The history of tourism, I know from years not just with the Bulletin but from what now seems the distant past of having started an online blog ostensibly (but not exclusively) dedicated to Alcudia and Pollensa, is something that holds great fascination for many people.
I used to be sent photos and recollections from the past. Holidaymakers and residents alike have great nostalgia for how things once were and great interest in seeing how things have changed. Capturing this history has been done in a variety of ways and there have been attempts at formalising it. The tourism museum, a joint effort involving the Balearic tourism ministry and the Fomento del Turismo (Mallorca Tourist Board), was set up some thirteen years ago. I say set up, there was publicity - a stand at Alcudia’s fair in 2008 for example - but nothing ever came of it.
In the recent past, Pollensa town hall invited participation in a tourism history exhibition at the November fair, the town hall absolutely recognising the endless fascination. Fotos Antiguas de Mallorca is an invaluable repository of the island’s history in photographic, video and text form, but it covers a very broad spectrum, so not just tourism. There are specific Fotos Antiguas, Pollensa has one, and now comes what is a really worthwhile project - Història Compartida del Turisme a Pollença.
This is the work of Pollensa journalism graduate Jordi Moll Solivellas. It is described as an innovative experience which combines webdoc and social conversation. The aim is to gather memories of people who have experienced tourism in Pollensa in one way or another down the decades and to create a web documentary site where users can find all the anecdotes and images and access them in an interactive fashion.
Jordi is already getting contributions. On the Facebook page for Història Compartida del Turisme a Pollença, there is, for instance, the story of 14-year-old Jordi Serra Cànaves when he started work as a bellboy at Sis Pins in 1956.
Història Compartida - shared history, and so the essence of social networks - is something to which anyone and everyone is invited to contribute. In this regard, Jordi has certainly not neglected the close British association with Pollensa. If you go on the Facebook page, you will find a full explanation in English about the history of tourism in Pollensa “explained by its protagonists - the Pollensins and those tourists who visit us every year”.
Great stuff.