03/05/2015 00:00
TW
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Fire at sea
With the first of May official start to the tourism season only three days away, the last thing that was needed was some form of disaster to put a downer on the season’s commencement. It would be an exaggeration to say that the fire on the Sorrento ferry crossing from Palma to Valencia was a disaster, but it might have been. Dramatic photos of the ferry’s plight and of the 157 passengers who had been taken off the vessel filled the pages on Wednesday, the rescue services and other ferries having come to the rapid assistance of the stricken ferry.
There were fears that it might sink - a tweet from the Balearics Port Authority suggested that it might - and that its fuel might escape. By Thursday, the rescue services were waiting for the fire to be totally extinguished before towing the ferry back to Palma, though by yesterday, it was being reported that the preferred option was Sagunto on the mainland. The good news was that inspection of the ferry indicated that it was still in good enough condition to be moved as soon as possible.
Dauntless and the Palma Boat Show
While this drama was unfolding, the Royal Navy’s destroyer HMS Dauntless, docked in Palma for a few days of R and R for the crew, was opened up to visits by leading political figures and the general public. On Friday, Warwick Upton’s photos of a tour of the ship, considered to be the world’s best naval destroyer, by members of our Subscribers’ Club showed off the Dauntless. Among the visitors was the British Ambassador to Spain, Simon Manley, and he was also a visitor to the Palma Boat Show which, by coincidence, opened on Thursday.
Other visitors to the show included the Consul General, Andrew Gwatkin, and President Bauzá, who highlighted the importance not just of the show but also of the nautical sector to the economy of the Balearics: over 2,500 people are employed by an industry that generates some 340 million euros per year. Yesterday, we ran a special feature on the show which included a look at some of the famous vessels that have been associated with Majorca over many years, one of them being what was arguably the first luxury yacht - the Nixe of the Archduke Louis Salvador, for whom 2015 has been dedicated as his “year”: he died one hundred years ago.

Playa de Palma and tourism promotion
Away from the port of Palma, the project for a major redevelopment of Playa de Palma, one that has been subject to all manner of delays and technical hitches, was finally given the green light. Over 450 million euros are expected to be invested in the project, which will include upgrades to some 70% of the hotel stock. Tourism minister Jaime Martínez said that these upgrades will lead to 60% of the 140 hotels being four or four star plus and to 10% being five star.
This project cannot really come soon enough, and in an interview by Humphrey Carter with award-winning travel writer Annie Bennett on Sunday, the reasons were clear: the competition from destinations such as Turkey and what hotel complexes there have to offer which Majorca generally does not. Annie made several other very interesting observations, one of which related to how tourism promotion is conducted in Spain as a whole and in the Balearics in particular. “We have ministries for tourism, a Spanish tourist board, tourism promotion agencies and tourist boards. It’s all very confusing and quite often, such as in the case of the Balearics, I wonder what they do.” Amen to this, we might all conclude.

Tourist taxes
Indirectly related to tourism promotion is the whole issue of a potential tourist tax in the Balearics. A good deal of reaction had been stirred by the suggestion by Podemos that it might seek to reintroduce a form of tourist tax were it have some governmental say after the election this month.
On Friday, we reported that Podemos’s leader in the Balearics, Alberto Jarabo, had his first meeting with the Majorcan hoteliers at which, though he insisted that the hoteliers would “not dictate laws”, he appeared to adopt a more open-minded view regarding a tax. Meanwhile, a report on tourist taxes elsewhere in Europe indicated that they appeared not to have had any harmful impact on tourism, one of the destinations which does have a tax being Croatia, a direct competitor to Majorca.