People Of The Year: Spain and Mallorca

Mark Zuckerberg is “Time Man (Person) Of The Year”. Good for him. He joins a distinguished list of those who “for better or worse” have most influenced events during the year. His name is now etched alongside previous winners such as Roosevelt, Churchill and The Computer. There was no person of the year in 1982, just a machine; neither Thatcher nor Galtieri could persuade the judges.

There has never been a Time Person Of The Year from Spain. There is arguably only one who might have been: Franco in 1936. Wallis Simpson won that year for some reason. He then faced some pretty tough opposition over the years of the Civil War; Chiang Kai-shek and his missus winning in 1937 and Hitler and Stalin in the next two.

If Spain has proved to be light when it comes to candidates for Person Of The Year, then Mallorca has been all but weightless. The island doesn’t really do “greats”. In seeking a person of the year, therefore, there is no alternative other than to forget global influence and to instead be inward-looking in considering Spain and Mallorca’s persons (sic) of the year.

For Spain you probably have to look no further than Vicente del Bosque or Andres Iniesta for lifting the World Cup, but that puts them in Sports Personality of the Year territory. Influencing for better or worse? Well, does A.P. McCoy do this, other than influencing the betting habits of a nation? Discuss.

Does Zapatero qualify as person of the year? He has influenced relatively little other than his likely political downfall, but his real problem has been that he is influenced by other things. He has no real control of events, just as Mallorca’s politicians have no control, except in one area. A whole dock-full of them have influenced events for the worse – Munar, Matas, (Miguel) Nadal and their shenanigans with public money. Allegedly. People of the year might well be the more anonymous faces of the anti-corruption police and judges.

But Zapatero does qualify in one respect. He responded to the Pope’s accusations of secularism in Spain by saying that laws are not made “that the Pope wants”. His great achievement, not just this year, has been his challenges to the Church. He may go down in history as having presided over the collapse of the boom times, but  he also deserves a place in history for his social policies. He can’t be made person of the year because of his economic failings, but he would still make the shortlist.

As in Spain, so Mallorca has its sporting aspirants. Rafael Nadal and Jorge Lorenzo. Great achievements by both, but what have they really influenced? The greater achievement was probably that of a non-Mallorcan, Real Mallorca’s former coach Gregorio Manzano for influencing outstanding performances from a team that refused to be dragged down by a hopeless club. Even Manzano didn’t influence events that much though, not to the extent of ridding the team of Sid Lowe’s “no-fans” jibe.

Of Mallorca’s politicians, the ones who have kept their hands clean, that is, can anything be said? Not a lot. President Antich was and is a victim of circumstances, but he did one thing for the good – booting the Unió Mallorquina party out of the coalition when the corruption charges became a daily occurrence. The weakness of his position and that of his government was, however, exposed when he had to concede the environment ministry to the Mallorcan socialists (PSM) who promptly bared their political teeth in bunkering the Son Bosc golf course. The new minister, Gabriel Vicens, has form in influencing events for better or worse, depending on your point of view; he had previously managed to hack Alcúdia town hall off so much that the planned rail extension from Sa Pobla was scrapped.

Antich said in January that he was going to make tourism his priority in 2010. Heading off to Moscow to press some flesh may have been evidence of this, but did he influence tourism events? Not so as you would have noticed. As with most things, he showed how impotent Mallorca’s politicians are. They find it hard to influence anything that really matters, such as tourism. The real people of the year, as ever, are the bosses of Thomas Cook and TUI. It is they who influence events for better or worse, and so we can anticipate ever more all-inclusive in 2011.

No, there is no one person who merits the Of The Year accolade. Not a Mallorcan or a Spaniard anyway. The one who does is American. Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook influenced us, well many of us, for better or worse, and gave rise to subversiveness of the sort that saw Pollensa and its poorly maintained and littered streets being highlighted with shame and pro-duck campaigners in Can Picafort aiming to flout the law.

“Time” may have got it wrong with Wallis Simpson when it overlooked Franco, but it has got it right with Zuckerberg. Do you like or do you want to be a friend?

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Sport For All (Except Mallorca)

The World Travel Market in London takes place from 8 to 11 November. What is described as “the premier global event for the travel industry” will this year be devoting considerable attention to sports tourism. Which is why the Balearics will be concentrating on promoting wine.

At the WTM a report on sports tourism will be launched, one that will present a “road map for lucrative opportunities within the sports tourism industry”. According to the WTM organisation, sports tourism is flourishing where traditional tourism is in decline. It goes on to say that tourism boards need “to be more proactive in identifying events and activities which (will) attract visitors and promote their destination to a wider audience”.

Sports tourism falls into two categories – spectator events and participation. The reporting of the WTM in November has focussed on the first, with particular attention being given to the “legacy” and “minefield” of major sporting events. For Mallorca, this is something of an irrelevance. There have been attempts, unsuccessful ones, at staging major events – well, one, the America’s Cup – but otherwise they have been pipe dreams, such as Formula 1 in the streets of Palma. This was the brainwave of former president Jaume Matas. A trip he made to Valencia as part of this idea is just one of the many items that has cropped up in the list of allegations he faces.

Unfortunately, anything that smacks of something even vaguely “major” ends up smelling less than rosy. Another great Matas venture, the Palma Arena velodrome, was the prime cause of all the allegations that started to flow in his direction. The velodrome itself has hardly been a huge success. The Mallorca Classic golf tournament, from which the current government pulled the financing some three years ago, even managed to find itself caught up in corruption investigations when the police paid the Pula golf course a visit earlier this summer. Then there were the ambitions for Real Mallorca, further pipe dreams, those of the man with the piping business, Paul Davidson. All those tourists flocking to watch the team – so he had hoped. Last heard of, Davidson, having been removed from the board of his own company, was in the US looking to flog a gadget that plugs oil leaks. Shame he couldn’t have come up with something that plugs leaks in a football club’s finances.

When it comes to the “lucrative opportunities” of sports tourism, Mallorca probably has to settle for less of the lucre through participation rather than events. Which brings us inevitably to the familiar themes: golf, cycling, canoeing, Nordic walking. Stifle that yawn.

If only the promotion of this tourism was done effectively, there might be grounds for some optimism. But it isn’t. Take golf. In 2008 a promotional campaign was devised under the bizarre slogan of “much more than golf”. What was this supposed to mean? It is probably as well that the tourism promotion agency IBATUR has been scrapped. Not because it was allegedly up to its neck in corruption, but because it was useless.

At least we can console ourselves that the bay of Alcúdia “Bienestar Activo” brand of canoeing, hiking etc., etc. has been revived, albeit with far less money. I say console ourselves, not that it is any clearer what it all entails than it was when it was ditched in September because of lack of central funding.

The WTM organisation very kindly points out that sports tourism “will post record profits and contribute an astonishing 14% of overall travel and tourism receipts by the end of 2010”. There’s a nice thought. For someone. Somewhere other than Mallorca. But if not sports tourism, then how about a bit of sacred-sites tourism? At the WTM there will also be sessions on what is a fast-growing sector of tourism – visits to ancient places of worship. Well, I suppose there is always Palma’s cathedral.

Sports tourism. Sacred-sites tourism. It sounds like things will be a bit slow for Mallorca and the Balearics at this year’s WTM. Just as well there’s all that vino for them to get stuck into and to promote. And all those thousands of wine-buff tourists to anticipate. If only.

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.

Going Swimmingly? Puerto Pollensa’s pool

The first of March last year. I posed a question. Would there be another “fiesta” when Puerto Pollensa’s swimming pool was closed? There was one back then to mark its opening (in fact its re-opening). It might have been more apposite had I asked whether there would be another fiasco.

They should have known that it was tempting fate. They should have known to have kept quiet about the whole thing. They should have known better than to inadvertently draw too much attention to the fact that the pool was a botched job with a roof on the wrong way round and a company that couldn’t operate it. But no, they went ahead and had a fiesta, publicising the grand opening with a bizarre poster featuring kids in the open air in summertime. This was the start of March, don’t forget. And there was, finally, a roof as a roof is meant to be – on the right way round.

It was tempting fate. No good could have come of it. The pool is closed. Again. This time it’s because someone’s forgotten to pay the electricity bill. Well, we know who hasn’t paid the bill. The company that has the concession to run the pool, Algaillasport. The electricity supplier has cut them off, and won’t be uncutting them until the company has handed over 20 grands worth of unpaid bills, which equate to nearly seven months of non-payment. Endesa seems to have been uncommonly patient.

When the agreement was drawn up with the town hall, the company had bargained on forking out 1,500 euros a month. They underestimated to the tune of a mere 100%. Hardly a drop in the deep end. And now they’re treading water with the town hall but hoping they can come to another agreement which will enable the pool to re-open – again.

It might be easy to suggest that this is all another example of how any project that comes anywhere near the town hall drowns under the weight of incompetence. But this wouldn’t be fair to the town hall, if only because it is not the only administration with a dodgy swimming pool. Santa Margalida’s was shut for two years and still manages to leak water. Alcúdia’s simply never met the spec, which has resulted in changes to the agreement with its operating company. In Inca, the pool went over budget by 600 grand.

Having a local pool that happens to be closed isn’t so bad when there is the sea. The town hall can’t cock that up, though they can of course cock up the arrangements for the maintenance of the beach and the provision of sunbeds, which they managed to do so well this year. And then there is next year and doubtless a further round of failing to come to an adequate agreement. But the pool should be open. There again, it might not be.

* Acknowledgement to the report in “Ultima Hora” for some of the above.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Dance Till You Drop: Pollensa mayor’s problems and Zumba

The corruption cases – one in particular – are moving a little closer to home. At today’s plenary session at Pollensa town hall, much other business is being withdrawn by the opposition parties, in order to focus on asking questions of and seeking explanations from the mayor in respect of what may or may not be his links to the Operación Voltor. This is the one to do with the goings-on at Inestur, the strategy institute within the tourism ministry. Its former director, the Pollensa politician Antoni Oliver, a member of the Unió Mallorquina like the mayor Joan Cerdà, has been implicated in the case, and what interests the opposition are telephone conversations between Oliver and the mayor. These conversations have been mentioned in the case summary. There is also the matter of the accounts for the Pollensa music festival, for which Oliver was responsible. In February, a call was made to conduct an audit of these accounts. The mayor stood up for Oliver when this call was made, implying that any accusations regarding irregularities were a slur.

Zumba in Alcúdia
At the same time as the mayor is being grilled, there will also be something demanding taking place in Puerto Alcúdia; demanding in a rather different way. We’re talking serious fitness stuff. Pant, pant. However, Zumba, so we are told, feels less like the onerous pursuit of an earnest fitness session, more like just getting down and partying. The Zumba slogan is, after all, “ditch the workout, join the party!”

Zumba is basically Latin dance adapted to a fitness environment. And why not. Dance is every bit as beneficial to health as many other forms of exercise, and it is also often more fun. And that is part of the deal with Zumba. It puts the fun back into getting fit. On the Zumba website – http://www.zumba.com – there is a video by a reporter from “The Wall Street Journal”, eulogising the benefits of Zumba and concluding that, at the end of an hour’s session, she has “a feeling of deep joy and happiness”

If you can get over the trademark obsessions with Zumba, and there seem to be a number (though I guess this is fair enough), the site will tell you all about it, and then the question may be – where can I do it? And that’s where the Puerto Alcúdia angle comes in.

There are two Zumba instructors in Puerto Alcúdia, and Alcúdia is the only location in the Balearics which offers official Zumba instruction. Emma, who many might know from Sea Club, and Angel, who others might recognise from the drag troupe at the old La Belle and elsewhere. The sessions take place at Sea Club and at the Calypso fitness centre, and I shall be going along this evening. To take a look. You think I’m doing it, then think again. For now!

Zumba has gone massive in a very short period of time. And to have it right in the heart of Alcúdia. Well, this seems like quite a coup.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

No More

Does the regional government have a policy on golf courses? As far as the opposition is concerned, it does not, and it is not difficult to understand why it might think this. On the one hand, there is the tourism minister giving more or less carte blanche for the building of more courses and on the other there is the transport minister saying that no more will be built. He also reckons that the 23 in existence on Mallorca are sufficient and that many of these are under-utilised, a view that it is difficult to disagree with.

This contrariness is, though, hard to fathom. The tourism ministry’s stance would see, for example, the building of the course in Campos, along, in all likelihood, with a hotel complex. This course might actually make sense, given that Campos has so little by way of tourism. But in the wider scheme of things, i.e. taking the island as a whole, whether any more courses are needed must be open to question, something which, more than the environmental issue, has always dogged the credibility of the building of the Muro course.

Over the past eighteen months or so, there have been different reports, one saying that the island is “golfed-out” and agreeing that no more are warranted, another reckoning that no-one should be more than 50 minutes from a golf course, whatever the hell that’s supposed to mean. More courses probably. There has also been the association of golf tour operators saying that the numbers coming to play golf could rise by 15%. And when its president met the tourism minister, the latter forecast a situation in which the Balearics would become the leading golf destination in Europe.

None of this quite adds up, unless, that is, one accepts that a 15% rise in golfing tourists could be accommodated by current courses, which probably is the case. But as golf is presented as being such an important facet of the so-called “alternative” tourism, the fact that the government seems to be unclear as to its actual policy does seem rather curious.

If not golf, then how about half-marathons to swell the tourism masses? Or how about a film festival to do likewise? From next year there will be a half-marathon in Pollensa – in April in fact. And in 2011, also in April, there will be the first Mallorca International Film Festival, which presumably will become an annual event. Both of them are worthy enough, but neither has much to do with improving the winter tourism scene, given that they will both be staged just prior to the start of the main season and that neither will necessarily generate much by way of “new” tourism.

And still on a sporting theme … Real Mallorca. Thrice woe, or maybe several times more woe. The latest farce, the selling to the Martí family that has proved not to be a sale as the previous interim owner has not been paid, now sees the club back in the hands of that interim owner, Mateu Alemany. This lawyer is something of a club hero as he regularly pops up to try and dig it out of its latest hole. One might ask if he was perhaps less than diligent in gaining assurances as to the financial capabilities of the Martí family. He accepts that he made a mistake but that the information he had led him to believe that they would prove acceptable. Alemany is right when he says that no-one, least of all in the press, raised any great questions about the family’s ability to finance the club. One thing’s for sure, he will make damn sure that any new owner does have the financial wherewithal, though the questions remain as to what state the club might be in come May when the next sale is projected and as to who might even want the club.

I Will Travel To Rio

There were no parties in Madrid. The samba danced on till the wee smalls in Rio instead. The Olympics. Some years from now. There were presumably a few Brazilians in Mallorca who were dancing the night away as well. Or make that more than a few. The numbers of Brazilians on the island are strangely high given that the great world carve-up of the late fifteenth century denied Spain the largest of South America’s countries. 

 

The awarding to Rio of the 2016 games was the fairest result. To have continued to deny South America a piece of Olympic action would have seemed miserly. If South Africa can have the World Cup, then Brazil can have the Olympics, and indeed, given the national team’s pre-eminence for so many competitions, it is curious that it has not been granted another World Cup since 1950 whereas an under-performer like Mexico can have had two, albeit that the second was a late change when Colombia fessed up to not being able to stump up the finance. 

 

Disappointment there may be that Madrid has lost out – again – but it may have been for the best. Now, in all truth, is not the time to be taking on the sort of financial commitment that an Olympics demands. The games may be seven years down the line, but the work starts now, as does the handing around of the cap. The Spanish Government would have been insane to have started chucking money that it doesn’t have at a Madrid Olympics. And it might only have fuelled more regional resentment. The Catalans have not exactly been supportive of any Madrid bid, which is a tad churlish as Madrid lent Barcelona its backing in 1992. It might be noted, though, that Juan Antonio Samaranch, who made the emotional plea in favour of Madrid, was born in Barcelona.

 

But of course, as we keep being told, the Olympics are about more than just a huge tax burden, they are about legacies, promotion of sport and healthy lifestyles and all the usual twaddle. They are also about politics (as in Beijing) and tourism (as in all of them). Though one felt pride at London being chosen for 2012, there must be many now, given the economic circumstances, who would have preferred not having put one over the French or indeed Madrid. Only one city in recent times has truly benefited from the games, and that was Barcelona – all that money that was lavished on bringing it up by the boot- and athletics shoe laces from the sand-pit it had been allowed to become during Franco’s time and turning it, once again, into one of Europe’s great cities. But there is the pride angle, always assuming the organisers don’t completely cock-up and turn a host city into a laughing-stock (Atlanta was never that but it wasn’t far short). London Pride, let’s hope to God there will be grounds for it and indeed grounds fully developed. 

 

The Olympics are the not the only vehicle for a bit of civic tourism promotion and legacy-building, whatever this latter is. There is the rather more down-scale city of culture malarkey. Palma is up for some of this, as it had been for riding the crest of the wave of the America’s Cup before Valencia hoisted its victorious sail. At least no-one’s suggested that Palma should have the Olympics – yet. A city of culture, though, seems fair enough. It would make all that cultural tourism stuff seem worthwhile, and who knows, were Palma to be the culture capital – in 2016 by coincidence – maybe all the new tourists that this would create (one hopes) might also contemplate visiting other parts of the island. The actual candidacy is in fact for Palma and the Balearics, which sounds like stretching the city angle a bit. More likely, the tourists who come to those other parts would be shuttled off on excursions to Palma in order to get a bit of cultural action. And action, moreover, that will probably include bands of Brazilians beating drums and dancing sambas, resplendent in yellow and green t-shirts with legends declaring Rio 2016.

Surf’s Up

Things you can’t take to the beach – or shouldn’t, must not: pets (goldfish presumably not, but mainly dogs); camping gear, cooking devices; boats, kites for surfing, jet-skis, oil tankers, nuclear submarines – oh, and windsurf boards and sails. Or to clarify. Dogs are not irregular visitors to the beach, but no-one seems to much do anything about them; jet-skis, kitesurfs can be taken so long as they are in the “sports zones” or beaches set aside, such as – for kitesurfing – La Marina in Alcúdia and Es Comú in Playa de Muro. And also windsurfs. 

 

On the beach in Playa de Muro three windsurfers were making their way back to shore. A lifeguard was on patrol. The whistle went and there ensued much gesticulation, discussion and talking into his two-way by the lifeguard. Plod arrived. Plod on water. Plod on a jet-ski, carefully brought into shore without the engine in full blast. More discussion. 

 

Windsurfing, unlike jet-skis and kitesurfing is not particularly dangerous in terms of potential harm to other sea users. So long as there are not many of them and the windsurfer knows what he or she is doing. As soon as there are a load of them and those who don’t know what they’re doing, then there is the potential for harm. Hence, you cannot windsurf wherever takes your fancy. Them’s the rules. Except for those who believe that the rules are there for others. It is not a uniquely Spanish thing, but there is a definite trait that says rules are for others – this manifests itself in various ways, one of which is bringing the windsurf board, the jet-ski or the kite to the beaches where they shouldn’t be. Probably along with the dog as well. 

 

The kitesurfing that occurs at La Marina has become something of a sightseeing spot. When the wind is blowing, as it often does there, the skies are full of colour and of Charlie Browners performing mobes. It is a spectacle. But unfortunately it is also quite dangerous. Not because of the kitesurfing per se, but because of the rubber-neckers, the Charlie Browners (kitesurfers) themselves and those drivers who just suddenly stop. The road here is a blackspot, which is why there are always floral tributes. The kitesurfers wander and run across the road to their cars; tourists pull up with little warning or poodle along too slowly. There’s going to be an incident there.

 

 

Museum piece

More on museums. The Inca footwear museum controversy continues. The opposition Partido Popular at the town hall has denounced the extra costs of 800,000 euros for the museum. It says that it has been known for five years that extra funding would be needed and that the whole project has been a “botched job”. Meanwhile, the projected new Pollentia museum in Alcúdia is to be funded courtesy of money from the central government. The sub-director for state museums, and there is such an individual, has promised the consortium (the town hall and agencies of the Mallorca Council and regional government) that the money will be forthcoming under budgets for 2011. So, work is unlikely to start till then. The level of funding has not been disclosed but is believed to be in the region of three million euros.

 

And still on local project funding. Threequarters of a million euros have been forked out to create the park by La Gola in Puerto Pollensa. This has been a colossal waste of money. It should have been reserved only to keep the water clean and free of the stagnation it has been prone to; the rest, pointless. Doubly pointless as the park is not being maintained properly. It is full of dog shit and litter and benches have graffiti. One has the impression that officialdom has washed its hands of the whole thing; there hasn’t even been an official opening.