Sunday, September 30, 2007

Tenerife for grown-ups

My, the Abama resort's PR department have been working hard this week. Oh, I know it's the season to be writing about Tenerife with all the winter sun possibilities it offers - and there's no doubt it does - now the Sunday Mirror are in on the act, singing the praises of this huge place that looks "like a cross between a Moroccan palace and a Disney theme park".

That's enough to put me off to start with! Now, I have to point out that I haven't been to Abama, but I've spoken to people who have and whose taste and judgement I trust and, lets just be polite: it would not be my style.

There have been several of these articles (press releases?) in the British press lately and, it's certainly better than the usual negative coverage Tenerife gets, but while these luxury hotels are indeed well away from the bar strips and other "undesirable holiday elements" and they do offer some real indulgence, what you won't find in them is the real Tenerife.

On the other hand, you really do have to hand it to the Abama people for their tenacity and perseverance. Normally, unless we have a disaster or the recent fire that may (but probably won't), involve some danger to British tourists, the British press doesn't seem all that interested in Tenerife.

It also appears to me that continuing the myth about an island full of nothing but drunken revellers suits their purpose (circulation) quite well too.

You can almost imagine the probably, mostly one-sided conversation with the reporters, whose initial response was unlikely to enthusiastic and maybe not much beyond grunt level, when Abama's PR was attempting to "sell" the idea that, "No this really is new and different, nothing like the Tenerife you know" (and like to have a love-hate relationship with.)

From my own experience, I know they're not interested in "the truth."

And, judging from the fact that I've now seen several items where the content and, in some cases even the wording, has been roughly the same, I suspect that the reporters took the story (to get paid, obviously), but may never have set foot on the island. Some wouldn't be seen dead here at all - after all, they think it's just a resort and this is just another hotel. Others might, but if they are writing for the Sunday newspapers, they would probably, mostly, be likely stay coddled up in the five star hotels.

Growing up always was a gradual process and, to be fair, the British press seems to be getting there, but I don't think it has fully emerged from it's awkward and confused puberty to gain the wisdom of age yet. What seems to completely escape it's notice is that Tenerife was always grown up, so long as you made the effort to leave the "infant playground" resorts. And I don't mean 5 miles up the road to a newer, more luxurious poolside!

Apart from a hugely varied landscape - on an island small enough to drive round in a day, so there's no excuse about it being too far - that is millions of years old, the island has towns and villages that were founded over 500 years ago and that contain some very rich and grown up culture.

This weekend alone, you could have participated in the wine harvest (an industry that has thrived on the islands since Shakespeare's time), gone to a real Festival of Latin music (not the Flamenco that is put on for the tourists and has NOTHING to do with the Canary Islands' culture), the Opera, for a stroll around the city that was important historically as the blueprint for all the Central, South and North American colonial towns, tasted tapas in "their natural habitat", or witnessed all kinds of age-old, local traditions.

Despite all that existing, it's utterly depressing to those of us who live amongst and do know where the real Tenerife is to see that what tourists demand are things like "good English food" (if that isn't an oxymoron, it's an irony if ever there were one from a people who, at home, eat Tapas, Italian, Chinese, Greek, Indian ... anything but); Marks & Spencer or to find out where they can watch the football (presumably British matches).

Whist this does suggest a lack of imagination on the part of the "average holidaymaker", one can hardly blame them for thinking that there is nothing else, when the press starts an article about how much better, trendier and more real Tenerife is these days - at this point I begin reading, excitedly, hoping they've "got it" finally - only to find that it is yet another promotional piece for yet another luxury hotel that could be anywhere in the world.

In the meantime, until the mainstream do "get it", real grown-ups *, we have to hope, will go out and look for the real Tenerife for themselves.

* By the way, if you're one of them, I recommend that you get Real Tenerife Island Drives to find the good stuff that is off the standard tourist trail.

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