Windy – British business associations

Associations. Always associations. They are hardly novel, yet “The Bulletin” describes an association formed in Menorca as being just that: “a novel way of beating the recession”. This is ABC Menorca, the Association of British Companies Menorca. It will work with other associations, with the Council of Menorca, look to expand into Mallorca and, perhaps crucially, be a member of the Balearic Business Confederation. Though styled, clearly, as an association for British-run businesses, the intention is that any business with British clients could join.

Here we go again – perhaps. Towards the end of 2008 there was a fair amount of publicity for a British and Irish business association formed in Calvia; I spoke about it here, even met a couple of the prime movers. It never got off the ground, a problem – as I understood it – being some relatively small funding from the Council of Mallorca that was not forthcoming. This association also seemed, to me, to be not so far removed from ESRA in that it had a social and charitable agenda; one with a solely business focus would be, well, more focussed.

An association – such as that being formed in Menorca – seems a good idea, but as it is open to any business with a British interest and were it to embrace, in a significant fashion, Menorcan-run businesses and businesses owned by other nationalities, then how different would it be to other business associations? In a comment by the paper’s editor, we are told that Mallorca needs a similar association, one that could “advise local authorities on the best way to help the British market”. This, seemingly, would be the difference, though quite what this means isn’t stated.

There is a risk. It was one expressed to me by a British business owner when that Calvia-based association was around; namely that indigenous Spanish businesses would see it as a threat which could cause polarisation and antagonism. A generally held view, among many British owners, is that it is better to keep their heads down and get on with running their businesses. When, last summer, I spoke with British bar owners in Alcúdia who were expressing their concerns as to various issues in the resort, they did not want to be identified. To do so might, in their view, have exposed them to, how can one put it, some comeback.

It is the need to be running businesses that is a further obstacle to such an association. Most owners have little interest outside of their own affairs; they also have little time to devote to something like an association. It is revealing to note in the report that businesses currently involved are in the real estate and nautical sectors; businesses, in other words, of a more professional level of organisation than your average bar, which might be able to give time to an outside body.

Where I would agree with “The Bulletin” is in the observation that there are British businesspeople with good ideas (to help Mallorca), but who lack a direct link to the authorities – mainly the tourism ones – that might enable these ideas to be expressed. Perhaps the Menorca association, or an equivalent in Mallorca, might be a conduit to facilitate this. But then, there are any number of bodies – at town or island level – which could, were they inclined to do so, invite or co-opt representatives of British businesses and the British market onto committees to offer their ideas. One has to ask why they don’t. Maybe the suggestion has never been made, or maybe those authorities would rather not listen. Yes, there almost certainly are good ideas to be offered, and this association may well indeed prove to be the way of making them heard. We’ll see.

As a footnote. The paper’s report refers to a launch on Friday, yet a report of the association’s first meeting dates back to the start of June last year. Maybe there’s a re-launch. The paper also did not go into detail as to the people behind the association, other than mentioning the name of Colin Guanaria. Who he? The founder of Bonnin Sanso, the estate agency. A serious player, in other words, and one who does – or should – give confidence that this association could indeed be a force, despite any misgivings outlined above.

Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.

Nothing Lasts Forever

So, that article did not appear in “The Bulletin” – Michael Jackson got in the way it would seem – but it left some sufficiently hacked off because there was another piece about the Calvia bar association. Always Calvia, never Alcúdia – not my view, but what I hear. It is now meant to appear today. Ho hum.

This Calvia association. The desire is to get bar owners to become members and then act in some form of pressure capacity. I get a sinking feeling about it. The mover behind it is one of those who was involved in the ill-fated (Calvia-originated) British and Irish Business and Residents Association. It collapsed through lack of funding that was not forthcoming from the Mallorca Council; at least that’s my understanding. There was probably also an element of here’s an association, here’s some publicity and here is then massive indifference. Which is not to say that these things spring up without good intentions; but it is to say that people, for a variety of reasons, do not wish to get involved. Those reasons include the fact that they do not wish to be identified, that they don’t have the time and that they are just not interested. The only association that has ever truly established itself is ESRA (English Speaking Residents’ Association). It exists primarily for one reason – English speaking. There is no real agenda, which probably explains why it’s successful. People feel comfortable with an essentially benign group of fellow expats which courts neither controversy nor publicity. Plenty others feel uncomfortable if they are not straw-hatters, prefer not to wear black ties and attend dinner and dance functions or prefer not to play bowls; hence they do not join. ESRA goes about its admirable charity efforts and good works, its committees and gardening contests with all the gentility of an English shire country fête. Why, when I think of ESRA, can I never get out of my head the image of Matt Lucas and David Walliams as Judy and Maggie judging the marmalade?

It’s all a bit last days of the Raj, and to hear some of what is currently being said one might well form the impression that ESRA – and every other association as well as agency of government – is bearing witness to the last rites of things as they are known in Mallorca. I was given a right old ear-bashing by a (Mallorcan) restaurant owner in Playa de Muro the other day. “What do I do?” he kept asking. “What’s the solution?” he demanded of me. As if I know. Why not get all the owners together and put on some sort of protest, suggested I. It won’t happen. But there is some sense in associations, that do represent interests, coming together to voice their legitimate concerns as to the direction in which the tourism economy (the summer one) is heading – or more accurately, has gone. Recession is temporary, but the underlying decline has been there for some years, a combination of competition, reduced spend, over-supply and all-inclusives. The depressing fact is that complacency has prevented more or less everyone – government, local authorities and yes bar and restaurant owners – from recognising or at least admitting the trend. It has taken the “crisis” to finally wake everyone up. But having had some choice words for Muro town hall, this particular owner said, “so we protest and then the tourists all end up going to Turkey”. It’s an exaggeration, but it contains some truth in that there is a general impotence in the face of tour operator power and tourist choice.

Though there can be sympathy for bar and restaurant owners, it is also in limited supply for some, especially, I’m sorry to have to say, the Mallorcan families who have enjoyed the benefits of and reaped the rewards from tourism. The hardships tend more to be confined to newcomers, often foreign. Many of these families, some of them doing the moaning now, are sitting on significant wealth, or at least the potential to release wealth. Mallorca grew fat and made many Mallorcans wealthy thanks to various factors that dropped into the laps of these Mallorcans: first, perhaps the only sensible policy that the Franco regime had (to develop mass tourism); second, the tourist benevolence of tour operators, airlines and the tourists themselves; third, the benevolence of Europe in creating a modern economy for Spain and the island. Nothing lasts. That is the real point and the real problem. The tourist is spread far more thinly, he has more options. He, the tourist, and the tour operator can give and have given; they can also take away.

Sympathy there is, but there needs to also be a serious dose of realism. One detects a sense by which some of these owners believe that tourists continue to owe them; that they most certainly do not.

Join Our Club

Are you clubbable? By which I mean are you someone who likes to be part of a club or an association? You would be in your element in Mallorca if you were. You would almost certainly be in the press as well.

Two new associations have sprung up over the past few days. The first is something called “Europeos por Europa”, an apparently non-politically-aligned group dedicated to getting non-Spanish “Europeans” together to act as some form of lobby group. There are already two similar organisations. When this latest one met, there were, according to “The Bulletin”, people from all over the island. Maybe so; maybe they were mates of the protagonists. This was hardly a mass movement.

What is the point of this? Well, the ultimate point of it may be that there is more of a political element than is being said; I’m told that a political party may well be the goal in the not-too-distant future. Who cares? Only those who harbour political ambition or spend their lives hopping in and out of bed with different associations. The associationist (sic) is driven by a variety of motives – political, altruistic, self-interest, genuine concern/interest, nothing better to do, self-importance, whatever. The associationist cannot be characterised by one thing alone, save for the impulse to be an associationist. There are an awful lot of people who are not. Like Groucho Marx, they do not want to belong to clubs that would accept them as members. In fact, they don’t even think this. They are just not interested.

Is there a need for such a group, political or apolitical? One issue that does apparently exercise the minds of “Europeans” is the matter of residency cards. These are now no longer issued. Instead, a certificate is obtained, meaning that the passport is required as identity. It is an inconvenience, but it is hardly the important matter that it has been made out to be. Indeed anything that kicks at the identity-card culture should be welcomed.

The impetus for the change in residency documentation was not Spanish; it came from Europe, which makes this latest group seem a tad ironic. The thinking, albeit ridiculous, was that as the British do not have identity cards (yet), then they should not be discriminated against by having to have one in Spain. From this came the idea that, if not the British, then no Europeans, other than the Spanish. It makes no sense, but then there is much that makes no sense in Spain. It was a matter, though, of such importance that local politicians, when canvassing for support during the recent European elections, confessed to being unaware of it, but that they would of course be doing something about it were they to be elected.

But the Europeos por Europa association has duly been given its place in the publicity sun by the press, though it may yet sink, like so many, into the obscurity of indifference. Which brings me to the second association – one for bar owners in Calvia. It too has enjoyed the glare of press publicity. If it proves one thing, it is that the formation of an association is more likely to guarantee that glare. On Friday “The Bulletin” front-paged with a story about the problems of Calvia’s bar owners – and then followed this the next day with another one. There was, I was told, to be another story, one about bar owners in Alcúdia. You might remember this being mentioned a few days ago. I wrote that story. It has not appeared.

Editorial content is entirely discretionary. Perhaps the story was not good enough. Perhaps it was too much of a familiar theme (all-inclusives). Perhaps it just wasn’t what was wanted. Yet it was “probably” going to be included on Saturday. It wasn’t. A bar worker (not one who had been involved with the story) said to me that he had been expecting the article, as he had seen the mention on this blog. He then added that it was typical. Calvia, Palma, yes; Alcúdia, no. Much as I have sought to defend the paper against an accusation of southern bias, I do have to wonder. Just to go back to that meeting of all those people for Europeos por Europa from across the island. Where was the article about this meeting featured? In the Calvia spotlight section. That’s where. If it genuinely was something for the island, it would have stood alone. It did not. That bar worker may have a point.

Let me say that I do not feel slighted if the article does not appear. But it would be nice to know why it hasn’t. Perhaps the answer lies in forming an association of bar owners in Alcúdia. Then maybe the paper would take some notice. Or maybe not.