If less tourism is more, why don’t they just say so?

So much has been said, is being said about this pact that the conclusions of the working parties, who doth move in mysterious ways as few have any idea as to their members, will need to be revelatory. So much store is seemingly being set by them that anything less will be anticlimactic. But is anticlimax inherent to the deliberations? Were the stones pre-drafted in pencil for the finger of Professor Antoni Riera to then chisel the twelve commandments?

Certain critics of the pact have suggested a degree of predestination. Maybe, but I cling to a trust in Riera’s independence, albeit taking account of statements he has made over time that President Prohens has willingly echoed. The pact parameters might therefore be marked by three overriding principles – adding value, enhanced productivity and zero growth in terms of tourist numbers. The latter of these runs up against a counter argument, one presented by the critics, that favours degrowth. Aurelio Vázquez, a former president of the Mallorca Hoteliers Federation, is the latest to dismiss all talk of degrowth. “This doesn’t exist in the world of economics. It is not a viable option.”

One can’t help but feel that there is a hint of contradiction. If the prescription is to be, as outlined by Sr. Vázquez, a focus on tourist profiles who can afford prices he would like to set and which will result in the flight of tourist profiles who can’t afford them, does this not imply at least a contraction, a decrease in numbers? Or is it that he is alluding to the theory of degrowth? This does exist in the world of economics, just not in the one built on a model of the endless quest for growth.

The sanctity of the pact’s anticipated commandments has meanwhile been diluted by their very prophet – President Prohens. All indications had been that we would have to wait until the document was signed, sealed and set in tablets of stone. When? Hard to say.

Because the wait may be so long, the president has perhaps felt the necessity to “promise” new measures to combat tourist overcrowding before the final document is presented. She announced this in parliament last week, accepting that “it is clear there is general discontent” because of tourist saturation during a summer with a record number of visitors. What measures might these be? We were none the wiser as she didn’t specify any.

My feeling, as previously stated, is that the government needs something to offer the World Travel Market in London. Only a few weeks away (early November), it is pretty obvious that the working parties will not have come up with anything. A benefit has in fact been made of the slowness of their efforts, pointing to a thoroughness demanded of commandments that have indeed been referred to in terms of generational definition.

That’s fair enough but is at the same time insufficient for a public clamouring for action and for an expectant media to chew over. And there is no less expectation than in the ranks of a ravenous British media with headlines to conjure up. Above all else, the fair in London is going to be an occasion of full-on PR in confronting the negativity of protests and a media hunger for messages that more often than not appear to delight in a Mallorca-baiting. What are the chances of a pre-emptive measure or two being first unveiled in London? Pretty high, one might think.

Prohens has otherwise said that the government will be bound by the conclusions, which can perhaps be interpreted as it having its own expectations as to what these might include. That is a fear of the critics, who see in Riera the perfect conduit. He has repeatedly spoken over the years about the need for adding value and for improved productivity. But he has also stressed value over volume.

The closeness of Aurelio Vázquez to the Partido Popular is well-known. He once suggested (maybe jokingly) that his next step would be tourism minister, while the PP Spanish government back in 2012 sounded him out as secretary-of-state for tourism. He has praised Prohens and her pact while at the same time saying much the same as Riera has, which can be summed up with the cliché of quality versus quantity.

But what is this quantity? Can there be this added-value quality with the recent rise to around 18 million tourists in the Balearics a year? In simple terms, placing a figure on quantity is what much of the public wants to hear. And this certainly isn’t as high as 18 million. Prohens, Riera, Vázquez, so many dare not say it while at the same time hinting at it. Less is more, and they know it is.