Toni Abrines Paniza, founder of Tramuntbike in Calvià, is a man whose journey from reluctant student to successful entrepreneur is as almost as thrilling as the mountain bike trails he now navigates. Starting work at just 16 because he hated studying, Toni learned the ropes of running a business in the family souvenir shop, not in a classroom. His passion for cycling eventually paved the way to his current ventures, where his hobby has become a thriving business, as Toni tells us in this lively interview with ‘Humans of Mallorca’.
Where were you born?
I was born in Palma in 1967. I also studied in Palma. All my family is from Mallorca. I think I was born in a great place.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
When I was a teenager, I never thought about what I wanted to be. I just wanted to have fun!
Who are your parents?
My mother is from Palma and my father is from the middle of the island. I’m from a mixed family: one half was rich and the other one was poor.
How did you choose your occupation?
I didn’t like studying, so I started working when I was 16 in the family business: they had a souvenir shop in a tourist area. It was my first job. My mother asked me: what do you want to do, to study or work? I said — work! And I liked it. Now I have two businesses of my own. I learned a lot in my family business. Sometimes you learn more on the street than in university. Anyway, I worked for the family business for seven years. Then I worked in different places: in a hotel, for 15 years, in a telecommunications company, and ten years ago I started my own business.
In the telecommunications company, my job involved coin-fed phone boxes and then suddenly mobile phones appeared, and I had to think about my future. And I decided to start doing mountain bike tours.
Why bikes?
It was my hobby. I was trying to do something that I liked. Mallorca is a great place for cycling. I opened a bike-rental shop. Business started growing and I couldn’t do the tours and be in the shop at the same time. So I hired tour guides, but the problem with them is when you have a good tour guide, you lose clients, because they get in touch with him or her directly next time.
What’s a typical day in your life like?
I work every day. I wake up at 7 am, have coffee. Around 8.00, I’m in the bar, because as well as the bike business, I have a bar where five people work. I check if everything is okay there and we open the doors. We work from 9 am till 7 pm every day. During the high season we don’t even get days off. That’s from March till October. After October, we work from 1 pm. During the winter we have to prepare for the next season.
What kind of people come to Mallorca? What has changed?
We’re seeing more and more people from the States, because two years ago direct ‘USA – Palma’ flights started. We get Canadians too. But most people are from Europe. And almost all of them are living in their tourist bubbles. Only a small fraction of them want to know about local traditions.
Local people don’t seem to be too happy about the tourists because life in Mallorca has become expensive…
Mallorca is expensive for people who live here. But big tourist operators from Germany or from England are selling very cheap package holidays. Something needs to be done about this if we want to get a better quality of tourists. And the second issue is how people live here. If you want to live here with a salary from 35 or 40 hours per week – it is simply not possible. If you want to live in Mallorca, you have to come up with something else. With one salary it is impossible.
What plans do you have for your business?
My two daughters are in university now for the next three years. They’re studying law in Seville. They miss Mallorca a lot. They miss the sea. I told them that they have to learn English perfectly. That’s why I pay for their university. Then I hope they will come back to Mallorca after graduating and take up the reins of my business.
Text by Anastasia Barysheva
