An Introduction to Mallorca's Tourism and its Origins

Links between Past and Present?

To many Mallorcan writers on tourism there seems to be a strong connection between the perceptions of early visitors and the development of the modern industry, but, as we argued in the Preface, this link over such a long period of time is somewhat tenuous. In Chapter 4, we shall show that the development of mass tourism in Mallorca in the 1950s was a 'marked change of slope', a 'paradigm shift' in the history of tourism, a 'break with the past', not an evolutionary movement but a step-like change, the result of a government policy deliberately seeking non-tourist macroeconomic objectives tied to the development of the state. This is a somewhat different process from that described by writers such as Walton in their analysis of tourism and holidaymaking in Great Britain, although Barton points to certain similarities (Barton, 2005; Walton, 2002, 2009; Walton & Walvin, 1983). Mass tourism in Mallorca exhibits rather different characteristics from the historical development of seaside holidays in Britain's Blackpool or on Germany's Baltic coast. Nonetheless, early tourism in Mallorca and the relaying of its experiences did form some foundation for later growth. Thomas Cook may have organised tours to Mallorca and cruise liners in the 1930s may have called in at Palma, but there is little evidence from the literature that the British pioneers of mass tourism to the island were aware of, or influenced by, earlier visitors. Barton, however, provides a valuable insight into the role of 'sending' organisations in the 1930s and 1950s before the first wave of mass tourism took off in the late 1950s (Barton, 2004, 2005). Similarly, John Walton has given us a useful study of tourism in one corner of Mallorca in this early period (Walton, 2005).

However, the processes involved in the historical development of tourism are complex and recently Mallorcan researchers have given considerably more attention to what took place in Mallorca itself before the onset of mass tourism whereas most British writers see its take-off from the mid-1950s. Local researchers point in particular to the significance of domestic Spanish tourists in the 1920s and 1930s, a factor identified by Barke and Towner for mainland Spain and by others, notably Cirer, for Mallorca (Barke & Towner, 1996: 26; Caro Mesquida, 2002; Cirer, 2006, 2009). Chapter 3 will examine this in more detail.

Large-scale tourism – the prime concern of this book – may have its roots partly in pre–Civil War Mallorca itself, but it is our contention that it is mostly a feature of post–Second World War Europe, partly the product of Mallorcan opportunism and partly the product of British – and later German – entrepreneurship. Nonetheless, it is important to have some insight into early visits and visitors to Mallorca before tourism became widely organised commercially.

The Perceptions of Some 19th-Century Visitors from Northern Europe to Mallorca before about 1880

For many of those who initially visited the island as travellers it was the nature of Mallorca's microcosmic world that was a major attraction: here were plains, hills, vertiginous mountains, beaches and coves, forests and garriga (typical low-growing Mediterranean vegetation – maquis in French), a rural aristocracy and a landless peasantry in curious costumes – all within a day's journey from a Palma hotel. Added to this was the Mediterranean climate, especially in the winter when it had an added attraction for North Europeans, presenting the possibility of warm sunshine when much of the continent was snowbound. Further enquiry revealed a rich cultural heritage ranging from late Bronze Age stone structures – the talayots – to the fine medieval and renaissance buildings of a considerable city, Palma. In the countryside was a class of landed gentry and their improving estates – the possessions – some with formal gardens, most producing exotic tree crops such as figs, carobs and almonds, others vines and olive oil. What Mallorca and the other islands lacked historically, of course, was a proper link to Classical Antiquity, which, alongside its island location, was the major reason it was not on the itinerary of the Grand Tourists of the 18th and early 19th centuries. The island was invaded and settled by the Romans in the first-century BC but left few remains to attract the classicists, with the exception of the Roman town of Pollentia in the north, even now not fully revealed. Even if, as Barke and Towner explain, Spain may have had a burgeoning domestic leisure industry as early as the 18th century, Mallorca had few of the other 'attractions' that young English gentlemen required from such destinations as part of their broadening education (Barke & Towner, 1996: 22; Towner, 1996).

Amongst the early visitors – and even today the most famous – were George Sand (Madame Dudevant) and Frederick Chopin who came for health reasons in 1837. Sand initially found the island attractive, but she ended by loathing it. Her later accounts could surely have done little to attract future tourists (Sand, 1855).

British travellers in the 19th century observed the lack of facilities such as decent hotels for tourists. As early as 1809, Sir John Carr observed that Palma's inns were 'very few and very bad' though he himself was well accommodated (Carr, 1811: 331). Captain Clayton complained bitterly of his fonda, Tres Palomas (Clayton, 1869), and the American writer Bayard Taylor was cordially received at his fonda, the Four Nations, but '... afterwards roundly swindled' (Taylor, 1867–1868: 680). Charles Toll Bidwell noted: '... if Palma had a large and well-organized hotel ... its attractions would be increased, and more visitors would lighten it with their countenance ... Fifty years ago such a thing as an inn was said to be unknown in Majorca', although he points to recent improvements (Bidwell, 1876: 54). Many of these early visitors remarked upon the rather shallow social life and the unhealthiness of many parts of the island, with outbreaks of cholera and malaria occurring frequently. In addition, when faced with an often difficult sea voyage from Barcelona or Marseilles, it was hardly surprising that few north Europeans made Mallorca a destination.

Those who did visit found the island physically attractive, especially the mountains. E.G. Bartholomew, for example, a British engineer engaged in laying the first undersea telegraph linking the island to the mainland in the 1860s, called the scenery 'magnificently...