Pep Cañellas is the founder and president of the Fergus Group, a company which has grown from nothing in 2011 to now having thirty hotels.
Closely associated with the regeneration of Magalluf, Cañellas explains that the company saw a gap in the market for a value-added product. "We knew how to adapt to what the demand was looking for. It was a blank canvas. There were many hotels that were simply being renovated with a coat of white paint and that didn't make any sense. There was a lot of all-inclusive product in hotels with no space and vice versa. At the beginning we didn't have money to buy the best hotels, so we had to buy the ones we could and then reposition them. Changing quantity for quality is good business for anything nowadays."
He says that he gets people who reproach him for having opened new hotels where there were none before. "I have to explain to them that that is not the case. We only invest in improving the facilities of existing hotels. There has been a moratorium for almost 25 years and it is not possible to grow."
Pep Cañellas of the Fergus Group. Photo: Pere Bota.
Cañellas accepts that the hotel sector is often "demonised". "It's been like this for many years and has come from many different sources with very different interests. Anyone who denies this has not lived in Mallorca. But when you explain clearly what you are doing, people end up understanding. We got our hands on products that were in a very difficult condition - staff who were owed money, etc. With the tourism debate on the table more than ever, it is an ideal time to explain this to people."
The debate frequently raises the word degrowth. On this he says that the first thing to understand is where the growth has come from and how Mallorca has reached the situation of overtourism that it is in. "The answer is obvious: holiday rentals - legal and illegal - and second homes. We have to decide what we want to do and it is a debate that society must face: do we prefer to have tourists in hotels or in the apartment opposite?
"I'm in favour of degrowth applied to the part that we are least interested in preserving. We have to decide where to start cutting and if that is what suits us best. We aren't as overcrowded as we might be. There will be more saturation if we all rent out granny's house to a tourist without any kind of control. That is the real problem."
tranq tranquerThat is exactly how I bought my rural property 9 years ago (elderly parents retiring to a care home and four disinterested middle aged city kids with young families) and how my German neighbours (celebrity chefs) bought their derelict property, now renovated, last year. I live here, they don't. The rest of our neighbours are mostly elderly Mallorquins, and when they go their properties will be sold (most likely to foreigners) to divide between the kids.
So the CEO of a giant hotel group bringing trillions of tourists to saturate Mallorca, whilst banking all the bucks says ‘oooooh, not us ….’
Shock horror!
It’s all the fault of those naughty home owners, renting their houses out. So annoying - and those tourists will spend their money in local restaurants, shops, supermarkets and bars!!!!
Depriving Mr fat cat CEO of yet more trillions. The cheek of it!
ALL tourists should, in fact, be spending their hard earned dosh in all inclusive, money guzzling mega hotels - owned and totally controlled by Mr Greedy CEO.
That explains it all! Wow thanks for telling us.
Stephen NivenEither you don't live here or if you do it must be in the middle of a city. Those dozen kids you speak of either know before hand who will get the family house or squabble amongst themselves till its sorted out. Occasionally they opt to sell and share the cash, that is how I was lucky to buy my first windmill. Look around, there are no vacant derelict houses in the countryside. They have all gone long ago. Any you do see will be earmarked for a family member, it will not be for sale. The 80's and 90's was the time to get them, before the young Mallorcans realised their race to the cities was not actually the way to go and reversed their thinking. If they need cash they may sell the odd plot of land for an exorbitant price to a foreigner to build another mushroom on, ( slap in the middle of the land so forever removing it from agriculture) but they won't sell the family home and finca.
I would love to see a place for motorhomes to be able to legally park in the major resort areas where one can dump toilet and grey water. One only needs around 30 pitches per resort at the back of resorts. Having driven down and back to England in a car this year, and stayed in Cala Millor legally, it was one of the best holidays over the past 35 years in the resort. I prefer self catering to be able to have more freedom, rather than tied to hotels and meals. I would NEVER stay in All Inclusive. My wife passed away just over 9 years ago, and I brought the love of my life, my small dog with me, and we had a great time together. All inclusive on the whole can kill the local economy, where people can just stay in the hotel for their stay in Mallorca, rather than getting out to support local businesses on the island.
I plan to come back next year to Cala Millor again, but in a motorhome, and stopping through France on route several times, and if need be, using a hotel or apartment hotel in the resort that will be dog friendly for my stay if I can not stay in my motorhome. I would leave nothing but footprints, and take nothing but photos in a motorhome, but also support the local economy where I can.
So let me see, elderly Mallorcan couple who never contributed much beyond a dozen kids and a few surplus sheep, drawing state pensions and requiring health care 24/365 die off and the kids sell the parental home to estrangieros for €'000,000 which they then spend in the local economy, then the offshore buyers employ architects, builders, caretakers etc. for more €'000,000 into the local economy, visit a property that no sane Mallorcan would want to live in (and which would otherwise be derelict, costing the local authorities money) for a few weeks a year, spend more money on restaurants, shops and services, and are zero burden on health or local services.
And 2nd home-owners are a bad thing?
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He is interested in degrowth as long as they stay in his hotels, and nowhere else!
tranq tranquerThat is exactly how I bought my rural property 9 years ago (elderly parents retiring to a care home and four disinterested middle aged city kids with young families) and how my German neighbours (celebrity chefs) bought their derelict property, now renovated, last year. I live here, they don't. The rest of our neighbours are mostly elderly Mallorquins, and when they go their properties will be sold (most likely to foreigners) to divide between the kids.
So the CEO of a giant hotel group bringing trillions of tourists to saturate Mallorca, whilst banking all the bucks says ‘oooooh, not us ….’ Shock horror! It’s all the fault of those naughty home owners, renting their houses out. So annoying - and those tourists will spend their money in local restaurants, shops, supermarkets and bars!!!! Depriving Mr fat cat CEO of yet more trillions. The cheek of it! ALL tourists should, in fact, be spending their hard earned dosh in all inclusive, money guzzling mega hotels - owned and totally controlled by Mr Greedy CEO. That explains it all! Wow thanks for telling us.
Stephen NivenEither you don't live here or if you do it must be in the middle of a city. Those dozen kids you speak of either know before hand who will get the family house or squabble amongst themselves till its sorted out. Occasionally they opt to sell and share the cash, that is how I was lucky to buy my first windmill. Look around, there are no vacant derelict houses in the countryside. They have all gone long ago. Any you do see will be earmarked for a family member, it will not be for sale. The 80's and 90's was the time to get them, before the young Mallorcans realised their race to the cities was not actually the way to go and reversed their thinking. If they need cash they may sell the odd plot of land for an exorbitant price to a foreigner to build another mushroom on, ( slap in the middle of the land so forever removing it from agriculture) but they won't sell the family home and finca.
TDThanks, I was about to inform her then I saw your comment
I would love to see a place for motorhomes to be able to legally park in the major resort areas where one can dump toilet and grey water. One only needs around 30 pitches per resort at the back of resorts. Having driven down and back to England in a car this year, and stayed in Cala Millor legally, it was one of the best holidays over the past 35 years in the resort. I prefer self catering to be able to have more freedom, rather than tied to hotels and meals. I would NEVER stay in All Inclusive. My wife passed away just over 9 years ago, and I brought the love of my life, my small dog with me, and we had a great time together. All inclusive on the whole can kill the local economy, where people can just stay in the hotel for their stay in Mallorca, rather than getting out to support local businesses on the island. I plan to come back next year to Cala Millor again, but in a motorhome, and stopping through France on route several times, and if need be, using a hotel or apartment hotel in the resort that will be dog friendly for my stay if I can not stay in my motorhome. I would leave nothing but footprints, and take nothing but photos in a motorhome, but also support the local economy where I can.
So let me see, elderly Mallorcan couple who never contributed much beyond a dozen kids and a few surplus sheep, drawing state pensions and requiring health care 24/365 die off and the kids sell the parental home to estrangieros for €'000,000 which they then spend in the local economy, then the offshore buyers employ architects, builders, caretakers etc. for more €'000,000 into the local economy, visit a property that no sane Mallorcan would want to live in (and which would otherwise be derelict, costing the local authorities money) for a few weeks a year, spend more money on restaurants, shops and services, and are zero burden on health or local services. And 2nd home-owners are a bad thing?
Ulla JacksonI believe tranq was being sarcastic.
Time for the All Inclusive Hotels to realise other have lives as well. You are hand in hand with improper politicians!
Bryan AdamsI meant to give you a thumbs up!!!