Is Tourism a Dirty Word?

Last Saturday it was so refreshing to see people out walking and running again. You could feel the positive vibes as people were allowed out to enjoy this beautiful island. This weekend it will be 8 weeks since the start of the lockdown here and sometimes the little things in life are the special ones. I’m not saying I’m enjoying it but I’ve sort of got used to this way of living. So I don’t think I was the only one who thought that after being let out at certain times the incoming new phase would allow us to be able to meet in groups of a maximum of ten was a little bit surprising.

I’ve been saying all along that I thought this has been taken too far but after what we’ve had to go through maybe this step was a little too much? But on the other hand we have to try and get back to something of normality as soon as possible and this is perhaps the only way. It looks like it will be a slow process but each step so far has been a successful one which is encouraging. Remember that adults with kids have been allowed out now for two weeks and there hasn’t been a spike in the numbers. Current Balearic numbers are 1,935 cases, 1,374 recoveries and 202 deaths. You may well have read that there are 19 municipalities in the Balearics that do not have any active cases and 6 municipalities that have never had any cases of coronavirus.

Interestingly we learned this week that Love Island 2020 has been cancelled.

ITV bosses have pulled the plug on the summer series revealing it was a logistical impossibility to safeguard ‘the wellbeing of everyone involved’ amid the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic.

Kevin Lygo, Director of Television at ITV said: ‘We have tried every which way to make Love Island this summer but logistically it’s just not possible to produce it in a way that safeguards the wellbeing of everyone involved and that for us is the priority.

‘In normal circumstances we would be preparing very soon to travel out to the location in Mallorca to get the villa ready but clearly that’s now out of the question.

In Sant Llorenc des Cardasser where the Villa is situated over on the East coast of the island there have been just 11 cases of Covid19. It’s a shame as it’s great publicity for the island which got us into many peoples living rooms. The biggest audience last year was more than six million for one episode. They go on to say that it will return bigger and better in 2021.

That leaves us in a position to promote ourselves. I noticed this week that my colleagues at the paper shared a video from the Council of Mallorca tourism department. Now to be honest I found it a bit dull, hardly any of the places were recognisable and the music was uninspiring. Firstly there’s the age old arguement of Mallorca or Majorca? We don’t have to get into the whys and wherefores here but if you’re promoting a video to what I believe is to the English market than why have the strap line #SeeYouSoonMallorca. When all the main tour operators like Tui, Jet2 and Easyjet call it Majorca. Before you say well it’s obvious isn’t it? My honest answer to that is no. I lost count the number of people who used to ask me as a Rep at the airport “is this Parma Italy?”

I’ve shared the video amongst friends and the general opinion was the same as mine that it doesn’t show us in the best light. You can go onto the Majorca Daily Bulletin website to see it and note that at the moment it’s been viewed just 1,600 times. Then compare and contrast it to the video I’ve shared on my personal Facebook page and see the difference. Thanks to Rocky Reborn for letting me have the opportunity to show the amazing video he made. It goes to show that with some imagination and passion what can be achieved.

Remember this is the Council of Mallorca Tourist Board so you’d expect that in an era of social media that there’d be thousands if not millions on their pages waiting to see all those videos and images wouldn’t you? Search Mallorca.es and you’ll find the Facebook page has 4,176 likes, the Twitter page has 4,357 followers and on Instagram it’s called mallorcatourism with 1,286 followers. Need I say any more? So with a little bit of research I find that the promo videos are poor and the social media pages haven’t got hardly any followers.

If we’ve been in lockdown for eight weeks then surely there should have been a concerted effort to get all those numbers up. What hope have we got? I said last week that Tourism in the Balearics accounts for 44% of our GDP and indirectly with lots of other industries 85%, surely we can do better than the social media numbers I’ve quoted above? If I were to mention the name Iago Negueruela to you, would you know who he was? I’m ashamed to say I had to look him up. He is our Tourism Minister and certainly someone who needs to get his finger out. I would say he was more important than the President right now. I don’t see at the moment any international tourists arriving before July, if they do in what numbers are they going to arrive and what disposable income will they have to spend in bars, restaurants and excursions? I’ve mentioned it before but places like the Canaries and even Benidorm have winter programmes where here we don’t. Where with a bit of investment and thought we probably could. But unfortunately too many Governments have been guilty of not looking beyond the Summer. So right now you’re expecting tourist businesses to survive the year on a three and a half month season!

I like to leave on a positive and whereas I see this summer being a bit of a washout, 2021 I think will be booming and the Sunshine Isle will once again prove itself to be the jewel of the Mediterranean.

Take care everyone and enjoy your weekend!

Richie presents the Radio One Mallorca Breakfast show Monday to Friday07.30-11.00am on 93.8fm in Mallorca and 102fm in Calvià, online at www.radioonemallorca.com on mobile through their free App for IPhone & Android, The Tunein Radio App, iTunes, the Spanish TDT TV service and all smart speakers. If you can’t hear him on the radio then you’ll find him working at Pirates Adventure the islands number one night out and every now and again he may make an understudy appearance!

Follow him on Twitter @DadTaxi1 & Instagram @dad.taxi or feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com