The problem with tourism elites

You wouldn't have needed me to give these dictionary definitions, but stating them provides in stark terms where critics believe Mallorca's tourism is heading. If tourists as a collective can be defined as a group, the elite comprises the richest, who by implication are the most powerful, as the tourism industry feels it necessary to pander to them more than any other group. They are the best, as defined by their spending power.

In 2005, Dr. Ana Moreno Garrido of the Complutense University of Madrid was the author of a paper entitled (in translation) 'Tourism of the Elite and Tourism Administration of the Era (1911-1936)'. This administration, which was founded on the short-lived National Commission from 1905 (the same year that the Fomento del Turismo, Mallorca Tourist Board was created), focused on elitist tourism in Spain. This was hardly surprising, given that the wealthy and those with ample free time were the only people likely to be tourists. In the UK, for example, there was no such thing as holiday pay at that time. It was introduced under 1938 legislation that didn't come fully into effect until after the war.

The working man, notwithstanding the efforts of the Labour Party's holiday association, would never have dreamed of a foreign holiday. Nor would the bulk of the middle class. The elite was easy to promote to and to cater for as there wasn't anyone else. And what did Mallorca have to offer this elite towards the end of Moreno's era? The iconic Hotel Formentor, for instance, represented accommodation par excellence in an area of outstanding natural beauty.

Ninety-five years after Adan Diehl's hotel opened, the revamped hotel boasts some of the highest, if not the highest prices on the island. What goes around comes around.

Margalida Ramis of the environmentalists GOB is, one does accept, a usual suspect in the ranks of the island's tourism sceptics. But when she said a couple of weeks ago that "tourism for elites is a huge danger", it was a statement worthy of more than dismissal on the grounds that she is a loony eco-agitator. Her concern, and she may be right, was that the government's social and political pact for sustainability will be geared towards an elitism in tourism. In this respect she highlighted prices - those for a luxury tourism. Everything goes up in price as a consequence.

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As much as an alarm over prices, there is the nature of this elitism. Or what can be its nature - a wealth allied to an arrogance that in fact runs counter to the mantra of a responsible tourism predicated on respect for island culture, environment, heritage and people. The charge of 'privatisation' of a beach in Cabrera by superyacht occupants some summers ago was a case in point.

There are at least some politicians who do concede that 'quality' tourism cannot be defined solely by a high spending power. On balance, of course, it can be argued that an elite tourism is preferable to a holidaymaker having a crap in the lift of a two-star Arenal establishment (as happened recently). But have elite turds never been deposited where one would hope that they wouldn't be?

One does understand the desire for a tourism that maximises return and economic wealth generation, even if there will always be questions as to how this wealth is distributed. However, as Mallorca seemingly sets its sights more and more on cultivating an elite, the character and personality of tourism will unquestionably change. And might it do so by elevating a shallowness of tourism based on an ever more luxurious disposability?

Tourism is disposable. It is a consumer item for temporary gratification that now comes replete with state-of-the-art provisions that hotels trust will engender a loyal and repeat consumer base. Yes, but loyal to what? The hotel brand or the destination? The loyalty can be movable in a geographical sense. Mallorca today, Dubai tomorrow. So long as the high-class gastronomic fare, the therapies and the spas are all to the same standard, then what does it matter where you are.

Is the truly loyal tourist being edged out? There is perhaps evidence of this being the case. Nothing lasts forever, of course not, and heaven knows Mallorca has taken way too long in seemingly having finally come to the realisation that value rather than volume is actually what counts. One can go back to 1992 and to research by the University of the Balearic Islands applied economics faculty which calculated that at least ten per cent of Mallorca's tourism cost the island because of the lack of return. And this was before the true advent of the cheapo all-inclusive.

Nevertheless, one feels saddened if tourists over many a year start to feel marginalised, as their loyalty to Mallorca has been unstinting. To be replaced by an elite who couldn't care less?