas Malthus, who first advanced his views on plagues (and other things) in 1798. Malthus might have been dubbed a "catastrophist", had such a term existed at the end of the eighteenth century. Plagues, famine, wars: they were all much the same where Malthus was concerned. He didn't want them, but if society needed its population checking in line with available resources - food, most obviously - then a good plague could help in correcting supply and demand.
Human movement has a lot to answer for, as does human need for resources that are packed onto ships, aircraft and other means of transportation and which are typically the media for transmission. But just as the scale of this movement is staggering, are the claims for risk staggeringly and excessively stated? Not being a virologist, one can perhaps take a simplistic view of such matters, but Portugal, with its high level of connectivity with one of the Zika epicentres - Brazil - has thus far recorded only five cases. In Spain there have been three, two of them in Catalonia. The director of the World Health Organization suggests, however, that Zika is expanding in an explosive manner.
An expert, and fortunately there always is one when one needs one, considers the chances of Zika transmission in Spain as possible but only slightly probable. Which is, one has to assume, reassuring. The expert, Rolegio López-Vélez of the centre for tropical diseases at the University Hospital Ramón y Cajal in Madrid, explains how the whole life cycle of the virus would have to be gone through in effecting transmission. It does seem unlikely, as is also the thought that the tiger mosquito might be capable of being a carrier (which it isn't). Another expert suggests that it might but that there has been no study into its ability to do so.
The risk is of course at its greatest in the Americas, which is why, for example, Iberia are taking Zika seriously. Its president, Luis Gallego, has observed in a somewhat sombre fashion that "in aviation things happen that no one expects". Which is true. Who, in tourism and travel planning terms, ever expected the ash cloud? Things can suddenly bite you and it will be more than just "Aedes aegypti", the yellow fever mosquito with added Zika. What was that about the plagues of Egypt?
Risks shouldn't be downplayed, of course they shouldn't, but risks have always been with us. It is just that the massive movement of people and of transport media of all types have heightened the risks, allied to massive information availability that even a few years ago did not exist. In a sense, it is this latter aspect which can appear to exacerbate risks and speak of a wholly different plague that confronts us and confronts tourism, here in Mallorca and everywhere else: that of terrorism.
When one notes on Facebook someone saying that she will not be travelling to Spain because of an ISIS threat, it is perhaps too easy to dismiss this as an over-reaction. But some people do react in this way. It's their interpretation of the information they are given.
Ultimately, though, you either do or you don't travel, and the vast, the overwhelming majority do. Risks of plagues, risks of terrorism, you would never go anywhere if you took heed of all the information. But then you might end up, as a famous cartoon once depicted, as the man who chose to never leave his bed because of all the risks. The roof collapsed on top of him.
Not all of these, of course, have a direct consequence or potential consequence on tourism. A processionary caterpillar might be unpleasant but it is far from unique to Mallorca. It's also around when there are comparatively few tourists. Moreover, there is no risk of any transmission. It's a nasty thing, but that's all, and so long as you are aware of it, you avoid it ... like the plague. Tourists (and residents) might be fearful of jellyfish, but again, they are to be feared elsewhere. It's the major risks or plagues, the possible pandemics that arouse the concern. And now we can add the Zika virus to the list.
Plagues have always been visited upon us: just ask the ancient Egyptians. Or, and for a scholarly perspective, ask Thomas Malthus, who first advanced his views on plagues (and other things) in 1798. Malthus might have been dubbed a "catastrophist", had such a term existed at the end of the eighteenth century. Plagues, famine, wars: they were all much the same where Malthus was concerned. He didn't want them, but if society needed its population checking in line with available resources - food, most obviously - then a good plague could help in correcting supply and demand.
Human movement has a lot to answer for, as does human need for resources that are packed onto ships, aircraft and other means of transportation and which are typically the media for transmission. But just as the scale of this movement is staggering, are the claims for risk staggeringly and excessively stated? Not being a virologist, one can perhaps take a simplistic view of such matters, but Portugal, with its high level of connectivity with one of the Zika epicentres - Brazil - has thus far recorded only five cases. In Spain there have been three, two of them in Catalonia. The director of the World Health Organization suggests, however, that Zika is expanding in an explosive manner.
An expert, and fortunately there always is one when one needs one, considers the chances of Zika transmission in Spain as possible but only slightly probable. Which is, one has to assume, reassuring. The expert, Rolegio López-Vélez of the centre for tropical diseases at the University Hospital Ramón y Cajal in Madrid, explains how the whole life cycle of the virus would have to be gone through in effecting transmission. It does seem unlikely, as is also the thought that the tiger mosquito might be capable of being a carrier (which it isn't). Another expert suggests that it might but that there has been no study into its ability to do so.
The risk is of course at its greatest in the Americas, which is why, for example, Iberia are taking Zika seriously. Its president, Luis Gallego, has observed in a somewhat sombre fashion that "in aviation things happen that no one expects". Which is true. Who, in tourism and travel planning terms, ever expected the ash cloud? Things can suddenly bite you and it will be more than just "Aedes aegypti", the yellow fever mosquito with added Zika. What was that about the plagues of Egypt?
Risks shouldn't be downplayed, of course they shouldn't, but risks have always been with us. It is just that the massive movement of people and of transport media of all types have heightened the risks, allied to massive information availability that even a few years ago did not exist. In a sense, it is this latter aspect which can appear to exacerbate risks and speak of a wholly different plague that confronts us and confronts tourism, here in Mallorca and everywhere else: that of terrorism.
When one notes on Facebook someone saying that she will not be travelling to Spain because of an ISIS threat, it is perhaps too easy to dismiss this as an over-reaction. But some people do react in this way. It's their interpretation of the information they are given.
Ultimately, though, you either do or you don't travel, and the vast, the overwhelming majority do. Risks of plagues, risks of terrorism, you would never go anywhere if you took heed of all the information. But then you might end up, as a famous cartoon once depicted, as the man who chose to never leave his bed because of all the risks. The roof collapsed on top of him.
Tuesday, February 02, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 2 February 2016
Morning high (6.59am): 8.6C
Forecast high: 21C; UV: 3
Three-day forecast: 3 February - Cloud, 18C; 4 February - Sun, cloud, 13C; 5 February - Sun, cloud, 15C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Southwest 2 to 3 locally Northeast during the afternoon.
Another warm and sunny day ahead with highs possibly up to 23C. Tomorrow there is due to be a change with the possibility of showers, but with the sun returning on Thursday.
Evening update (22.45): More breeze today but plenty of sun and a high of 22.6C.
Forecast high: 21C; UV: 3
Three-day forecast: 3 February - Cloud, 18C; 4 February - Sun, cloud, 13C; 5 February - Sun, cloud, 15C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Southwest 2 to 3 locally Northeast during the afternoon.
Another warm and sunny day ahead with highs possibly up to 23C. Tomorrow there is due to be a change with the possibility of showers, but with the sun returning on Thursday.
Evening update (22.45): More breeze today but plenty of sun and a high of 22.6C.
PSOE And The Puppet Masters
"Podemos is not advocating a government of coalition but a coalition of government." These were the words of the PSOE president of Extremadura, Guillermo Fernández-Vara, speaking at the party's federal committee at the weekend. They might sound like gobbledegook but their meaning was clear. A government of coalition means a government in which individual parties' agendas are subordinate to the will of the government as a whole. A coalition of government refers to individual parties having their separate responsibilities and agendas. There is not the same collective will or anything approaching it.
Vara went onto to say that under a PSOE government arrangement with Podemos, the party (his party) would be judged by what it does and what it is responsible for, while Podemos would be judged on what it does and its responsibilities. The semantics of his message might seem confusing, but what he was driving at was the potential to create what would be parallel governments. There may, ostensibly, be a coalition, but its paths would diverge, with one signposted PSOE, the other Podemos (together with its associates and, in all likelihood, the IU - United Left).
The Extremadura president is far from being alone in opposing any governmental tie-up with Podemos. PSOE leaders might want a government of the left, but it depends on what style of left. Javier Fernández, the president of Asturias, has branded Podemos bullies. Miquel Iceta, the secretary-general of PSOE in Catalonia (known as PSC), has spoken of Pablo Iglesias wishing to humiliate him. The bullies and the humiliation are things that PSOE should already be aware of: its members need only take a look at the Balearics.
The Vara argument is of course disputed by the present voguishness for everything apparently being agreed through dialogue and consensus, with component parts of pacts walking hand-in-hand in harmonious accord. This is fictitious dissembling. Had Francina Armengol's PSOE in the Balearics been in a position to, it would have repelled any half-thought of a pact involving Podemos. Why? Because of its disruptive capacity as much as any policies. Biel Barceló's Més on its own would have received houseroom in just the same way as one of the Més elements, the PSM Mallorcan socialists, had been by Francesc Antich. Left to their twosome devices, the dialogue and consensus spin might have some credibility. The ménage à trois leaves it incredible.
Yet even with Més, Armengol has been forced into giving up areas of responsibility. Tourism is most certainly one. It is now hypothetical what might have happened had PSOE been in a stronger position, but it was well known that PSOE had not been wholehearted in wishing there to be a tourist tax. This is a Més measure (with Podemos's full backing). The words of Armengol, her government spokesperson, Marc Pons, and her finance minister, Catalina Cladera - each of them from PSOE - in now supporting it are shallow.
The Balearic model of government is precisely what Vara was alluding to. The notion of consensus has the feeling of a sham, one perpetrated by Armengol and others as a means of justification for a government which could unravel under the tensions it has brought upon itself. Podemos, not even actually in the government (though it may reconsider this, with all the complications this would cause for responsibilities), has made play of the fact that it is now - based on general election results - the second force in the Balearics (behind the most-voted-for party, the PP). Armengol and PSOE were forced into having to accept an arrangement with Podemos, which has subsequently drawn greater strength from the national election. And with this force and strength, there is humiliation. The PP's accusations of Armengol being a Podemos puppet cut to the bone, and it is this that certain PSOE leaders want to avoid at all costs for national government.
Moreover, they want to avoid acceding to Podemos demands for control of, for example, defence and the economy. They most certainly want to avoid any referendum on Catalonia. Armengol seeks to soothe their nerves by saying that all is working well in government with nationalists. But which nationalists? Més has a nationalist agenda (for both the Balearics and Catalonia), but Més is irrelevant in the national government context: Podemos isn't.
Podemos backs a referendum but not because it is nationalist. It promotes the will of the people in deciding, to an extent that it can be described as anti-nationalist, which might be said to include Spain. This is its own spin. Podemos may be able to keep it up. It may even be sincere. But even allowing for a veneer of the popular will, there are precedents for subordinating the state to party interests, those of Podemos. You don't need me to tell you which ones. There are plenty in PSOE who will never forgive Sánchez if he prostrates himself in front of Podemos.
Vara went onto to say that under a PSOE government arrangement with Podemos, the party (his party) would be judged by what it does and what it is responsible for, while Podemos would be judged on what it does and its responsibilities. The semantics of his message might seem confusing, but what he was driving at was the potential to create what would be parallel governments. There may, ostensibly, be a coalition, but its paths would diverge, with one signposted PSOE, the other Podemos (together with its associates and, in all likelihood, the IU - United Left).
The Extremadura president is far from being alone in opposing any governmental tie-up with Podemos. PSOE leaders might want a government of the left, but it depends on what style of left. Javier Fernández, the president of Asturias, has branded Podemos bullies. Miquel Iceta, the secretary-general of PSOE in Catalonia (known as PSC), has spoken of Pablo Iglesias wishing to humiliate him. The bullies and the humiliation are things that PSOE should already be aware of: its members need only take a look at the Balearics.
The Vara argument is of course disputed by the present voguishness for everything apparently being agreed through dialogue and consensus, with component parts of pacts walking hand-in-hand in harmonious accord. This is fictitious dissembling. Had Francina Armengol's PSOE in the Balearics been in a position to, it would have repelled any half-thought of a pact involving Podemos. Why? Because of its disruptive capacity as much as any policies. Biel Barceló's Més on its own would have received houseroom in just the same way as one of the Més elements, the PSM Mallorcan socialists, had been by Francesc Antich. Left to their twosome devices, the dialogue and consensus spin might have some credibility. The ménage à trois leaves it incredible.
Yet even with Més, Armengol has been forced into giving up areas of responsibility. Tourism is most certainly one. It is now hypothetical what might have happened had PSOE been in a stronger position, but it was well known that PSOE had not been wholehearted in wishing there to be a tourist tax. This is a Més measure (with Podemos's full backing). The words of Armengol, her government spokesperson, Marc Pons, and her finance minister, Catalina Cladera - each of them from PSOE - in now supporting it are shallow.
The Balearic model of government is precisely what Vara was alluding to. The notion of consensus has the feeling of a sham, one perpetrated by Armengol and others as a means of justification for a government which could unravel under the tensions it has brought upon itself. Podemos, not even actually in the government (though it may reconsider this, with all the complications this would cause for responsibilities), has made play of the fact that it is now - based on general election results - the second force in the Balearics (behind the most-voted-for party, the PP). Armengol and PSOE were forced into having to accept an arrangement with Podemos, which has subsequently drawn greater strength from the national election. And with this force and strength, there is humiliation. The PP's accusations of Armengol being a Podemos puppet cut to the bone, and it is this that certain PSOE leaders want to avoid at all costs for national government.
Moreover, they want to avoid acceding to Podemos demands for control of, for example, defence and the economy. They most certainly want to avoid any referendum on Catalonia. Armengol seeks to soothe their nerves by saying that all is working well in government with nationalists. But which nationalists? Més has a nationalist agenda (for both the Balearics and Catalonia), but Més is irrelevant in the national government context: Podemos isn't.
Podemos backs a referendum but not because it is nationalist. It promotes the will of the people in deciding, to an extent that it can be described as anti-nationalist, which might be said to include Spain. This is its own spin. Podemos may be able to keep it up. It may even be sincere. But even allowing for a veneer of the popular will, there are precedents for subordinating the state to party interests, those of Podemos. You don't need me to tell you which ones. There are plenty in PSOE who will never forgive Sánchez if he prostrates himself in front of Podemos.
Monday, February 01, 2016
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 1 February 2016
Morning high (7.15am): 10.2C
Forecast high: 19C; UV: 3
Three-day forecast: 2 February - Sun, cloud, 20C; 3 February - Cloud, 16C; 4 February - Cloud, sun, 13C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 1 to 3 mainly West. Swell to one metre from the morning.
A good day anticipated, the UV rating suddenly and temporarily edging up a notch. Could be some rain on Wednesday. Only could be.
Evening update (17.45): Exceptional. High of 22.6C.
Forecast high: 19C; UV: 3
Three-day forecast: 2 February - Sun, cloud, 20C; 3 February - Cloud, 16C; 4 February - Cloud, sun, 13C.
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Variable 1 to 3 mainly West. Swell to one metre from the morning.
A good day anticipated, the UV rating suddenly and temporarily edging up a notch. Could be some rain on Wednesday. Only could be.
Evening update (17.45): Exceptional. High of 22.6C.
What's In Palma And Alcudia's Place Names?
They love a good toponym in Mallorca. Just as they therefore love toponymy, the study of place names, as well as onomastics - how names came to be the names they are - and indeed philology, the roots of language. All societies have their students of such matters, but in Mallorca, it can seem as though there are more philologists, toponymists and onomasts than you can shake the stick part of a ximbomba at, which begs its own question: where or how the hell do you come up with a word like ximbomba?
To say that there is an obsession with all this discovery of the origins of names is not an overstatement. To cite an example, on the local radio station in Pollensa there is a programme each Friday morning devoted to the toponymy of the municipality. At a time when, allowing for the hour's difference, Nick Grimshaw will be indulging himself in his Friday, weekend starts here Nickstape on BBC Radio 1, there are three blokes in a studio in the north of Mallorca dissecting the meaning of the name of a piece of land at the foot of the Tramuntana. The contrast is somewhat stark.
Calling this an obsession infers criticism when none is intended. It is more a case of there being genuine interest; one that extends beyond enthusiasts in a particular town and into wider society and also tourist society. How things became as they are goes to the heart of all the culture and heritage tourism that the regional government (among others) spends so much time espousing. Behind every place name is a story. Every place has its place in the story of Mallorca. The problem can be, however, finding that story or coming to an agreement. Toponymists will argue long into the night about the competing demands of the Romans, the Arabs, the Catalans and any others they can stumble across who were responsible for things having become as they are.
This obsession/interest has come to the fore with the argument over the name of Palma. The suffix "de Mallorca", it is said, is an artificiality either created with foreigners in mind or indeed created by these very foreigners. Hints of a degree of parochialism or even xenophobia in dismissing the claims for "de Mallorca" are not well disguised. It may be that this was never actually the name, but for administrative purposes it has existed in the past and had relatively little to do with foreigners. Mallorca, not so very long ago, was synonymous with Palma. Palma de Mallorca was commonly used. They even devised car registration numbers in line with this usage: the PM prefix.
In passing its decree that Palma it should be, the town hall has cited the ancient claims of Palma and Palma alone. It has always been Palma, it says, and has been since Roman times. Which isn't of course true. For example, there was a fair old length of time when it had a quite different name: Madina Mayurqa. Never let it be said that political correctness of a pro-Muslim style should get in the way of advocating the naming claims of a far older invasion force. The logic, or lack of it, is laid bare when one considers that the other major settlement from Roman times - Alcudia - has long since ceased to be known by the name that the Romans gave it, i.e. Pollentia. Alcudia is derived from Arabic. Perhaps the town hall should call a toponymy commission and request a reversion to Roman times. On second thoughts ... .
What is in fact additionally peculiar about Palma town hall's claims is that for centuries after the Catalan invasion it was known as Ciutat de Mallorca. The political make-up and ideologies of the current town hall administration must surely be aware that it was that nasty old Bourbon, Felipe V, who was responsible for restoring the name Palma in 1715 when his army came rampaging and dismantled all things (or as many things as possible) Catalan. Curious and curiouser.
Historical claims on place names and their reasons are rarely straightforward. To return to Alcudia, the simple explanation is that the Arabic name was unaltered other than through language adaptation. There was, if one accepts this, a seamless transition from Arab to Catalan days, but this fails to take account of what happened in 1248, almost twenty years after the Catalan invasion. A papal bull issued by Pope Innocent IV established a whole host of place names in Mallorca. These parishes were under the protection of different saints, and one of these was a place called Sant Jaume de Guinyent, i.e. Alcudia.
The common claim is that it was King Jaume II who changed the name of Alcudia to Sant Jaume de Guinyent in 1298, but the church had in fact beaten him to it by fifty years. This new usage was intended to remove the Arabic name. It didn't last because the locals insisted on referring to Alcudia. But the political motives for the change were flawed in that Guinyent was also Arabic (derived from "djinan" or garden).
Behind every place name there is a story as well as other claimants to the name. Obsession? No. Fascinating. All the history of Mallorca can be found in a name.
To say that there is an obsession with all this discovery of the origins of names is not an overstatement. To cite an example, on the local radio station in Pollensa there is a programme each Friday morning devoted to the toponymy of the municipality. At a time when, allowing for the hour's difference, Nick Grimshaw will be indulging himself in his Friday, weekend starts here Nickstape on BBC Radio 1, there are three blokes in a studio in the north of Mallorca dissecting the meaning of the name of a piece of land at the foot of the Tramuntana. The contrast is somewhat stark.
Calling this an obsession infers criticism when none is intended. It is more a case of there being genuine interest; one that extends beyond enthusiasts in a particular town and into wider society and also tourist society. How things became as they are goes to the heart of all the culture and heritage tourism that the regional government (among others) spends so much time espousing. Behind every place name is a story. Every place has its place in the story of Mallorca. The problem can be, however, finding that story or coming to an agreement. Toponymists will argue long into the night about the competing demands of the Romans, the Arabs, the Catalans and any others they can stumble across who were responsible for things having become as they are.
This obsession/interest has come to the fore with the argument over the name of Palma. The suffix "de Mallorca", it is said, is an artificiality either created with foreigners in mind or indeed created by these very foreigners. Hints of a degree of parochialism or even xenophobia in dismissing the claims for "de Mallorca" are not well disguised. It may be that this was never actually the name, but for administrative purposes it has existed in the past and had relatively little to do with foreigners. Mallorca, not so very long ago, was synonymous with Palma. Palma de Mallorca was commonly used. They even devised car registration numbers in line with this usage: the PM prefix.
In passing its decree that Palma it should be, the town hall has cited the ancient claims of Palma and Palma alone. It has always been Palma, it says, and has been since Roman times. Which isn't of course true. For example, there was a fair old length of time when it had a quite different name: Madina Mayurqa. Never let it be said that political correctness of a pro-Muslim style should get in the way of advocating the naming claims of a far older invasion force. The logic, or lack of it, is laid bare when one considers that the other major settlement from Roman times - Alcudia - has long since ceased to be known by the name that the Romans gave it, i.e. Pollentia. Alcudia is derived from Arabic. Perhaps the town hall should call a toponymy commission and request a reversion to Roman times. On second thoughts ... .
What is in fact additionally peculiar about Palma town hall's claims is that for centuries after the Catalan invasion it was known as Ciutat de Mallorca. The political make-up and ideologies of the current town hall administration must surely be aware that it was that nasty old Bourbon, Felipe V, who was responsible for restoring the name Palma in 1715 when his army came rampaging and dismantled all things (or as many things as possible) Catalan. Curious and curiouser.
Historical claims on place names and their reasons are rarely straightforward. To return to Alcudia, the simple explanation is that the Arabic name was unaltered other than through language adaptation. There was, if one accepts this, a seamless transition from Arab to Catalan days, but this fails to take account of what happened in 1248, almost twenty years after the Catalan invasion. A papal bull issued by Pope Innocent IV established a whole host of place names in Mallorca. These parishes were under the protection of different saints, and one of these was a place called Sant Jaume de Guinyent, i.e. Alcudia.
The common claim is that it was King Jaume II who changed the name of Alcudia to Sant Jaume de Guinyent in 1298, but the church had in fact beaten him to it by fifty years. This new usage was intended to remove the Arabic name. It didn't last because the locals insisted on referring to Alcudia. But the political motives for the change were flawed in that Guinyent was also Arabic (derived from "djinan" or garden).
Behind every place name there is a story as well as other claimants to the name. Obsession? No. Fascinating. All the history of Mallorca can be found in a name.
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