Editorial: Changing resorts

Investments of 500 million euros have been announced over recent weeks for the Playa de Palma (Arenal and Can Pastilla) and for Magalluf. Now this is plenty of money and clearly confirms that private enterprise is backing some of the more controversial resorts on the island. The Playa de Palma has been dubbed Berlin by the Sea and it is taking the lion´s share of the investment which will be spent on new hotels and leisure facilities. Then there is the new shopping complex. Magalluf is to receive the same sort of treatment. Now both Arenal and Magalluf have been in the headlines for all the wrong reasons over recent weeks but it appears that the future is bright. It could be said that both Arenal and Magalluf are going up-market. But both resorts have their more “fun and over-the-top areas” so is their room for the hen and stag parties with the more so-called up-market tourist in the same resort? I sincerely doubt it. You can´t have the best of both worlds. So Arenal and Magalluf are going to have to decide what they want for the future. The hoteliers are banking on more up-market tourists hence their construction of more four and even five star hotels. The local authorities are of the same opinion. But what is going to happen to Calle Punta Ballena in Magalluf or the “Beer Street” in Arenal? Will they simply disappear? Not in the short term but in the long term I suspect that they will re-invent themselves again in a new form.