IT’S TRUE, TOURISM PROMOTION OF MALLORCA DOESN’T MATTER

Andy Stalman aka Mr. Branding, owner of Totem Branding, is the recipient of a twelve-month Council of Mallorca contract worth 167,000 euros to reformulate the branding of the Mallorca brand.

On more than occasion, I have had cause to question tourism promotion initiatives in Mallorca, both the nature of these initiatives and their necessity. I can accept the sense of, for example, the co-marketing of Palma as a low-season citybreak destination by the Palma 365 Foundation and Jet2 because it was specific in terms of addressing seasonality. But generally speaking, why is it needed?

Promotion by advert, with the exception of the insipid Rafael Nadal ad of a few years back, ceased at least fourteen years ago. The financial crisis was the reason. The Balearic tourism ministry was then in charge of all promotion (since delegated to the island councils) and ever since, by and large, it has come to be understood that this approach isn’t necessary.

Yet there are the promotional initiatives, the validity of which as much as the necessity is dubious. In this respect, I have to thank one of Mallorca’s foremost tourism journalists, Javier Mato, for a piece in Palma-based Preferente magazine. Headed ‘In Search of the Tourist’, he has highlighted Calvia’s wish to promote the Galatzó finca. Why? It’s all in the name, as ever, of sustainability, and smacks - to me, at any rate - of wanting to look good in a sustainable manner; it’s for appearances’ sake.

Sr. Mato concludes by arguing that destinations such as Calvia don’t need one single more tourist. Or rather, not one more than are already going to come and who will be doing so, at least in part, because of the multitude of non-governmental sources engaged in some form of promotion or another. And considering Mallorca as a whole, and so not just Calvia, the chances are that there will be more tourists in 2024 than there were in 2023. Sr. Mato is right.

A couple of weeks ago in this column, I noted that Spain’s tourism minister, Jordi Hereu, was talking of an increase in the number of tourists and the level of spending in 2024 unless there is “a significant exogenous phenomenon”, by which he meant something external to Spain. By the same token, an exogenous phenomenon can work to

Spain’s advantage, if one feels that an increase in tourists is an advantage.

TUI are pointing to just such an exogenous phenomenon, namely conflict in the Middle East. In the provisional report for the first quarter of 2024, TUI refer to “the option to flexibly adjust capacity from the eastern to the western Mediterranean”. The tour operator couches this in the framework of an escalation in the conflict, so it isn’t necessarily the case that it is already rushing to seek a safe refuge haven Spain, including Mallorca, being top of the list of the safe alternatives - but this could prove to be the case. Just as it was when there were the security concerns because of terrorism in Turkey and elsewhere some years back.

Jet2’s CEO Steve Heapy said much the same thing at the Fitur tourism fair in Madrid last month. “If you look at some of the eastern Mediterranean destinations, they are thousands of miles from the conflict zone. But given this situation, some people turn their gaze to the western Mediterranean and think that it is probably a better place to go.” For Spain as a whole, he noted, Jet2 capacity for 2024 has increased ten per cent, and some of this increased capacity will be heading in Mallorca’s direction. Last month, it was reported that Jet2’s flight capacity to the Balearics will be up eight per cent this year.

So, where the UK market is concerned, you have the two main tour operators either planning or already committed to additional capacity and partly because of an exogenous phenomenon; nothing to do with promotion by town halls or island councils. And the UK market will not be alone.

Javier Mato adds that there shouldn’t be an obsession with quantity. However, the currently inescapable fact is that quantity is growing significantly. Jordi Hereu would like us to believe that this is growth hand in hand with quality (as defined by the amounts spent on average). But is it? For Gabriel Escarrer, the

CEO of Meliá Hotels International, efforts in various parts of Spain and not just Mallorca and the Balearics have been through “the prism of quality over quantity”.

Writing in ‘El Confidencial’, Escarrer highlights the case of Magalluf and the role that Meliá has played in its transformation. “It has become a destination where family and couples tourism, four and five-star hotels, and a quality leisure offer predominate. Insecurity and antisocial behaviour, as in tourism of excesses, have been greatly reduced; they have been almost eradicated.”

I don’t see how it is possible to state that quality is taking precedence over quantity when we have just experienced a year when tourist numbers in the Balearics leapt by 1.3 million.

But in certain instances, e.g. Magalluf, it can be said that quality has shot up. Is this due to promotion? In some ways, yes; Meliá’s, for example. But it is also because of a general messaging separate to institutional initiatives. Promotion, per se, doesn’t matter.

“It has become a destination where family and couples tourism, four and five-star hotels, and a quality leisure offer predominate. Insecurity and antisocial behaviour, as in tourism of excesses, have been greatly reduced; they have been almost eradicated.”