The blanket ‘ban’ on drinking in the streets of San Antonio hit the headlines this week when UK and European news agencies picked up the story and ran with it. San Antonio Town Hall issued an immediate clarification stating that water and juices were definitely not included in the ban but the damage had already been done with social media coming alive with the ‘news’.
They say that you should never let the truth get in the way of a good story but it’s not the media’s fault for reporting the news: San Antonio’s 3 party coalition government haven’t exactly covered themselves in glory with their communication skills, allowing this to spiral out of control, eventually finding its way into the red tops.
If makes you wonder why the Ibiza decision makers don’t appoint PR companies to avert disasters like this so they can micro manage the output of news and get the positive stuff out there otherwise the uneducated might think that Ibiza is just an overpriced hedonistic free-for-all that wilfully slaughters goats whilst taxing tourists for the right to visit and banning children from drinking a bottle of water in the midday sun.
As all Ibiza lovers know there are far more positives than negatives however with the constant flow of news generated by 5 different municipal councils and the island council it’s easy for outlets to focus on the headline grabbing negatives that can sometimes tip the balance when those valuable tourists decide on their annual pilgrimage to the sun.
Even though Ibiza is arguably at the top of its game nothing should be taken for granted and these headlines don’t do anything for consumer confidence and, as other tourist destinations have seen, livelihoods can be taken away at any time in the blink of an eye. It’s time for Ibiza politicians to up their game in public relations and with today’s social media there is simply no excuse for not getting the right message across.
Ibiza remains an amazing place to visit but it would appear that the only ones that don’t know how to communicate this are those paid by the taxpayer to do so.
"MAN IN SAN AN" by Martin Makepeace 