Big Units: New tourism organisation

Have you ever heard of "countryside units"? I daresay that you haven't, but you are now going to, as Mallorca's tourism is going to be organised according to them, or so says tourism minister Carlos Delgado, in what will be a "radical change to the organisation of holiday areas".

This radical change will allow for better management of tourism services and infrastructure and for better flows of information both between different local authorities and to tourists who know nothing of what may exist in the next town. This seems to be the theory, anyway.

These countryside units are not only in the country. They are also by the coast. There will be nine of them in all; units, it would appear, made up from towns with similar characteristics. They are also being referred to as "mancomunidades", which aren't communities of men, but supra-municipalities. The countryside-unit man-communities conform to an extent to existing mancomunidades which are meant to share certain resources (like waste management) and work together.

The so-called "radical change" is all part of what the government is sloganising as "all the land is tourism", a catchy slogan, and one that those in sleepy parts of the island who ne'er set eyes on a tourist will now have to get used to. Mallorca is going to be one big tourist resort, a Brotherhood of Mancomunidades, karaoke bars popping up in quiet backwater villages and tourists singing "kisses for me".

The regional government, which had seemed to be attempting to cut layers of organisation, appears to want to do precisely the opposite when it comes to tourism. The nine units will be "above" the individual towns, thus adding a further administrative element to an already over-administered tourism organisation in Mallorca. Or will they mean that the individual towns no longer have responsibilities for tourism but share them with others? This is what seems to be the on the cards, but you wouldn't think that all towns will take kindly to having to jointly promote themselves with others.

The units make some sense, as in, for example, there will be one for what is, except for a bit of a forest, all but a conurbation on the bay of Alcúdia, i.e. Alcúdia, Muro and Can Picafort. The hotel associations of Alcúdia and Can Picafort are already joined at the hip, though the association in Muro, despite the town being between the other two, is not. Others make less sense. Why does Calvià need to combine with Andratx when Calvià is already a conglomeration of various resorts? What advantage is there for Palma in linking up with Llucmajor when Palma is vast enough as it is? Palma town hall, having launched its own Palma 365 campaign and separate tourism foundation, now finds itself having to worry about the great German tourism drinking class of Arenal when it has one of its own.

Then there is the unit for the Tramuntana. World heritage and so on, but this is one big unit that stretches from north of Andratx to Pollensa. A community of mountain it may be, but what does Puerto Pollensa have in common with Banyalbufar and Port des Canonge? To be honest, Puerto Pollensa doesn't have much in common with Pollensa town, other than the name.

The units for the Pla de Mallorca and for Raiguer, i.e. inland parts of Mallorca to which no tourist would ever dream of going, also make sense as they correspond to the current quasi-administrative mancomunidades, but what difference will they really make to tourism? Indeed, what difference will any of these units make, other than to potentially stir up local jealousies and a lack of co-operation? The mancomunidades of the Pla and Raiguer have worked well when it has come to specific service provisions, but others have not, most obviously that in the north of Mallorca which has been wound up.

Despite towns sharing some similarities, these similarities were not strong enough for the six-pronged northern mancomunidad to stay together. Ditching Sa Pobla, Artà and Pollensa from the new one for tourism sounds as though there will be far more common ground between Alcúdia, Muro and Santa Margalida (Can Picafort), so it might just work, but is there really a necessity for any of this?

Maybe the minister can clarify his radical change, as it is hard to understand what it is going to achieve, but maybe there is something else behind it all. Is this the start of a rationalisation of local government and of town-hall mergers? Why stop at tourism organisation?


Any comments to andrew@thealcudiaguide.com please.