Mass tourism

Loads of tourists on the beach. | Josep Bagur Gomila

Andrew EdePalma28/04/2023 15:41
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There was a conference in Palma last week. With the title of Confebus, you won’t be surprised to learn that it was about buses ... and coaches, as this was a tourism gathering dedicated to the transporting of tourists. A panel of four discussed buses and coaches. But when moving on from means of transport, they spoke as one in saying that tourists, seemingly because of the pandemic, are now far more demanding in terms of service and seek out quality destinations that are not “massified” - in other words not overcrowded with millions of tourists and, presumably, thousands of buses and coaches.

The Council of Mallorca’s tourism councillor, Andreu Serra, one of the four, observed that “the new tourist” is someone who is far more informed and far more demanding and is a customer “who doesn’t seek massification”. Not one of the four, but speaking at a similar time at a presentation at Palma Aquarium, was the CEO of Jet2holidays. Steve Heapy said that tourists are “happy to come to Mallorca even if there are a lot of people, because it is a busy island”. “And for many that is part of the experience - finding busy bars and restaurants.”

While Heapy was grabbing the headlines and the buses and coaches weren’t, the CEO of the lavish Jumeirah in Puerto Soller, Cristina Sancenon, was giving an interview in which, apropos “saturation”, she stated that “we have passed mass tourism, it no longer suits us”. There is new demand, she explained, and Mallorca has adapted to this in a “phenomenal” manner, which is why companies for “super luxury” have emerged.

The pandemic did produce much talk of a new tourist, one who may well be in our midst. But if there are new tourists, then on the evidence of forecasts for this summer they will find themselves (as always) in the midst of massification. It is quite conceivable that 2023 will break the all-time 2018 tourism record. Mass tourism may no longer suit a hotel in Puerto Soller, but mass remains and mass will continue. Define mass anyway, as Mallorca has been speaking of mass since the days when there were a mere one million tourists per annum rather than the 11.95 million of 2018.

When the Hotel Formentor eventually reopens (April next year is now the target date), Four Seasons plan to increase the workforce from what it was prior to closing for redevelopment. This is despite the fact that the number of rooms is being reduced by sixteen. Here is an example of where, because of enhancement, employment is not negatively impacted by reduced numbers; on the contrary. And so it can be elsewhere. A Mallorca bid for a quality product certainly doesn’t mean fewer jobs.

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The island has been undergoing a change, and one for the better. Referring to new or post-pandemic tourists strikes me as irrelevant, as the process had started before Covid. But this is a process that can only ever entail a limited super luxury of a Formentor or Jumeirah. Bear in mind, and putting villas and legitimate good-standard holiday rentals to one side, Mallorca has around 1,800 establishments of one form or another.

In 2017, the then Balearic government director-general of tourism, Antoni Sansó, said that if there were to be a decrease of one million tourists in summer, it wouldn’t be “a drama”. He insisted that this wasn’t some sort of anti-tourism statement but one made because of overcrowding and the fact that overcrowding affects tourists as much as it does residents.

I can’t think of anyone else who has ever come up with a figure, and it should be noted that Sansó also referred to a redistribution of tourists to other months, something that has been repeated on many occasions and by others ever since. Redistribution on the scale of one million is a pipe dream, and Sansó probably knew it was. But were there to be a loss of tourists - one million was perhaps extreme - was he right in saying that it wouldn’t be a drama?

The answer lies fundamentally with the quality of product and therefore what visitors are prepared to pay for this product, which inevitably leads on to the quality of tourist, the definition of which, when considered in this way, has to be in terms of spending power. Steve Heapy wondered what quality tourism was supposed to mean, and he was right to do so, as it can sound offensive.

There is a history in Mallorca of offence having been caused. One can go back to 2001 and when political observations about the quality of some German tourists caused a hell of a fuss. But back then, as has been the case more recently, the observations had to do with behaviour rather than spending power. The current tourism minister, Iago Negueruela, has insisted that quality tourism isn’t about spending, it refers to respect and being responsible.

At the same time, though, there is the constant mantra of quality over quantity (as indeed there was in 2001), which surely has to imply more than just respect purely on economic grounds. But right now, based on tourist stats, there is a ‘quality’ of greater spend, while the quantity appears to be undiminished. So where does that leave massification? Is a non-quality tourist to blame?