City´s four-year plan to revitalise tourism

Staff reporter PALMA City Council has produced a four-year plan for revitalising tourism and is aiming to launch promotional campaigns, advertising Palma as the key centre for business, cultural and sporting tourism in the Mediterranean. Francisca Bennàssar, the deputy mayor in charge of tourism, confirmed that additionally, local government wants to optimise the facilities it already has to offer to visitors in terms of traditional “sea and sand”. Within the list of priority objectives, Bennàssar explained that “central municipal policy will concentrate on offering alternative packages to tourists. Facilities will be available all year round, instead of the seasonal six months, and restructuring of services will focus on quality. “Promotional activity will ensure that the Balearics tourism sector, with its extended features, will be efficiently commercialised.” Concurrent with the new plan, the City Council will rationalise and upgrade tourist organisation and management systems, as well as providing a full tourist information service for visitors within Palma”. In relation to the improvement of the tourist product, Tourist sector director and External Promotions officer, Francisco Martínez, pointed out: “In terms of holiday alternatives, we want to concentrate on developing quality aspects of the Playa de Palma. Sporting tourism is the angle we are going to promote. We are also considering setting up a water sports complex which will allow us to market combined tourist package deals.” Giving a boost to cultural and musical activities is also on the agenda, as much for the benefit of tourism as for the marketing of international events. It is intended that Palma should increasingly accommodate a variety of different tastes and requirements. The City Council is going to realign activity surrounding large traditional festivals, making them attractive to a wider market, but they are also going to give detailed attention to smaller, specialised festivals where tourists can take part, for example, by sampling local produce at country fairs. Again, the emphasis will be on Palma as “a city that bustles with life for 12 months of the year”. Bennàssar indicated that Palma could become a principal nucleus for business tourism (sales incentives conventions, congresses, etc). “We consider that our town has all the necessary prerequisites to capture a handsome slice of the market in business tourism, festivals, and specialised trade geared to visitors. Meanwhile, we must resolve the current infrastructure problems”.