A good read from CORREIO da MADEIRA
The tourism awards won by the island mean nothing if the quality of the destination achieved and maintained with dignity over centuries is not maintained. If the destination’s reputation is corrupted, not even a thousand Promotion Associations will be able to save the loss. Then we can sing the pain of longing.
The best and most effective form of promotion is “word of mouth” advertising, a brilliant, powerful and accessible concept as it costs nothing. This form of marketing works perfectly as it is the most credible and targeted, as tourists trust more people they know and accept their recommendations more than they trust promoters they do not know and know they are interested in advertising. This strategy is influential.
Slowly the traditional tourist who returned every year and spent money here, the one that Madeira has always become accustomed to and was the basic economic support for many families over the centuries, is unfortunately giving way to another type of tourist: the tourist who makes as much as possible alone on a small budget, backpacking. This paradigm was emphasized in the post-pandemic period and enhanced with the Ryanair connection on the island.
The profile of many tourists who visit us today is one who doesn’t even have money for the cheap aerobus, and comes to hitchhike from the airport to Funchal, vacationing with little change at the expense of the hospitality of the locals. In truth, Madeirans only go on vacation if they think they can do so financially, saving for it, and if they can’t travel they resign themselves to staying at home. Madeirans do not go abroad for a stroll at the expense of the good will of those who help them at their destination. We don’t need this tourist, we already have healthy and needy people here. And more and more nostalgia arises for the tourist who was polite and respectful, not like the current one who gets drunk, is rude, sleeps in the car to avoid paying for accommodation, camps in unauthorized protected areas, takes a shower in public toilets, leaves rubbish on the paths, cooks in the mountains, washes his clothes in the levadas and all this in exchange for a few measly euros paid for the trip almost offered by the likes of Ryanair.
Unfortunately, a phenomenon that was already predicted is occurring: some repeat agencies that bought the Madeira destination for years on end are starting to abandon the island due to the massification of our destination and the supposed decline in quality. They say “the price no longer matches the quality”. Is the work of centuries to raise the island’s image now reduced to one euro per foreigner? Where does the sustainability of our tourism stop? Why this “paradigm shift”? Isn’t it better to have a little that is good over time than a lot of nothing that compromises the future?
More serious is the fact that the masses not only compromise the destination but also have an impact on the population’s quality of life (excess of cars circulating and consequent road congestion, careless driving, disorderly conduct and parking chaos in certain tourist spots – reaching endanger road safety, noise pollution, disturbance of scooters on public roads and their abandonment on sidewalks, huge queues in supermarkets for Nepalese and “Ryanair customers”, etc.), on the environment (excessive rental car services and air pollution , water pollution, garbage left on public roads in the city and in the forest) waste natural and imported resources (water, electricity, gas, gasoline, diesel, food products, etc.), congestion in the treatment of WWTPs and water pollution.
There are those who say that if tourists leave just one euro here, it’s already a profit! Madeira cannot be rated so poorly as to degrade its image in this way! Do we really need this tourist?! The Canaries have a better reputation than our beloved Madeira and Mallorca have been trying for years to recover the quality they lost thanks to this mass and low profile tourism policy… which has proven to be neither worth it nor worth it. It takes many years to recover a good image, if it is recoverable. What is happening is serious. When we wake up to reality it will be too late, and the traditional reputation as a quality destination will be just a melancholy nostalgia for what Madeira was like in the past. It was this same quality tourism that over the centuries sustained us all, a well-structured, promising and faithful, reliable tourism…it will not be this cheap tourism that will ensure our livelihood over time, because it will only come to island if it is worth seeing and if it remains genuine.
Tourism must be rethought to last in a sustainable and long-term way, both for itself and for the community where it is lived and that makes a living from it, as it is a very sensitive industry and susceptible to certain circumstances. It must be structured in the medium and long term to ensure that future generations can continue to enjoy this source of income, and must not compromise the future with easy and mass profits.
Regulations must be implemented and responsible habits promoted. Low-cost carriers that introduce barefoot tourists should be banned; limit the scandalous and worrying proliferation of rent a car on the island; fine offending tourists on the spot and control infractions; limit AL and give locals the opportunity to rent a house on their island home and end the real estate bubble.
The tourism awards won by the island and the number of entries add absolutely nothing to the population. Yes, the quality of life of the population adds a lot and is a right of every citizen, rich or poor.
Let’s stop thinking about extorting as much profit as possible from our beloved island to the detriment of the quality of life of the majority of locals who only live on the minimum wage.
Let’s stop selling and prostituting our beloved island just for the pockets of a few.
Let’s let the middle class that is disappearing in plain sight survive and gain courage to end the galloping and growing gap between the well-off and the well-to-do.
Let’s stop looking at our own navels and bellies and look at the future of our young people who are no longer able to rent/buy a house and are increasingly emigrating… and giving way to the emigrants who enter the island every day and occupy apartments living like sardines in a can…
Let’s wake up… before it’s too late.
1) Article by Paulo Vaz, Director of the Sustainability in Tourism Program, “Sustainability and ESG in Tourism: Towards a Responsible Future” published in Porto Business School, 2 August 2023.
Submitted by Anonymous Report
Monday, May 6, 2024
All elements sent by the author.
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