With Or Without You

So after the marathon of yesterday, a bit of a follow-up.

 

First thing to say is that the Bellevue article was subject to approval. There was a lot that could have been and could be said, but a lot that is better unsaid. But from what was published, perhaps the most revealing aspects are those to do with going all-inclusive (AI) and the impact that this has and has had. 

 

When the interview was conducted and the question was put as to the possibility of going totally AI, the response was a firm “maybe”. Equivocal perhaps, but the intent exists. It is clear that this is what the market is demanding, whether local businesses or indeed hotels like it. The further growth of AI seems almost inevitable and not only at Bellevue. And it isn’t only the “crisis” that is driving it. If businesses had preferred, hitherto, to hope that it might all just go away, they had better start re-thinking. Alcúdia is not unique either. 

 

I had long considered the notion of responsibility, especially of such a large complex as Bellevue, to what surrounds it. I had once couched this in terms analogous to the mine, the steelworks, the factory towns of Bournville and the like. The hotel was akin to some benevolent employer around which businesses and dwellings grew. I was clearly wrong. Unlike the factory towns that needed the houses and the businesses to support the factories, somewhere like Bellevue never needed them as such, or never asked for them to emerge. It is, as the interview pointed out, a question of it (the hotel) doing what it has to do. The responsibility is not there. However, one can look at this rather differently. A hotel, any hotel, does actually need what the resort can offer, and this includes local bars and restaurants. For without them, there is no resort. It is, if you like, the apocalyptic vision of where AI might ultimately lead. Unlikely though it may be, the logic is of hotels standing isolated among closed-down businesses which then convey a poor image of the resort. Would the tourist still come? He, the tourist, may be quite happy to spend his money solely on his AI package, but he still wants the sight of bars and the rest, even if he has no intention of visiting them. The bars become almost like museum pieces. It is perhaps also pertinent to observe that Bellevue, and other hotels, themselves grew wealthy because of the emergence of local businesses which, as much as the hotels, were what attracted the tourists. There has always been a symbiotic relationship; one that has now been undermined.

 

Yet you can understand the hotel’s attitude, at least I can. Their business is the hotel, nothing else. Do local businesses feel responsibilities to each other? Doubtful. It is also true to say that businesses grew up and owners grew wealthy merely by dint of being there. They didn’t always have to work that hard for custom. And this is the crux of where we now are; whether people like it or not. It may seem harsh but the hotels do not owe the local businesses. Those businesses had it great for years. And then the market changed, as markets always change, ultimately. In this market, the hotels are no longer as strong as they once were. Witness, for instance, the tour operators insistence on price reductions in 2010. It is the tour operators and tourist demand that are advancing the cause of AI, and the hotels have to adapt and are. This represents the power in the tourist market; the local bars and the rest are subservient and have to themselves adapt, assuming they can.

The Bellevue Interview

As trailed on here, below is the result of the interview with the assistant director of Bellevue. This has now been published in “Talk Of The North”, so as an additional archive, here it is. The first part is the feature itself and this is followed by some history and facts.

 

 

Realism At Bellevue

“Every day we think of how we can improve our product.” To read some of the criticisms levelled at the Bellevue hotel complex, one might find that hard to believe, but listening to assistant director Syb Sijbertsma one does believe it. “Ridiculous,” is his assessment of some of the things that are trotted out on the internet. 

 

The web consumes much of our discussion time. “There is a danger with the internet. It creates too high a level of expectation.” This is expectation not just of what Bellevue might have to offer but of what any hotel or destination can provide. “It used to be an adventure,” the holiday that is. “But not now.” Accordingly, hotels are compared with others, and in the case of Bellevue a false impression can be created through inaccuracies or through unreal expectations. 

 

At Bellevue they are clear as to what their product is, but often it becomes distorted, not least by some tour operators who do not inform their customers correctly. The holidaymaker needs to “experience things for himself” and be realistic. As an example, we touch on a familiar criticism as to length of queues. The main restaurant can cater for 1000 at a sitting. If everyone comes at the same time, then there are bound to be queues. At Bellevue they know this, but the message does not always get across. 

 

We have to take a step back. Back to why I felt it important to hear the Bellevue story. There were a number of factors, not least the criticisms that one read on the internet, the rumours that one constantly heard and the apparent lack of communication by the hotel in addressing these. Then there was the sheer scale of Bellevue – it is the largest holiday complex in Spain – its importance to the economy of Alcúdia and its almost iconic status. Moreover, what occurs at Bellevue is not wholly unique as it is indicative of what is occurring in the mass tourism holiday market across Mallorca and not just in the north of the island. 

 

But let’s get back to that apparent lack of communication. On Syb’s computer screen are comments from the review site “Trip Advisor”. Contrary to what I had believed, these are taken very seriously. However, there is frustration. While he can respond with information, that is all he can do: no opinion, no sense of criticising a poster. “If you sit with people who have a problem, you can explain and then they are normally happy. The internet is not the same.” “There is always something to pick on at Bellevue,” be it cleanliness, the queues, safety or even mosquitoes.

 

We take a walk around the complex. Five thousand people and you have to expect some litter. Yet the impression is far from unfavourable despite the lack of consideration that leads to Syb picking up discarded plastic cups or wrappers. He is, as he puts it, “manic” about collecting litter. In the middle of the afternoon, pool sides are full of guests with cups and plates. It is not just the assistant director who cleans up, there are staff everywhere in a constant battle with abandoned containers. Behaviour is an issue. He admits that it has got worse. And not just where litter is concerned. He relates stories, none of them repeatable, but they all add up to making his job far broader than just that of a manager or a strategist. He is also social worker, family counsellor, mediator. A background as a physical education instructor is perhaps useful in being able to deal with certain situations. 

 

 

The fires

We take a look at the burnt-out lift in Minerva 2. The health and safety criticism is one that annoys him. It was one bandied about after the two fires. I study the specification for the hotel, note the ticks for items such as smoke detectors and alarms. “The tour operators come every year and see for themselves. They are always happy.” Were they not, they wouldn’t send their clients to Bellevue. He doesn’t wish to go into the issue, but the TUI decision to pull out of Bellevue was not related to health and safety. “There weren’t any fires for years, then two. Similar circumstances surrounding both.” He cites theories as to possible origins of the fires, but they are a police matter so I am not about to repeat them. 

 

The fires, however, were indicative of how the internet can inflame, as it were, the situation. He is critical of those whose first impulse is to go onto a review site and disseminate what is not wholly accurate. “The fires were dealt with in a perfect way,” he says. The first fire, in Minerva 1, attracted more attention than the second, partly because the alarms did not sound. He explains that if there is a fire or smoke – and there was a lot of smoke and very little by way of flames with the first fire – an alarm goes off at reception. There is a five-minute delay before the alarms go off, enabling staff to investigate the nature of the fire. In the case of Minerva 1, it was under control. To have sounded the alarms would have made the situation worse by causing more panic. The Minerva 2 fire involved more flames, and the alarms were set off in this instance. One has to understand, Syb explains, that there are over 15 false alarms every week, which is why they have the system they do. 

 

To see what was said on the internet, it was easy to form an impression as to a lack of information, but an office was set aside for four days after the fires to handle guests’ queries or concerns, while there was also a press relations facility established. In terms of both safety and communications, he is satisfied that the incidents were handled well. 

 

 

Responsibilities and all-inclusive

Back in Minerva 2, from a room on the eighth floor you get an impression not just of the size of the complex but also the setting. It is extraordinary. One can see the length of the Lago Esperanza and appreciate just how big that is. Across the sea and bay of Alcúdia are the mountains of Artà. I wanted to talk about responsibility, the responsibility that Bellevue has to the local community. It is the physical splendour of the immediate surroundings that informs this responsibility, the hotel’s part in maintaining the beauty of the environment and in the plans to upgrade the lake area. There are other responsibilities, I suggest, and so we come to the local community and businesses. 

 

What of all the rumours that fly around? Bellevue is being sold, Bellevue is closing, Bellevue this and Bellevue that. Is there a responsibility to respond to them? Not really, he says. Alcúdia is a small town, one in which all sorts of rumour spread quickly. To make statements might simply make matters worse, as though they would imply that there was some truth to the rumours when there never is. 

 

And what of the impact of changes at Bellevue, most obviously all-inclusive (AI) packages? It is Syb’s turn to want to take a step back. From the time Bellevue really took off as a holiday complex in the early ’80s, its clientele would leave the site and patronise the bars, restaurants and shops that grew up along and off The Mile. Syb is unequivocal. “Some people got really rich on it.” But things have changed. He sees no responsibility for this change. “A hotel is a hotel. We do what we do.” 

 

The AI side of the Bellevue product has grown significantly. From trialling it in 2005, it has grown to the extent that it now comprises over half the number of guests. Of a maximum occupancy this year just shy of 5100 guests, around 2800 are staying on an AI basis. “We’re being pushed into it,” he concedes. The crisis, as much as anything, has contributed to a rise this year from a maximum of 2000 AI guests in 2008. Despite this, he is not particularly in favour of AI, and the reasoning for this is based on the service that can be offered. “AI is like a basic family car, when you would really like to be offering a Mercedes. It’s impossible on a 3-star basis.” He draws a comparison with the Caribbean where costs are that much lower, allowing branded products to form part of the AI offer and far greater levels of staffing. Spain is that much more expensive. You come back to that level of expectation. Bellevue is at the limits as to what it can achieve in terms of providing AI in its restaurants, and there is an acknowledgement that some re-organisation and development will need to occur in order to comply with the diktats of the tourism ministry in terms of the space per guest. So, AI could grow more, I ask. Yes. Might Bellevue become totally AI? Maybe, he replies, but counters this by suggesting that AI could be cyclical and that it could fade away as tourist needs and demands change. 

 

I return to the local businesses. “It was all so easy in the past,” he explains. Syb constantly refers to product, and he is critical of some who have paid too little attention to their product or quality. “Other businesses will still come in,” he believes in answer to the question about the impact along The Mile. “They will offer products that people want.” The hotel itself has had to adapt to a changing market; this is all a part of that thinking every day as to how they can improve. He sees some evidence of businesses doing this as well. It is necessary that they do. Despite the possibility that AI is indeed cyclical, Syb says starkly that “it is AI or nothing”.

 

 

Bellevue history and facts

The Bellevue complex was built between 1972 and 1974 by the same German developer behind what are now the Club Mac hotels. The Siesta apartments were sold off separately in 1974 and the Bellevue apartments were put on the market as a form of time-share option. That was the plan, but it didn’t work. Between 1974 and 1983 there was little activity at Bellevue, the complex being in the hands of the bank Banesto. In 1983 the first hotel company was formed, effectively creating the complex as it now is. But there were several years of changes in the actual running of the complex until 2000 when Hotetur in partnership with My Travel took over and Banesto finally left the scene. For five years the arrangement with My Travel gave the hotel guaranteed places, but in 2005 Hotetur bought out My Travel’s stake which had amounted to a minority holding of 49%. 

 

Bellevue comprises 17 separate accommodation blocks which stand on an area of 200,000 square metres. There is facility to house over 6000 guests, but the maximum occupation in 2009 is around 5100, down on the 5500 of 2007. This can be explained partially by economic conditions but also by smaller family units. There are five different types of board category, the most popular being self-catering and all-inclusive. Around 400 staff are employed at the complex.

 

While the buildings are now quite old, the apartments themselves are maintained to good standards. I saw an example of each category. While they might be cramped for larger groups, they generally have ample space with kitchen units, bathrooms and toilets; the actual sizes are, respectively, 25, 35 and 45 square metres for studios and one and two-bedroomed apartments. In total there are 1468 apartments. The impression is that they are clean, functional and safe.

 

The breakdown of nationalities has changed this year. The main market is British at around 65 to 70%, down around 20%, but compensated for by an increase in other groups – Scandinavian, German, French and Dutch. Internet bookings are a vital part of the hotel’s operations, and these can rise as high as 80%.

Burning In My Heart

Who turned on the oven? It had been forecast that the worst heatwave of summer would be experienced this week; they hadn’t said quite how bad. Temperatures of 44 degrees had been anticipated yesterday afternoon; that’s around 111 in old money. Sa Pobla is the place that is taken as representative for the interior in the north, and Sa Pobla is where this record high was expected. It is fifteen years since a 43 was recorded there. As it turned out, the temperature was only 42 – only 42. The interior temperatures are higher than those around the coast, by a factor of some five or six degrees very often, but you don’t have to go very far inland to get the full effects of that interior heat. In the old town of Alcúdia at midday yesterday, it was unbearable, but back down in the port it was cooler – all things being relative. The weather centre had issued a red alert for the interior, the north and the north-east.

 

The extreme highs are the result of air being sucked up from Africa. You can feel the heat of the wind or breeze – it grips you, encloses you. This African wind can sometimes just come out of seemingly nowhere and last for only a relatively short period, but when it does spring up it has the ferocity of old red nose giving the hairdryer treatment.

 

These are dangerous temperatures, ones to be respected. The advice to avoid dehydration is crucial; to not take on liquid is to run the risk of heatstroke or to suffer diarrhoea or worse. Ever had heatstroke – the full dose, that is? I have. I don’t much recommend it. The question is, though, what liquid. Much as the thinking is to just take on water, this is not enough. The best drinks are the non-caffeine sports drinks. Eroski does a lemon one. Tastes ok and it has the salts, minerals and vitamins that are as important in preventing the worst affects of the heat. Yet, despite all the advice, you will still see those quaffing back great pints of beer during the day or tucking into a full English or a vast plate of meat and chips. None of this makes any sense. Ok, let’s not get too sanctimonious, a freezing Saint Mick of an evening is hugely tempting, and rightly so, just so long as it’s not the whole gallon.

 

 

What’s Cracowing-off in the Cala

Are the Poles the new Brits? Last summer there was something of a street battle involving plod and some youthful Polish holidaymakers in Magaluf. There is now a report of trouble involving some younger Poles in – of all places – Cala San Vicente, but this is all-inclusive Cala, not the genteel old-colonialism of the Moraleja: the Don Pedro in other words. Perhaps it could have been predicted. Put British families together with the nouveau holidaymaking classes of young Poland and it was maybe bound to end in tears. But put them together Thomas Cook have done.

 

“Talk Of The North” got the story, and it should appear in greater detail in the next issue. From what Graeme tells me it has all been rather unpleasant, a group of Poles effectively terrorising the Brits and causing general mayhem. The boys in green were eventually called, after the Brits demanded that something be done. In addition to “TOTN”, you can probably also expect that the forums will be given a bashing by very unhappy Brits, to say nothing of the complaints that will land in the in-tray of Thomas Cook. 

ABC Is Easy As …

Anyone who might have been hoping that the all-inclusive (AI) would just close the tap on its endless lager and go away should think again, especially if they happen to be aware of the brochures being issued for 2010. Thomson and First Choice have got theirs out. There is a dedicated all-inclusives brochure for both operators. These do not mean a sudden rise in the number of hotels offering AI – they are more a case of packaging the package – but they indicate the direction in which the tour operators are going, even more than before.

 

For those alarmed at the inexorable march of the AI, there is no solace from the press release coming from Thomson and First Choice. Indeed there is more to be alarmed at. Using findings from the market research organisation Mintel, this says that “the main increase (in AI) has been within the affluent ABC1 socioeconomic groups who have previously favoured self-catering accommodation”. There is now a growth in 4- and 5-star AI that provides far more than just all that lager and dodgy nosebag, attracting those who want “variety, convenience and superior standards”. For the customer seeking some certainty as to his budgeting, the AI makes money “go further”, says the head of short and mid-haul and product development. The release goes on to say that, “AI holidays now make up 20-25% of all package holidays, with bookings having grown by 32% in the last five years”.   

 

Whilst much of the attention is turned towards the AI ghettoes of the likes of Alcúdia, it is perhaps easy to overlook the fact that AI is on offer in the higher-standard hotels. Go to the Iberostar site, as an example, and you will find “all-inclusive” clearly buttoned. The Iberostars cater for the type of clientele that the Mintel research is referring to. It is precisely the sort of clientele that local restaurateurs can ill afford to have staying ensconced in a hotel lapping up a superior level of service – all of it pretty much pre-paid. Value for money and convenience are just as attractive to the more elevated levels of the socioeconomic food chain as to the deltas and epsilons. 

 

Mallorca has long craved a so-called “quality” tourist, and many have held the view that it is this market which will re-invent the tourism economy. But if it finds its way ever more into all-inclusive exclusive enclaves with spas and I-Pod docking stations, it, too, will contribute less and less to the wider economy. It is instructive to consider the findings in Hawaii where it has been calculated that more than 80% of an AI traveller’s “fees” go to airlines, hotels and international companies – meaning, in the latter instance, the tour operators – and not to local businesses or workers. 

 

As part of the recent plan to consider the island’s tourism economic model, the regional government and others are meant also to be addressing the role of all-inclusives. They’re meant to be, but whether anything comes of it must be extremely questionable. We’ve been here before, and nothing has been said beyond the initial announcements as to concerns and looking at the issue. While true that hotels’ board offers are subject to licensing, this has hardly had any effect in slowing the pace of all-inclusive places. It is, however, not necessarily the case that hotels yearn for all-inclusive clientele. One hotel in Alcúdia, for example, declined a request from Thomson to have an AI provision this year. Some seem to have been pressed into doing so by the current economic situation, while others are pretty much wholly subject to what the tour operator wants. 

 

Just take note again of those figures – 20-25% of all package holidays are all-inclusive, a 32% increase in five years. What about the next five years? 

John, I’m Only Debating

Are you bothered that John Bercow is the new Speaker of the House of Commons? If you live in the UK and/or are a student of politics, then probably you are. But if you live somewhere else, let’s say Mallorca for example, unless you are that student of politics, are you really that bothered? To the extent, that is, that the subject has been written up by the local press, i.e. “The Bulletin”, and has been the subject of letters to the same paper.

The story itself is worth reporting, of course it is; the readership is British after all. But the column inches it has generated serves once more to highlight the degree to which stories that do not materially affect people who live in Mallorca dominate to the exclusion of local news and comment. It’s interesting, sure, but not that interesting.

In the current “Euro Weekly” there is the regular piece by that old scoundrel Leapy Lee. This current article is worthy of attention; it is a strong condemnation of all-inclusives and of the change to the law on bar noise. Ok, there is some potential vested interest – he is a bar owner in Calvia where there the law has been implemented – but this does not negate the sentiments of what he has to say. There is something interesting at the end of this piece. He says: “I’m sorry to have been a little ‘Mallorca indulgent’ this week.” He has written about something that does materially affect a lot of people on the island – in a way that John Bercow does not – and yet sees the need to apologise. For those used to rants against “Herr Braun” and expect a weekly diatribe of a somewhat dubious right-wing nature about how bad things are under Labour, then perhaps his devoted readership needs an apology. It shouldn’t be.

Coincidentally, I was told that that thing I did about bar owners and all-inclusives in Alcúdia will now be appearing this Saturday in “The Bulletin”. Well, that’s what I’m told anyway. But if it is a part of contributing to a wider debate and awareness-raising as to the impact of all-inclusives, then one can but hope that there will indeed be a wider and more fruitful debate and also campaign conducted in the paper’s pages. It is a subject that all the media in Mallorca needs to be devoting serious attention to. It is the “principal problem” with the island’s tourism model, as I said the other day. But the debate needs to go further than the normal volleys across the net of how-bad, how-good all-inclusives are. We’ve heard it all before. There should be a call for some genuine research, perhaps conducted by the tourism department of the university in Palma, as to the impact of all-inclusives. Whether it would be commissioned is another matter; the conclusions might not be what certain bodies want to hear. But this is the direction that the debate needs to go in; not just a constant reiteration of anecdotal moans and praise.

John Bercow by all means, but let there be less of him and more of the real issues facing the island. Personally, I reckon Bercow is a good choice, but I don’t really care one way or the other. Now, if Ann Widdecombe had got the gig … What a hoot that would have been.

Michael Jackson
What can you say? Remarkable that tmz.com broke the story.

The Sun And The Moon

I like London’s China Town, not that I’ve been there for some years. But it used to have an atmosphere of Bohemian seediness and the smell of spice mixed with bodily deposits. My kind of place. Not that Puerto Pollensa is anything like that. Perish the thought (save doggy deposits, that is). But you can forget Agatha Christie as the promotional motif. Come to Puerto Pollensa, where the Mediterranean meets the Orient. Puerto Alcúdia and Playa de Muro may, combined, have roughly the equivalent of a World Cup squad of Chinese restaurants but they are diluted over a fair land mass. The Puerto Pollensa Chinese land grab is far more concentrated.

I had been inclined to think that it was some sort of wackiness, a Puerto Pollensa-goes-East Grinstead in L. Ron Hubbard terms, but no, Serenity Coast turns out to be, you guessed it, a Chinky. One of the international variety, whatever that is. Just a chopstick’s throw from the other one, the wording above the restaurant is like that you might find on a CD of music to do massage by. Sun and moon, and wind, and promise, and some other stuff. When it opened, there was a bit of a Chinese do, which was fair enough, but I’m damned if I can make head or tail of a Chinese dragon in terms of what it’s all meant to convey. Serenity Coast, not a bad name though, if, that is, you’re talking an Ibiza chill-out album perhaps.

Still on all-inclusives
Much as I have wanted to avoid the gloom, it is, I’m afraid, unavoidable. Another bar owner had a word. Again, it was not recession but the all-inclusive. When owners say things are bad, you are not inclined to disagree with them. The rough economic climate has exacerbated the underlying market change that the all-inclusive has caused.

I have been known to defend all-inclusives, if only in the pursuit of balance and objectivity. There have been some outlandish examples of blame being placed at the doors of the AI. When it was once suggested that a restaurant away from the centre of the old town of Pollensa was suffering because of AIs, that was stretching the bounds of credulity.

The AI has been an easy target for blame, and the mindset now is to seek to lay ever more blame. There is little point in dissecting the economic and market situation, either that at a macro level of recession or that at a micro level, of which the AI forms a major part in Alcúdia or wherever. No-one is inclined to listen.

Yesterday, I referred to a “breaking point”. That was in terms of businesses going down. There is another breaking point – people’s attitudes and actions. When there is talk of protests and of mass closures of bars, shops, etc. as a demonstration of what things might look like if there is no intervention (with AIs), one has the growing sense of a breaking point, and it is only the middle of June. Perhaps the high season will mark an improvement, one can but hope so. If not …

The sadness is that this was all too easy to have predicted. The economic shocks of the past twelve months may have been less easy to have forecast, but an economic downturn was inevitable, at some point. The fact is that there has been a decline over the past three to four years, a decline that the AI is only partly responsible for, and despite a so-called record year in 2007. Nevertheless, it did not require such severe shocks and resultant downturn to have exposed the folly of a local tourism economic model disrupted by such a fundamental market change as the all-inclusive.

When bar owners seek to air their grievances through the press, what alternatives do they have? Some might argue that, well, that’s business, chum, and if things aren’t working out, then better you go and do something else. That would be callous and heartless. Perhaps there was a fear that to deny the tour operators and hotels and therefore the tourist their places in an all-inclusive sun would have meant the abandonment of Mallorca and its resorts. Maybe so. But one hears and sees, and one wonders if it might not have been some tough love had the AI been strangled at birth, because the monster that is now stalking the resorts seems only to be growing in its strength and drawing the life out of all around it. Breaking point?

Calling All The Heroes

Following on from yesterday, the meeting did duly take place. You will note that yesterday’s reference has now been anonymised; that’s how they wanted it.

As suggested, the thrust of what the bar owners had to say was indeed about the all-inclusive. Why now, you might ask. The current economic problems have put the all-inclusive offer into even sharper relief. I’ve said it here before that it is hardly surprising that tourists will opt for the security of knowing what they’ve paid for that comes with an all-inclusive, even if what they get turns out to be rubbish. Recession has not stopped the paying out for AI as a higher upfront cost, but the theory (and the practice) is that the total holiday budget is reduced – and quite substantially so in some instances.

Recession and pound weakness are temporary. They are not seen as the villains of the piece by the Alcúdia bar owners; the AI is, and not just the AI but also those AI “offers” and “inducements”. One does wonder quite how many hotels do not have some form of AI now, especially now. Whereas the tour operators may have been the instigators of AI, the hotels have felt the need to go further down that route as a means of securing their businesses – at a cost to others.

There are some positive sounds as to the number of tourists who are going to be coming in high season; positive sounds from the tourist chiefs. But how many of them are going to be on an AI basis? How much spend will they have? The bar owners would like at least a reduction in the number of AIs, but were there to be, or to have been this season, would those numbers due to come be as high? It’s hard to say. Mallorca, Alcúdia, have had to compete not only with other holiday destinations, they have had to compete with other holiday destinations offering AI. To effect a reduction or even an elimination of AI would require some sort of cross-national agreement. It’s not going to happen, though one does wonder whatever happened to that European directive that was meant to have ensured certain levels of service and quality which would, in all likelihood, have put an end to many hotels offering AI.

There is frustration. It’s what caused the call and the desire to get something into “The Bulletin” and to call upon bar owners in other resorts to express their discontent. It seems so little. The frustration stems from the system, the system that seems immune to the impact on businesses, that seems not to appreciate that the AI does little for individual resorts, the system that creates one rule for some, and one rule for others. It’s a frustration that makes people not want to reveal their identities, because of that system. But they’re calling out to heroes elsewhere to voice their concerns and to kick at that system.

We’ve been here before, and doubtless we will be here again. But for how much longer? Is a “breaking point” close, or has it been reached? Will many bars really go to the wall at the end of the season? If they do, the authorities will offer their sympathy and blame the global recession. And they would be only partially correct.

An article has been submitted to “The Bulletin”. It should appear on Thursday.

Threads

I have mentioned the Holiday Truths website here before; it is a pretty good site, if only because it is so easy to navigate. If one looks at the first page of the Majorca forum at present, you will find the usual hotch-potch of threads, but among them there is something that stands out – well, stood out to me. This is the common thread that runs through threads related to specific hotels in both Alcúdia and Can Picafort. Let me list them and see if you can work out that common thread – Delfin Verde, Club Mac, Condes, Condesa, Holiday Village Viva, Platja d’Or. With the exception of a seventh – Bellevue – these are all all-inclusive, or so all-inclusive as to not make much difference, and Bellevue is at least a third all-inclusive. There is another thread that asks about the price of AI in June, and included in that are the likes of the Condes as well. All-inclusive is the common thread. A snapshot and unrepresentative it may be, but it nevertheless does indicate where priorities are tending to lie, those of both the holidaymaker and the tour operator. Last year, Playa de Muro’s Continental Park became flavour of the month, or months, in the same forum; it had gone AI.

While there have always been those who have discovered a particular hotel and kept on returning to it, the holiday decision has usually been based on choice of resort over anything else. But perhaps this is changing, or has indeed changed. It is possible to hypothesise that the resort is now secondary (or lower in the hierarchy) behind the top spot of a good-value AI. For many who opt for all-inclusive, the resort itself is largely irrelevant anyway. If indeed it is the case that the decision process is skewed away from the resort, where does that leave the promotion of the resort? The tour operators that exalt this or that resort whilst interspersing their brochure or website space with the best possible AI deals may be seen as promoting the particular resort, but in truth it is neither here nor there. Much of the resort promotion is very similar in any event, and where it differs in terms of certain specifics, one has to ask how much impact those specifics have. Do, for example, the Roman town and city walls of Alcúdia have any bearing upon the fact that your average Joe and Joan Holidaymaker send off their booking form for the Condes or the Club Mac? I would very much doubt it. Or rather, yes they may have a bearing, but only as an informational element; they are not crucial and nor are they necessarily going to form part of the holidaymaker’s itinerary. In the case of Can Picafort, a resort lacking any obvious points of differentiation, the choice of the Viva Village is purely and simply an AI one, which is not to say that there is anything wrong with either the Viva Village or the decision process, but it is to say that Can Picafort is an incidental, a fact of geography and town naming.

To come back to the theme of 40 years since the BBC started its “Holiday” programme, back in 1969 your average holidaymaker would have taken notice. But he is now far more sophisticated in an unsophisticated fashion. He may know that there are city walls, but these are not what he wants; he seeks unsophistication and pure convenience, and is thus more sophisticated in making a choice without the trappings of what to him are largely irrelevancies. He is less adventurous but content in the knowledge that he does not have to justify his holiday in terms of anything other than the ease of the pool, the entertainment and the beer, all on tap at the all-inclusive. He can pick and choose if he wants to indulge in those “extras” of the local culture, and if he doesn’t wish to, then who is to say he is wrong?

The promotion supporting mass tourism has always been inexact; by definition, mass tourism demands a mass promotional message. It has always been wrong for the simple reason that tourists differ. The all-inclusive has forged a quite different and large niche within the mass-tourism market, and the promotion to this niche falls in the main to the hotels and the tour operators. Resort and island promotion is ill-directed. Consequently, there has to be an admission that, while mass tourism is not finished, its mass has been diluted into numerous categories, all of which require different messages and different promotion. One size fits all was never the best option, and it is now totally discredited. For this reason, the “estación náutica” branding of Alcúdia could be a very sensible thing, so long as it is understood that it is one facet of the resort and pitched at a defined market (or markets), one that, by and large, is not all-inclusive. Different promotional messages can co-exist as part of an overall promotion of a given resort, but if they are not presented the danger is that the all-inclusive, given its seemingly inexorable rise, will become the new mass tourism. And if it reaches critical mass, then the resorts do indeed become irrelevant.

Forever Changes

Continuing with an all-inclusive theme from yesterday, the endless debate about AI hotels is the extent to which they result in guests staying put and never going out and therefore not spending, thus depriving local bars etc. of much-needed custom. It is a sore point with many traders, and not without justification. There are undoubtedly those who never or hardly ever venture beyond the confines of the hotel, but, certainly in the Mallorca context, I have never been wholly convinced by the argument that no-one much does go out. There is a thread under the all-inclusives section of the fine Holiday Truths forum which I thought was quite revealing. One angle is the “convenience” factor, in the sense of not having to take money to the pool and worry about purses and wallets. Anyway, here is the link; it does make quite interesting reading –
http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=133895

Much as many would wish the all-inclusive away, it is not going to happen. Convenience, otherwise known as lack of hassle, is a far from unimportant factor in the holiday decision. Gone are the days when holiday was an adventure into the largely unknown. Had all-inclusives existed 40 years ago, they would probably have cleaned up. Or maybe not. Perhaps then, tourists were so excited by going abroad that they would go out and discover their holiday environment, regardless of what board they had booked. Today’s holidaymaker is too damn blasé by half and wants it all on a plate, preferably a plate next to the sun lounger and ordered by means of waving a wristband. But had AIs been around and been the sort of all-round entertainment Butlins they have become (and Butlins would have resonated far more strongly with the late ’60s tourist), they would have completely re-shaped resorts and the nature of holiday. It is perhaps salutary to try and imagine such a scenario. What this would have meant for all the bars and restaurants. What this would have meant for the resorts. It’s hypothetical, of course, but it just goes to emphasise how holiday has changed and how markets change, and all-inclusives are a major force in changing markets – not for the best, many would say. But to continue the chain of thought, suppose that somewhere like Alcúdia had predominantly offered all-inclusive deals since the late 1960s. How would this have affected the place as we know it? Massively. It would not be the size it is, it would not have the atmosphere, it would not have put the money into the local authority coffers. Maybe it’s this last aspect that should create most pause for thought. Say, also, Puerto Pollensa had been AI since the days when Cliff Michelmore introduced the first “Holiday 69” programme – and note that 69 (a mere 40 years ago this year). How very very different things would be now.

All-inclusives are not going away, but where – ultimately – do they lead?

From Off My Wrist

Now how about this for a bit of a dodgy carry-on? Heard the one about tourists being asked to sell their all-inclusive hotel wristbands which are then either sold on (at a profit) or just used to get free food and drink, while those who’ve sold them go and say they’ve lost their band and ask for and get a replacement? Who do you think, allegedly, or so I’m told, are to the fore in doing the buying of these wristbands? Go on, guess. Think “on the streets” and something else starting with an “s”. I also understand that one hotel in the port area that has been affected by this is now well aware of what’s going on. So if you flog your band for a tenner and go and demand a new one, they may just be a tad suspicious. Mind you, this wristband business or whatever system exists to show that the punter is all-inclusive is not much of a system. I know of a couple who stayed in a well-known all-inclusive in Can Picafort on a half-board basis, or at least that was what they had booked, only to discover that, with the exception of obtaining spirits, the hotel took no notice as to what board status there was. Anyone, it would seem, could have come in and helped themselves to the buffet, as indeed did this couple. The hotels should come up with something more foolproof – the scanning of a microchip implanted into the skull perhaps.

Industrial quantities
News that businesses are deserting large industrial estates in Palma because of the costs of the premises, and this despite cuts to rentals by almost a third, does make one wonder about the industrial estate in Alcúdia. Apparently, says “The Bulletin”, industrial estate plots in Mallorca are the most expensive in Spain, so under the current economic circumstances it isn’t surprising that businesses are looking elsewhere. But there are also a lot of them. There are, for example, estates in Pollensa, Can Picafort and now Alcúdia, the latter recently developed after fifteen years of yes-no-maybe-and-finally-yes, developed to some of the highest environmental standards, and empty. Maybe it’s too early and there will be businesses clamouring to get space, but that might now seem questionable. The one advantage that the Alcúdia estate has over the other two is its proximity to the road leading to the motorway, but whether this is a major advantage is also probably questionable, though the timing of the green light for its development seemed coincidental with the building of the new road into Alcúdia.

Why does every town seem to need an industrial estate? Is there really that much demand? Or was there ever that much demand? There is a sense of the can-we-have-a-golf-course me-too about them: other towns have one, so we want one as well. But to what end? Perhaps it will all be fine and the Alcúdia estate will thrive and be packed with all sorts of business, but take a look around, for instance, the Pollensa estate and you might begin to doubt this.