Mediaevalism survives in Mallorca. It is buried deep in the soul of the people. It stands on and shapes the landscape. It is the past that characterises the present.
It started with the fall of the Roman Empire. It is taken as having definitively ended - in Spain at any rate - with the fall of the final bastion of Islam: the surrender of Granada in the same year, 1492, that Columbus undertook his first voyage of discovery.
Mediaevalism spanned a thousand years. Over those centuries, Mallorca experienced conquest by Vandals, Byzantines, Arabs and Catalans. Of the Vandals, we know very little, other than the fact that they tended to live up to their name. Byzantine evidence is greater, such as with remains at Son Peretó in Manacor and the fortifications of Alaró, the Castell del Rei in Pollensa and Castell de Santueri in Felanitx. But even this is limited. The Arabs and the Catalans truly defined what we know of Mallorca's mediaevalism.
It is Catalan mediaevalism, above all, which marks the link with the past to the present. Mallorca's pretensions to contributing to a European intellectual heritage emerged soon after the conquest of Jaume I. Ramon Llull embodied this. It was he who was also instrumental in determining a mediaeval landscape that survives, as with Miramar in the Tramuntana, a mountain range that was otherwise shaped by mediaeval cultures. Unesco has recognised how those cultures influenced the mountains with their human intervention - the dry stone structures most of all.
The Catalans brought with them new fortifications, grander affairs than the ancient ones such as the Castell del Rei. Typically, they expanded what was already there. In Capdepera, the original castle dates from the early fourth century. While the Arabs extended it, the Catalans were to increase its size very much more significantly.
The Romans had named it Caput petrae, the head of stone. From this Latin origin came Cap de la Pera. The first documented reference to Cap de la Pera was in the "Llibre dels fets" which chronicled the reign of Jaume I. The proximity of this north-eastern part of Mallorca to Menorca was the reason why it was chosen for an act of formal surrender: by the Arabs of Menorca.
The name Capdepera was officially recognised when the village was granted its "royal" status by Jaume II in 1300, a status that was given to many Mallorcan villages at that time. It was a "vila". It was Jaume II who was the great fortification builder. Along the coast from Capdepera, he ordered the building of the walls of Alcudia. Pope Innocent IV issued a papal bull in 1248 by which the parish of Sant Jaume de Guinyent was established. It was later to be known as Sant Jaume d'Alcudia, retaining the name that the Arabs had introduced. Alcudia's walls were to protect the village but they were also the grand fortification for the north of Mallorca. Capdepera's castle was to defend the north-east and, like Alcudia's walls, to also defend the people.
Exposed on the north-eastern tip, the villagers - for their safety and in order to defend the castle - were moved inside its walls. There were some sixty dwellings in all. The castle was one of the principal examples of the building of later mediaeval fortification.
Nowadays, Capdepera recognises its mediaeval roots more than mostly anywhere else in Mallorca. Since 2000 there has been the annual Mediaeval Market. Whereas there are any number of mediaeval themes to fairs, Capdepera goes the whole hog. Over a weekend in May, it seeks to re-create the atmosphere of some 700 years ago. It is probably as well that it doesn't do this with true authenticity - given that sanitary conditions were not like they are today - but in spirit it can be said that the market is to the fore in demonstrating quite how much mediaevalism survives in Mallorca.
Saturday, May 20, 2017
Friday, May 19, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 19 May 2017
Morning high (7.00am): 16.9C
Forecast high: 22C; UV: 7
Three-day forecast: 20 May - Sun, 24C; 21 May - Sun, cloud, 24C; 22 May - Sun, cloud, 24C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North 5 easing Southeast 3.
Well, so much for showers. What was forecast 100% slipped to 0%. Pretty much clear skies first thing. Cloud likely later. Not as warm as the past few days. Weekend fine.
Evening update (20.00): High of 23.2C. Clouded over in the morning and wasn't warm, then the sun came out and before the cloud returned.
Forecast high: 22C; UV: 7
Three-day forecast: 20 May - Sun, 24C; 21 May - Sun, cloud, 24C; 22 May - Sun, cloud, 24C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North 5 easing Southeast 3.
Well, so much for showers. What was forecast 100% slipped to 0%. Pretty much clear skies first thing. Cloud likely later. Not as warm as the past few days. Weekend fine.
Evening update (20.00): High of 23.2C. Clouded over in the morning and wasn't warm, then the sun came out and before the cloud returned.
Touristification Has Landed
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a new word. The Spanish language is intent on developing a global lexicon of new concepts for tourism, none of them positive, all of them with overtones of touristic harm with varying degrees of malevolence. The new word, for which I thank Xavier Canalis of Hosteltur for highlighting, is "touristification". It joins saturation, massification and tourismphobia in the dictionary of this new type of dark tourism, not that devoted to things like cemeteries but one for the dark side of just too many tourists and especially too many properties for holiday rental.
The word is being used increasingly. El Confidencial has considered what is happening in Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia because of touristification, specifically the bubble in rental prices caused by Airbnb and HomeAway. In El Mundo there was a look at how the digital era is affecting urban character. Holiday rental, a phenomenon that predated digital times (and quite obviously so), gave rise over Easter to plus-90% occupancy of rental properties in major cities. Here was evidence of touristification.
A journalist for El Español has given a first-hand account of touristification in Madrid. The piece is entitled: "Irrational tourism throws us out". In the past year, five entire buildings have gone over exclusively to holiday rentals. In his own building, with fifteen apartments, only five are now for residents. The trend is clear.
The Huffington Post (Spanish version) looks at touristification in greater depth and concludes that the digital economy has taken advantage of neo-liberal deregulation that favours multinationals as part of a new post-capitalist model that lives more off income than from the production of value. Emerging new elites are seeking to redirect and rebuild cities for their exclusive service.
These are just some examples of where this word has been used. They all paint much the same picture. And it isn't a very pleasant one.
The idea of living off income is a principle of the so-called collaborative economy. What it means is that if one has something that another is prepared to pay for, then all well and good. This can be a property, a car or anything else that can be shared, or rather theoretically shared, because the sharing aspect of the collaborative economy (for rentals) has largely gone by the board.
For the individual with one property, it is unlikely that he or she could live off income; highly unlikely, in fact. If it is true, as the University of the Balearic Islands' professors recently stated, that the average income from a holiday rental equates to 395 euros per month, then I think you can take it as read that one cannot live off this.
The individual with the single property isn't really the issue. It is what The Huffington Post has identified. Emerging new elites are seeking to redirect and rebuild cities for their exclusive service. Frankly, this sounds chilling, as does its analysis of the digital economy. Cities, and not just cities, being taken over by interests who wish to convert them into refuges for tourists alone. Not just chilling, frightening.
Those who advocate a virtually unfettered approach to rentals don't care. Or maybe they do. Care about their own interests. Arguing that this type of holiday accommodation is the way forward and that hoteliers and hotels have passed their sell-by dates fails totally in taking into account both the co-existence that has there has been between tourist and resident for years and the breakdown of this co-existence in the future. It is an advocacy of touristification, pure and simple. The Huffington vision isn't only frightening, it is obscene. How in the name of anything that is socially acceptable can entire communities end up being pushed out because tourists have come and occupied? I can't get my head around how anyone can believe this is either sensible or moral.
The use of this new word has the potential to fuel even more the discontent among communities most affected. The narratives of politicians, such as Ada Colau in Barcelona or Aurora Jhardi in Palma (she has been more strident in attacking "saturation" than others at town hall, including Antoni Noguera), do whip this up further. It spills over into what it has - protest, in particular in Barcelona - but do these politicians not have a point? Is it not right to safeguard residents and to also safeguard cities from these new and self-interested elites?
The Balearic government, in planning to limit to four the number of properties one owner can rent out, is trying to address the issue. There will of course be ways round such a restriction, you can bet on that. But it may falter in its attempts to create limits, not through want of trying but because of the forces of neo-liberal deregulation in the courts and the competition commissions. Touristification. You'll hear a great deal more about it.
The word is being used increasingly. El Confidencial has considered what is happening in Barcelona, Madrid and Valencia because of touristification, specifically the bubble in rental prices caused by Airbnb and HomeAway. In El Mundo there was a look at how the digital era is affecting urban character. Holiday rental, a phenomenon that predated digital times (and quite obviously so), gave rise over Easter to plus-90% occupancy of rental properties in major cities. Here was evidence of touristification.
A journalist for El Español has given a first-hand account of touristification in Madrid. The piece is entitled: "Irrational tourism throws us out". In the past year, five entire buildings have gone over exclusively to holiday rentals. In his own building, with fifteen apartments, only five are now for residents. The trend is clear.
The Huffington Post (Spanish version) looks at touristification in greater depth and concludes that the digital economy has taken advantage of neo-liberal deregulation that favours multinationals as part of a new post-capitalist model that lives more off income than from the production of value. Emerging new elites are seeking to redirect and rebuild cities for their exclusive service.
These are just some examples of where this word has been used. They all paint much the same picture. And it isn't a very pleasant one.
The idea of living off income is a principle of the so-called collaborative economy. What it means is that if one has something that another is prepared to pay for, then all well and good. This can be a property, a car or anything else that can be shared, or rather theoretically shared, because the sharing aspect of the collaborative economy (for rentals) has largely gone by the board.
For the individual with one property, it is unlikely that he or she could live off income; highly unlikely, in fact. If it is true, as the University of the Balearic Islands' professors recently stated, that the average income from a holiday rental equates to 395 euros per month, then I think you can take it as read that one cannot live off this.
The individual with the single property isn't really the issue. It is what The Huffington Post has identified. Emerging new elites are seeking to redirect and rebuild cities for their exclusive service. Frankly, this sounds chilling, as does its analysis of the digital economy. Cities, and not just cities, being taken over by interests who wish to convert them into refuges for tourists alone. Not just chilling, frightening.
Those who advocate a virtually unfettered approach to rentals don't care. Or maybe they do. Care about their own interests. Arguing that this type of holiday accommodation is the way forward and that hoteliers and hotels have passed their sell-by dates fails totally in taking into account both the co-existence that has there has been between tourist and resident for years and the breakdown of this co-existence in the future. It is an advocacy of touristification, pure and simple. The Huffington vision isn't only frightening, it is obscene. How in the name of anything that is socially acceptable can entire communities end up being pushed out because tourists have come and occupied? I can't get my head around how anyone can believe this is either sensible or moral.
The use of this new word has the potential to fuel even more the discontent among communities most affected. The narratives of politicians, such as Ada Colau in Barcelona or Aurora Jhardi in Palma (she has been more strident in attacking "saturation" than others at town hall, including Antoni Noguera), do whip this up further. It spills over into what it has - protest, in particular in Barcelona - but do these politicians not have a point? Is it not right to safeguard residents and to also safeguard cities from these new and self-interested elites?
The Balearic government, in planning to limit to four the number of properties one owner can rent out, is trying to address the issue. There will of course be ways round such a restriction, you can bet on that. But it may falter in its attempts to create limits, not through want of trying but because of the forces of neo-liberal deregulation in the courts and the competition commissions. Touristification. You'll hear a great deal more about it.
Thursday, May 18, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 18 May 2017
Morning high (7.39am): 13.9C
Forecast high: 26C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 19 May - Sun, showers, 23C; 20 May - Sun, cloud, 24C; 21 May - Sun, 23C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): East 3 to 4.
Another perfect morning and a fine day in store. Likely to cloud over later on. There is the probability of some rain overnight and into tomorrow morning.
Evening update (20.00): High of 28.3C. Still a chance of some rain to come.
Forecast high: 26C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 19 May - Sun, showers, 23C; 20 May - Sun, cloud, 24C; 21 May - Sun, 23C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): East 3 to 4.
Another perfect morning and a fine day in store. Likely to cloud over later on. There is the probability of some rain overnight and into tomorrow morning.
Evening update (20.00): High of 28.3C. Still a chance of some rain to come.
Podemos: The Experiment That Went Wrong?
So, as predicted, Alberto Jarabo will cease to be the general secretary of Podemos in the Balearics. With all Podemos parliamentary deputies plus dozens of others lined up against him and in favour of Laura Camargo, his position had become untenable. He sought to cling to the life raft - rescue from the Madrid leadership and Pablo Iglesias - but that was never going to work. He was destined to sink.
For those of us who are not part of the Podemos apparatus, the party's divisions can seem distinctly arcane. The local difficulty in the Balearics mirrors the much greater one that was played out in March. From the outside, the triumph of Iglesias appeared as though it was the culmination of fighting over the remains of Karl Marx and Leon Trotsky, with no one entirely sure what the fight was. How many inside the party really understood either?
The divisions have been styled by some commentators as evidence of a party attaining maturity. After the euphoria of election triumphs that emerged from out of nowhere, the challenge was for Podemos to make sense of those triumphs. The essentially non-political party had to learn to behave like one. In the process, and as is the case with any other party, there were bound to be arguments as to policy and strategy. And if we need reminding of how other Spanish political parties are engrossed by such a dynamic, we need look no further than PSOE and the Lazarus-like rebirth of Pedro Sánchez in the face of the all too PP-compliant (supposedly) Susana Díaz.
There shouldn't, therefore, be any real surprise that Podemos find themselves attempting to reconcile factions. This is the very nature of political parties. But with Podemos there was also the sense that they were somehow different. An aversion to the established order of the political system and indeed to established practices had lulled many into the belief that here was a mould-breaker. They may have shattered the old mould - at least partially - but are now devoting energies in piecing it back together.
The struggles they are having reflect the very essence of the party and those who inhabit it and its support base. This is an amalgam of an egghead university professorial class, of hardline communists, of disgruntled PSOE (and even PP) supporters, of Republicans, of the previously politically frustrated, of the outright opportunist. There is a sense in which Podemos are a current-day manifestation of elements that contributed to and conspired to force the Second Republic into implosion. All the party lacks is a definable bourgeoisie, and Laura Camargo - a defender of the party's anti-capitalist faction - stands as a symbol against such self-interest.
Jarabo, now that he has decided to walk, is urging the party to find a unifying leader. Camargo, where he is concerned, isn't that figure. But who could he have in mind? Jarabo himself is indicative of a Podemos weakness, the inherent inexperience that the party brings to the table. Who, after all, was he when he became general secretary? Who had ever heard of him? The "new politics", the breaking of the mould, conjured up new faces but ones who were unaware of how to proceed.
Camargo has accused Jarabo of "improvisation". But what else could he have engaged in? Podemos are improvisational. They are, as Mariano Rajoy was at pains to point out, an "experiment". This is a party founded in the cloisters of academe, a laboratory exercise of competing compounds exploding in the test tube.
There may not have been a blank sheet of paper - quite the contrary given the hundreds of items that were to find their way on to the Podemos manifesto - but there was a blankness of procedure. Hard though they try to adhere to a new democratisation via citizens' councils, there is always the potential for a leadership to plough its own furrow. Essentially, this has been one of the criticisms of Jarabo. His proximity to PSOE and Més has supposedly been greater than his proximity to the "bases".
Might, therefore, Jarabo have been undone because of pragmatism? Podemos have refused to kowtow to the established order - witness, for instance, their non-support for Sánchez and his pact with the reviled (by Podemos) Ciudadanos - but in certain instances they have. The Council of Mallorca is an example. It may not be a complete bed of roses, but the combination of PSOE, Més and Podemos has worked with comparative harmony. If Camargo takes over, and perhaps this is Jarabo's fear, the semblance of pragmatism would evaporate.
Ultimately, there is a question of what they really are as a party. Yes, there is a certain maturity, and the electorate will now want a firmer indication. Podemos have passed from being new. They are still an experiment, a work in progress, but their divisions could bring progress to a grinding halt and eventual failure.
For those of us who are not part of the Podemos apparatus, the party's divisions can seem distinctly arcane. The local difficulty in the Balearics mirrors the much greater one that was played out in March. From the outside, the triumph of Iglesias appeared as though it was the culmination of fighting over the remains of Karl Marx and Leon Trotsky, with no one entirely sure what the fight was. How many inside the party really understood either?
The divisions have been styled by some commentators as evidence of a party attaining maturity. After the euphoria of election triumphs that emerged from out of nowhere, the challenge was for Podemos to make sense of those triumphs. The essentially non-political party had to learn to behave like one. In the process, and as is the case with any other party, there were bound to be arguments as to policy and strategy. And if we need reminding of how other Spanish political parties are engrossed by such a dynamic, we need look no further than PSOE and the Lazarus-like rebirth of Pedro Sánchez in the face of the all too PP-compliant (supposedly) Susana Díaz.
There shouldn't, therefore, be any real surprise that Podemos find themselves attempting to reconcile factions. This is the very nature of political parties. But with Podemos there was also the sense that they were somehow different. An aversion to the established order of the political system and indeed to established practices had lulled many into the belief that here was a mould-breaker. They may have shattered the old mould - at least partially - but are now devoting energies in piecing it back together.
The struggles they are having reflect the very essence of the party and those who inhabit it and its support base. This is an amalgam of an egghead university professorial class, of hardline communists, of disgruntled PSOE (and even PP) supporters, of Republicans, of the previously politically frustrated, of the outright opportunist. There is a sense in which Podemos are a current-day manifestation of elements that contributed to and conspired to force the Second Republic into implosion. All the party lacks is a definable bourgeoisie, and Laura Camargo - a defender of the party's anti-capitalist faction - stands as a symbol against such self-interest.
Jarabo, now that he has decided to walk, is urging the party to find a unifying leader. Camargo, where he is concerned, isn't that figure. But who could he have in mind? Jarabo himself is indicative of a Podemos weakness, the inherent inexperience that the party brings to the table. Who, after all, was he when he became general secretary? Who had ever heard of him? The "new politics", the breaking of the mould, conjured up new faces but ones who were unaware of how to proceed.
Camargo has accused Jarabo of "improvisation". But what else could he have engaged in? Podemos are improvisational. They are, as Mariano Rajoy was at pains to point out, an "experiment". This is a party founded in the cloisters of academe, a laboratory exercise of competing compounds exploding in the test tube.
There may not have been a blank sheet of paper - quite the contrary given the hundreds of items that were to find their way on to the Podemos manifesto - but there was a blankness of procedure. Hard though they try to adhere to a new democratisation via citizens' councils, there is always the potential for a leadership to plough its own furrow. Essentially, this has been one of the criticisms of Jarabo. His proximity to PSOE and Més has supposedly been greater than his proximity to the "bases".
Might, therefore, Jarabo have been undone because of pragmatism? Podemos have refused to kowtow to the established order - witness, for instance, their non-support for Sánchez and his pact with the reviled (by Podemos) Ciudadanos - but in certain instances they have. The Council of Mallorca is an example. It may not be a complete bed of roses, but the combination of PSOE, Més and Podemos has worked with comparative harmony. If Camargo takes over, and perhaps this is Jarabo's fear, the semblance of pragmatism would evaporate.
Ultimately, there is a question of what they really are as a party. Yes, there is a certain maturity, and the electorate will now want a firmer indication. Podemos have passed from being new. They are still an experiment, a work in progress, but their divisions could bring progress to a grinding halt and eventual failure.
Wednesday, May 17, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 17 May 2017
Morning high (7.14am): 13.6C
Forecast high: 25C; UV: 9
Three-day forecast: 18 May - Sun, cloud, 26C; 19 May - Shower, sun, 22C; 20 May - Sun, cloud, 23C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): East 2 to 3.
Fresher morning. Cloudless. Pretty much perfect.
Evening update (21.30): High of 28.3C.
Forecast high: 25C; UV: 9
Three-day forecast: 18 May - Sun, cloud, 26C; 19 May - Shower, sun, 22C; 20 May - Sun, cloud, 23C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): East 2 to 3.
Fresher morning. Cloudless. Pretty much perfect.
Evening update (21.30): High of 28.3C.
Blame Madrid: The Timing Of Finance
Timing, as they say, is everything. Or perhaps it is nothing. On balance, I'm sticking with everything.
The regional government has been at it again. Its politics of finance are guided by one principle: blame Madrid. If it weren't for the national government (by which is meant the Partido Popular), the Balearics would be awash with cash. The Balearics lead Spain, lead much of Europe when it comes to economic growth. Yet the Balearics are impoverished. Blame Madrid for its unjust financing system and perhaps a small dollop of right versus left politics.
The impoverishment is of course over-egged. It is over-milked as well. To the eggs are applied great scoops of cream, all of them aimed at the fat of the national government to the detrimental wasting-away of the slimline Balearics. The latest cake with dairy topping that has been baked by the regional finance ministry is one of "liquidity tensions", by which one is supposedly meant to believe there is some form of cash flow crisis.
Madrid is denying the Balearic government spending of nigh on 150 million euros. The spending can't be made because Madrid wants some of its money back from the debt that the region has with the state. Here is another example, therefore, of how Madrid attacks the ever poorer Balearics and the deprived citizens of the islands.
The financing system is, pretty much everyone agrees, including Madrid, somewhat cockeyed. But the 150 million euros haven't got to do with this directly. They have to do with the regional capacity to spend, something restricted and monitored by law - the Montoro Law, named after the national finance minister.
While I am generally inclined to agree with the regional government when it comes to the financing system, the problem I have is with the constant narrative. It is a political one, pure and simple. If services aren't invested in, for example, it's not the regional government's fault. Blame Madrid. I do also have some sympathy because the current government, despite its left complexion, has proved to be pretty decent at financial management. There again, it has to be, because Madrid insists on this. Edging into surplus, which is expected this year, owes at least something, regardless of the Balearic giveaway because of the distributive financing system that props up other regions, to tax revenues. Economic growth swells coffers, even if it doesn't find its way into employees' pay packets.
The timing was everything. Making plain its disgust with Madrid over the 150 million euros and alerting us all to the existence of a possible surplus, the government was making a plea to be allowed to spend all the extra revenue sloshing around. It can't because Madrid won't let it, just like Madrid won't let town halls spend their surpluses. This was the timing. No sooner had the government pleaded for greater spending flexibility, than Congress was letting it be known that there is to be a modification to the Montoro Law.
The Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces, presided over, it might be noted, by Palma's mayor, José Hila, had succeeded in getting a budget amendment approved with full-party support. Balearic town halls will, it is understood, be able to invest some 400 million euros from their 2016 surpluses: the Montoro Law is to be partly busted after all. There are 67 municipalities in all. On average, not that it will work out this way, this will mean almost six million each. For the more prudent town halls and those with greater surpluses, the investment potential will doubtless be much greater.
The timing wasn't nothing. It was everything because the government would have known what was afoot in Congress. Or does no one in PSOE in the government, e.g. the Balearic president or finance minister, speak to Hila? Relationships are known not to be great, but when there are 400 million knocking around even the more difficult relationships can be smoothed. Of course the government knew.
So now, the government can say that if there is some loosening of town halls' purse strings, there will be even greater injustice if it is not permitted to have similar flexibility. The politics of finance can thus advance a further step. Madrid can be blamed ever more.
In fact, the government may not wish to harp on too much about this. It plays the siege mentality to its political advantage, while questions might be asked about whether it was aware of the possible modification of the Montoro Law much earlier. The town halls were distinctly miffed at not getting any tourist tax revenue for direct investment this year. They will now be in a position to fund projects a different way, with investment from the surplus allowable this year and in 2018. Did the government know earlier? The politics of finance, as with timing, are everything.
The regional government has been at it again. Its politics of finance are guided by one principle: blame Madrid. If it weren't for the national government (by which is meant the Partido Popular), the Balearics would be awash with cash. The Balearics lead Spain, lead much of Europe when it comes to economic growth. Yet the Balearics are impoverished. Blame Madrid for its unjust financing system and perhaps a small dollop of right versus left politics.
The impoverishment is of course over-egged. It is over-milked as well. To the eggs are applied great scoops of cream, all of them aimed at the fat of the national government to the detrimental wasting-away of the slimline Balearics. The latest cake with dairy topping that has been baked by the regional finance ministry is one of "liquidity tensions", by which one is supposedly meant to believe there is some form of cash flow crisis.
Madrid is denying the Balearic government spending of nigh on 150 million euros. The spending can't be made because Madrid wants some of its money back from the debt that the region has with the state. Here is another example, therefore, of how Madrid attacks the ever poorer Balearics and the deprived citizens of the islands.
The financing system is, pretty much everyone agrees, including Madrid, somewhat cockeyed. But the 150 million euros haven't got to do with this directly. They have to do with the regional capacity to spend, something restricted and monitored by law - the Montoro Law, named after the national finance minister.
While I am generally inclined to agree with the regional government when it comes to the financing system, the problem I have is with the constant narrative. It is a political one, pure and simple. If services aren't invested in, for example, it's not the regional government's fault. Blame Madrid. I do also have some sympathy because the current government, despite its left complexion, has proved to be pretty decent at financial management. There again, it has to be, because Madrid insists on this. Edging into surplus, which is expected this year, owes at least something, regardless of the Balearic giveaway because of the distributive financing system that props up other regions, to tax revenues. Economic growth swells coffers, even if it doesn't find its way into employees' pay packets.
The timing was everything. Making plain its disgust with Madrid over the 150 million euros and alerting us all to the existence of a possible surplus, the government was making a plea to be allowed to spend all the extra revenue sloshing around. It can't because Madrid won't let it, just like Madrid won't let town halls spend their surpluses. This was the timing. No sooner had the government pleaded for greater spending flexibility, than Congress was letting it be known that there is to be a modification to the Montoro Law.
The Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces, presided over, it might be noted, by Palma's mayor, José Hila, had succeeded in getting a budget amendment approved with full-party support. Balearic town halls will, it is understood, be able to invest some 400 million euros from their 2016 surpluses: the Montoro Law is to be partly busted after all. There are 67 municipalities in all. On average, not that it will work out this way, this will mean almost six million each. For the more prudent town halls and those with greater surpluses, the investment potential will doubtless be much greater.
The timing wasn't nothing. It was everything because the government would have known what was afoot in Congress. Or does no one in PSOE in the government, e.g. the Balearic president or finance minister, speak to Hila? Relationships are known not to be great, but when there are 400 million knocking around even the more difficult relationships can be smoothed. Of course the government knew.
So now, the government can say that if there is some loosening of town halls' purse strings, there will be even greater injustice if it is not permitted to have similar flexibility. The politics of finance can thus advance a further step. Madrid can be blamed ever more.
In fact, the government may not wish to harp on too much about this. It plays the siege mentality to its political advantage, while questions might be asked about whether it was aware of the possible modification of the Montoro Law much earlier. The town halls were distinctly miffed at not getting any tourist tax revenue for direct investment this year. They will now be in a position to fund projects a different way, with investment from the surplus allowable this year and in 2018. Did the government know earlier? The politics of finance, as with timing, are everything.
Tuesday, May 16, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 16 May 2017
Morning high (7.26am): 18.5C
Forecast high: 25C; UV: 9
Three-day forecast: 17 May - Sun, cloud, 24C; 18 May - Sun, cloud, 26C; 19 May - Sun, showers, 22C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northeast 2 to 3.
Some white cloud around first thing and may be at times during the day. Otherwise sunny and warm.
Evening update (19.45): Bit of a whopper today. High of 29.2C.
Forecast high: 25C; UV: 9
Three-day forecast: 17 May - Sun, cloud, 24C; 18 May - Sun, cloud, 26C; 19 May - Sun, showers, 22C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northeast 2 to 3.
Some white cloud around first thing and may be at times during the day. Otherwise sunny and warm.
Evening update (19.45): Bit of a whopper today. High of 29.2C.
The Lost Ten Per Cent: Tourism Quality
For the first four months of the year, German tourism sales to Mallorca for this year were down by up to ten per cent. The headline to this effect, used by a number of sources, would be designed to surprise or shock: a harbinger of doom for the island's tourism industry.
Figures for increase or decrease in tourism numbers are quoted over and over again. Only some should be taken as being worthy of attention. If a small tour operator makes an announcement, either way, it is of little consequence. If Tui speaks, then far more notice should be taken. But of greater significance still is what is said by organisations which provide aggregate evidence.
Spain's overseas tourism offices are examples of such organisations. They exist in various capital and other major cities. It is their job to provide accuracy and market intelligence. When they speak, they should be listened to.
Álvaro Blanco Volmer is the director of the Munich office. It was he who gave the up to ten per cent news. But was he particularly alarmed? Actually not. The decreasing number was in fact evidence of strategy working. This strategy is to wheedle out the low-spending tourist class in favour of the "quality" end. The disappearing ten per cent seemingly rank among the Cs of the ABC socioeconomic classification.
Who's strategy is this? Mostly everyone's. Tour operators want higher spenders (so long as they can continue to flog volume). Destinations want them. Governments want them. But not all. There are destinations and governments currently desperate for anyone they can attract. Holidays in some places are almost being given away. Tour operators won't like that, much though they might talk up recovering destinations.
You have to therefore be careful with headlines such as the German ten per cent. The wrong conclusions can be drawn if you don't look beyond their surprise value. But there is some surprise insofar as the decrease, assuming it is maintained for the year as a whole, is considered to be a positive because of a greater concentration on the "quality" end of the market. We've been here before, and it was the German market which was once up in arms because of it.
When tourism declined in 2002 to the tune of some half a million visitors, the blame was placed solely on the ecotax. This is one of the great myths about that tax. It might not have helped, but the downturn was predominantly a German one. It fell by 16% (the UK market went down by just over one per cent). The overall decline was 7.6%, which was all but reversed the following year. In addition to the German economy having been in a short recession, there had, just as importantly, been all the outrage over remarks made by Balearic politicians regarding the quality of German tourism - the low-spending end. As a consequence, there was something of a boycott.
Now, however, the situation is different, and as Blanco Volmer pointed out, it is more important to talk about millions of euros rather than millions of tourists. If a low-spending percentage of the German millions doesn't come, then so be it.
His observation was reinforced by the news from the UK. Tourism numbers are up by 3%. However, more doesn't mean better. The hoteliers federation explained that UK tourists spend less than most other nationalities. They aren't quite the poor men of Europe - the French, very much in the doldrums, can probably claim this title - but they are certainly not among the high-flying spenders of, say, the Netherlands. There is, therefore, an issue with the "quality" of part of the UK market.
The hoteliers' president, Inma Benito, gave a presentation towards the end of last month in which she said that Mallorca will never be able to compete on price with the likes of Turkey, once and if they recover. Turkey, it might be noted, doesn't look look as if it is recovering, certainly not where some markets are concerned. The Swedes, for instance, are shunning it. But assuming there is something like full recovery of these other destinations (still a pretty big assumption), the hoteliers won't be taking them on over price. The Benito thesis is multiply rather than add, by which she means that the value of the product has to go up through innovation and competitiveness. And with the value of the product going up, so does the price, thus squeezing out the low-spending end of the market.
The island's tourism industry is heading into uncharted territory. Some politicians would be only too happy to see tourist numbers decrease, but the hoteliers don't see it that way. The numbers can be retained. New markets will compensate for losses in others. Can they be completely confident? How much "quality" will be prepared to back their strategy?
Figures for increase or decrease in tourism numbers are quoted over and over again. Only some should be taken as being worthy of attention. If a small tour operator makes an announcement, either way, it is of little consequence. If Tui speaks, then far more notice should be taken. But of greater significance still is what is said by organisations which provide aggregate evidence.
Spain's overseas tourism offices are examples of such organisations. They exist in various capital and other major cities. It is their job to provide accuracy and market intelligence. When they speak, they should be listened to.
Álvaro Blanco Volmer is the director of the Munich office. It was he who gave the up to ten per cent news. But was he particularly alarmed? Actually not. The decreasing number was in fact evidence of strategy working. This strategy is to wheedle out the low-spending tourist class in favour of the "quality" end. The disappearing ten per cent seemingly rank among the Cs of the ABC socioeconomic classification.
Who's strategy is this? Mostly everyone's. Tour operators want higher spenders (so long as they can continue to flog volume). Destinations want them. Governments want them. But not all. There are destinations and governments currently desperate for anyone they can attract. Holidays in some places are almost being given away. Tour operators won't like that, much though they might talk up recovering destinations.
You have to therefore be careful with headlines such as the German ten per cent. The wrong conclusions can be drawn if you don't look beyond their surprise value. But there is some surprise insofar as the decrease, assuming it is maintained for the year as a whole, is considered to be a positive because of a greater concentration on the "quality" end of the market. We've been here before, and it was the German market which was once up in arms because of it.
When tourism declined in 2002 to the tune of some half a million visitors, the blame was placed solely on the ecotax. This is one of the great myths about that tax. It might not have helped, but the downturn was predominantly a German one. It fell by 16% (the UK market went down by just over one per cent). The overall decline was 7.6%, which was all but reversed the following year. In addition to the German economy having been in a short recession, there had, just as importantly, been all the outrage over remarks made by Balearic politicians regarding the quality of German tourism - the low-spending end. As a consequence, there was something of a boycott.
Now, however, the situation is different, and as Blanco Volmer pointed out, it is more important to talk about millions of euros rather than millions of tourists. If a low-spending percentage of the German millions doesn't come, then so be it.
His observation was reinforced by the news from the UK. Tourism numbers are up by 3%. However, more doesn't mean better. The hoteliers federation explained that UK tourists spend less than most other nationalities. They aren't quite the poor men of Europe - the French, very much in the doldrums, can probably claim this title - but they are certainly not among the high-flying spenders of, say, the Netherlands. There is, therefore, an issue with the "quality" of part of the UK market.
The hoteliers' president, Inma Benito, gave a presentation towards the end of last month in which she said that Mallorca will never be able to compete on price with the likes of Turkey, once and if they recover. Turkey, it might be noted, doesn't look look as if it is recovering, certainly not where some markets are concerned. The Swedes, for instance, are shunning it. But assuming there is something like full recovery of these other destinations (still a pretty big assumption), the hoteliers won't be taking them on over price. The Benito thesis is multiply rather than add, by which she means that the value of the product has to go up through innovation and competitiveness. And with the value of the product going up, so does the price, thus squeezing out the low-spending end of the market.
The island's tourism industry is heading into uncharted territory. Some politicians would be only too happy to see tourist numbers decrease, but the hoteliers don't see it that way. The numbers can be retained. New markets will compensate for losses in others. Can they be completely confident? How much "quality" will be prepared to back their strategy?
Monday, May 15, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 15 May 2017
Morning high (8.04am): 16.8C
Forecast high: 24C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 16 May - Sun, cloud, 26C; 17 May - Sun, cloud, 25C; 18 May - Sun, cloud, 24C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North-Northeast 1 to 3.
Should be sun all the way today.
Evening update (20.00): And sun it was. High of 27.3C.
Forecast high: 24C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 16 May - Sun, cloud, 26C; 17 May - Sun, cloud, 25C; 18 May - Sun, cloud, 24C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): North-Northeast 1 to 3.
Should be sun all the way today.
Evening update (20.00): And sun it was. High of 27.3C.
Real Family And Friends Shouldn't Be Forgotten
The government's housing act is to be used to assist with its tourism regulation. The announcement from the land ministry that the housing bill will include provision for a deposit for rentals of less than a month equivalent to the value of two months' rent can only be interpreted as an attempt to attack the blatantly touristic rentals offered under the tenancy act.
This has to be seen in the context of the government's wish that Madrid reforms the tenancy act so that there is a minimum of one month rental. Madrid may not do this, and the government knows that. It is therefore looking at different approaches to affect legislation - the tenancy act - which isn't its to directly amend: it is a national law and not a regional one.
The two months' requirement, which would seem to also be being contemplated for any type of rental under the tenancy act (bizarrely, given the government's desire to increase access to housing), has been booted upstairs to the Consultative Council, the legal body which is used to check on the regional government's legislation. It normally doesn't get involved, but it is significant that the government should have noted that it is being consulted.
As far as I am aware - and please, if anyone knows otherwise, let me know - more than one month's deposit cannot be demanded according to the tenancy act. If this is indeed the case, then it would seem as if the government is seeking legal opinion as to whether it can proceed.
If it does go ahead with this (assuming there is no legal challenge, which there may well be), part of me thinks that it's not such a bad idea. There again, how enforceable would this deposit be and so how many such deposits would actually be paid? Moreover, and while I'm in full agreement with the government seeking to close the tenancy act loophole, I am concerned about the scope of what it intends to be the legislation (or would like to be the legislation). The deposit idea highlights this and in particular the genuine use of holiday accommodation by "family and friends".
When they were in government and being extremely obstinate in not facilitating some liberalising of the holiday apartment market, the PP did at least make constant reference to the fact that family and friends would of course still be able to have access to accommodation. The family and friends - the genuine ones - seem to have been totally forgotten now.
There are owners whose use of apartments is confined to themselves and to a handful of weeks' occupancy by family (or close friends). Such owners should not have to become bogged down in bureaucracy or indeed be subject to forms of legal (and moral) restraint. They certainly shouldn't have to demand two months' deposit from family members. Nor should, for example, contributions to paying electricity bills be treated as income. It's arrant nonsense that any of this might apply.
The problem is of course knowing who is genuine and who isn't. The government, one has the impression, has given up bothering with any distinction and up to a point one can understand why. That doesn't make its stance any less unreasonable though.
This has to be seen in the context of the government's wish that Madrid reforms the tenancy act so that there is a minimum of one month rental. Madrid may not do this, and the government knows that. It is therefore looking at different approaches to affect legislation - the tenancy act - which isn't its to directly amend: it is a national law and not a regional one.
The two months' requirement, which would seem to also be being contemplated for any type of rental under the tenancy act (bizarrely, given the government's desire to increase access to housing), has been booted upstairs to the Consultative Council, the legal body which is used to check on the regional government's legislation. It normally doesn't get involved, but it is significant that the government should have noted that it is being consulted.
As far as I am aware - and please, if anyone knows otherwise, let me know - more than one month's deposit cannot be demanded according to the tenancy act. If this is indeed the case, then it would seem as if the government is seeking legal opinion as to whether it can proceed.
If it does go ahead with this (assuming there is no legal challenge, which there may well be), part of me thinks that it's not such a bad idea. There again, how enforceable would this deposit be and so how many such deposits would actually be paid? Moreover, and while I'm in full agreement with the government seeking to close the tenancy act loophole, I am concerned about the scope of what it intends to be the legislation (or would like to be the legislation). The deposit idea highlights this and in particular the genuine use of holiday accommodation by "family and friends".
When they were in government and being extremely obstinate in not facilitating some liberalising of the holiday apartment market, the PP did at least make constant reference to the fact that family and friends would of course still be able to have access to accommodation. The family and friends - the genuine ones - seem to have been totally forgotten now.
There are owners whose use of apartments is confined to themselves and to a handful of weeks' occupancy by family (or close friends). Such owners should not have to become bogged down in bureaucracy or indeed be subject to forms of legal (and moral) restraint. They certainly shouldn't have to demand two months' deposit from family members. Nor should, for example, contributions to paying electricity bills be treated as income. It's arrant nonsense that any of this might apply.
The problem is of course knowing who is genuine and who isn't. The government, one has the impression, has given up bothering with any distinction and up to a point one can understand why. That doesn't make its stance any less unreasonable though.
Sunday, May 14, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 14 May 2017
Morning high (8.08am): 15.1C
Forecast high: 25C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 15 May - Sun, cloud, 24C; 16 May - Sun, cloud, 26C; 17 May - Sun, cloud, 25C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): East 2 to 4, temporarily Southwest.
Another splendid morning. For the week ahead, no change until possibly Friday. The five-day forecast suggests that there might be showers then, though that could all change.
Evening update (19.15): A fair amount of cloud around but plenty of sunny spells. High of 28.5C.
Forecast high: 25C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 15 May - Sun, cloud, 24C; 16 May - Sun, cloud, 26C; 17 May - Sun, cloud, 25C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): East 2 to 4, temporarily Southwest.
Another splendid morning. For the week ahead, no change until possibly Friday. The five-day forecast suggests that there might be showers then, though that could all change.
Evening update (19.15): A fair amount of cloud around but plenty of sunny spells. High of 28.5C.
The Spice Girls Take Over Podemos
The sisterhood is rising up within Podemos. I'd like to be able to truly align them with The Spice Girls, but once one gets beyond Scary Spice (Palma's Aurora Jhardi), the comparisons do rather dry up. Not that there isn't Girl Power, just that, in all honesty, who could be Baby? Posh? Most definitely not. Likewise, the leader wouldn't qualify as Ginger. Laura Camargo, the Boot Girl (or Boot Spice, if you prefer), is someone David Lynch could have imagined for Twin Peaks: a Nadine Hurley with specs rather than a patch, possessed of superhuman strength and some disturbing secrets hidden beneath the patio.
Laura, it would seem, is about to strike a blow against the brotherhood. And there is no brother more eminent in the Balearics Podemos than Alberto Jarabo. The current general secretary, Alberto is about to feel the full force of the unleashed sisterhood combined with the support of brothers as well. Basically, he's on his way out, and Laura will ascend to the Podemos throne (metaphorically speaking, because there are no thrones in Podemos-land).
This in part is all the fault of His Royal (sic) Podemos-ness, Pablo Iglesias. He apparently took all good Balearic Podemosites by surprise when he said on telly that there would be primaries for the Balearic leadership next month. This had been planned for later in the year under the terms of whatever citizens' council had determined it thus (and there are any number of such councils inhabiting the Podemos sphere).
It was then thought that this wasn't such a surprise after all, as an early vote would leave the way open for Alberto to be re-elected. Laura wouldn't have time to gather her troops and would in any event prefer to show unified solidarity with Alberto. In other words, it had been a manipulation by Pablo to ensure Alberto could continue rather than allowing Laura to take over. And why would he want this? Well, that's because Laura represents the loony anti-capitalist faction, which received something of a trouncing when Podemos Central were having their run-off to decide the leadership, which Iglesias won convincingly.
Initially, it looked as if Alberto and Pablo would get their wish. Then Laura (or someone on behalf of Laura) dropped hints that she would have a crack at becoming gen-sec. Alberto intimated that, in the cause of unity and solidarity (etc.), he might step aside, before making it clear that he wouldn't be. Meanwhile, the Spice Girls had rallied round Laura.
Their number has dwindled markedly in parliament ever since Xelo and Montse were exiled to the Valley of the Fallen behind the PP and forced to become part of the shapeless Mixed Group. Not, it has to be said, that Xelo and Montse would qualify Spice-wise; they're more on the Susan Boyle popular spectrum. But they are out in force elsewhere, such as in Palma with Scary Spice and the endearingly bonkers Eva Frade. Scary said that it would be very positive to have a feminist activist as gen-sec. Eva declared that Laura has thus far provided a "master class on how to conduct new politics", while Sandra Espeja (who conserves the environment on behalf of the Council of Mallorca) believed that Laura's elevation would "feminise" the party. (She, Sandra, might just pass as Sporty, by the way.)
Feminists among the brotherhood then also pitched in on Laura's side. The latest is that there is a "manifesto" under the hashtag of "unity has the name of woman" which has been signed by some one hundred Podemos sorts, numbered among them being Balti, who hadn't previously seemed to wish to take sides. Now faced with all this demand for unity in the name of Laura, Alberto really hasn't gone anywhere to go. Other than out. If he doesn't go, it's impossible to see how he could command the Podemos ranks in parliament, given that all Podemos deputies are backing Laura.
It isn't simply a desire for a woman to be in charge that is behind all this. Laura, it is generally accepted, is more adept than Alberto. Moreover, Alberto, it has been said, hasn't fully got it with the consultative style of Podemos, while there is a perception that he is too easily persuaded to fall in line with PSOE and Més. Laura is less likely to be, which could make life uncomfortable for the matronly Francina Armengol.
Anyway, while all this was going on, the news emerged of a gaff in Son Serra de Marina that Alberto had sublet. More than just sublet, he had apparently been offering it via websites specialising in holiday rentals. He was doing what!? Adding to tourist saturation? A statement subsequently explained that this was all above board, the owner had given permission and Alberto had declared it.
Was news of this subletting just a coincidence? Who can say, other than "I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want ...".
Laura, it would seem, is about to strike a blow against the brotherhood. And there is no brother more eminent in the Balearics Podemos than Alberto Jarabo. The current general secretary, Alberto is about to feel the full force of the unleashed sisterhood combined with the support of brothers as well. Basically, he's on his way out, and Laura will ascend to the Podemos throne (metaphorically speaking, because there are no thrones in Podemos-land).
This in part is all the fault of His Royal (sic) Podemos-ness, Pablo Iglesias. He apparently took all good Balearic Podemosites by surprise when he said on telly that there would be primaries for the Balearic leadership next month. This had been planned for later in the year under the terms of whatever citizens' council had determined it thus (and there are any number of such councils inhabiting the Podemos sphere).
It was then thought that this wasn't such a surprise after all, as an early vote would leave the way open for Alberto to be re-elected. Laura wouldn't have time to gather her troops and would in any event prefer to show unified solidarity with Alberto. In other words, it had been a manipulation by Pablo to ensure Alberto could continue rather than allowing Laura to take over. And why would he want this? Well, that's because Laura represents the loony anti-capitalist faction, which received something of a trouncing when Podemos Central were having their run-off to decide the leadership, which Iglesias won convincingly.
Initially, it looked as if Alberto and Pablo would get their wish. Then Laura (or someone on behalf of Laura) dropped hints that she would have a crack at becoming gen-sec. Alberto intimated that, in the cause of unity and solidarity (etc.), he might step aside, before making it clear that he wouldn't be. Meanwhile, the Spice Girls had rallied round Laura.
Their number has dwindled markedly in parliament ever since Xelo and Montse were exiled to the Valley of the Fallen behind the PP and forced to become part of the shapeless Mixed Group. Not, it has to be said, that Xelo and Montse would qualify Spice-wise; they're more on the Susan Boyle popular spectrum. But they are out in force elsewhere, such as in Palma with Scary Spice and the endearingly bonkers Eva Frade. Scary said that it would be very positive to have a feminist activist as gen-sec. Eva declared that Laura has thus far provided a "master class on how to conduct new politics", while Sandra Espeja (who conserves the environment on behalf of the Council of Mallorca) believed that Laura's elevation would "feminise" the party. (She, Sandra, might just pass as Sporty, by the way.)
Feminists among the brotherhood then also pitched in on Laura's side. The latest is that there is a "manifesto" under the hashtag of "unity has the name of woman" which has been signed by some one hundred Podemos sorts, numbered among them being Balti, who hadn't previously seemed to wish to take sides. Now faced with all this demand for unity in the name of Laura, Alberto really hasn't gone anywhere to go. Other than out. If he doesn't go, it's impossible to see how he could command the Podemos ranks in parliament, given that all Podemos deputies are backing Laura.
It isn't simply a desire for a woman to be in charge that is behind all this. Laura, it is generally accepted, is more adept than Alberto. Moreover, Alberto, it has been said, hasn't fully got it with the consultative style of Podemos, while there is a perception that he is too easily persuaded to fall in line with PSOE and Més. Laura is less likely to be, which could make life uncomfortable for the matronly Francina Armengol.
Anyway, while all this was going on, the news emerged of a gaff in Son Serra de Marina that Alberto had sublet. More than just sublet, he had apparently been offering it via websites specialising in holiday rentals. He was doing what!? Adding to tourist saturation? A statement subsequently explained that this was all above board, the owner had given permission and Alberto had declared it.
Was news of this subletting just a coincidence? Who can say, other than "I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want ...".
Saturday, May 13, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 13 May 2017
Morning high (7.10am): 15.7C
Forecast high: 25C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 14 May - Sun, cloud, 26C; 15 May - Sun, cloud, 24C; 16 May - Sun, cloud, 26C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Southwest 4 tending to Variable 3.
Sun's out, quite fresh, nice morning for a 70.3 Ironman triathlon. Warmer later though for all that cycling and running.
Evening update (20.00): Very good day. High of 29C inland, two to three degrees lower on the coast.
Forecast high: 25C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 14 May - Sun, cloud, 26C; 15 May - Sun, cloud, 24C; 16 May - Sun, cloud, 26C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Southwest 4 tending to Variable 3.
Sun's out, quite fresh, nice morning for a 70.3 Ironman triathlon. Warmer later though for all that cycling and running.
Evening update (20.00): Very good day. High of 29C inland, two to three degrees lower on the coast.
Transferring Responsibilities For Tourism
Menorca will have 6.3 million euros to spend on tourism promotion next year. Lucky old Menorca, a beneficiary of the magnanimous gesture by the regional government to facilitate islands' own promotion, which is something the islands should have been doing for years.
One says this, but the islands have in fact been engaged in their own promotion in the past and now in the present. They are fully entitled to under the statutes of autonomy which grant rights for tourism organisation to the island councils. At present, though, there is a grand and ongoing ceremony for the transfer of responsibilities, as if these haven't existed. The real meaning behind this ceremonious "traspaso" is money, which is where Menorca's 6.3 million enters the equation. How much does the Balearic Tourism Agency spend on promotion? Not as much as Menorca will be next year. It currently spends around half the amount, and if Podemos had its way, it would be no more one tenth the amount.
There is an additional meaning, the true sense (perhaps) of responsibility. The islands, keepers of their own promotional fortunes, will be able to determine what they promote and how they promote. In marketing terms, they will be able to differentiate and devise products in support of this differentiation. They will become their own brands.
Ibiza, it should be noted, already possesses these official responsibilities. The road to the transfer to all the islands has been a long and tortuous one, with political obstacles and opportunism making it alternatively a rocky or smooth way. Because José Ramón Bauzá had his "issues" with Ibiza (or rather Ibiza had its issues with him), that island acquired its responsibilities when he was president. As attempts go in trying to keep electorates and party members sweet, it wasn't a notable success.
Bauzá, if only in a half-hearted fashion, had intended handing responsibilities to all the islands. He was unable to primarily because of money. Formentera, in particular, was outraged at how little was on offer. Mallorca, under the austere management of Maria Salom, didn't want the responsibilities because of the cost and potential for duplication.
Tourism minister Biel Barceló, when he was a member of the opposition, attacked the Bauzá government over its failure to comply with the legality of transfer. This came back to haunt him when the PP taunted him earlier this year for precisely the same reason. It had been understood that responsibilities were to have been transferred at the start of this year: they obviously weren't.
The financial allocations to the other islands are still a bit of a mystery. Menorca has gone public and its 6.3 million is a substantial amount. The president of the Council of Mallorca, Miquel Ensenyat, said in January that his council might expect some nine million euros. This, however, would be an "outrage", not because it would be too little but because it would be too much. It would be outrageous to spend so much on tourism promotion.
Ensenyat, who has made no bones about his desire to turn the Council into a de facto government for Mallorca, is nevertheless astute enough to recognise the dangers not just of budgets but also of duplication. Under Maria Munar and Francina Armengol, the Council created duplication aplenty: tourism was just one area. When dismissing the nine million euros as outrageous, he also said that the Council was working on trying to establish the framework for the tourism responsibilities. It was a revealing statement. No one was too sure what was to be transferred.
When he made these observations, Ensenyat was in Madrid for the Fitur tourism fair. And why was he there? If, in theory, the Council of Mallorca doesn't yet have responsibilities for promotion, then what is it doing attending a major event like Fitur? But it does have responsibilities and it does its own promotion, such as the cartoon map it produced (which was rather clever) and that was on show at Fitur. Moreover, these responsibilities appear to be divided between the departments for economic affairs and for culture. The Walking on Words initiative, as an example, is a culture department product. It can be dressed up as culture, but it is a tourism promotion device.
Things are a muddle. That much is clear. Or not. Fundamentally, the islands should have responsibilities. They differ from each other. They should be branded according to the attributes that each possesses. The global Balearic brand has never made much sense. But at the very moment when they are to acquire the cash (meaningful cash in the case of Menorca) to do so, there is the political requirement to rein back on promotion because of the horrors of saturation.
The transfers are to be in place for the start of 2018, but one forms the impression - because of this political requirement - that the government would prefer that they weren't.
One says this, but the islands have in fact been engaged in their own promotion in the past and now in the present. They are fully entitled to under the statutes of autonomy which grant rights for tourism organisation to the island councils. At present, though, there is a grand and ongoing ceremony for the transfer of responsibilities, as if these haven't existed. The real meaning behind this ceremonious "traspaso" is money, which is where Menorca's 6.3 million enters the equation. How much does the Balearic Tourism Agency spend on promotion? Not as much as Menorca will be next year. It currently spends around half the amount, and if Podemos had its way, it would be no more one tenth the amount.
There is an additional meaning, the true sense (perhaps) of responsibility. The islands, keepers of their own promotional fortunes, will be able to determine what they promote and how they promote. In marketing terms, they will be able to differentiate and devise products in support of this differentiation. They will become their own brands.
Ibiza, it should be noted, already possesses these official responsibilities. The road to the transfer to all the islands has been a long and tortuous one, with political obstacles and opportunism making it alternatively a rocky or smooth way. Because José Ramón Bauzá had his "issues" with Ibiza (or rather Ibiza had its issues with him), that island acquired its responsibilities when he was president. As attempts go in trying to keep electorates and party members sweet, it wasn't a notable success.
Bauzá, if only in a half-hearted fashion, had intended handing responsibilities to all the islands. He was unable to primarily because of money. Formentera, in particular, was outraged at how little was on offer. Mallorca, under the austere management of Maria Salom, didn't want the responsibilities because of the cost and potential for duplication.
Tourism minister Biel Barceló, when he was a member of the opposition, attacked the Bauzá government over its failure to comply with the legality of transfer. This came back to haunt him when the PP taunted him earlier this year for precisely the same reason. It had been understood that responsibilities were to have been transferred at the start of this year: they obviously weren't.
The financial allocations to the other islands are still a bit of a mystery. Menorca has gone public and its 6.3 million is a substantial amount. The president of the Council of Mallorca, Miquel Ensenyat, said in January that his council might expect some nine million euros. This, however, would be an "outrage", not because it would be too little but because it would be too much. It would be outrageous to spend so much on tourism promotion.
Ensenyat, who has made no bones about his desire to turn the Council into a de facto government for Mallorca, is nevertheless astute enough to recognise the dangers not just of budgets but also of duplication. Under Maria Munar and Francina Armengol, the Council created duplication aplenty: tourism was just one area. When dismissing the nine million euros as outrageous, he also said that the Council was working on trying to establish the framework for the tourism responsibilities. It was a revealing statement. No one was too sure what was to be transferred.
When he made these observations, Ensenyat was in Madrid for the Fitur tourism fair. And why was he there? If, in theory, the Council of Mallorca doesn't yet have responsibilities for promotion, then what is it doing attending a major event like Fitur? But it does have responsibilities and it does its own promotion, such as the cartoon map it produced (which was rather clever) and that was on show at Fitur. Moreover, these responsibilities appear to be divided between the departments for economic affairs and for culture. The Walking on Words initiative, as an example, is a culture department product. It can be dressed up as culture, but it is a tourism promotion device.
Things are a muddle. That much is clear. Or not. Fundamentally, the islands should have responsibilities. They differ from each other. They should be branded according to the attributes that each possesses. The global Balearic brand has never made much sense. But at the very moment when they are to acquire the cash (meaningful cash in the case of Menorca) to do so, there is the political requirement to rein back on promotion because of the horrors of saturation.
The transfers are to be in place for the start of 2018, but one forms the impression - because of this political requirement - that the government would prefer that they weren't.
Friday, May 12, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 12 May 2017
Morning high (7.58am): 17.3C
Forecast high: 26C; UV: 7
Three-day forecast: 13 May - Sun, cloud, 26C; 14 May - Sun, cloud, 26C; 15 May - Sun, cloud, 24C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): West 3 to 5.
Light cloud cover. See if this lifts or not. It's expected to. Weekend weather - sunny and warm.
Evening update (20.15): High of 26.7C. Very blowy. Sunny but plenty of light cloud as well.
Forecast high: 26C; UV: 7
Three-day forecast: 13 May - Sun, cloud, 26C; 14 May - Sun, cloud, 26C; 15 May - Sun, cloud, 24C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): West 3 to 5.
Light cloud cover. See if this lifts or not. It's expected to. Weekend weather - sunny and warm.
Evening update (20.15): High of 26.7C. Very blowy. Sunny but plenty of light cloud as well.
Charlatans And Chambao: Mallorca's Festival
Mallorca doesn't have music festivals. Not the type of music festival, that is, which we associate with the likes of Glastonbury. That festival, gentrified out of all recognition, was a product of the Woodstock era. I remember it well. My first venture forth into the world of the festival was in a field belonging to farmer Ted Askey. It was known as Hollywood but was nothing like Hollywood. I was fourteen. The Grateful Dead performed in the UK for the first time. I was lucky to have survived the weekend without having contracted hypothermia. Happy days.
There are different types of festival in Mallorca. Typically, they can last for weeks. Deya's International Music Festival, which started last week, goes on for months: a concert most Thursdays at the marvellous Son Marroig. Refined it is, classical it is; Ted Askey's farm it most certainly is not. Another, Pollensa's, is shorter - throughout August - but is equally civilised. The classical world locates itself in the cloister of the Sant Domingo Convent.
Because of the time they take and because also of the style of music, these are not festivals in the grand tradition of muddy fields of an English summer. On mainland Spain, there are such events. Benicàssim is probably the prime example. To be held from 13 to 16 July, this year's acts feature Red Hot Chili Peppers, Kasabian, Foals, Deadmau5, Biffy Clyro, The Jesus and Mary Chain, and Liam Gallagher. That's what one calls a proper festival line-up. And there's little possibility of any hypothermia or indeed mud.
The Mallorca Live Festival, to be held at the old Aquapark in Magalluf, is about as close as it gets. Two evenings/nights over this weekend and with no camping-out overnight, it may not strictly speaking conform to the criteria for the genuine festival, but let's not quibble too much. There is at least a festival.
One thing that festivals reveal is how enduring groups are. Or how often they re-form and revive. It wasn't a festival, but the lamented Mallorca Rocks Hotel used to do this. New Order, Madness: names almost ancient turned up in Magalluf. This weekend's festival takes us back to the days of Madchester. Although they weren't from Manchester (Tim Burgess was originally from Salford, it might be noted, however), The Charlatans were bracketed with that era. In their current incarnation, they'll be performing material from their new album, Different Days. It has a distinct nod in the direction of Manchester and the Hacienda. The Smiths' Johnny Marr features, as does New Order's Stephen Morris. There again, so also does Paul Weller: Woking was certainly not Manchester.
While The Charlatans and Placebo, who sort of reinvented glam in the 1990s, will have UK indie lovers salivating, the Spanish contingent shouldn't be overlooked. Most notable among the domestic acts, where I'm concerned, is Chambao. If the name means nothing, it may be that you can recall a promotional advert for Andalusian tourism. It was a vibrant and startling video. The music came from Chambao. The song was Ahí Estás Tú, which is arguably what the group is still best known for.
The group has undergone changes over the years. Singer Lamari, who has fought cancer, is the only survivor from the original line-up of a group which did more than perhaps any other to define "flamenco chill". They did so to such an extent that Sony's first Flamenco Chill compilation featured them heavily. The second compilation is the better known. Chambao were on that as well, as also were the Fundación Eivissa, a DJ/producer duo, associated with the club scene as much as with chill. The two teamed up on occasion. The strings remix of Chambao's Verde Mar was and remains an astonishingly powerful crossover of flamenco chill, folk and electronica.
So, Mallorca has its festival. It may not be in the grand tradition, but it is certainly welcomed. One day maybe there will be one, though where it might be held is a question. And also when it might be held. An oddity about this weekend's festival is that one of the two stages is called Stage Mallorca Better in Winter, presumably a promo for the Balearic government's campaign. Winter doesn't quite hack it where a festival is concerned. The other stage, Sol House, does.
Thursday, May 11, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 11 May 2017
Morning high (7.32am): 17.1C
Forecast high: 27C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 12 May - Sun, cloud, 25C; 13 May - Sun, 26C; 14 May - Sun, cloud, 24C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Southwest 2 to 4.
Somewhat cloudy and breezy early on. Mix of cloud and sun to come with highs expected to top 80 in old money.
Evening update (20.00): High of 27.7C. Warm but also windy and with light cloud.
Forecast high: 27C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 12 May - Sun, cloud, 25C; 13 May - Sun, 26C; 14 May - Sun, cloud, 24C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Southwest 2 to 4.
Somewhat cloudy and breezy early on. Mix of cloud and sun to come with highs expected to top 80 in old money.
Evening update (20.00): High of 27.7C. Warm but also windy and with light cloud.
Blue Flags: Time Has Caught Up
Here we go again. The annual Blue Flags' song and dance. It's a story which is annually destined to occupy the front pages. That's only natural. For a society and an economy with the beach so close to their hearts, it's bound to, though once upon a time of course, there was no story. That was because there was no Blue Flag.
Matilde Asián, the national secretary-of-state for tourism, was able to glow in the spotlight of the number of flags fluttering on Spain's beaches. The Blue Flag, at the time of its inception thirty years ago, was ahead of its time. She was right. In the 1980s the world had still to wake up to the imperative of water quality. The world was still comparatively lazy and indifferent when it came to matters of the environment. The Blue Flag was a fantastic initiative.
Biel Barceló, the Balearic tourism minister, has said of the Blue Flag that tourists don't particularly value it. When he came out with this last year, he plunged the government into an argument with ADEAC, the organising association in Spain. There was talk of its legal people getting involved. The government was casting doubt on the Blue Flag and causing damage to it.
My reaction to Barceló was to thank God that someone had officially raised doubts about the Blue Flag. Let me be clear, the initiative does do an immense amount of good, but for a number of years it had been coming clear - to me at any rate - that it had gone way beyond its original purpose (that of water quality). It had started to carve out its own empire, adding ever more criteria and requirements.
At the same time, the general beachgoing public was far less indifferent to quality than it might once have been. Its environmental antennae had been alerted by the Blue Flag in its early years, but it was becoming ever more demanding, regardless of the Blue Flag. Sanitary conditions, good services, rescue facilities, etc., etc.: the public demanded them and expected them. Legislation, local regulations made sure that these demands and expectations were met. The Blue Flag was incidental.
Barceló said that tourists don't value the Blue Flag. In some parts of the globe, I suspect they do. That's because of parts of the world that have been playing catch-up on an environmental front. In the Balearics and Spain there have been laws both domestically and European which over many years have rectified many of the wrongs and which have made Spain a world leader for tourism. Yes, we hear about pollution in the Med, we do hear about the plastic that is washed up, we do hear about the occasional spillages of faecal water or about garbage floating. There isn't perfection, but where there is evidence, something is usually done, and if it isn't there is someone to take a photo or video and post it on social networks and scare local authorities into action.
What do tourists (or residents, come to that) take notice of? A Blue Flag? Be honest, do you? Are you in fact bothered about the various certifications for quality that numerous beaches have in Mallorca? Maybe you are. For the most part, I don't think people pay a great deal of attention. That's because quality is now taken as a given, and it comes about for all sorts of reasons, and generally speaking it is guaranteed, notwithstanding the occasional unfortunate incident. Barceló was right.
Far more notice is taken of what is knocking around the internet. If TripAdvisor reveals that such and such a beach is wonderful, then people will accept that it is. Recommendations are vastly more powerful than a flag. Likewise, if there are bad reviews, then a beach (and resort) may well suffer.
Playa de Muro's beach regularly attracts accolades. They come because of the excellent quality that is guaranteed in different ways. Yes, there is a Blue Flag but it is only one of several quality certifications. That it has been identified and praised by the Blue Flag organisers for its rescue service is even more reason for it to receive accolades. But the outstanding service which exists there is because the town hall (and business) have been so determined to push ever more the quality of the beach. The Blue Flag is nice but it isn't central and nor did it have anything to do with the creation of the medical emergency rapid response team at the beach.
The Blue Flags are an annual event. They are like the Oscars or Baftas without the gowns and bow ties. Or this at least is how they might wish to be perceived. The fact is that the annual ceremony passes many by, such as the municipalities who can't be bothered with the process. They have other means of demonstrating quality. Ahead of its time. Time has caught up.
Matilde Asián, the national secretary-of-state for tourism, was able to glow in the spotlight of the number of flags fluttering on Spain's beaches. The Blue Flag, at the time of its inception thirty years ago, was ahead of its time. She was right. In the 1980s the world had still to wake up to the imperative of water quality. The world was still comparatively lazy and indifferent when it came to matters of the environment. The Blue Flag was a fantastic initiative.
Biel Barceló, the Balearic tourism minister, has said of the Blue Flag that tourists don't particularly value it. When he came out with this last year, he plunged the government into an argument with ADEAC, the organising association in Spain. There was talk of its legal people getting involved. The government was casting doubt on the Blue Flag and causing damage to it.
My reaction to Barceló was to thank God that someone had officially raised doubts about the Blue Flag. Let me be clear, the initiative does do an immense amount of good, but for a number of years it had been coming clear - to me at any rate - that it had gone way beyond its original purpose (that of water quality). It had started to carve out its own empire, adding ever more criteria and requirements.
At the same time, the general beachgoing public was far less indifferent to quality than it might once have been. Its environmental antennae had been alerted by the Blue Flag in its early years, but it was becoming ever more demanding, regardless of the Blue Flag. Sanitary conditions, good services, rescue facilities, etc., etc.: the public demanded them and expected them. Legislation, local regulations made sure that these demands and expectations were met. The Blue Flag was incidental.
Barceló said that tourists don't value the Blue Flag. In some parts of the globe, I suspect they do. That's because of parts of the world that have been playing catch-up on an environmental front. In the Balearics and Spain there have been laws both domestically and European which over many years have rectified many of the wrongs and which have made Spain a world leader for tourism. Yes, we hear about pollution in the Med, we do hear about the plastic that is washed up, we do hear about the occasional spillages of faecal water or about garbage floating. There isn't perfection, but where there is evidence, something is usually done, and if it isn't there is someone to take a photo or video and post it on social networks and scare local authorities into action.
What do tourists (or residents, come to that) take notice of? A Blue Flag? Be honest, do you? Are you in fact bothered about the various certifications for quality that numerous beaches have in Mallorca? Maybe you are. For the most part, I don't think people pay a great deal of attention. That's because quality is now taken as a given, and it comes about for all sorts of reasons, and generally speaking it is guaranteed, notwithstanding the occasional unfortunate incident. Barceló was right.
Far more notice is taken of what is knocking around the internet. If TripAdvisor reveals that such and such a beach is wonderful, then people will accept that it is. Recommendations are vastly more powerful than a flag. Likewise, if there are bad reviews, then a beach (and resort) may well suffer.
Playa de Muro's beach regularly attracts accolades. They come because of the excellent quality that is guaranteed in different ways. Yes, there is a Blue Flag but it is only one of several quality certifications. That it has been identified and praised by the Blue Flag organisers for its rescue service is even more reason for it to receive accolades. But the outstanding service which exists there is because the town hall (and business) have been so determined to push ever more the quality of the beach. The Blue Flag is nice but it isn't central and nor did it have anything to do with the creation of the medical emergency rapid response team at the beach.
The Blue Flags are an annual event. They are like the Oscars or Baftas without the gowns and bow ties. Or this at least is how they might wish to be perceived. The fact is that the annual ceremony passes many by, such as the municipalities who can't be bothered with the process. They have other means of demonstrating quality. Ahead of its time. Time has caught up.
Wednesday, May 10, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 10 May 2017
Morning high (7.58am): 16.7C
Forecast high: 24C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 11 May - Sun, cloud, 26C; 12 May - Sun, cloud, 25C; 13 May - Sun, cloud, 25C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): East-Southeast 3 to 4.
Cloudyish sort of start to the day. Should clear but then get cloudy again this evening.
Evening update (20.00): High of 25.5C.
Forecast high: 24C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 11 May - Sun, cloud, 26C; 12 May - Sun, cloud, 25C; 13 May - Sun, cloud, 25C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): East-Southeast 3 to 4.
Cloudyish sort of start to the day. Should clear but then get cloudy again this evening.
Evening update (20.00): High of 25.5C.
Sancho's Succession: The Council
Before the Council of Mallorca was the Provincial Deputation and before the Provincial Deputation was the Grand and General Council. Local government has a long history. The Grand and General Council was established by Sanç I (Sancho I), the King of Mallorca, in 1315. Prior to this, there wasn't, post-Catalan invasion, a unitary authority for the island, unless one counts the king. There was instead an advisory council of "jurors", whose remit went little further than what was then the Ciutat de Mallorca, aka Palma.
The Grand and General Council survived for four centuries. The fallout from the War of the Spanish Succession put paid to it. The establishment of the Bourbon dynasty, the main result of the war, led to the repression of Catalan-speaking lands, the dismantling of the Crown of Aragon and also of its institutions - the Council was one of them.
It was to be almost one hundred years before there was again a unitary body. This was the Diputación Provincial de Baleares, the Provincial Deputation. It came about as a consequence of the Liberal Constitution of 1812. Theoretically, this swept away the "ancien régime" as it applied to Spain and in a similar style to the French Revolution. One says theoretically because the practice was to prove to be very different. The absolutist Ferdinand VII sold out the liberals who had supported his restoration and the defeat of Bonaparte, and the resultant mess was to be the clashes that marked much of the rest of the century.
The Provincial Deputation did, nevertheless, remain intact despite all the constant upheaval. In a way its creation might have seemed illiberal in that it was part of a centralist state system. But it was categorised, along with other deputations in Spain, as one of the "liberal deputations", an institution for a brand of political thinking that was to only periodically actually dominate.
The deputation was subject to the whims of the constant chaos that characterised Spain. It also struggled because of the absence of genuinely democratic structures. Nevertheless, it was to play an important role in, for instance, promoting the independence of the municipalities and to advance the likes of urban and educational policies. For a brief time, circa 1873, it looked as though it might disappear under the draft constitution drawn up by the First Republic. There was a charter for a federal state, and the Balearics was to have been a state within a state. The coup which saw the restoration of the Bourbons put paid to any such notion, and so the centralist system of government was maintained.
Invariably short of cash, there was a movement in 1916 towards decentralisation and autonomy for the Balearics, with the deputation driving the idea forward. That didn't get very far either, not least because the all-powerful interests of Joan March made sure that it didn't. When the first dictator, Miguel Primo de Rivera, came to power in 1923, the deputation was dissolved and then re-created with hand-picked appointees. Under Franco, it was moribund for some years not because it ceased to be but because the bureaucracy was so great that nothing could get done.
In the immediate aftermath of Franco's death, the deputation clung desperately to Francoist ways, such as by refusing to allow Catalan to be used. In 1979, it finally disappeared.
The Council of Mallorca is really the successor to the original Grand and General Council. It may occupy the building that the Provincial Deputation had, but in spirit it owes more to what was dismantled in the early eighteenth century. The spirit, however, doesn't come into play when it comes to how to revoke a distinction given to Franco by the Provincial Deputation. In 1955, Franco was awarded the gold and diamond medal. Politicians of today, especially Més, want this taken away. The problem is, though, being able to determine the line of succession of institutions.
The deputation was initially replaced by the Consell General Interinsular, the inter-island general council. The individual island councils were to then appear, as did the regional government in 1983. This inter-island council is part of the problem in trying to determine whether or not the Council of Mallorca and the other island councils are the true heirs of the Provincial Deputation. If the Council of Mallorca isn't one, then it cannot by itself revoke the Franco award.
The solution would appear to be for the four island councils to all agree to remove the award, which one would think should be a simple enough procedure. There are those who argue that the issue is ludicrous. The Council of Mallorca is quite obviously the (or a) successor, given that it owns buildings of the old deputation.
They'll doubtless get round to it eventually. Sanç I, all those years ago, couldn't have known what his legacy would be.
The Grand and General Council survived for four centuries. The fallout from the War of the Spanish Succession put paid to it. The establishment of the Bourbon dynasty, the main result of the war, led to the repression of Catalan-speaking lands, the dismantling of the Crown of Aragon and also of its institutions - the Council was one of them.
It was to be almost one hundred years before there was again a unitary body. This was the Diputación Provincial de Baleares, the Provincial Deputation. It came about as a consequence of the Liberal Constitution of 1812. Theoretically, this swept away the "ancien régime" as it applied to Spain and in a similar style to the French Revolution. One says theoretically because the practice was to prove to be very different. The absolutist Ferdinand VII sold out the liberals who had supported his restoration and the defeat of Bonaparte, and the resultant mess was to be the clashes that marked much of the rest of the century.
The Provincial Deputation did, nevertheless, remain intact despite all the constant upheaval. In a way its creation might have seemed illiberal in that it was part of a centralist state system. But it was categorised, along with other deputations in Spain, as one of the "liberal deputations", an institution for a brand of political thinking that was to only periodically actually dominate.
The deputation was subject to the whims of the constant chaos that characterised Spain. It also struggled because of the absence of genuinely democratic structures. Nevertheless, it was to play an important role in, for instance, promoting the independence of the municipalities and to advance the likes of urban and educational policies. For a brief time, circa 1873, it looked as though it might disappear under the draft constitution drawn up by the First Republic. There was a charter for a federal state, and the Balearics was to have been a state within a state. The coup which saw the restoration of the Bourbons put paid to any such notion, and so the centralist system of government was maintained.
Invariably short of cash, there was a movement in 1916 towards decentralisation and autonomy for the Balearics, with the deputation driving the idea forward. That didn't get very far either, not least because the all-powerful interests of Joan March made sure that it didn't. When the first dictator, Miguel Primo de Rivera, came to power in 1923, the deputation was dissolved and then re-created with hand-picked appointees. Under Franco, it was moribund for some years not because it ceased to be but because the bureaucracy was so great that nothing could get done.
In the immediate aftermath of Franco's death, the deputation clung desperately to Francoist ways, such as by refusing to allow Catalan to be used. In 1979, it finally disappeared.
The Council of Mallorca is really the successor to the original Grand and General Council. It may occupy the building that the Provincial Deputation had, but in spirit it owes more to what was dismantled in the early eighteenth century. The spirit, however, doesn't come into play when it comes to how to revoke a distinction given to Franco by the Provincial Deputation. In 1955, Franco was awarded the gold and diamond medal. Politicians of today, especially Més, want this taken away. The problem is, though, being able to determine the line of succession of institutions.
The deputation was initially replaced by the Consell General Interinsular, the inter-island general council. The individual island councils were to then appear, as did the regional government in 1983. This inter-island council is part of the problem in trying to determine whether or not the Council of Mallorca and the other island councils are the true heirs of the Provincial Deputation. If the Council of Mallorca isn't one, then it cannot by itself revoke the Franco award.
The solution would appear to be for the four island councils to all agree to remove the award, which one would think should be a simple enough procedure. There are those who argue that the issue is ludicrous. The Council of Mallorca is quite obviously the (or a) successor, given that it owns buildings of the old deputation.
They'll doubtless get round to it eventually. Sanç I, all those years ago, couldn't have known what his legacy would be.
Tuesday, May 09, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 9 May 2017
Morning high (7.15am): 12C
Forecast high: 23C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 10 May - Sun, cloud, 24C; 11 May - Sun, cloud, 26C; 12 May - Sun, cloud, 26C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): East 3 to 4.
Summer in spring well and truly here. Forecast to get warmer from Thursday. The way that temperatures can fluctuate quite markedly across the zone may well mean up to 30C in areas.
Evening update (20.00): High of 26.8C.
Forecast high: 23C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 10 May - Sun, cloud, 24C; 11 May - Sun, cloud, 26C; 12 May - Sun, cloud, 26C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): East 3 to 4.
Summer in spring well and truly here. Forecast to get warmer from Thursday. The way that temperatures can fluctuate quite markedly across the zone may well mean up to 30C in areas.
Evening update (20.00): High of 26.8C.
Renting The Tramuntana
What does someone who organises an event called Foro Vacacional do after he leaves the organisation he was organising it on behalf of? Answer: he becomes the head of the Foro Vacacional, he being Juan Estarellas, the former president (founder) of the Aptur holiday rentals' association. The Foro is more than just an event, it is a body which promotes a professionalisation of the rentals' market.
Estarellas stepped down as president of Aptur just after a forum took place in February. Aptur had been the organiser of the forum. Aptur and the forum can seem as though they are much the same, even if they are not.
The world of holiday rentals in Mallorca (and the Balearics) might appear to be a small one, given the apparent ubiquity of Sr. Estarellas, but small it has ceased to be, as I think we all know. It is big business, and just to prove the point, businesses involved with that February forum were none other than Airbnb, Booking.com and HomeAway.
These three giants of the online rentals' market (aka collaborative economy) provided data with which Aptur, sorry, Foro Vacacional was able to announce at the same time as there was another forum (this one for the Tramuntana mountains) that holiday rentals generate 283 million euros in the Tramuntana each year. In fact, they apparently generate 1,700 million euros in total across the seventeen municipalities under consideration. Eh?
This higher figure was excluded from at least two reports of this income - one of which I wrote. It was difficult to understand whether the lower amount was just spending on staying in actual properties and so therefore the higher one was total revenue from spending (restaurants, shops, etc.). Whatever it was for, are we really to believe that in each of the seventeen municipalities there is on average a nice round annual revenue of 100 million euros?
These figures, however one looks at them, are astronomical. They may well be right, but the problem as ever is that numbers are tossed about and inevitably invite some scepticism. Designed to highlight current economic benefit and potential future benefit, they can either be taken as being impressive or somewhat alarming. As with other parts of the island, there are concerns about the Tramuntana being overrun by tourism and not just the tourism staying in a mountain holiday rental property.
The Foro Vacacional study suggests that cycling tourism brings in some 150 million euros on its own (this is a figure, it would appear, for the whole island or possibly the Balearics). Cycling tourism is viewed as a growth sector for the Tramuntana. Hence, and as part of the ongoing professionalism, rental properties in the mountains will be able to classify themselves as cycling friendly and be graded according to facilities. Which is fine, but this inevitably raises - yet again - the issue of saturation. The number of cyclists on roads in the mountains is something that has concerned various town halls, Escorca most certainly. In Bunyola, the town hall is having to take measures against the "invasion" of bikes in the main square.
The growth of rentals' tourism, of whatever type, has proved to be extremely beneficial to municipalities without a great deal of tourism. Selva is an example. So successful has the promotion of the town been, however, that the town hall has become alarmed at the pressure being placed on infrastructure - roads, water supplies and so on. The massive increase in properties for rent has caught the town hall on the hop.
Fornalutx is another case. Courtesy of a poster having been installed in the town hall the other day, it has now officially become one of the limited number of Spain's prettiest villages (the only one in Mallorca or the Balearics). Criteria for this award include traffic and cleanliness. But doesn't Fornalutx run the risk of encountering similar issues to Selva from the publicity given to its newly acquired status and from the onward march of rentals? Might its virtuous prettiness in fact prove to be a burden?
This said, one comes back to the figures. Foro Vacacional excluded Calvia from the list of municipalities because of the distortion created by the Calvia resorts. But there is distortion elsewhere, Pollensa being the prime example. It, as has been well reported, has more rentals' places than hotel places. In this regard, it is unique among the island's main tourism municipalities.
The distribution is, therefore, highly uneven. Andratx, Pollensa and Soller must surely account for the bulk of this Tramuntana rentals' trade. But will the potential future trade across the Tramuntana be realised? Foro Vacacional will hope so, and the upcoming legislation (zoning and all) might well add to this hope. However, while the likes of Pollensa can absorb this trade, would villages right in the mountains be able to do likewise?
Estarellas stepped down as president of Aptur just after a forum took place in February. Aptur had been the organiser of the forum. Aptur and the forum can seem as though they are much the same, even if they are not.
The world of holiday rentals in Mallorca (and the Balearics) might appear to be a small one, given the apparent ubiquity of Sr. Estarellas, but small it has ceased to be, as I think we all know. It is big business, and just to prove the point, businesses involved with that February forum were none other than Airbnb, Booking.com and HomeAway.
These three giants of the online rentals' market (aka collaborative economy) provided data with which Aptur, sorry, Foro Vacacional was able to announce at the same time as there was another forum (this one for the Tramuntana mountains) that holiday rentals generate 283 million euros in the Tramuntana each year. In fact, they apparently generate 1,700 million euros in total across the seventeen municipalities under consideration. Eh?
This higher figure was excluded from at least two reports of this income - one of which I wrote. It was difficult to understand whether the lower amount was just spending on staying in actual properties and so therefore the higher one was total revenue from spending (restaurants, shops, etc.). Whatever it was for, are we really to believe that in each of the seventeen municipalities there is on average a nice round annual revenue of 100 million euros?
These figures, however one looks at them, are astronomical. They may well be right, but the problem as ever is that numbers are tossed about and inevitably invite some scepticism. Designed to highlight current economic benefit and potential future benefit, they can either be taken as being impressive or somewhat alarming. As with other parts of the island, there are concerns about the Tramuntana being overrun by tourism and not just the tourism staying in a mountain holiday rental property.
The Foro Vacacional study suggests that cycling tourism brings in some 150 million euros on its own (this is a figure, it would appear, for the whole island or possibly the Balearics). Cycling tourism is viewed as a growth sector for the Tramuntana. Hence, and as part of the ongoing professionalism, rental properties in the mountains will be able to classify themselves as cycling friendly and be graded according to facilities. Which is fine, but this inevitably raises - yet again - the issue of saturation. The number of cyclists on roads in the mountains is something that has concerned various town halls, Escorca most certainly. In Bunyola, the town hall is having to take measures against the "invasion" of bikes in the main square.
The growth of rentals' tourism, of whatever type, has proved to be extremely beneficial to municipalities without a great deal of tourism. Selva is an example. So successful has the promotion of the town been, however, that the town hall has become alarmed at the pressure being placed on infrastructure - roads, water supplies and so on. The massive increase in properties for rent has caught the town hall on the hop.
Fornalutx is another case. Courtesy of a poster having been installed in the town hall the other day, it has now officially become one of the limited number of Spain's prettiest villages (the only one in Mallorca or the Balearics). Criteria for this award include traffic and cleanliness. But doesn't Fornalutx run the risk of encountering similar issues to Selva from the publicity given to its newly acquired status and from the onward march of rentals? Might its virtuous prettiness in fact prove to be a burden?
This said, one comes back to the figures. Foro Vacacional excluded Calvia from the list of municipalities because of the distortion created by the Calvia resorts. But there is distortion elsewhere, Pollensa being the prime example. It, as has been well reported, has more rentals' places than hotel places. In this regard, it is unique among the island's main tourism municipalities.
The distribution is, therefore, highly uneven. Andratx, Pollensa and Soller must surely account for the bulk of this Tramuntana rentals' trade. But will the potential future trade across the Tramuntana be realised? Foro Vacacional will hope so, and the upcoming legislation (zoning and all) might well add to this hope. However, while the likes of Pollensa can absorb this trade, would villages right in the mountains be able to do likewise?
Monday, May 08, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 8 May 2017
Morning high (7.20am): 12C
Forecast high: 22C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 9 May - Sun, cloud, 24C; 10 May - Sun, cloud, 24C; 11 May - Sun, cloud, 23C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): East 3.
Fine morning. Cloudless sky. See if it gets as warm as yesterday's high of almost 28C.
Evening update (20.00): High of 26.6C.
Forecast high: 22C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 9 May - Sun, cloud, 24C; 10 May - Sun, cloud, 24C; 11 May - Sun, cloud, 23C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): East 3.
Fine morning. Cloudless sky. See if it gets as warm as yesterday's high of almost 28C.
Evening update (20.00): High of 26.6C.
The Bragging Rights Of May Fairs
Neighbours enjoy having bragging rights over one another. They are nowadays more commonly voiced by the ordinary citizen than by officialdom. Town halls search for cooperation whereas once they were only too willing to attempt to get one over their neighbours.
In the case of Inca and Sineu, it's not been much of a contest for years. Inca, built on leather and in a more strategic location, courtesy of being to Sineu's left, grew to what it is, one of the small number of municipalities in Mallorca that might vaguely fall into the category of being large (all things being relative). Sineu, more easterly, had no such strategic place in the scheme of things. Moreover, it retained an essentially agrarian economy, lacking what ultimately became Inca's diversification into the high end of the leather trade and its export.
The two towns do, though, share a common heritage: that of the fair. In bygone times, the fourteenth century, they acquired a duopoly over fairs in the "part forana" (anywhere but Palma, then known as Ciutat de Mallorca). They guarded this duopoly jealously, while at the same time being rivals in claiming which town had the better fair. Quite some time later, Inca triumphed. It would have been called it earlier, but 1807 provided the first record of its Thursday fair in autumn being "Bo". Sineu didn't have such goodness to brag about.
Nevertheless, and because it suited the two towns to have done so, they sought to maintain their duopoly against a new rival - new in the sixteenth century, that is. Llucmajor wanted a fair of its own. The town was to entreat the Holy Roman Emperor, Carlos V, to grant it one. Inca and Sineu consulted their lawyers, thus proving that the current-day dominance of the judiciary being required to arbitrate on absolutely everything in Mallorca, was an already well-established process getting on for five hundred years ago.
Despite the lawyers, Carlos sided with Llucmajor. Holy Roman Emperors were not for crossing. Carlos never set foot on the island. His troops did this for him on the rare occasions when the Empire remembered that Mallorca was a component, such as - and most notably - when the imperial forces crushed the Germanies uprising. Llucmajor thus got its fair, and the town has, for the past 474 years, being telling anyone who cares to listen about its victory: its own bragging rights.
Before Llucmajor muscled in on the fairs' scene, Inca and Sineu had been attracting the island's farmers and artisans to its grand fairs - basically, markets that were bigger than normal. And it is the longevity of the fairs which still arouses some rivalry. Which of the two towns stole a march over the other?
Sineu's fair took place yesterday. It is considered to be the older of the two. The town can point to documentary evidence that 1318 was the year when it started. But in a sense, it's all a question of definition. Inca can demonstrate that its market was earlier than Sineu's - by around forty years. Market? Fair? They were essentially the same insofar as they were occasions for trading.
Eventually, Inca was to allow Sineu to stamp its own mark over the May fair. At the start of the last century, Inca's Dijous Gros was dropped: it was revived a few years ago. The autumn Dijous Bo had become the pre-eminent fair in the calendar, and Inca let everyone know that it was, including Sineu. What one can probably say with certainty, therefore, is that Sineu's is the oldest, uninterrupted May fair. It will be 700 years in 2018. The ballyhoo will be significant.
The two May fairs, somewhat inadvertently, contributed to a legend assigned to another neighbour of Inca's, the small village of Búger. It own fair was also yesterday. It is not on the scale of Sineu or Inca's Dijous Gros (which is this Thursday), but then you wouldn't expect it to be. Sineu may only have a population some 2,500 or so greater than Búger, but those 2,500 make a hell of a lot of difference in fair terms, plus Sineu has all that history on its side.
The Búger fair is the Jai, meaning old person but specifically the figure of a grandfather. The Jai of the modern day appears on a cart and dispenses sweets to the village children. Back in the day, though, the Jai (and Mrs. Jai) would return to the village with their cart full of goods from the Sineu and Inca fairs, and supreme among the goodies were shoes for the kiddies. So the two fairs contributed to the story of the Jai. A question is, though, which fair provided more shoes? Aren't they Inca's bragging rights ... ?
In the case of Inca and Sineu, it's not been much of a contest for years. Inca, built on leather and in a more strategic location, courtesy of being to Sineu's left, grew to what it is, one of the small number of municipalities in Mallorca that might vaguely fall into the category of being large (all things being relative). Sineu, more easterly, had no such strategic place in the scheme of things. Moreover, it retained an essentially agrarian economy, lacking what ultimately became Inca's diversification into the high end of the leather trade and its export.
The two towns do, though, share a common heritage: that of the fair. In bygone times, the fourteenth century, they acquired a duopoly over fairs in the "part forana" (anywhere but Palma, then known as Ciutat de Mallorca). They guarded this duopoly jealously, while at the same time being rivals in claiming which town had the better fair. Quite some time later, Inca triumphed. It would have been called it earlier, but 1807 provided the first record of its Thursday fair in autumn being "Bo". Sineu didn't have such goodness to brag about.
Nevertheless, and because it suited the two towns to have done so, they sought to maintain their duopoly against a new rival - new in the sixteenth century, that is. Llucmajor wanted a fair of its own. The town was to entreat the Holy Roman Emperor, Carlos V, to grant it one. Inca and Sineu consulted their lawyers, thus proving that the current-day dominance of the judiciary being required to arbitrate on absolutely everything in Mallorca, was an already well-established process getting on for five hundred years ago.
Despite the lawyers, Carlos sided with Llucmajor. Holy Roman Emperors were not for crossing. Carlos never set foot on the island. His troops did this for him on the rare occasions when the Empire remembered that Mallorca was a component, such as - and most notably - when the imperial forces crushed the Germanies uprising. Llucmajor thus got its fair, and the town has, for the past 474 years, being telling anyone who cares to listen about its victory: its own bragging rights.
Before Llucmajor muscled in on the fairs' scene, Inca and Sineu had been attracting the island's farmers and artisans to its grand fairs - basically, markets that were bigger than normal. And it is the longevity of the fairs which still arouses some rivalry. Which of the two towns stole a march over the other?
Sineu's fair took place yesterday. It is considered to be the older of the two. The town can point to documentary evidence that 1318 was the year when it started. But in a sense, it's all a question of definition. Inca can demonstrate that its market was earlier than Sineu's - by around forty years. Market? Fair? They were essentially the same insofar as they were occasions for trading.
Eventually, Inca was to allow Sineu to stamp its own mark over the May fair. At the start of the last century, Inca's Dijous Gros was dropped: it was revived a few years ago. The autumn Dijous Bo had become the pre-eminent fair in the calendar, and Inca let everyone know that it was, including Sineu. What one can probably say with certainty, therefore, is that Sineu's is the oldest, uninterrupted May fair. It will be 700 years in 2018. The ballyhoo will be significant.
The two May fairs, somewhat inadvertently, contributed to a legend assigned to another neighbour of Inca's, the small village of Búger. It own fair was also yesterday. It is not on the scale of Sineu or Inca's Dijous Gros (which is this Thursday), but then you wouldn't expect it to be. Sineu may only have a population some 2,500 or so greater than Búger, but those 2,500 make a hell of a lot of difference in fair terms, plus Sineu has all that history on its side.
The Búger fair is the Jai, meaning old person but specifically the figure of a grandfather. The Jai of the modern day appears on a cart and dispenses sweets to the village children. Back in the day, though, the Jai (and Mrs. Jai) would return to the village with their cart full of goods from the Sineu and Inca fairs, and supreme among the goodies were shoes for the kiddies. So the two fairs contributed to the story of the Jai. A question is, though, which fair provided more shoes? Aren't they Inca's bragging rights ... ?
Sunday, May 07, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 7 May 2017
Morning high (7.37am): 12.2C
Forecast high: 24C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 8 May - Sun, 24C; 9 May - Sun, cloud, 22C; 10 May - Sun, cloud, 25C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northeast 3 to 4.
Cracking morning and a cracking day ahead. Enjoy.
Evening update (19.30): High of 27.9C. Hmm.
Forecast high: 24C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 8 May - Sun, 24C; 9 May - Sun, cloud, 22C; 10 May - Sun, cloud, 25C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northeast 3 to 4.
Cracking morning and a cracking day ahead. Enjoy.
Evening update (19.30): High of 27.9C. Hmm.
All Bound For La La Land
"He's justified and he's ancient, he drives a Kangoo Van. He's justified and he's ancient, part of the master plan. They called him up in Felanitx and said Balti, stand for president. All bound for La La Land."
Borrowing from the words of Tammy Wynette and the KLF, Balti Picornell is justified as a determined Republican, he is ancient insofar as his appearance is one of having remained at Yasgur's Farm and the Woodstock Festival, while he does indeed drive a van. According to Tammy, the justified and ancient had an ice-cream van, but let's be honest, when was the last time you saw an ice-cream van in Mallorca. The nearest one gets is a lorry with a crane to lift an ice-cream kiosk from space it has occupied for centuries in Puerto Pollensa and at which septuagenarians hurl walking-sticks in protest at the eviction of their dairy goodness heritage.
Balti's van has been newly acquired. We learned this last week. Seemingly, he had a bit of a prang with his ancient Twingo and traded it in for a Kangoo. Does he have shares in Renault? Probably not, but it is most reassuring to learn that the Balearic parliament's president prefers something modest with which he can traverse the island by road, assuming that the roads are actually open.
Such modesty is all part of Balti's endearing charm, as also are his dining habits. We are yet to learn whether Balti does in fact eat Balti - a question I have been asking ever since he was elevated to the parliamentary presidency - but we are at least edging a little closer to knowing the Picornell prandial instincts. And we have to thank fellow Podemosite, Aitor Morrás, for offering the insight, which he did on Twitter last week.
Balti, opined Aitor in fewer than 140 characters, was "great" for having had a "dish of the day" at the Cafeteria Concord while on an official visit to Ibiza. You are probably as unfamiliar with this establishment as I was prior to Aitor's tweet. So I can inform you, courtesy of the gastronomic oracle that is TripAdvisor, that it ranks 127 out of 430 restaurants in Ibiza Town and receives 13 excellent reviews out of 17. "WanMadrid", for example, says that its prices are reasonable, something which is unusual for Ibiza. Moreover, its tortilla is "spectacular".
So was that it? Was tortilla Baltl's dish of the day? Aitor didn't get as far as explaining that. In fact, he removed the tweet. Whatever for? Did Balti not wish to be revealed as a modest diner? We will probably never know.
Still, Balti had his new (secondhand) Kangoo to continue him on his journey to La La Land (as opposed to the KLF's Mu Mu Land), which is where, were he a fellow traveller with Més (which he clearly isn't), he would have encountered Palma's Neus Truyol. In case you need reminding, Neus has, when not single-handedly been saving the city from drought, been pursuing a policy of converting Palma into Europe's recycling central. And pursuant to this, her Emaya municipal services agency staged the world premiere of its new video last week. Well, it went up on YouTube (4,075 views at time of writing).
This epic of awareness-raising, one might have hoped, would be replete with singing rubbish containers. "Please stuff me with your 1.5 litre plastic bottles from Eroski (other supermarkets do also apply)." Something snappy along those lines. Alas no. What we have instead is "La La Land, the Emaya Remix". From now on, all citizens, taking their lead from the video, will dance their way to the nearest containers, and they will wear broad smiles as they deposit the evidence of the previous night's drinking.
In the absence of the singing containers, they could at least have got Neus to do the dancing and singing, accompanied by fellow Mésite, the soon-to-be-mayor Noguera. But no. A PR trick missed, one fancies.
* The video is of the original Justified And Ancient, in case you were wondering as to the reference.
Saturday, May 06, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 6 May 2017
Morning high (8.00am): 18.8C
Forecast high: 23C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 7 May - Sun, 23C; 8 May - Sun, 22C; 9 May - Sun, 21C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): West 4 to 6 easing Variable 2 to 4 in the afternoon.
A bit blowy this morning. Should settle down later. Mostly sunny.
Evening update (19.30): High of 25.9C.
Forecast high: 23C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 7 May - Sun, 23C; 8 May - Sun, 22C; 9 May - Sun, 21C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): West 4 to 6 easing Variable 2 to 4 in the afternoon.
A bit blowy this morning. Should settle down later. Mostly sunny.
Evening update (19.30): High of 25.9C.
Airbnb Myths: Correct Or Not?
The study, "Myth and Reality of Holiday Rentals in the Balearic Islands", should be an important contribution to the holiday rentals' debate. The work of two researchers at the university, Professor José Luis Groizard and Associate Professor William Nilsson, it is valuable because it deals with facts. It is also a product of the university's applied economics department, which has been responsible for excellent tourism research in the past.
Groizard and Nilsson know how to hook their audience. The full report, of which I have a copy, starts by saying: "the negative consequences of holiday rentals (and of Airbnb in particular) have been exaggerated." Straight to the point, therefore.
They examine eight myths and generally speaking dismantle them all. Holiday rentals generate an unsustainable increase in tourist stays; they create an underground economy and tax evasion; they lead to residents leaving urban centres (the so-called gentrification); they increase the price of housing; they reduce the availability of rental accommodation in the long term; they destroy the landscape by enabling speculation on rural land; they provide unfair competition to hotels; they create wealth outside of the Balearics.
To get to the nitty-gritty of the facts, the researchers establish that in August last year there were over 15,000 properties in Mallorca on the Airbnb website. Debugging this data (for duplications for example), the number was 12,136 offering some 63,000 places. These numbers are in fact very similar to those provided by the environmentalists Terraferida, based on Airbnb data for January 2016.
When Terraferida made its announcement, there was sensationalism attached. The tone of the university's research is different. But it should be noted that Terraferida then updated its research. In March this year, the group revealed that the number of places in Mallorca had climbed to 110,000 and the number of properties to getting on for 15,000: in the region, therefore, of an 80% increase in places in the course of a year.
For a piece of academic work, which might typically be devoid of headline-grabbing statements, Groizard and Nilsson are prone to doing just this. In addition to that opening statement about the exaggerated consequences, they state under Myth One: "It isn't Airbnb, it is the Arab Spring and Islamic terrorism!" (the exclamation mark is theirs). They say that since 2011 there has been an increase in the number of tourist stays in the Balearics and Spain and point, rightly enough, to a 15% increase in tourism to Spain which has been a consequence of the problems in other destinations.
But what they don't show is the growth of Airbnb since the time it first became a feature in Mallorca. I recall doing an article about Airbnb, which must have been about five or six years ago, that referred to a very modest number of properties. It was around fifty, if I remember rightly; whatever the number, it was negligible. So while geopolitics is unquestionably a reason why there are more tourists, Airbnb is also a factor. It isn't one or the other.
Airbnb isn't of course the only means of publicising properties. It may be the best known, but there are numerous other means for owners to advertise, always accepting that they may well be promoting the same property on different sites. As the two professors provide some evidence that Terraferida's figures for 2016 were rigorous, it is legitimate to assume that Terraferida's latest figures are also reasonably accurate: an 80% increase in places cannot be put down solely to those geopolitics.
The study is important, and the professors do make very valid points, but perhaps the main issue they overlook is the propensity for the growth of the rentals' market. And its very sudden growth and all the consequences this has.
Groizard and Nilsson know how to hook their audience. The full report, of which I have a copy, starts by saying: "the negative consequences of holiday rentals (and of Airbnb in particular) have been exaggerated." Straight to the point, therefore.
They examine eight myths and generally speaking dismantle them all. Holiday rentals generate an unsustainable increase in tourist stays; they create an underground economy and tax evasion; they lead to residents leaving urban centres (the so-called gentrification); they increase the price of housing; they reduce the availability of rental accommodation in the long term; they destroy the landscape by enabling speculation on rural land; they provide unfair competition to hotels; they create wealth outside of the Balearics.
To get to the nitty-gritty of the facts, the researchers establish that in August last year there were over 15,000 properties in Mallorca on the Airbnb website. Debugging this data (for duplications for example), the number was 12,136 offering some 63,000 places. These numbers are in fact very similar to those provided by the environmentalists Terraferida, based on Airbnb data for January 2016.
When Terraferida made its announcement, there was sensationalism attached. The tone of the university's research is different. But it should be noted that Terraferida then updated its research. In March this year, the group revealed that the number of places in Mallorca had climbed to 110,000 and the number of properties to getting on for 15,000: in the region, therefore, of an 80% increase in places in the course of a year.
For a piece of academic work, which might typically be devoid of headline-grabbing statements, Groizard and Nilsson are prone to doing just this. In addition to that opening statement about the exaggerated consequences, they state under Myth One: "It isn't Airbnb, it is the Arab Spring and Islamic terrorism!" (the exclamation mark is theirs). They say that since 2011 there has been an increase in the number of tourist stays in the Balearics and Spain and point, rightly enough, to a 15% increase in tourism to Spain which has been a consequence of the problems in other destinations.
But what they don't show is the growth of Airbnb since the time it first became a feature in Mallorca. I recall doing an article about Airbnb, which must have been about five or six years ago, that referred to a very modest number of properties. It was around fifty, if I remember rightly; whatever the number, it was negligible. So while geopolitics is unquestionably a reason why there are more tourists, Airbnb is also a factor. It isn't one or the other.
Airbnb isn't of course the only means of publicising properties. It may be the best known, but there are numerous other means for owners to advertise, always accepting that they may well be promoting the same property on different sites. As the two professors provide some evidence that Terraferida's figures for 2016 were rigorous, it is legitimate to assume that Terraferida's latest figures are also reasonably accurate: an 80% increase in places cannot be put down solely to those geopolitics.
The study is important, and the professors do make very valid points, but perhaps the main issue they overlook is the propensity for the growth of the rentals' market. And its very sudden growth and all the consequences this has.
Friday, May 05, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 5 May 2017
Morning high (7.02am): 15.1C
Forecast high: 24C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 6 May - Sun, cloud, 24C; 7 May - Sun, 23C; 8 May - Sun, 22C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): East-Southeast 3 to 4 increasing 4 to 5 in the afternoon.
Expected to be fairly cloudy for much of the morning before clearing. Weekend outlook - fine and sunny with southerly breezes of today shifting west to north.
Evening update (21.30): Intermittent sun. Warm. High of 26.1C.
Forecast high: 24C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 6 May - Sun, cloud, 24C; 7 May - Sun, 23C; 8 May - Sun, 22C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): East-Southeast 3 to 4 increasing 4 to 5 in the afternoon.
Expected to be fairly cloudy for much of the morning before clearing. Weekend outlook - fine and sunny with southerly breezes of today shifting west to north.
Evening update (21.30): Intermittent sun. Warm. High of 26.1C.
The Movement Of Andalusia
In a study of the municipality of Calvia at the turn of the millennium, it was shown that of residents with mainland Spanish origins, 42% of them were from Andalusia. The city of Granada had itself provided 17% of this Spanish group; 6.5% of the entire municipal population.
There may well be more up-to-date numbers, but I'm guessing that they won't have changed markedly. Otherwise, have social attitudes moved on over the intervening years? The question is asked because the author of the study, Miguel Ángel Miranda González, pointed towards social issues caused by immigration into Calvia. The tourism boom and the urban developments of the 1960s fostered the migration. The original Mallorcan population was and is comparatively tiny because of inward migration, and not just that from Andalusia.
Miranda observed in his study that the Mallorcan people as a whole, and so not only Calvia, have been unable to integrate waves of immigrants into their social structures. As a consequence, these groups maintain their interests distinct to those of the Mallorcan people. The observation is interesting if only because it offers a different take on the normal integration debate. Immigrants struggle to integrate because the means of doing so are unavailable.
I would suggest that this has changed to some degree. Calvia of course has institutionalised "foreigners" at town hall level. Other municipalities, if not having gone as far as Calvia, now have councillors with responsibilities for foreigners, and by foreigners, one means anyone not from Mallorca (including perhaps people from the rest of the Balearics).
The Andalusians were foreigners. Nowadays, and perhaps also as a mark of greater integration and acceptance, there are various Andalusian associations. Different town halls have welcomed their active participation in colouring the local cultural mix. The Feria de Abril* is the best example of this. Palma's is now in its 27th edition. Other municipalities also have an April fair, based - more or less - on the traditions of Seville.
They came because of tourism and construction. The association with tourism is still very evident. Many mainland seasonal workers come from Andalusia, and they've been doing so for years. They are re-engaged by employers who find in them a reliability and appetite for work that belie a long-held image: the lazy ones from the south (of Spain).
The emigration had started, though, before the great boom of the 1960s. Andalusians did not initially arrive in Mallorca in great number, although the Balearics was to become one of the main regions for Andalusian migration. They went mostly to Catalonia. In 1949, a newspaper referred to "authentic troglodytes", people from "underground settlements" in provinces such as Jaén and Granada. They were looked upon with suspicion by the authorities and by workers: employers could get away with paying them less. The authorities were to take action. Some 15,000 Andalusian immigrants were expelled from Catalonia between 1952 and 1957.
But still they came, the so-called "trains of hope" carrying them from a region which, for all the wealth of its great cities and of its own tourism, was historically poor and grindingly so. In certain respects it still is: Andalusia receives the biggest handout of state funding through the system that in the Balearics is considered to be so iniquitous (for the Balearics). In 1930 there were 70,000 Andalusians in Catalonia. The great migration, and it was enormous, increased this number to 840,000 by 1970.
Andalusia is curious because of its politics. It is the only region of Spain to have had an unbroken socialist government since the establishment of the regional democratic communities. That socialism, one has to assume, is a reflection of enduring difficulties in one of the country's poorer parts. The politics of Andalusia played a significant role in creating the regional communities and autonomous governments. The drafters of the 1978 Constitution originally intended to establish autonomy for Catalonia and the Basque Country. It was the Andalusians who led the objections. All regions were to gain this autonomy.
But what was it that made the Andalusians fight for this autonomy. Partly it was a sense of Andalusia's own unique circumstances and history, but just as important was the deep-rooted animosity that has existed and still does between Andalusia and Catalonia. The aspirations of an independent Catalonia encounter no greater opposition than in Andalusia. Catalonia, it has been suggested in Seville circles, wishes to create an apartheid for Spain.
The one-time president of Catalonia, Jordi Pujol, once wrote that the Andalusian is not consistent, he is anarchic and he is harmful. This can be taken as an indication of a xenophobia said to reside within Catalan attitudes. It is also an indication of the fact that Catalonia, more than the Balearics, objects to the financing system. And there is also that historical migration. The trains of hope which led to Barcelona and to the ports and so to Calvia.
* Palma's Feria de Abril concludes tomorrow, while Cala d'Or's runs from today until Sunday.
There may well be more up-to-date numbers, but I'm guessing that they won't have changed markedly. Otherwise, have social attitudes moved on over the intervening years? The question is asked because the author of the study, Miguel Ángel Miranda González, pointed towards social issues caused by immigration into Calvia. The tourism boom and the urban developments of the 1960s fostered the migration. The original Mallorcan population was and is comparatively tiny because of inward migration, and not just that from Andalusia.
Miranda observed in his study that the Mallorcan people as a whole, and so not only Calvia, have been unable to integrate waves of immigrants into their social structures. As a consequence, these groups maintain their interests distinct to those of the Mallorcan people. The observation is interesting if only because it offers a different take on the normal integration debate. Immigrants struggle to integrate because the means of doing so are unavailable.
I would suggest that this has changed to some degree. Calvia of course has institutionalised "foreigners" at town hall level. Other municipalities, if not having gone as far as Calvia, now have councillors with responsibilities for foreigners, and by foreigners, one means anyone not from Mallorca (including perhaps people from the rest of the Balearics).
The Andalusians were foreigners. Nowadays, and perhaps also as a mark of greater integration and acceptance, there are various Andalusian associations. Different town halls have welcomed their active participation in colouring the local cultural mix. The Feria de Abril* is the best example of this. Palma's is now in its 27th edition. Other municipalities also have an April fair, based - more or less - on the traditions of Seville.
They came because of tourism and construction. The association with tourism is still very evident. Many mainland seasonal workers come from Andalusia, and they've been doing so for years. They are re-engaged by employers who find in them a reliability and appetite for work that belie a long-held image: the lazy ones from the south (of Spain).
The emigration had started, though, before the great boom of the 1960s. Andalusians did not initially arrive in Mallorca in great number, although the Balearics was to become one of the main regions for Andalusian migration. They went mostly to Catalonia. In 1949, a newspaper referred to "authentic troglodytes", people from "underground settlements" in provinces such as Jaén and Granada. They were looked upon with suspicion by the authorities and by workers: employers could get away with paying them less. The authorities were to take action. Some 15,000 Andalusian immigrants were expelled from Catalonia between 1952 and 1957.
But still they came, the so-called "trains of hope" carrying them from a region which, for all the wealth of its great cities and of its own tourism, was historically poor and grindingly so. In certain respects it still is: Andalusia receives the biggest handout of state funding through the system that in the Balearics is considered to be so iniquitous (for the Balearics). In 1930 there were 70,000 Andalusians in Catalonia. The great migration, and it was enormous, increased this number to 840,000 by 1970.
Andalusia is curious because of its politics. It is the only region of Spain to have had an unbroken socialist government since the establishment of the regional democratic communities. That socialism, one has to assume, is a reflection of enduring difficulties in one of the country's poorer parts. The politics of Andalusia played a significant role in creating the regional communities and autonomous governments. The drafters of the 1978 Constitution originally intended to establish autonomy for Catalonia and the Basque Country. It was the Andalusians who led the objections. All regions were to gain this autonomy.
But what was it that made the Andalusians fight for this autonomy. Partly it was a sense of Andalusia's own unique circumstances and history, but just as important was the deep-rooted animosity that has existed and still does between Andalusia and Catalonia. The aspirations of an independent Catalonia encounter no greater opposition than in Andalusia. Catalonia, it has been suggested in Seville circles, wishes to create an apartheid for Spain.
The one-time president of Catalonia, Jordi Pujol, once wrote that the Andalusian is not consistent, he is anarchic and he is harmful. This can be taken as an indication of a xenophobia said to reside within Catalan attitudes. It is also an indication of the fact that Catalonia, more than the Balearics, objects to the financing system. And there is also that historical migration. The trains of hope which led to Barcelona and to the ports and so to Calvia.
* Palma's Feria de Abril concludes tomorrow, while Cala d'Or's runs from today until Sunday.
Thursday, May 04, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 4 May 2017
Morning high (8.03am): 11.5C
Forecast high: 25C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 5 May - Sun, cloud, 23C; 6 May - Sun, cloud, 23C; 7 May - Sun, cloud, 22C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): East-Southeast 3 to 4.
Following yesterday, the first burst of a real summer feel is set to continue, brought about air coming from the south.
Evening update (19.30): High of 26.6C.
Forecast high: 25C; UV: 8
Three-day forecast: 5 May - Sun, cloud, 23C; 6 May - Sun, cloud, 23C; 7 May - Sun, cloud, 22C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): East-Southeast 3 to 4.
Following yesterday, the first burst of a real summer feel is set to continue, brought about air coming from the south.
Evening update (19.30): High of 26.6C.
A Million Places Can't Be Wrong
A few years ago, there was a report in a newspaper, the name of which I shall not mention (and it wasn't the Bulletin), which said that the number of hotel places in the Balearics would rise to one million. I don't recall when this magic number was supposedly going to be reached (perhaps it should have been by now) nor indeed the basis for it being reached, but it was, to put it mildly, an ambitious suggestion.
It was wrong because of the constraints on hotel building. Yes, there are new hotels, but to achieve one million places would require a doubling of the current stock. It isn't going to happen and it never will. The official number of places - some 420,000 - has been queried by the alarmists Terraferida (who do otherwise have some justification in their alarmism). They maintain there are 700,000. Sorry, that can't be. Not even the hoteliers can somehow hide almost 300,000 places.
The notion that there might be one million places was, at the time of that report, taken to be a "good thing". The more tourists the merrier was the general thrust of the thinking. Today, the more the merrier are among us, and they owe very little to an increase in hotel places, give or take, in Terraferida's estimation, the odd 300k.
There is a current attitude which concurs with the "good thing". More tourists, more people: bring 'em on. Mallorca lives from tourism and cannot, should not, do anything to deter growth. Quite the contrary, ever greater numbers mean ever more jobs and ever more tills tinkling with the sound of coinage. There is a further attitude. If there is deterrence, then Mallorca will slip back to times of yore, and the island will be riding its collective horse and cart, digging from the same potato patch and throwing its artisanal pots. Nothing more.
The colonialist view that Mallorca should be grateful for every last tourist who arrives at its points of entry either wilfully or ignorantly neglects basic theories of tourism development and society's attitudes. What starts out as a form of gratitude passes through various stages until it reaches antagonism and hostility. It is colonialism on a grand scale. It can be observed in the ever more aircraft lumbering across the tarmac, in the gloriously repugnant apartment blocks on water with their pile 'em high, pack 'em in communist designs that creep into the bay of Palma, in the velodromes of the island's roads. The territory is invaded by sea and by land. And no greater sense of irrational territorialism is there than that of road users. Hostility morphs into hate.
I am aware that this is a familiar theme, but its familiarity is what makes it crucial. There is a sense now of the theme having adopted the manifestation of crisis. Is this the consequence of the alarmism of Terraferida and others? To an extent perhaps it is. Those who shout loudest appeal to the instincts implicit in that ultimate stage of tourism development theory. They stir the pot. The brew becomes noxious.
Day after day we are fed a stream of information that merely increases the feeling of crisis. The accommodation crisis, the crisis of overwhelming numbers of vehicles and people. Into the latter bracket, the Llevant park has now been added to the endangered coves. Betlem and the like are being overrun. And it is hire cars which are running over these tiny places, entrance points to a natural world. Tourism authorities love to point to the natural wonders of the island, to their contribution to a sun-and-beach alternative. They extol the virtues of nature, of the natural heritage and landscape, and then suddenly find to their dismay that nature is falling victim to humanity. The colonialists will doubtless argue the more, the merrier, while small, one-time colonies such as Betlem and Colonia Sant Pere are colonised by fleets provided by Ford or Renault. Betlem becomes Bedlam.
These places can't cope. They start to tear their hair out. The noxious brew of Palma and its collapse by cruise leviathan and cloudy-day congestion spills out and spreads across the wounded land - the terra ferida. It forms small torrents in streaming towards sleepy enclaves unused to and ill-prepared for invasion. The gentle torrents become mighty ones. The torrents eventually break their banks. They flood like January floods. Except it isn't water. It's that brew.
As for the accommodation crisis, one manipulated by the hoteliers and the PP into a carefully crafted political lament for doctors and police, seasonal workers now have to resort to living in hotels. And paying the tourist tax (plus IVA). What's the point of their working if they hand everything back to a representative of the business collective many of them work for?
One million places. Why not?
It was wrong because of the constraints on hotel building. Yes, there are new hotels, but to achieve one million places would require a doubling of the current stock. It isn't going to happen and it never will. The official number of places - some 420,000 - has been queried by the alarmists Terraferida (who do otherwise have some justification in their alarmism). They maintain there are 700,000. Sorry, that can't be. Not even the hoteliers can somehow hide almost 300,000 places.
The notion that there might be one million places was, at the time of that report, taken to be a "good thing". The more tourists the merrier was the general thrust of the thinking. Today, the more the merrier are among us, and they owe very little to an increase in hotel places, give or take, in Terraferida's estimation, the odd 300k.
There is a current attitude which concurs with the "good thing". More tourists, more people: bring 'em on. Mallorca lives from tourism and cannot, should not, do anything to deter growth. Quite the contrary, ever greater numbers mean ever more jobs and ever more tills tinkling with the sound of coinage. There is a further attitude. If there is deterrence, then Mallorca will slip back to times of yore, and the island will be riding its collective horse and cart, digging from the same potato patch and throwing its artisanal pots. Nothing more.
The colonialist view that Mallorca should be grateful for every last tourist who arrives at its points of entry either wilfully or ignorantly neglects basic theories of tourism development and society's attitudes. What starts out as a form of gratitude passes through various stages until it reaches antagonism and hostility. It is colonialism on a grand scale. It can be observed in the ever more aircraft lumbering across the tarmac, in the gloriously repugnant apartment blocks on water with their pile 'em high, pack 'em in communist designs that creep into the bay of Palma, in the velodromes of the island's roads. The territory is invaded by sea and by land. And no greater sense of irrational territorialism is there than that of road users. Hostility morphs into hate.
I am aware that this is a familiar theme, but its familiarity is what makes it crucial. There is a sense now of the theme having adopted the manifestation of crisis. Is this the consequence of the alarmism of Terraferida and others? To an extent perhaps it is. Those who shout loudest appeal to the instincts implicit in that ultimate stage of tourism development theory. They stir the pot. The brew becomes noxious.
Day after day we are fed a stream of information that merely increases the feeling of crisis. The accommodation crisis, the crisis of overwhelming numbers of vehicles and people. Into the latter bracket, the Llevant park has now been added to the endangered coves. Betlem and the like are being overrun. And it is hire cars which are running over these tiny places, entrance points to a natural world. Tourism authorities love to point to the natural wonders of the island, to their contribution to a sun-and-beach alternative. They extol the virtues of nature, of the natural heritage and landscape, and then suddenly find to their dismay that nature is falling victim to humanity. The colonialists will doubtless argue the more, the merrier, while small, one-time colonies such as Betlem and Colonia Sant Pere are colonised by fleets provided by Ford or Renault. Betlem becomes Bedlam.
These places can't cope. They start to tear their hair out. The noxious brew of Palma and its collapse by cruise leviathan and cloudy-day congestion spills out and spreads across the wounded land - the terra ferida. It forms small torrents in streaming towards sleepy enclaves unused to and ill-prepared for invasion. The gentle torrents become mighty ones. The torrents eventually break their banks. They flood like January floods. Except it isn't water. It's that brew.
As for the accommodation crisis, one manipulated by the hoteliers and the PP into a carefully crafted political lament for doctors and police, seasonal workers now have to resort to living in hotels. And paying the tourist tax (plus IVA). What's the point of their working if they hand everything back to a representative of the business collective many of them work for?
One million places. Why not?
Wednesday, May 03, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 3 May 2017
Morning high (8.22am): 11.7C
Forecast high: 22C; UV: 7
Three-day forecast: 4 May - Sun, cloud, 23C; 5 May - Sun, cloud, 21C; 6 May - Sun, cloud, 23C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): South 2 to 4.
Sunny morning, some cloud. Fairly normal.
Evening update (20.15): High of 25.2C. First sense of that old African air warming things up.
Forecast high: 22C; UV: 7
Three-day forecast: 4 May - Sun, cloud, 23C; 5 May - Sun, cloud, 21C; 6 May - Sun, cloud, 23C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): South 2 to 4.
Sunny morning, some cloud. Fairly normal.
Evening update (20.15): High of 25.2C. First sense of that old African air warming things up.
The False Claims For All-Inclusive
A ban by Mallorca's hoteliers on offering all-inclusive to UK holidaymakers. No sooner had this headline appeared than the cheers were ringing out. Salvation was at hand for bars and restaurants that have struggled under the yoke of all-inclusivity for years: too many years to mention. Such a ban would be the death knell for the all-inclusive. Its obituary was already being written. If only.
Curious things can happen which change business strategies and business marketing. An avalanche of false compensation claims for diarrhoea and gastric complaints falls into the curious category. No one could have anticipated that these claims might signal the end of the reviled all-inclusive: reviled, that is, by a section of the holidaymaking public but not by another but most certainly by the non-hotel complementary sector.
The point is that all-inclusive is not in a process of dismantlement. It would just be the British tourist who is barred from obtaining a wristband and from enjoying the dubious pleasures of endless queuing for dubious quality refreshment. And such a characterisation is itself false in terms of the whole offer of all-inclusive. Some of it is rubbish, some of it is not. It very much depends on the type of establishment, the type of establishment classification, the type of clientele, and the type of socioeconomic classification of that clientele (its money, therefore).
The delights of all-inclusive would instead be diverted to tourists from other nations. French, Swiss, Dutch will suddenly be able to indulge themselves in all-inclusive heaven. As though they haven't been able to already. The threat by the Mallorca Hoteliers Federation to cease offering all-inclusive to the UK market may not be an idle one, but its practicality is another issue. Demand may be a further one. Tour operator strategies for these alternative markets would be yet another. A swift U-turn in their product marketing will be required for 2018 if the British are to be denied their all-inclusive rights.
The UK market, in all its guises, is the second largest for Balearic tourism. It dwarfs the supply of touristic human resources from other nations. The hoteliers' threat would be difficult to follow through. It might not come about in any event if the UK justice system moves with greater alacrity than it has thus far. The threat had a sense of the good headline rather than anything definitive.
The false claims are reprehensible as well as being illegal under both UK and Spanish law. Their number, though, should make one wonder about the coherence of UK justice. Is there no database of claims? The fact that the same claim in very much the same form, directed at very much the same hotels, being made by very much the same intermediaries must surely have alerted someone to the existence of an organised fraud. Seemingly not.
This has become an issue of such significance that it has risen to the state level. The hoteliers have themselves insisted that it is a matter of state. But while far from condoning the claims, have the hoteliers not engaged in some dissembling? Reports for Mallorca as to the scale, cost and growth of claims bear a remarkable resemblance to those for Spain as a whole: the same figures in other words. Still, it's all good stuff for news management on the local hoteliers' behalf.
Is there, one might ask, another agenda: an opportunity being spied? Think of Magalluf and how there has been some jumping for joy at the fact that the resort is now less dependent on the British. The transformational process of Meliaisation has opened the gates to the resort to Swiss, Russians and others. The sub-text, barely disguised, is that these other markets will bring greater riches. The thinking, a highly generalised one, is that the British are low-rent, in addition to being drunk and almost unrecognisable because of tattooed adornment.
The false claims, targeted principally at the economy-class giant all-inclusives, just serve to reinforce this negative image of the British. They can therefore provide a means to an end, one of altering the tourism nationality marketing mix. Perhaps a post-Brexit apocalypse is also entering the thinking, but why should there be such a thing? Tourism life will continue, untrammelled by notions of what may or may not constitute freedom of movement in the future.
Brexit may, though, influence hotelier thinking regarding all-inclusive. Before the bombshell and supported by general European economic recovery, the hotels were moving away from all-inclusive. There are definitely examples of ones which have now either abandoned it, have reduced it or are contemplating doing so. Brexit, or rather foreign exchange, may just demand a rethink, hotelier threat or not; negative image of the British or not. The truth for the hoteliers is that they cannot do without the British, and they know it.
Curious things can happen which change business strategies and business marketing. An avalanche of false compensation claims for diarrhoea and gastric complaints falls into the curious category. No one could have anticipated that these claims might signal the end of the reviled all-inclusive: reviled, that is, by a section of the holidaymaking public but not by another but most certainly by the non-hotel complementary sector.
The point is that all-inclusive is not in a process of dismantlement. It would just be the British tourist who is barred from obtaining a wristband and from enjoying the dubious pleasures of endless queuing for dubious quality refreshment. And such a characterisation is itself false in terms of the whole offer of all-inclusive. Some of it is rubbish, some of it is not. It very much depends on the type of establishment, the type of establishment classification, the type of clientele, and the type of socioeconomic classification of that clientele (its money, therefore).
The delights of all-inclusive would instead be diverted to tourists from other nations. French, Swiss, Dutch will suddenly be able to indulge themselves in all-inclusive heaven. As though they haven't been able to already. The threat by the Mallorca Hoteliers Federation to cease offering all-inclusive to the UK market may not be an idle one, but its practicality is another issue. Demand may be a further one. Tour operator strategies for these alternative markets would be yet another. A swift U-turn in their product marketing will be required for 2018 if the British are to be denied their all-inclusive rights.
The UK market, in all its guises, is the second largest for Balearic tourism. It dwarfs the supply of touristic human resources from other nations. The hoteliers' threat would be difficult to follow through. It might not come about in any event if the UK justice system moves with greater alacrity than it has thus far. The threat had a sense of the good headline rather than anything definitive.
The false claims are reprehensible as well as being illegal under both UK and Spanish law. Their number, though, should make one wonder about the coherence of UK justice. Is there no database of claims? The fact that the same claim in very much the same form, directed at very much the same hotels, being made by very much the same intermediaries must surely have alerted someone to the existence of an organised fraud. Seemingly not.
This has become an issue of such significance that it has risen to the state level. The hoteliers have themselves insisted that it is a matter of state. But while far from condoning the claims, have the hoteliers not engaged in some dissembling? Reports for Mallorca as to the scale, cost and growth of claims bear a remarkable resemblance to those for Spain as a whole: the same figures in other words. Still, it's all good stuff for news management on the local hoteliers' behalf.
Is there, one might ask, another agenda: an opportunity being spied? Think of Magalluf and how there has been some jumping for joy at the fact that the resort is now less dependent on the British. The transformational process of Meliaisation has opened the gates to the resort to Swiss, Russians and others. The sub-text, barely disguised, is that these other markets will bring greater riches. The thinking, a highly generalised one, is that the British are low-rent, in addition to being drunk and almost unrecognisable because of tattooed adornment.
The false claims, targeted principally at the economy-class giant all-inclusives, just serve to reinforce this negative image of the British. They can therefore provide a means to an end, one of altering the tourism nationality marketing mix. Perhaps a post-Brexit apocalypse is also entering the thinking, but why should there be such a thing? Tourism life will continue, untrammelled by notions of what may or may not constitute freedom of movement in the future.
Brexit may, though, influence hotelier thinking regarding all-inclusive. Before the bombshell and supported by general European economic recovery, the hotels were moving away from all-inclusive. There are definitely examples of ones which have now either abandoned it, have reduced it or are contemplating doing so. Brexit, or rather foreign exchange, may just demand a rethink, hotelier threat or not; negative image of the British or not. The truth for the hoteliers is that they cannot do without the British, and they know it.
Tuesday, May 02, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 2 May 2017
Morning high (7.52am): 8.1C
Forecast high: 21C; UV: 7
Three-day forecast: 3 May - Sun, cloud, 22C; 4 May - Sun, cloud, 24C; 5 May - Sun, cloud, 22C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): South 2 to 4 temporarily East from midday.
Should now be in a run of more consistent spring weather, starting from today.
Evening update (21.00): High of 23.5C.
Forecast high: 21C; UV: 7
Three-day forecast: 3 May - Sun, cloud, 22C; 4 May - Sun, cloud, 24C; 5 May - Sun, cloud, 22C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): South 2 to 4 temporarily East from midday.
Should now be in a run of more consistent spring weather, starting from today.
Evening update (21.00): High of 23.5C.
Tolls By Another Name
It has occurred to me that it is somewhat ironic that the Council of Mallorca can insist on "rescuing" the Sóller Tunnel (at a cost of fifteen million euros, if it's lucky) while at the same time it can sanction an event like Mallorca 312 and also be marching forward in wishing to limit traffic in parts of the island.
The "rescue" - it is always referred to as "rescate", albeit this could also mean recovery - is on behalf of the citizens, and not only those in Sóller. The citizens and their cars will be rescued from having to pay a toll that doesn't apply anywhere else and will thus be able to use all roads in Mallorca in a free and unfettered fashion. In the process, if some anxieties are confirmed, the elimination of the toll will mean that Sóller will "collapse" because of the volume of cars.
While the Council doesn't itself appear to be unduly alarmed at the prospect of Sóller collapsing, it shares concerns about collapse elsewhere. Which will be why it enabled 312 to go ahead and generate collapse - in the form of being cut-off - for several hours in places like Deià. Still, only for one day as they say: until the next time.
Fortunately, it doesn't appear that anyone in Deià was needing to be rescued while the roads were closed. Just as well really, as the fire service (Council-run) would have sent its tenders roaring along the narrow roads and eliminated good numbers of 312 participants.
Meanwhile, the other great controversy of the moment (apart from various other ones, such as the Més contracts, holiday rentals and what have you) has risen to the top of the debating agenda. Yes, it's those roads again, and specifically the ones for accessing quiet, unspoiled coves or promontories with fine views. It may not be the Council doing the closing, but denying access to non-residents in a part of Santanyi sounds very much like a reverse principle of the tunnel's rescue. The citizens will not be able to use all roads in a free and unfettered fashion, because the town hall won't let them.
If the citizens wish to get to the coves - s'Almonia and Moro - they will instead, once they get the bus operating, have to park in Santanyi's industrial estate and then pay for the shuttle. Then pay for the return trip. Hmm, it almost sounds like they'll be having to pay a toll, just as they may well have to in order to access other parts of the island in the future in addition to Es Trenc, for which they already have to pay.
While the situation with the shuttle buses in Santanyi seems to have caused little institutional fuss (apart from the slight issue of there not yet being a bus), this cannot be said for Escorca, Manacor or Valldemossa. None of the town halls have been properly consulted or informed by the Council. The mayor of Escorca, speaking about the Council's announcement that it is thinking of stopping vehicles entering Sa Calobra (and having a shuttle bus from somewhere - and "where" would be a good question), says that the Council has demonstrated "irresponsibility". It has made its announcement without any consensual agreement.
It's the same story in Valldemossa regarding access to the port, while in Manacor (for Cala Varques), the mayor says there's been no dialogue. He doesn't know where the shuttle bus would leave from or where it would drop people off.
The Council, and specifically its councillor for land, Mercedes Garrido, was going on about shuttle buses last year. Another one she was eyeing up was for the Es Comú part of the beach in Playa de Muro. At the time she mentioned this, Muro's mayor said that it was an idea worth looking into but had received no information. He's still waiting. As will be the mayor of Santa Margalida, given that Can Picafort would be a more likely location for a park and ride scheme to service the beach.
So, the Council is merrily going around, coming up with ideas for shuttle buses that town halls have no idea of and which will imply charges to citizens. At the same time, they're rescuing the tunnel. There may well be a very good need for restricting traffic in certain parts of the island, but I'm afraid the Council's logic is contrary.
Instead of announcing shuttle bus plans in a piecemeal manner, there is clearly the need for a coherent debate that involves town halls, regional government and others. There are parts of the island that cannot cope with the traffic and the numbers of people. This is becoming abundantly clear, and it isn't just because of tourists. Residents, the citizens, go to these beaches just as much if not more than tourists. Tolls by the backdoor may be the only solution, but a proper debate needs to be had.
The "rescue" - it is always referred to as "rescate", albeit this could also mean recovery - is on behalf of the citizens, and not only those in Sóller. The citizens and their cars will be rescued from having to pay a toll that doesn't apply anywhere else and will thus be able to use all roads in Mallorca in a free and unfettered fashion. In the process, if some anxieties are confirmed, the elimination of the toll will mean that Sóller will "collapse" because of the volume of cars.
While the Council doesn't itself appear to be unduly alarmed at the prospect of Sóller collapsing, it shares concerns about collapse elsewhere. Which will be why it enabled 312 to go ahead and generate collapse - in the form of being cut-off - for several hours in places like Deià. Still, only for one day as they say: until the next time.
Fortunately, it doesn't appear that anyone in Deià was needing to be rescued while the roads were closed. Just as well really, as the fire service (Council-run) would have sent its tenders roaring along the narrow roads and eliminated good numbers of 312 participants.
Meanwhile, the other great controversy of the moment (apart from various other ones, such as the Més contracts, holiday rentals and what have you) has risen to the top of the debating agenda. Yes, it's those roads again, and specifically the ones for accessing quiet, unspoiled coves or promontories with fine views. It may not be the Council doing the closing, but denying access to non-residents in a part of Santanyi sounds very much like a reverse principle of the tunnel's rescue. The citizens will not be able to use all roads in a free and unfettered fashion, because the town hall won't let them.
If the citizens wish to get to the coves - s'Almonia and Moro - they will instead, once they get the bus operating, have to park in Santanyi's industrial estate and then pay for the shuttle. Then pay for the return trip. Hmm, it almost sounds like they'll be having to pay a toll, just as they may well have to in order to access other parts of the island in the future in addition to Es Trenc, for which they already have to pay.
While the situation with the shuttle buses in Santanyi seems to have caused little institutional fuss (apart from the slight issue of there not yet being a bus), this cannot be said for Escorca, Manacor or Valldemossa. None of the town halls have been properly consulted or informed by the Council. The mayor of Escorca, speaking about the Council's announcement that it is thinking of stopping vehicles entering Sa Calobra (and having a shuttle bus from somewhere - and "where" would be a good question), says that the Council has demonstrated "irresponsibility". It has made its announcement without any consensual agreement.
It's the same story in Valldemossa regarding access to the port, while in Manacor (for Cala Varques), the mayor says there's been no dialogue. He doesn't know where the shuttle bus would leave from or where it would drop people off.
The Council, and specifically its councillor for land, Mercedes Garrido, was going on about shuttle buses last year. Another one she was eyeing up was for the Es Comú part of the beach in Playa de Muro. At the time she mentioned this, Muro's mayor said that it was an idea worth looking into but had received no information. He's still waiting. As will be the mayor of Santa Margalida, given that Can Picafort would be a more likely location for a park and ride scheme to service the beach.
So, the Council is merrily going around, coming up with ideas for shuttle buses that town halls have no idea of and which will imply charges to citizens. At the same time, they're rescuing the tunnel. There may well be a very good need for restricting traffic in certain parts of the island, but I'm afraid the Council's logic is contrary.
Instead of announcing shuttle bus plans in a piecemeal manner, there is clearly the need for a coherent debate that involves town halls, regional government and others. There are parts of the island that cannot cope with the traffic and the numbers of people. This is becoming abundantly clear, and it isn't just because of tourists. Residents, the citizens, go to these beaches just as much if not more than tourists. Tolls by the backdoor may be the only solution, but a proper debate needs to be had.
Monday, May 01, 2017
MALLORCA TODAY - Weather Alcúdia and Pollensa 1 May 2017
Morning high (7.52am): 13.7C
Forecast high: 19C; UV: 6
Three-day forecast: 2 May - Sun, cloud, 22C; 3 May - Sun, cloud, 21C; 4 May - Sun, cloud, 22C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northeast 4 to 5 easing South 3 by the late afternoon.
Sun, cloud and a rainbow to start the day. Cloud expected to linger through the morning, getting better later. The outlook for the week is generally good with highs in the low-20s.
Evening update (17.30): After some rain this morning, the sun came out. Still a fair amount of cloud as well though. High of 19.8C.
Forecast high: 19C; UV: 6
Three-day forecast: 2 May - Sun, cloud, 22C; 3 May - Sun, cloud, 21C; 4 May - Sun, cloud, 22C
Sea conditions (northern Mallorca; Alcúdia and Pollensa bays to 20.00): Northeast 4 to 5 easing South 3 by the late afternoon.
Sun, cloud and a rainbow to start the day. Cloud expected to linger through the morning, getting better later. The outlook for the week is generally good with highs in the low-20s.
Evening update (17.30): After some rain this morning, the sun came out. Still a fair amount of cloud as well though. High of 19.8C.
Mallorcan Wine Fit For A President
The fascinating story is told of one John Martin Baker and his organisation of Mallorcan exports to the United States. Baker was the US consul in Mallorca. This was during the time when Thomas Jefferson and then James Madison were presidents. In 1809, Baker, apparently from Menorca but a naturalised American, was asked by Jefferson to arrange for wine and other products to be sent. Jefferson was seemingly interested in imports from a variety of sources - France, Italy, Madeira as well as Mallorca.
This is known because a writer of the time and a friend of Jefferson's, Margaret Bayard Smith, reported it. Smith and Jefferson had got to know each other through the American Philosophical Society. In 1809, the same year as Jefferson ceased to be president, she moved to Washington with her husband, who had been made the president of the Bank of the United States. So she was clearly well in with the political elite.
What is perhaps curious about this wine export is that Smith said that the president had a particular desire for Albaflor. It is curious because certain references to the wine seem to suggest that the Archduke Louis Salvador was responsible for it. This certainly wasn't so. In addition to Smith, there are other written references to this export to Jefferson - one, for instance, from 1840. The Archduke wasn't to arrive in Mallorca until the mid-1860s.
The reference from 1840 goes thus: "The island of Majorca furnishes several wines of sufficiently good quality to bear exportation, among which, those made in the district of Benesalem (sic), three leagues from Palma, are accounted the best, at least of the red growths. At Banalbusa is grown the white wine known under the name of Alba Flor." This came from A Handbook of Wines, which was seemingly directed towards the gentry of Victorian Britain.
Be that as it may, but Jefferson certainly received the wine (and Malvasia from Banyalbufar). The exports were for him, as opposed to their having been part of some major import-export exercise. Jefferson was a wine buff, a serious one. He had used his consulate officials - Baker in particular - to seek out fine wines with which he could stock his cellar for when he retired. In 1816, Baker was to send Jefferson a letter which explained that he had obtained a case of Barsac white wine from an estate in Bordeaux. He trusted that the wine "may meet your approbation".
Baker, in fact, reveals a somewhat enlightening insight into the situation in Mallorca when Spain was experiencing the Peninsular War and Joseph Bonaparte had been named king. Two years after Jefferson left office in 1809, Baker sent him a letter which basically implored him to try and get him and his family the hell out of Mallorca. This was partly because the receipt of "every consular emolument ... no more than satisfied the payment of rent for a decent house to dwell in". Baker's family was "large", "Provissions" (sic) were high. But more than this was the "precarious" situation, one that - in Jefferson's interests - was making the export of wines more and more difficult. Baker was "credibly informed" that the post of consul in Lisbon had fallen vacant. "I most Respectfully, Entreat your Excuse for importuning, and pray you Sir, to influence in my favor with His Excellency. The Most Honorable James Madison, President of the United States of America."
Favours in high places; where have we heard about those before? Not that his request had any immediate effect. In 1813, he wrote to Jefferson again, this time from Mahon in Menorca. He prefaced his pleas by noting that a cask of Albaflor wine had been despatched along with a sack of shelled almonds. His desperation to get away was akin to his having got on his knees and begged Jefferson.
The export of wine to the US was limited. It was something to tickle Jefferson's fancy. More important exports were the likes of oranges, but even these were limited, and because of the war, shipping was difficult to say the least. Hence, Baker had to make use of Cadiz rather than rely on the Balearics.
Mallorca's wine export was European, and it was to later flourish when the French vineyards were devastated by the phylloxera plague in the mid-1860s. For some 25 years, exports enjoyed a golden age. Until phylloxera arrived in Mallorca in 1891.
This is known because a writer of the time and a friend of Jefferson's, Margaret Bayard Smith, reported it. Smith and Jefferson had got to know each other through the American Philosophical Society. In 1809, the same year as Jefferson ceased to be president, she moved to Washington with her husband, who had been made the president of the Bank of the United States. So she was clearly well in with the political elite.
What is perhaps curious about this wine export is that Smith said that the president had a particular desire for Albaflor. It is curious because certain references to the wine seem to suggest that the Archduke Louis Salvador was responsible for it. This certainly wasn't so. In addition to Smith, there are other written references to this export to Jefferson - one, for instance, from 1840. The Archduke wasn't to arrive in Mallorca until the mid-1860s.
The reference from 1840 goes thus: "The island of Majorca furnishes several wines of sufficiently good quality to bear exportation, among which, those made in the district of Benesalem (sic), three leagues from Palma, are accounted the best, at least of the red growths. At Banalbusa is grown the white wine known under the name of Alba Flor." This came from A Handbook of Wines, which was seemingly directed towards the gentry of Victorian Britain.
Be that as it may, but Jefferson certainly received the wine (and Malvasia from Banyalbufar). The exports were for him, as opposed to their having been part of some major import-export exercise. Jefferson was a wine buff, a serious one. He had used his consulate officials - Baker in particular - to seek out fine wines with which he could stock his cellar for when he retired. In 1816, Baker was to send Jefferson a letter which explained that he had obtained a case of Barsac white wine from an estate in Bordeaux. He trusted that the wine "may meet your approbation".
Baker, in fact, reveals a somewhat enlightening insight into the situation in Mallorca when Spain was experiencing the Peninsular War and Joseph Bonaparte had been named king. Two years after Jefferson left office in 1809, Baker sent him a letter which basically implored him to try and get him and his family the hell out of Mallorca. This was partly because the receipt of "every consular emolument ... no more than satisfied the payment of rent for a decent house to dwell in". Baker's family was "large", "Provissions" (sic) were high. But more than this was the "precarious" situation, one that - in Jefferson's interests - was making the export of wines more and more difficult. Baker was "credibly informed" that the post of consul in Lisbon had fallen vacant. "I most Respectfully, Entreat your Excuse for importuning, and pray you Sir, to influence in my favor with His Excellency. The Most Honorable James Madison, President of the United States of America."
Favours in high places; where have we heard about those before? Not that his request had any immediate effect. In 1813, he wrote to Jefferson again, this time from Mahon in Menorca. He prefaced his pleas by noting that a cask of Albaflor wine had been despatched along with a sack of shelled almonds. His desperation to get away was akin to his having got on his knees and begged Jefferson.
The export of wine to the US was limited. It was something to tickle Jefferson's fancy. More important exports were the likes of oranges, but even these were limited, and because of the war, shipping was difficult to say the least. Hence, Baker had to make use of Cadiz rather than rely on the Balearics.
Mallorca's wine export was European, and it was to later flourish when the French vineyards were devastated by the phylloxera plague in the mid-1860s. For some 25 years, exports enjoyed a golden age. Until phylloxera arrived in Mallorca in 1891.
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