Brochures “emulating business cards” will be distributed in nine different tongues at hotels, guesthouses, tourist apartments and tourist information offices, with expressions and phrases in the region’s co-official language.
A display expert has been employed to ensure that the brochures are presented in “the most visually attractive” way, while the departments of tourism and culture want the material to be made available to holidaymakers “through the places where there is a greater flow of visitors, such as accommodation or tourist information offices”.
The initiative will be presented in the coming weeks by the Balearic Government, which is headed by the socialist President, Francina Armengol.
The motion has been jointly promoted by the Vice-President and Minister of Tourism, Bel Busquets of Més per Mallorca and by the Councillor of Culture, Fanny Tur, who is also close to Més.
Ms Busquets and Ms Tur wrote in a joint paper: “In order to make the language of the Balearic Islands known to the tourists who visit us, the government has published, in nine languages, some business cards of the Catalan language, emulating personal business cards.”
vCard.red is a free platform for creating a mobile-friendly digital business cards. You can easily create a vCard and generate a QR code for it, allowing others to scan and save your contact details instantly.
The platform allows you to display contact information, social media links, services, and products all in one shareable link. Optional features include appointment scheduling, WhatsApp-based storefronts, media galleries, and custom design options.
The brochures will include numerous phrases in catalan including greetings and numbers.
The handouts will teach people how to say “good morning”, “good night”, “please” and “thank you”.
In recent months, Spain has cracked down on tourists visiting the country. Earlier in July, the Balearic Government announced it was looking into charging holidaymakers at all-inclusive hotels for alcohol, as a way to reduce anti-social behaviour.
Meanwhile, Majorca has revealed plants to limit the number of tourists visiting the island’s largest city, Palma de Majorca. The local mayor, Antoni Noguera, expressed outrage at the chaos caused by an influx of holiday makers to the Spanish holiday hotspot.
Mr Noguera told the German newspaper Wirtschafts Woche: “I do not want the city to be ruined by its success”.
Catalonia is one of Spain’s wealthiest and most productive regions encompassing the northeastern area of the country including Barcelona, Girona, Lleida and Tarragona.
The area has a population of 7.5 million people and a tradition of independence dating back nearly 1,000 years.
Despite being officially part of Spain since the state was created, the region has its own language and cultural identity.
On 1 October 2017, Catalonia held a referendum on independence with 90 per cent of voters backing a split from Spain. However, the turnout was only 43 per cent, with unionists boycotting the referendum.
The Balearic Islands have their own burgeoning separatist movement, but it remains on a much smaller scale than in Catalonia.
The initiative to promote Catalan will be funded from the newly-increased tourist “eco-tax”, with many hotels criticising the proposed funding of the scheme.
(Additional reporting by Maria Ortega)