The march for less tourism was ahead of the summit of EU tourism ministers in Palma. | Jaume Morey
A summit for rooting out illegal holiday lets
Less tourism, more life. This was the slogan for meetings and a march ahead of the EU tourism ministers gathering in Palma for their summit on the social sustainability of tourism.
At one of these meetings, climate change was blamed for a "saharisation" of the Mediterranean, a process which means - so it was said - that sun and beach tourism will have a future, but in northern countries. If so, would this not solve problems of, for example, overcrowding? Perhaps, but as one speaker observed: "They talk about sustainable tourism, diversification, quality tourism and tackling seasonality, when in practice this has increased the flow of visitors with their ecological footprint."
The march on Monday of around 1,000 people seemed to be less concerned about climate change than by apartments as tourist lets, private jets, pollution and that overcrowding. The manifesto that was read out stated that tourism sustainability is "non-existent", as housing has become "a speculative financial product".
At the summit, Spain's secretary-of-state for tourism, Rosana Morillo, said that new EU regulations on data exchange for websites that offer short-term rentals, e.g. Airbnb, will mean "a before and after" in the prosecution of illegal holiday rentals. She stressed that illegal supply has to be combated with data and information as traditional inspection techniques result in only a very low percentage of offenders being caught.
Flights in winter ... or none at all
Coming to one of the points above - tourism seasonality - we all know that much depends on flights and from which airports. In the case of Scottish visitors, the lack of flights has been an issue for years. And so it looked as if there was at last some joy for these visitors, when we learned that Scots were being given a Mallorca winter flight boost courtesy of Jet2. Well, there is for some of the winter, as Glasgow flights will operate from February 23.
Flights in winter are, it has to be said, less elusive than commercial seaplane flights. We heard again about Isla Air Express, a Balearic company that has been proposing inter-island seaplane flights and ones to and from the mainland for some years. This time, the company said that it would be conducting test flights between the ports of Palma and Ibiza on November 9 and 10. Unfortunately for Isla Air, the Balearic Ports Authority responded to this announcement by pointing out that no favourable reports for such flights had been given by the Ibiza Harbour Master's Office. There is a lack of necessary documentation for this type of flight.
Moral of the story: Always check on the authorisations before making announcements.
The Balearic government was meanwhile said to be working on there being all-year flights from the US. If so, this would probably mean airlines other than just United, who provide three flights per week from New York between the end of May and mid-September. This news followed United's announcement that it will be flying daily to Malaga from May 2 until September 25 next year. Was this something of a setback for Mallorca and for hopes in further developing US tourism? Possibly, but the director of the Aetib tourism strategy agency, Pere Joan Planas, said that the goal was to maintain at least the three weekly summer flights and to add one or two per week in the low season.
October is still summer in Formentor
The late summer season, i.e. October, is obviously not as busy as July or August but it is busy enough, and it attracts a tourist profile that benefits the island's car-hire firms. These rentals may go some way to explaining why the Formentor road in Pollensa was jammed at times last month. The lifting of the traffic restrictions at the end of September was another reason.
The restrictions were extended from mid to end-September precisely because it was evident that there was traffic congestion once they were lifted. Why should October be any different? There are fewer tourists in October than September, but there are more than enough who wish to get around the island. It may be that the authorities have to look at a further extension to the end of October and think about April and May as well.
Being made fools of
Elsewhere in the Tramuntana, there has been more about the illegal motorbike races. The Indignats MA-10 residents group, which has been campaigning against the noise from motorbikes and illegal races for years, has become even more indignant because the traffic directorate (DGT) has said that there aren't illegal races and that average speed of vehicles on the MA-10 is only 35 km/h. "Enough of them (the authorities, and not just the DGT) treating us like fools."
A video put together by the group includes testimony from a motorcyclist. He says that 90% of bikers change their exhaust pipes before taking to the mountain roads so that they make more noise. "I've never been fined and I've been doing this for 25 years."
Drugs from the sky and from the sea
The Guardia Civil, whose Trafico division patrols the MA-10, has various units for all manner of policing needs. One of these is the Pegasus team, commonly referred to as the air police. A particular task that this team is called upon to perform is surveillance of airspace over the prison in Palma. The head of the team, Enrique Monter, explains that there have been cases on the mainland of small aircraft (drones) dropping "forbidden substances" onto prison grounds when it is known that certain inmates will be outside. Drugs are what are mainly delivered, but there could be other things, e.g. firearms. He says that there is no evidence of any such deliveries at the prison. The air police will shoot drones down if any are detected.
All police units continue to be on the lookout for any more bundles of hashish that might appear on Mallorca's coasts. It is now two weeks since bundles were swept into the sea during a failed landing while there was a storm. Mainly concentrated on the Andratx and Calvia coasts, drugs have been found as far away as Deya, while one bundle washed up in Arenal. To the astonishment of beachgoers, a man cut the bundle open and ran off with several packages. The police were unable to locate him.
A beer record, but what if it were in Magalluf?
In Arenal, where the tourism of excesses law applies, a new record has been set for the largest round of beers in Mallorca - 1,234 glasses with 0.2 litres of beer, which were drunk by a German group of 55 people. This worked out at an average of 22.4 beers per person. A 62-year-old businessman, one of the group, said that everything was orderly. No one got out of hand. Fair enough, but it was to be expected that there were comments on the Bulletin's Facebook page which suggested that had this been a group of Brits in Magalluf, we'd never hear the end of it. Quite.
The cost of educational segregation
The Balearic government, as has been well reported, is minded to reform the tourism of excesses law. But it has rather more pressing matters with which to concern itself. As they have a minority, the Partido Popular rely on Vox for parliamentary support, but Vox have linked next year's budget to their demands for free choice of language for teaching in schools, this free choice referring to Spanish or Catalan.
The PP have as good as said that this will be impossible, while one of the main unions in the Balearics - the UGT - has put a figure on what segregation of classes would cost. This segregation is the only way that the free choice could be effective, and the UGT says that it would require an additional 120 million euros.
This may be an exaggeration, but there would obviously be extra cost for an education budget that already equates to around one-sixth of total government spending. Vox have also suggested that the PP's proposed budget (without any additional spend for segregation) is in breach of Spanish government stability rules.
Neither the PP nor Vox would have been delighted by the return to Spain and Mallorca of Josep Miquel Arenas. Better known as Valtonyc, the rapper from Sa Pobla was sentenced to three and a half years for offences related to his lyrics, e.g. glorifying ETA terrorism and insulting the crown. He avoided prison by fleeing to Belgium in May 2018. Efforts at extradition came to nothing, and the statute of limitations finally expired. Informed of this, he arrived back in Spain last Saturday and flew on to Mallorca on Sunday. Six years of fighting for freedom of expression, he said, had been worth it.
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