1 In A 184: Fun 4U

The concept of a “tourist day” is a rather peculiar one. Of a season that lasts from 1 May to 31 October, one day is for tourists. What about the other 183?

Alcúdia’s tourist-day celebrations have been held for a few years now. The pattern has become established. Like other celebrations, it has acquired a format which, by dint of its repetition each year, becomes a “tradition”. The tradition of the day means an evening of musical entertainment, a market-ette and a mini-disco that follows a morning of fun and frolics for all the family on the beach. All the family that’s still around in September, that is; a few German or Scandinavian stragglers plus Brits whose kids have bunked off the first week of the new term.

The reasons for holding the day in September are that it isn’t quite as hot (a moot point) and that there were it to be held in, say, August, things would be too crowded. With tourists, that is. The last thing you want to do is to hold a tourist-day event with loads of tourists cluttering the place up.

This tourist day of football, food and fabulous Robbie Williams mirrors to an extent the tourist experience. But only to an extent. Missing from its schedule of events are the squabbles over the sun loungers, the getting lagered-up, the projectile vomiting and the all-comers’ balcony-diving contest. There are perhaps certain aspects of holidays that are, however, best left uncelebrated and certainly not sanctioned by a responsible town hall. Which is what Alcúdia is. It does tourism rather well. The tourist day may be just one day in the long season, but it’s better than nothing.

The hug-in of tourists has a positive benefit in that it brings those closeted away in all-inclusives out for the day. Oh, look, there’s a beach! Who’d have thought? However, going by a Facebook comment regarding the beach events, the all-inclusive mentality would appear to demand that little trips out are accompanied by the services being left behind in the hotel.

It was suggested that a certain all-inclusive, well-represented by beach footy teams, should have made provision for a free bar. So, Mister First Choice, he who believes that little trips out will benefit local businesses, think again. You can lead an all-inclusive tourist to the water of a beach, but you can’t make him drink something that he has to pay for out of his own pocket.

Inevitably, an occasion such as the tourist day doesn’t come entirely without a commercial element. Consequently, there was some “marketing” going on. I say this, but I only became aware of one bit of marketing when I looked later at some photos. There they were, some signs for Alcúdia’s estación náutica, the brand title the resort has been lumbered with and which no one understands. I had, however, completely missed the signs despite having been standing right next to them. Another triumph of branding and marketing, therefore.

Then there was the keep-fit dance routine staged by a certain hotel chain. This all seemed reasonable enough until I realised what I was listening to – the hotel song. This was a happy-happy, clappy dance-along of image and word association neurolinguistic programming. Arrange touchstone words such as celebrate, free, good time into no particular order, and bingo, you’ve got yourself some on-beach, tourist-day advertising.

Alcúdia’s tourist day isn’t the only such day that is held in Mallorca. The Palmanova and Magalluf hoteliers put one on as well: “special events to pay tribute to the tourists staying in the area”. A tribute to those staying in the area at the end of September, that is. Even later than Alcúdia’s, there is, however, a possibly wider context to this occasion. 27 September each year is the United Nations World Tourism Day. Mercifully, Magalluf doesn’t look to follow the UN’s example when it comes to its programme. This year, for example, you could enjoy “tourism linking cultures” (to be held in Egypt). Last year’s, in China, sounded a real barrel of laughs – “tourism and biodiversity”; just the sort of topic that would go down a storm in the bars of Punta Ballena.

No, forget the World Tourism Day, and stick to the tourist days of Alcúdia and Magalluf. As the legend on Alcúdia’s tourist day T-shirt says – “Fun 4U” (a T-shirt I am wearing with pride as I write this). And fun it is, if not necessarily for all the family. But hats off nevertheless. Just a shame it’s only one day.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Unprincipled

A double-header today. Firstly, Alcúdia and its pacts. A bit later, the tourism minister.

The other day, under the title “Carme Chameleon”, I looked at the possibility of the PSM (Mallorcan socialists) forming a pact with the Partido Popular to govern Alcúdia town hall. The title was quite deliberate. Turning colours. I hadn’t expected that it would happen, but, unless there is a change of heart, it is now on the cards. To use another song from the 1980s, Carme Garcia will have shed her skin and smashed a damn great sledgehammer into what pretence there is in Mallorca as to principled politics.

The spin is that she will align herself with the PP by setting aside ideological differences because the PP, which gained eight councillors (one short of the nine required), has the moral right to govern Alcúdia. There’s no debating this. Twice as many councillors as the next party, almost twice as much of the vote as the next lot, the PP has to be allowed to run the town hall. There is also, unquestionably, a bit of a sisters’ act going on, which, where Garcia is concerned, you can understand. The alternative for her would be to align with the mates of the Convergència and PSOE, which might pose problems for her, and them.

However, there is also ambition. Garcia is likely to end up as the right-hand woman of the PP’s Coloma Terrasa, whether Terrasa really wants her or not. Then there is credibility. Garcia’s has been shot to pieces. If she does indeed end up as a “teniente” to the new mayor, she will be treated with utter contempt. Her party, the PSM, is livid and she has been booted out of the party for arriving at a personal agreement with the PP. She has been branded as a turncoat.

The PSM is pleading with the PP to reject the agreement. PSOE is calling on José Bauzá to in effect veto it. If there were any principles, then the PP would do so and Terrasa would be left to govern with a minority, notwithstanding the difficulties this would create.

Garcia’s actions are disgraceful. They are not principled. Yes, she was returned as a councillor, but it was with a small percentage of the vote. Who did this small percentage vote for? Her or the PSM? Activists within the PSM might have enjoyed the opportunity of town hall representation, but they wouldn’t have enjoyed an alliance with the PP which is the complete opposite of the PSM. Nor, you would think, would PP supporters enjoy the idea of a Mallorcan socialist pulling some strings.

The proportional system can be held open to ridicule, and it is being made to look completely ridiculous in Alcúdia, while Garcia has made herself a laughing-stock.

Tourism minister
Moving onto the never-ending saga as to who might end up as the new tourism minister, the possibility of a so-called “professional” taking the reins at the ministry keeps on popping up.

It would appear that certain professionals have indeed been canvassed as to their willingness to become tourism supremo. One of them is Alvaro Middelmann, the boss of Air Berlin in Iberia, and the former president of the Fomento del Turismo (the Mallorcan tourism board). Why on earth would Middelmann want the job? He’s hugely qualified to do it, but what benefit would it bring him? It wouldn’t be financial, that’s for sure. And he’s pretty much said as much.

It’s all very well people banging on about the need for a professional to be in charge of tourism, but the problem is that professionals, if they are any good, earn a considerably larger wedge doing what they do outside of government than were they inside it.

There is also a potential problem as to perception. Middelmann, for example, is associated with one particular airline and with one particular market, the German market. Such associations could cause issues down the line, even if the perception were misplaced. Similar associations and perceptions could apply to others.

And then there is an issue of principle. What exactly is the deal with possibly appointing someone who hasn’t been elected? Carlos Delgado, the bookies’ favourite for the job, may be disliked, other candidates from within the PP may in fact be useless, but they have at least been elected.

Finally, if the tourism ministry is as bust as it is meant to be and if it fails to be a massive beneficiary of Bauzá benevolence, do you honestly think someone such as Middelmann, or any other highly-regarded professional, would risk their reputation when the mud starts flying about lack of promotion this, lack of promotion that? If a pro does end up at tourism, it’s probably because he or she needs a job. You wouldn’t want it otherwise.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Carme Chameleon: Alcúdia’s coalitions

While there are many town halls whose administration, post-election, is clearcut, there are plenty where it is not. One, as mentioned previously, is Alcúdia.

The Partido Popular and its would-be mayor, Coloma Terrasa, have eight councillors, one short of a majority of nine. There are nine other councillors, split among the Convergència and PSOE (four apiece) and the PSM (Mallorcan socialists) with one.

It is the final one on this list, the PSM, which is the most interesting, as the party potentially holds the key to the future administration in the town and, if it were to prove to be so, would be evidence as to how bizarre Mallorca’s politics can be. Bizarre and opportunistic.

The PSM is everything the PP is not. It is left-wing, nationalist (i.e. veering towards independence), Catalanist, and as green as a party can be without actually calling itself green. The twain of the PSM and the PP should never meet, except in darkened alleys when they encounter each other for an ideological punch-up, but the twain could yet meet in the corridors of Alcúdia town hall power.

The sole councillor that the PSM now has, Carme Garcia, is the first councillor the party has had in Alcúdia. Time to show some muscle, it would appear; time to be shown some respect. The PSM across the island has done fairly well out of the elections. Not that it fared any better at regional parliament level than it did in 2007. It has the same number of seats and its percentage of the vote went down fractionally. Yet, it can claim to now being the third force in the island.

A reason for this was the collapse of the Convergència. While it maintains pockets of resistance in town halls, such as Alcúdia, generally it has been consigned to the political dustbin, taking with it its own nationalism of the right. The PSM is now the third force and now the main voice for Mallorcan aspirations.

It is against this background that Garcia has said that she would consider an agreement with the PP whereby an alliance would create the nine councillors required. It would be the most unholy of alliances. More than this, it would be a complete sell-out of political credibility. Not of course that this stops parties combining with others when they have their eye on the main chance; think Liberal Democrats, for example. But a tie-up between the PP and the PSM would be utterly absurd.

Garcia, though she says that she would be capable of being mayor, doesn’t have the brassneck to suggest that a pact with the PP would mean that she should be mayor. Thank heavens for such humility. The people of Alcúdia might have granted the PSM the opportunity of town hall representation, but there should be some context in all of this.

The PP obtained almost 40% of the vote. The Convergència and PSOE were virtually identical – in the low 20s. The PSM got just over 6% from a turnout of 55%, which is its own story as it was by far the lowest among the five largest northern municipalities. I don’t know how many people this equates to, but from a population of some 19,000 and bearing in mind how many might actually be on the electoral census, an estimate might be around 300.

On any moral grounds, the PP’s right to administer the town hall and Coloma Terrasa’s right to be mayor should be givens. But they are not. The Convergència and PSOE formed the previous coalition. They might yet do so again, if Garcia could be persuaded. Such a scenario says much about the proportional system and much also about how local town politics are not always about political ideology. In the case of the PP and the PSM, they most certainly are, but the Convergència and PSOE are different.

Though ostensibly of the right and the left, they are chummy. This chumminess can be a virtue, and it worked well enough for most of the last administration, but it can equally be seen as being divisive, especially if it denies the PP its place in the town hall sun.

I make no bones. I don’t much care for the PP, but the electoral system can be held open to ridicule. The PP deserves to be installed, but there would be no thing more ridiculous than for it to be installed with the aid of the PSM.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

A Different World: Mallorca’s north-south divide

North, south, east or west. Wherever you may live in Mallorca, you will have a view as to where the place you live fits within the general scheme of things. My apologies, by the way, if you live in the middle, but for the purposes of the following, I’m afraid I will need to exclude you. But don’t feel put down, because you are not alone. And if you don’t live in Mallorca, you will still appreciate that location on the four main points of the compass can have meaning.

You may live in London, or you once used to; London and the south that have been damned for always being the focus of attention. It’s the media that’s to blame. Usually. But it has always been thus. Greater density of population, the capital city and the financial centre. And for England, read also Mallorca and Palma.

One needs to define what is meant by the south of Mallorca. In purely geographical terms, “the south” isn’t strictly accurate. The dominance of what is referred to as the Palma-Calvia axis lies to the south-west, but let’s ignore such pedantry.

The dominance is all but total. Everything revolves around the south and Palma in particular. You can judge for yourselves how the hierarchy works beneath Palma. It probably goes, in descending order, something like: Calvia, Manacor, Inca (and see, if you are in the centre, you aren’t neglected), Llucmajor, Marratxi, and then it’s anyone’s guess. If you are unfortunate enough to live right out on the east coast, you will know that, for all intents and purposes, you don’t exist.

The hierarchy reflects the degree of attention afforded different parts of Mallorca. It really shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that certain places receive less, far less or even no attention. If no one much lives in these places, if nothing much happens, then what can you expect?

Nevertheless, there are genuine antagonisms, and none more so than the north-south divide. Well, the antagonism is felt by those in the north; I would very much doubt that it is reciprocated. And it is an antagonism that crosses nationalities. The natives are as disaffected by Palma-centricity, far more so in fact, as are incomers from other countries.

I’ll give an example that is not unrepresentative. The lady in my local newsagents in Playa de Muro lives in Alcúdia. Why, she wanted to know, was there no coverage of the Ironman triathlon in Alcúdia at the weekend. It was an international event which attracted some two thousand athletes. The newspapers, the television; they didn’t cover it. Had it taken place in Palma, it would have been a different story. I wasn’t inclined to disagree with her.

The triathlon may not, compared with other international sporting events, register that highly, but for Alcúdia, and for Mallorca, it was a pretty important event. To be fair, it wasn’t totally ignored. There was mention in sports pages, which is where you might expect it to be mentioned, but the point the lady in the newsagents was making was that there would have been considerably more hullabaloo if Palma (or Calvia) had staged the event.

So why the apparent neglect? The charitable defence of the media is that it is all a resourcing issue, and let’s not forget that there are elections looming, with all the coverage they require. Less charitably, one can perceive this as being indicative of a Palma-centric arrogance, aloofness and disinterest in anything outside Palma’s boundaries or those of its westerly neighbour.

It isn’t only in media circles that the divide exists. It is there in politics as well. For all the publicity given to corruption scandals, they don’t have much influence on towns well away from the dominant south. Miguel Llompart, Alcúdia’s mayor and likely to still be its mayor after 22 May despite his association with the discredited Unió Mallorquina, once told me that the scandals were all a Palma thing. They were largely irrelevant to what happened within the town.

And you can understand this, because, and it is the same anywhere, people identify most closely with their own communities. Alcúdia, and you can name any number of places in Mallorca, could be in another world compared with Palma. And as far as Palma is concerned, it is in another world.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Bus Passes: Alcúdia’s mayoral candidates

A motley crew. The tall guy, the bloke who looks like a refugee from 70s rock perms, three homely ladies and some geezer who we thought wasn’t going to be there. A motley crew for the motley cobbling-together of justification for existence that is Alcúdia’s Can Ramis building.

They came, they spoke, they concurred (sometimes). The mayoral candidates of Alcúdia. Several species of small and not so small furry and fiery political animals gathered together in the cave of an exhibition room and grooving for the press pictures. At least, at last, here was some point to Can Ramis. It was a burning topic for the citizenry of Alcúdia.

The tall guy, the mayor Jeff Goldblum, also known as Miguel Llompart, said that everything about the building of Can Ramis had been “correcto”. The one among the ranks who had something of the politician “look” about her, if only in a less-terrifying Ann Widdecombe style, was the furry terrier, pawing at the alleged irregularities of the building. But we knew all about Coloma and the Partido Popular’s objections. They were nothing new.

The tall guy, though, let on that Can Ramis had not been intended as a bus station. This was new, as was the admission that the misapprehension the entire town had been under had been a fault of town hall communication. So this explained everything, unlike the plan which had a bus station and the model with the little Dinky buses. Or had I imagined it all? Not that it really matters. It was a waste of money whatever the intention had or hadn’t been.

There were six of them in all. One of them hadn’t been expected. He had not been in the rogue’s gallery of head shots prior to the event, at any rate. Had he gate-crashed perhaps? No, he was the chap from the Esquerra Unida. And what’s the purpose of their existence exactly, other than to be left and united? Still don’t know, though the united left is the only party which will defend workers, or something like that.

It wasn’t trains and boats and planes so much as trains and buses. Ah yes, the train. The one not standing either somewhere near to Alcúdia’s auditorium or the Es Foguero ruin. Here, the main three parties, mayor Goldblum’s Convergència, Ann Widdecombe’s PP and the PSOE of the alarming Brian May lookalike, stood shoulder to shoulder. Not that Coloma could physically stand shoulder to shoulder with the tall guy; only metaphorically.

All three agreed that the government had been wrong regarding the siting of the railway and that the views of Alcúdia had to be respected. One Alcúdia, one train. Not that there is one train and is unlikely to now be one, besides which Brian May, sometimes also referred to as Pere Malondra, reckoned it wasn’t necessary anyway. There are other systems of public transport which can connect Alcúdia to Sa Pobla. Such as? Helicopters perhaps? Silly me. It’ll be a bus of course.

The lady from the Esquerra Republicana, whatever they are, made an unusually useful point. Still about buses, but it was useful nonetheless. Why wasn’t there a bus stop by the newly-terminaled commercial port? Well yes, why isn’t there? Probably because there aren’t any buses which go there, but possibly also because the port with its shiny new terminal has achieved the remarkable. It has actually managed to create less traffic than before.

There was one matter on which the aspiring and perspiring candidates could all sort of come together. Tourism. A longer season was needed. As was an agreement on tourism quality, one suggested by Brian May rather than his proposing something as dramatic as we will Mallorca rock you. Alcúdia offers not just sun and beach but also culture and gastronomy, parroted the Mallorcan socialists lady. How revolutionary. Who would have ever thought of such a thing? I must run the idea past the waddling masses of Bellevue some time. The chap who we didn’t think was going to be there wanted 30% of hotel places open in winter. Though how they might be filled is quite a different matter and therefore one that was not addressed.

The mayoral candidates lit up Can Ramis with their enlightenment. When the official campaign starts, there should be a banner strung high above the street by the town hall. “Vote Llompart, a mayor you can look up to.” Because everyone does, or has to. Alcúdia’s one unique political selling-point. It has the tallest mayor in Mallorca. In the absence of candidates offering any great thoughts, other than about bus stops where buses don’t run, this is about as good a reason as there is for voting for any of them.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Same Old Rot: Tourism in the off-season

Easter is late this year. Easter Sunday is the 24th of April, three weeks later than 2010, and a week before the real season kicks in on 1 May. An earlier Easter makes life awkward for businesses. Open, and they face the inevitable hiatus of the phoney season before the May lift-off. This year is not quite so awkward.

Nevertheless, many hotels will not be opening for Easter. In Alcúdia, 26 establishments will remain closed. It seems perverse. At a time when Mallorca is reaping the benefits of north African disturbances, should all hotels not be taking the plunge and opening that one week earlier?

This is the headline-grabber. Hotels not opening for Easter, a late Easter at that. This is the headline-grabber that inspires rumblings as to the state of the tourism market, the tourism industry not trying hard enough, and all the other rot that goes with it.

It is rot. What the headline fails to tell you is that 24 hotels will be open at Easter. I make that roughly the same number that will not be open. So what’s the problem? Answer? There isn’t one. Demand, with or without Egyptian uprisings, is not so high that all hotels need to be open at Easter. Moreover, most of the hotels form parts of chains. One, two maybe, are sufficient. All of them? Of course not.

There is also the smell of a rat with the hotel-opening and hotel-not-opening figures. It is one that comes from their source, the local hotel association in Alcúdia. Not all hotels in Alcúdia are listed by the association on its website, as not all hotels are members. One very large complex that isn’t listed is Bellevue. One whole chain, GC, which typically does open its hotels either early or through the winter, is similarly not present.

The point is that when you are fed stories about hotels and consequently the state of the tourism market, you don’t always get a complete picture, while it is easier to be convinced as to the rotten state of the market by the fact of non-opening hotels than to be convinced as to a reasonable state of the market by the fact of a similar number which are open.

But let’s get real. Out of season, only a few hotels being open can be viable. Of the 24 hotels in Alcúdia open by Easter, only six will have opened by the start of March (plus others that are not members of the local association). The Alcúdia hotel association, in releasing the figures as to non-opening hotels, has taken the opportunity to also state that the situation with winter tourism is very bad. Yes, I think we know this, and it applies not only to Alcúdia and the north of the island, but also to the whole of Mallorca. So what’s new?

Well, there are some things that are new. Two different and more positive opportunities to lengthen the season and to make the off-version less “very bad”. One is the “bienestar activo” concept of activities, the other, the “estación náutica” branding of Alcúdia as a watersports resort. The association supports both these initiatives.

It is hopeful that the activities included in “bienestar” (hiking, Nordic walking and so on) will reap some reward this coming season, that the results from this “strategy” and its promotion will bear fruit. But these activities are essentially non-summer activities. What difference are they likely to make in summer? Very little, I would suggest.

Far more important is that this so-called strategy should be aimed at the winter market, but what actually is the strategy? And where is this promotion? Not on the association’s website, as far as I can see, unless you count the absurdly passive question – “have you been to our new Nordic walking park yet?” A word in the association’s shell-like. Do not ask a closed question, the answer to which may well be “no” and which inspires no further interest or action. It’s known in the trade as motivational copy. Or in the association’s case, non-motivational.

The establishment of the “estación náutica” concept, an element of which is an obligation to have hotels open in the off-season (at least from March and to the end of November), presents the opportunity for the hotels to ensure that they are open before Easter. It will also test their resolve. Will they open? And will they make sufficient effort to promote this concept to ensure that it is sensible for them to open?

Here are two initiatives which in theory can lengthen the season and which can reduce the whingeing about the winter season being “very bad”. The theory is one thing; the practice is quite another. Will they really mean that more hotels open earlier? It is very doubtful. How many watersports enthusiasts or Nordic walkers might be expected? Not enough to fill more than a handful of hotels. Around the same number that will be open during this “very bad” off-season, hotel association figures or otherwise.

Rot? You’d better believe it.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

The Accidental Historian

The first golf course in the Balearics was opened in 1934. This may surprise you, though any of you who might have read something I wrote for Alcúdia tourists last summer about this golf course would not be surprised.

The “revelation” of the first golf course comes from “Mallorca Magazin”, the German weekly. This, in turn, is based on a study that has appeared in the “Jornades d’Estudis Locals d’Alcúdia”, a dry and academic tome that is published irregularly but which is a gold mine of fascinating historical information.

I first came across this journal purely by chance. I was whiling away some hours at a printer and found it in a book case. Though all the papers were in Catalan (a pre-requisite for the inclusion of papers in the journal) and were all, in typical academic fashion, highly off-putting in terms of presentation, there was stuff within its covers that demanded a bit of perseverance.

It helps, I guess, to be both a historian by degree and to have had a previous publishing life in which I was fed a diet of heavy academic material. For many, irrespective of the language, the journal would be a complete turn-off. Understandably so. Even in English, much academic publishing might as well be presented in Klingon, for all the sense that it makes.

The copy I found, which remains the only copy I have seen, included a paper on the history of the fiestas of Sant Jaume, the patron saint of Alcúdia. It was one that transported you back to the thirteenth century and to the origins of the fiestas. It was a story that was completely new to me.

The story of the golf course was also new to me. Again, it was something I came across by accident. The article I was writing was in fact an interview with someone who has a far longer association with Alcúdia and Mallorca than I do, Graham Philips, estate agent of the parish. During the course of the interview, Graham explained that there was once a golf course in Alcúdia (and not the present one in Alcanada). It was short-lived. The Civil War led to its being converted into a landing-strip for airplanes.

Unexpected as the story was, I asked around to try and find any other recollections of the golf course. There was as much surprise as I had felt when told about it. Someone though spoke to an old man, and he confirmed the story. He could recall the planes that flew in and out of what is today the residential and tourist area that combines Alcúdia’s Bellevue and Magic districts.

The golf course history comes apparently from the sixth edition of the journal. The seventh will include something on the British squadron in Alcúdia (and Pollensa) in 1924 and something else on the application of “the model of tourist enclavement” in Alcanada in 1933. Both are potentially interesting and of far wider interest than the narrow audience that an academic publication appeals to. As with the history of the golf course, the development of a tourist area in Alcúdia’s Alcanada area is precisely the sort of thing that grabs tourists’ interest.

One of the problems with the portrayal of Mallorca’s history, and it is a problem that is compounded by the historical information that is put out by the tourism agency and town halls, is that it tends to all be pretty ancient. In Alcúdia, the default historical information is that of the founding of Pollentia by the Romans and the Moorish occupation and the consequent naming of Alcúdia from the Arabic. It’s not without interest, but it isn’t that relevant to most tourists who are turned on far more by recent history, such as the development of Alcúdia and the island as a tourist destination.

There is a wealth of historical information – documents, photos – that sits in archives in the town halls. Alcúdia’s journal is not unique. Most towns have these studies and they come under the umbrella of the university. Yet it rarely comes to light, and when it does is in forms, the largely impenetrable language of academia and in Catalan alone, that simply do not translate to an audience which is hungry to hear about it.

And when you come across it, it is usually by chance. There’s another example; the time I found the original 1936 article from “The Railway Magazine” about the planned extension of the railway to Alcúdia (which of course has still not been built). But this, the railway, is another subject with the potential to fascinate.

The point is that, for all the desire for tourism attracted by Mallorca’s history and culture, far too little attention is paid to what really can excite or to what can be more understandable to a tourist market – that to do with tourists’ own experiences: of tourism. This more recent history, that of tourism development and the changes brought about by tourism, exists in archives and in people’s memories.

It really needs to be made available.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

To The Alcúdia Station: Estación Náutica

Never let it be said that things move swiftly. So slowly do they move that you can be forgiven for believing that whatever they are had been forgotten. As is, or was, the case with the Estación Náutica in Alcúdia.

You have to go back to February 2009 to be reminded of when this concept first surfaced in Alcúdia. In May of that year it was actually signed into being. And then? Silence. But the silence has now been broken. The business association behind the “estación” in Alcúdia has finalised the process of its candidature to become a part of the Asociación Española de Estaciones Náuticas (AEEN). A further meeting in January should seal this candidature and allow Alcúdia to call itself an “estación náutica”.

We can all breathe a sigh of relief. Put out the bunting perhaps. We would do if we really knew what the whole thing was about and, more importantly, what benefits it is likely to bring. I can go back to a meeting at Alcúdia town hall in February last year to remind myself of the degree to which attendees were unclear. I can recall a later meeting, one that I didn’t attend, but which was – as it was described to me – full of those looking to extract whatever benefits they could for themselves. Whatever the concept was, it appeared to be a recipe for self-interest.

Let me try and clarify. An “estación náutica”, and this description is aided with the words of the head of tourism in the town as expressed in May 2009, is “a tourist product with accommodation and water-sports activities sold as a tourist package that allows the tourist to engage in the likes of sailing and underwater activities and complementary activities such as golf and horse-riding”. Alcúdia will become the first such “estación” in Mallorca; others exist elsewhere in the Balearics and on the mainland. AEEN’s website declares that these centres are the “best nautical destinations in Spain”.

There is a lengthy document which lists the requirements for becoming an “estación náutica” and the benefits of doing so. If I try and put them in a nutshell, they demand levels of quality and service of all participating members, of whatever type of business, and the use of the “estación náutica” brand as a mark of quality. There is also a requirement, one to tackle seasonality, which demands a minimum of the principal offer of accommodation and water-sport activities from March to November; a requirement that should be a benefit.

The concept does not necessarily mean creating anything new – Alcúdia has plenty of water-sports activities plus all the complementary activities and offers. It is largely a marketing exercise.

Anything that might assist tourism in Alcúdia (or anywhere else that fancies branding itself in this way) has to be welcomed. But questions do arise. One is why it requires an outside agency, AEEN, to bring parties together in establishing a “brand” that already exists? Or rather, could have existed if parties had been minded to put their heads together to come up with something similar.

Secondly, would it really help with lengthening the season? Menorca has such centres. Are they operating for the minimum period set out? Maybe they are, but whether anyone is going to them or indeed can get a flight out of season, I couldn’t honestly say. Thirdly, there is the matter of organisation.

What you will have is a further agency involved in tourism, one separate to the town hall but which will presumably work alongside the town hall. There will be a separate website, a separate office (like a tourism information office, I guess) and separate promotional material. Duplication is everything in tourism promotion.

This could all be a great success, and innovation is not to be sniffed at, if success does follow. But what would be useful to know is what hard benefits have accrued to those resorts in the Balearics and the mainland that already operate as an “estación náutica”. Does this marketing have a positive bottom-line effect? Well, does it? I have searched for examples which might indicate this, but without success.

However, one does also need to consider this in the longer-term. Establishing a reputation as a water-sports centre doesn’t happen overnight, nor does one for high quality. So in terms of measuring benefits, some patience is necessary.

There remains, though, one final question. The name “estación náutica” might mean something to the Spanish, but what does it mean to those from other countries. How is it translated? A nautical destination in English, according to AEEN. Sorry, this doesn’t cut it. Water-sports centre or resort? Better perhaps, but isn’t Alcúdia already known as this? Maybe it isn’t, in which case fine, but water-sports resort conjures up an image of something different, of something specific, of something new. And unfortunately, apart from the “brand” name, it is none of these.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

The Hand Of GOB: Coals to Alcúdia

Old king coal is not a merry old soul for the residents of Alcúdia. They would rather the old boy’s pipe of transportation through the town were fiddled with and made less noxious, be it in the middle of the night or at any time of the day.

The old king coal of Alcúdia has long been making its way from the port to the Es Murterar power station – 30 years or so. In a shuttle of trucks it chugs along the three kilometres of road, sometimes straining, as with the incline leaving the port itself, and letting bits of itself go and skip onto the road and into the verges. Once upon a time, before they built the by-pass next to the Puig Sant Martí, the trucks used to take a different route, right through the resort. Things are better nowadays, but only in that the trucks are less intrusive.

Given how long coal has been transported to the power station, it seems a bit odd that it is only now that Alcúdia residents have decided to denounce its movement. In fairness it has long been a matter of discontent, but the current complaint against the dirt, an alleged absence of control, and the deposits may be a case of maintaining a momentum that started in the summer.

In August, there were protests against the emissions from the power station and against the transportation of coal. There was also a level of support from business for the proposal that Es Murterar should be gradually closed and its coal and oil-fired electricity generation be replaced by that from renewables. The proposal and the protests were the work of the environmental pressure group GOB. Has the hand of GOB touched the denouncing residents of Alcúdia? If so, then rightly so.

The trucks are mobile monstrosities, while Es Murterar itself is a panoramic affront, a blight on the landscape. Wander in the tranquility of the Albufera nature park and it is hard to ignore, rising from the park’s west side, the chimney of the power station. Albufera and Es Murterar are in surrealistic juxtaposition; it seems inconceivable that the power station would be built today. Not where it is, at any rate.

For all the visual unpleasantness of the lorries and the power station, the actual level of harm to the environment is open to debate. The regional government’s environment ministry maintains that particles of coal dust from the transportation are within limits that might be prejudicial to health. The power station has cut significantly its carbon emissions. Albufera is thriving. It wouldn’t be were it being polluted.

As you might expect, however, not everyone is of such forgiving opinion: GOB for one. It believes that Es Murterar is responsible for some 60% of local greenhouse gases. The power station is also responsible for generating a half of the electricity consumed in the whole of the Balearics. But GOB also believes that local production of energy can be scaled right back so that renewables are the only source of electricity. It is the prospect of the majority of energy requirements being met by supply from the mainland via electricity cabling and natural gas that leads it to conclude that supplementary energy creation in Mallorca could avoid the use of coal.

The regional government doesn’t dispute the possibilities of GOB’s argument, but it has said that there needs to be some realism. Nevertheless, the day does seem to be coming closer when the level of electricity production at Es Murterar is reduced if not eliminated completely. Were it to stop though, a question would be what would be done with the site. The old power station in Alcúdia seems no nearer to being converted into the science and technology centre it is meant to become, and it has been abandoned for years.

For now though, the coal will continue to be transported and Es Murterar will continue to hum. Old king coal’s pipe will remain lit, and the residents of Alcúdia will be less than merry.

But there’s one other thing. Behind every good nursery rhyme there is another story. It is one that just about surfaced a few years ago but was then given greater prominence at the start of this year. You know those trucks. Who owns the company which transports the coal to the power station? Coincidental to the Alcúdia residents’ denunciation is the start of the court case involving the former president of the Council of Mallorca, Maria Antònia Munar. The company belongs to her husband, 15% of which is hers.

Timing is everything.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Oh Well (Or Not): Bienestar Activo and Ironman

Three months are a long time in tourism promotion. 20 June – “All Being Well”. Now – all’s not so well. Strategies are meant to be long-term, but not if they don’t even get off the ground.

“Bienestar Activo” is – was – the brand name for a four-year strategic plan unveiled back in June. The plan was for the municipalities of Alcúdia, Muro and Santa Margalida, together with the local hotel associations and the tourism ministries at both central and local government levels, to promote various sporting activities in the resorts as a means of bolstering off-season tourism. The plan envisaged the spending of a tad under 4.5 million euros over the next four years. Annually, the central ministry would have provided 371,000 euros, a sum matched by the local ministry and also by the three town halls between them. The scheme has collapsed.

Soon after the plan was announced, I contacted the Alcúdia-Can Picafort hotel association, looking for an interview. There was an email exchange, Alcúdia’s tourism councillor was also contacted, a date provisionally established, and then nothing. At the time I found this slightly strange. As it turns out, maybe it wasn’t.

What I wanted to know was the exact nature of the plan, given that the activities – cycling, Nordic walking, hiking, canoeing – were already established. What was the 4.5 million meant to be spent on? I guess that I – we – will never find out. There are no funds to be forthcoming from the ministries.

There was some inkling as to how the money would have been doled out – in general. There were four, vague elements – organisation, specialisation of the destination (whatever that meant), improvement of competitiveness and marketing. But at the presentation which “launched” the project, amongst those attending – mayors, councillors and those as ever hoping for some benefit without actually putting their hands in their pockets, i.e. hoteliers and restaurant owners – there were no representatives of the ministries. The absence of government may tell a story. Had the ministries actually signed up to the whole thing? Or maybe they were going to, and then thought, as I had done, well, what is this all about? Those four aims seemed ill-defined; they may well also have been ill-conceived.

Of course, another explanation is more straightforward, namely government cuts, both nationally and local. Three months in tourism promotion isn’t a long time when it is already known that money is tight, so much so that the tourism ministries at regional and central levels have been merged with others as a way of saving money. Was this plan ever a goer or was it just some sort of PR stunt, and a poor one at that, given that it was unclear what it actually entailed?

The mayors, explaining the plan’s abandonment, say that they will look at it differently in the hope of bringing it back, which is probably a euphemism for saying that it will be quietly forgotten about. Maybe it should be. And maybe it would have been better had they never gone public, because this is a further embarrassment, certainly where Alcúdia is concerned, in terms of grandish tourism promotional schemes. The estación náutica concept has been quietly forgotten about, despite the fanfare that was blown when it surfaced a year and a half ago.

Fortunately for Alcúdia, something rather more concrete has emerged. Some good news with which to hopefully bury the less good news of the bienestar debacle. Thomas Cook and the regional tourism ministry have announced that an Ironman 70.3 triathlon is to be staged in Alcúdia on 14 May next year and also in 2012. Apart from some 2,500 anticipated competitors, the tour operator reckons the event will attract 20,000 visitors. I’m sceptical, but I’ll bow to the company’s knowledge. Nevertheless, the triathlon could well prove to be positive, and perhaps its potential does have something to do with the bienestar falling by the wayside. If you want to attract sports tourism, then better to go with a flagship-style event, rather than the vagueness of what was on offer. Relief for Alcúdia then, but what Muro and Santa Margalida make of it, who knows.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.