Stalman: “The Mallorca brand is an invaluable asset that we must protect and strengthen”.

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Andy Stalman

The Advisory Council of the Mallorca Tourism Foundation (FMT) held an ordinary meeting on Monday to present the latest news on the project that the brand positioning expert and winner of the competition promoted by the FMT for this purpose, Andy Stalman and his company TOTEM Branding, will be developing for the Mallorca brand over the coming months.

The meeting took place at Casa Esment and was chaired by the island’s Minister of Tourism, José Marcial Rodríguez Díaz.
In front of around 30 representatives of the island’s tourism, economic and social context, the branding and brand positioning expert outlined the main lines of the strategy for Mallorca that his company, which has extensive experience in developing destination brand strategies, will develop, and which will conclude with the drafting of a new plan for the island.

During his speech, Stalman explained that his goal after winning the competition promoted by the FMT will be to lead a repositioning for a brand like Mallorca, which does not have a demand problem, based mainly on the challenge of establishing the protection and regeneration of the territory through responsible demand, something completely new for a tourist destination. “The Mallorca brand is an invaluable asset that we must protect and strengthen,” he said.

Along these lines, Stalman stressed that “we are living in a new era for tourism and we need to unlearn, the formulas of the past cannot necessarily be useful for the future because there are new demands, both from citizens and visitors”. “The objective of a tourism brand does not only have to be to attract more tourists, everything is more complex than talking about quantity, we must first identify the problem in all its layers and dimensions and then establish the whole range of alternatives and solutions to build a platform that helps the destination and above all its citizens to believe in what is to come,” he added.

In the words of the branding expert, “Mallorca has the opportunity to become, once again, a benchmark in world tourism, in this case of a responsible model”. Its natural beauty, vibrant culture and ancient history make it a unique destination and in his opinion, “it is time to take advantage of these strengths to build a more sustainable future, where the island can prosper without losing its essence”.

According to Stalman, “Mallorca already has a very important level of recognition, its name, its value proposition, its personality and a world of experiences that have built a history of success, but the past should not be used as a sofa but as a springboard”. For this reason, he stressed that “there is a great opportunity to promote and strengthen Mallorcan gastronomy as an attribute that brings together very attractive aspects: nature, the land, creativity, social aspects, local produce, Mallorcan food and drink, the sensory experience, a world to be lived, enjoyed and shared in an era in which many travellers are in search of the genuine, of the inimitable, of what cannot be experienced on a screen and which has local colour and flavour”.

All this without neglecting the harmonious coexistence between residents and tourists, “a fundamental pillar for the responsible development of tourism in Mallorca”. “This premise is particularly relevant today when the island is seeking to redefine its tourism model towards a more responsible and balanced approach”, he added.

To achieve this, Stalman reiterated the need for a detailed analysis of the situation, “listening to people, understanding them, defining the objectives to be achieved with the strategy and then bringing it to life”. For this reason, the TOTEM Branding team is carrying out a series of activities to better understand the island, its idiosyncrasies and its needs.

In this sense, it will now begin a process of interviews and meetings with representatives of the main economic, social and cultural sectors of Mallorca to better understand where tourism is heading on the island, to move towards proposals for action aimed at promoting tourism leadership focused on the protection and regeneration of our destination.

Stalman himself will be the interviewer in this initiative, which has been planned since the beginning of the legislature, and all the information gathered during this phase will be used to develop Mallorca’s new destination brand strategy. This strategy will aim to position the island as a responsible, ethical and conscious tourist destination, while preserving its cultural and natural wealth.

The FMT
The FMT is the body in charge of managing the promotion of Mallorca as a tourist destination. It is a 100% public, non-profit entity, integrated in the Consell de Mallorca.
Its purpose is to encourage the promotion of tourism on the island in national and international markets, as well as the creation of tourist products, the management of tourist services in general, and all activities aimed at promoting tourism on the island.
Among the main actions that the foundation carries out to carry out its mission are the organisation and participation in national and international tourism promotional meetings; the external projection of the image of Mallorca as an audiovisual set and film tourism destination, through the Mallorca Film Commission; as well as the collaboration with the different public and private tourism agents, for the coordination of actions to promote and consolidate the different tourism products.