Business Abroad cs sion Mallorca Menorca
Ibiza
Four islands, owned by Spain, situated between Africa and its occupying mainland; but what does anyone know about this archipelago?
U
tter the word ‘Ibiza’ to any young Englishman, and in the heat of the Summer he’ll tell you that at
least 100 of his facebook friends are there
revelling in one of Britain’s adopted overseas clubbing destinations. Utter the word ‘Magaluf’ on British soil, and you’ll get looked at with dismay (assuming the recipient isn’t an 18-30’s holiday obsessionado). Menorca, the most easterly island, was one of Britain’s classic 80’s family holiday locations (in fact, I was there at the age of 7 months with a nappy on bigger than my floppy hat), and Formentera, the smallest and most southern lying, is more recently popular with the Arabic world and Italians for being a posey island to dock yachts and look mightily important. The ‘Monaco of the Balearics’ I am told.
Yet, we all know there’s always more to reality than hearsay. Britain’s bigger than Skegness isn’t it? So, I made it my quest to find out what the Balearics was all about in 2012 and what you could expect as a natural stone turner.
Within moments of arriving into Palma de Mallorca, I was greeted by my friend Miguel who is a teacher at a ‘Second Chance’ school in the city, providing education to those that fall out of the mainstream of society. Miguel faces an undetermined future like many in Spain right now as the pressure of job and funding cuts plague the population at large more than most other European nations at present. His face is still bright but his optimism is displayed with caution. He tells me that “the country is showing signs of promise, but the word on the street is that our government has simply run out of money.”
Understanding Spain’s recent two notch downgrade from AA- to A, it appears the global ratings agencies tend to agree.
But with recession comes resourcefulness. I gather the average capital required now to start a business across Spain is somewhere around the
Formentera
30,000 euros mark, whereas a couple of years ago it was near double that. Businesses are still being set up in Spain, they’re just now focusing on what matters and cutting away the fluff. That’s a call that comes with experience, and there’s no greater experience than that endured in tough times.
Whilst I was out there, I understood that those working directly with tourism (one area that has seldom been hit by
the
“But with recession comes resourcefulness. I gather the average capital required now to start a business across Spain is somewhere around the 30,000 euros mark”
recession on these islands) are taking greater advantage of the summer months. Adding value, raising prices, diversifying into new revenue streams, working longer hours (the latter being something that goes against the grain of the Spanish lifestyle), there was a lot of creative thought amongst the restauranteurs, hotel managers, excursion organisers, trip bookers, etc. Winter might be tough for tourism, but if they harvest enough in the Summer, then they’ll be sitting prettier come the fall. They know all too well that 85% of the islands’ wealth comes from tourism so it really is cash-in time for them. A lesson to us all perhaps? Reap when we’re doing well rather than looking around for pennies to stack when work has dried up makes sound sense to me.
Continuing through my travels in Mallorca, I met a number of foreigners who’d arrived and whom had chosen the island to take advantage of current opportunities – Swedes, Italians, Germans, and as ever, the Brits in numbers. Ironically, in Palma, I met Tom Burns – a fellow Yorkshireman – whose family had taken on a bar as an addition to their growing portfolio back home. Back in England they were doing pretty well, so they wanted to
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