Local actors in Mediterranean mass tourism development: the Majorcan case

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Local actors in Mediterranean mass tourism
development the Majorcan case

• Dr. Joan Amer
• Universitat de les Illes Balears
• CeMoRe Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Foreword.
• Introduction.
• The Majorcan transition to a tourist economy.
• The beginnings of hoteliers.
• The entrepreneurial culture.
• The political articulation of hoteliers.
• The political impact of hoteliers.
• The debate of tourist and land-planning policies.
• Balearic government period of centre-to-right
  forces (1983-1999).
• Balearic government period of centre-to-left
  forces (1999-2003).
• Conclusions.

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FOREWORD

• The presentation is based on the authors PhD
  dissertation Tourism and politics. Majorcan
  hoteliers.
• This is a work-in-progress paper.
• Case-study approach.
• Present stage
• Search of contextualisation within international
  theoretical framework in tourism studies,
  specifically about tourism, power and politics.
• Search of comparative contexts on other tourist
  islands (specially Mediterranean).

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PHD AND BOOK
The book (published 2006)
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INTRODUCTION

• Mallorca as a pleasure periphery and as a
  global beach.
• Local entrepreneurial participation.
• Why hoteliers?
• Majorcan hoteliers creating new pleasure
  peripheries.
• Local politics level The political impact of
  Majorcan hoteliers.
• Historical perspective and case-study
  approach.
• Historical narration.

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LÖFGRENS DEFINITION OF GLOBAL BEACH (1999)LEGO
PARADISA

• Löfgren This bricolage of props and activities
  comes from different settings and epochs all
  around the world and now, integrated and
  globalized, becomes a familiar place to play at
  being a tourist. (1999215)

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INTRODUCTION

• Mallorca as a pleasure periphery and as a
  global beach.
• Local entrepreneurial participation.
• Why hoteliers?
• Majorcan hoteliers creating new pleasure
  peripheries.
• Local politics level The political impact of
  Majorcan hoteliers.
• Historical perspective and case-study
  approach.
• Historical narration.

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THE MAJORCAN TRANSITION TO TOURISM ECONOMY
(1)DIMENSIONS OF THE TOURIST CHANGE

• 1959
• 321.222 tourists.
• 324.560 inhabitants.
• 47 services share of the gross product.
• Source Balearic Savings Bank reports and
  Balearic Government data (2007)

• 2006
• 8.596.000 tourists.
• 790.763 inhabitants.
• 85 services share of the gross product.

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THE MAJORCAN TRANSITION TO A TOURIST ECONOMY (2)

• Insular pre-tourist society rural o industrial?
• Characteristics of the Majorcan transition
• Celas theory (1979) Europe-Mallorca,
  core-periphery relationships.
• Maneras theory (2000) Mallorca, industrial
  society.
• Complementary visions.

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THE BEGINNINGS OF MAJORCAN HOTELIERS

• Hoteliers new entrepreneurial class.
• Hoteliers and tour operators.
• Hoteliers and banks.
• Hoteliers and Franco dictatorship.

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THE ENTREPRENEURIAL CULTURE

• Political conservatism.
• Island entrepreneurial culture, according to
  Miquel and Reina (2001), is determined by
• Agrarian-social relations within a
  tourist-service based economy.
• Sense structures, perceptions and social networks
  of contemporary Mallorca which are generated
  within the framework of pre-tourist society.

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THE POLITICAL ARTICULATION

• Francos era (1959, beginning of mass tourism, to
  1975, Dictator's death).
• Corporatist framework.
• Transition from dictatorship to democracy
• (1976-1983).
• The establishment of the Majorcan hotel
  federation.
• Autonomous/regional governments (1983-2003).
• The Majorcan hotel federation as a pressure group.

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THE MAJORCAN HOTEL FEDERATION

• The Majorcan hotel federation counts 77 of the
  total hotel allowances in Mallorca.
• The percent of members is high therefore,
  positions and actions of hotel federation are
  significant for the whole of the hotel
  entrepreneurs.

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THE MAJORCAN HOTEL FEDERATION

• Functions of the federation
• To represent hoteliers in their negotiations with
  the Balearic government, Spanish government and
  trade unions.
• To offer legislation services to its members.

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THE POLITICAL IMPACT

• The political impact through the Majorcan hotel
  federation.
• The symbolical impact.
• The technical impact.
• The political impact undertaken directly by the
  hotelier.
• Ibizan and Minorcan hoteliers.

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THE DEBATE OF TOURIST AND LAND-PLANNING POLICIES

• Spanish government transfers tourist and
  land-planning legislation to the Balearic
  autonomous community government in 1983.
• Generation of an island framework debate for
  tourism and land-planning policies.
• Hoteliers vs. Property-developers.
• Government periods
• Centre-to-right forces (1983-1999).
• Centre-to-left forces (1999-2003).

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GOVERNMENT PERIOD CENTRE-TO-RIGHT FORCES
(1983-1999)

• Tourist policies. Claderas decrees (1984 and
  1988) and Tourist accommodation plan (1995).
• Land-planning policies. Natural Spaces Law (1991
  and 1992).
• Division of interests hoteliers and
  property-developers.
• The two speeds of Balearic government in
  tourism and land policies.

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CAUSE ANALYSIS OF THE POLITICAL CHANGE

• The shift from centre-to-right government to
  centre-to-left government (1999)
• The incipient environmentalist sensitization and
  political mobilisations, against the
  concrete-development policy, impacted
  decisively in the parliamentary political sphere.
  The environmental factor becomes a key factor for
  the political transition to centre-to-left
  forces, provided by a favourable political
  opportunity structure with an internal crisis
  and corruption cases within the Spanish
  centre-to-right party.
• (Riutort and Valdivielso, 2004 292-293).

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THE GOVERNMENT PERIOD OF THE CENTRE-TO-LEFT
FORCES (1999-2003).THE ECO-TAX DEBATE.

• The eco-tax.
• Structural debates behind the political debate of
  the eco-tax.
• Motives for the opposition of hoteliers to
  eco-tax.
• Motives for the support of Balearic government
  to eco-tax.
• Characteristics of political impact
  of hoteliers in the eco-tax debate.

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CONCLUSIONS (1)

• Political positions of hoteliers.
• Economic approach.
• Cultural approach.
• Political approach.
• Heterogeneity of configurations and political
  positions of hoteliers.
• Transnational.
• Medium-size.
• Independent.

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CONCLUSIONS (2)

• Duality of interests. Hoteliers vs. Property
  developers.
• Hoteliers economic relevance and political
  impact.
• Majorcan hotel federation, hoteliers and
  land-planning policies.

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CONCLUSIONS (3)

• Interest groups that defend hotel and
  property-developers positions are clearly
  differentiated, but need to determine the level
  of participation of hoteliers in the state
  development sector.
• Local politics level Insular tourist and land
  planning.
• Final considerations of local entrepreneurial
  participation in mass tourism development.

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