This was received by the Tourist Department with a certain amount of hostility and an answer was soon forthcoming as a 'Press Release', oddly just in English (I think they don't have any friendly Spanish local media). The piece appeared on the Facebook page of Spectrum Radio, our only local radio (although there is apparently a licence for a Spanish municipal radio sitting patiently in the Mayoress' desk). Obviously, most of those who saw it - or who regularly visit the Spectrum Fb page for that matter - are perhaps unused to reading material in Spanish, so may have missed my original piece.
The answer, reproduced below under the flag of the local Partido Popular, quickly politicised the affair.
PARTIDO POPULAR (PP) MOJACAR PRESS RELEASE 09-02-15
We cannot turn a blind eye to the statements made
in the Indalico newspaper on 31st January 2014 by Lenox Napier, the
number two of the political party "Ciudadanos Europeos”
(European Citizens) Mojácar.
Amongst other things he expressed a preference for encouraging more foreign residents instead of extra tourists the justification for such preference being the economic benefit of the former being greater than that of the latter. This assumption, by Mr. Napier, is like comparing apples with oranges, as a resident, be they foreign or not, is not a tourist. A tourist, as you say, will travel to Mojacar or Corfu for five, six or seven days holiday according to his or her budget. According to the service, facilities, leisure alternatives and the local environment… they may decide to return the next year, or not! The needs of a tourist can be met by the existing services for residents as well as others specifically aimed at them, but they need not necessarily coincide.
But you, Mr. Napier are not interested in tourism, as you said, so your opinion on whether Mojácar should attend Fitur or not, is irrelevant. What you want Mr. Napier is to rise up as the voice of those foreign residents in Mojácar that say our town is "poorly served", what a nonsense! Saying that there is no foreign representation in the local police, or the public or private health services is, in short, showing contempt for our current services.
Your attack Mr. Napier, would be credible, if it did not come from the number two of a local political party, elected by those foreign residents whose interests it claims to defend. Instead, the councilor in the town hall of the same political party, yes Mr. Napier your councilor of the “Ciudadanos Europeos” who has been absent from local politics for over two years. Not attending council meetings he has not represented the interests of those residents who have bestowed their trust in him. Whilst on the contrary, has found enough time to cash the cheques that the State, according to the law, has to pay to your political party. Mr. Napier’s attack therefore reeks of the self-serving cynicism and hypocrisy of someone who shows disregard those he is supposed to defend and thereby he discredits himself.
Finally Mr. Napier, we ask you kindly and respectfully, not to confuse, misinform or deceive people any longer.
Amongst other things he expressed a preference for encouraging more foreign residents instead of extra tourists the justification for such preference being the economic benefit of the former being greater than that of the latter. This assumption, by Mr. Napier, is like comparing apples with oranges, as a resident, be they foreign or not, is not a tourist. A tourist, as you say, will travel to Mojacar or Corfu for five, six or seven days holiday according to his or her budget. According to the service, facilities, leisure alternatives and the local environment… they may decide to return the next year, or not! The needs of a tourist can be met by the existing services for residents as well as others specifically aimed at them, but they need not necessarily coincide.
But you, Mr. Napier are not interested in tourism, as you said, so your opinion on whether Mojácar should attend Fitur or not, is irrelevant. What you want Mr. Napier is to rise up as the voice of those foreign residents in Mojácar that say our town is "poorly served", what a nonsense! Saying that there is no foreign representation in the local police, or the public or private health services is, in short, showing contempt for our current services.
Your attack Mr. Napier, would be credible, if it did not come from the number two of a local political party, elected by those foreign residents whose interests it claims to defend. Instead, the councilor in the town hall of the same political party, yes Mr. Napier your councilor of the “Ciudadanos Europeos” who has been absent from local politics for over two years. Not attending council meetings he has not represented the interests of those residents who have bestowed their trust in him. Whilst on the contrary, has found enough time to cash the cheques that the State, according to the law, has to pay to your political party. Mr. Napier’s attack therefore reeks of the self-serving cynicism and hypocrisy of someone who shows disregard those he is supposed to defend and thereby he discredits himself.
Finally Mr. Napier, we ask you kindly and respectfully, not to confuse, misinform or deceive people any longer.
And here's the response from a commentator over at El Indálico:
The Councillor for Tourism of the city of the Mojácar has made some
statements on the article by Lenox Napier "The fall of 20% of
the population of Mojácar" which appeared in El Indálico
recently, statements which appear in a Press Release from the Town
Hall, for some reason in English, which we won't feature here thanks
to its impossible understanding and low literary quality. Besides
which, it has only been published in English, no doubt so that
Spaniards would not realize the profound ignorance of this man in the
field of tourism.
More than twenty years ago, when Juan García was the mayor,
representatives of the City Council maintained some working sessions
with leaders of the World Tourism Organization to learn about the
subject in an attempt to try and improve the situation of Mojácar in
that field, which has always been our main source of wealth.
Even then, the conclusions were very explicit: Mojácar's two kinds
of tourism must coexist: that's to say, holiday and residential
tourism.
It was agreed that holiday tourism was very difficult to improve or
to channel through the Town Hall. First of all because converting
Mojácar into a world tourist centre was an almost impossible task
thanks to the investment that would be necessary. We could never
become another Disney World nor could we grow to challenge any of the
cities or areas that were already consolidated in Spain such as the
Costa Brava, Mallorca, Canary Islands, Benidorm, Marbella and so on.
The recommendation from the WTO was that the Town Hall should
facilitate as much as possible the performances of the hotel
companies established in the municipality and leave the hotels to be
responsible, for their own evident interest, to promote tourism. And
of course the best thing the Town Hall could do to contribute in this
respect would be by having clean beaches, well repaired and well-lit
streets and all of our available services in tip top condition.
But the most important conclusion of those meetings was that the
municipal effort should be devoted to promote residential tourism.
Here, it was clearly possible to exponentially increase the number of
people living locally and to enjoy the economic, cultural and social
benefits which would follow.
Coexistence was seen as a key factor, and the sharing of both the
benefits and the burdens with foreign residents if that could lead to
a significant increase of the population and the level of income of
the community.
To make this work, the local authorities would have to take a series
of measures which should have been done long ago and now, in these
pre-election times, are being described as to appear absurd and
deceptive.
Yes, Mr Councillor, there must be a percentage of police officers,
civil servants and all kinds of employees taken from the British
inhabitants here, because this involves accepting the reality of our
Community. But you, Mr Councillor, you do not understand anything,
indeed, you are the one who confuses oranges with apples. Such a
demand, does not, of course, show 'contempt for the existing public
sector staff'. It is merely giving acceptance to the actual
multiculturalism of the people who live here.
Since more than fifty per cent of the population of Mojácar is
British, all the forms, notifications, announcements and so on must
be in both Spanish and English, and correctly written, it goes
without saying. There must be foreign staff at municipal offices to
cater to the English-speaking public as well as police officers,
teachers, doctors, councillors from the two nationalities, as well as
multicultural festivals and celebrations, as they do in
Huercal-Overa, Lubrin, Albox (to say nothing of the Costa Blanca and
the Costa del Sol)...
Forget this silly nonsense of being one of the twenty-five most
beautiful towns of Spain and work so that Mojácar will become a
leading residential town which will provide both activity and income
the twelve months of the year, not for just a few summer weeks as it
is now!
And that loss of 20% of the population, as mentioned by Mr. Napier,
should have caused concern and should also have motivated your team
to research the causes and to propose solutions, instead of throwing
a childish tantrum.
Mr Councillor, arrange some time to spend on study why don't you,
perhaps an online course on tourism, or better still do nothing; but
please do not write such nonsense, otherwise everyone will realize
why Mojácar is in so deep a hole that it will be difficult to get
out with a government such as yours and Citizens will understand why
other resorts and communities are growing by leaps and bounds while
Mojácar inexplicably continues to stare uselessly at its navel.
No comments:
Post a Comment