The Hotel Federation of Mallorca has expressed its disappointment with the “lack of courage” of the current Balearic Government after attending the two days of debate on the state of the community organized in Parliament. Hoteliers criticize the announced increase in the ecotax during the summer months, the fact that no measures have been announced against tourist apartments and the increase in the water fee for large consumers, preferably hotels. “The regulated offer is under attack” say the hoteliers of Majorca.
Hoteliers say that the urgent measures announced by President Prohens against tourist congestion “disappoint us with their lack of ambition and their lack of precision”. They add that “it is obvious and manifest that the participants in the Round Table, the parliamentary groups and society as a whole have perfectly identified the two priority and urgent questions which concentrate the greatest concern of our archipelago: housing and mobility”.
And Mallorca hoteliers add: “We know that the housing problem is complex and requires a multi-faceted approach, but we have lost a golden opportunity to demonstrate determination and agility with a clear commitment to restore housing. huge housing stock marketing housing which, designed for residential use, particularly in multi-family buildings, are dedicated, with or without permit, to an economic activity and which have diverted thousands of apartments from residential use to a tourist use.
This process, say the hoteliers, “has worsened the shortage of housing suffered by citizens, workers in the public and private sectors and young people who aspire to emancipate themselves and, in addition, makes coexistence and rest difficult, as have long denounced neighborhood groups.
The Hotel Federation recalls that the law on tourism concerns the marketing of tourist stays in residences. “This regulation cannot ignore the various problems that may arise from the marketing of tourist stays in residences, for which certain limits and legal formalities are established, essentially linked to the protection of the right to accommodation free from immissions, to town planning, to land use planning and adequate environment.
“Given the large number of new registrations of housing marketed for tourist purposes that have occurred in recent years and, in anticipation of the incorporation of the marketing of housing subject to the horizontal regime of ownership, it is essential to control this activity from the middle urban. , territorial, environmental and fiscal.
And the hoteliers’ statement continues: “Even though they were already aware of what was going to be generated, they persisted in the pull effect, waving the flag of the collaborative economy which gave birth to more than 98,000 vacation rentals in recent years. “His predictions came true and multiplied, having reached a limit situation due to inaction, lack of inspection and sanction, and lack of use of technological tools.”
The Hotel Federation affirms that despite all this, it is surprising that the Balearic Government affirms that the continuity of regulated tourist rental places in multi-family houses will be guaranteed on all the islands, despite the fact that the law cited above clearly states that the Houses which offer tourist stays must always be subject to the permissive nature or not of these instruments, without the possibility of renewal being able to generate rights, including the right to compensation.
For hoteliers, it’s a missed opportunity to announce that vacation rentals would only be allowed in detached single-family homes, as was originally the case, thereby alleviating some of the pressure from the housing emergency.
“To complete this situation of impunity for the illegal offer, which will continue to prevail, we are seeing the appearance of a new penalty for visitors who remain in the regulated offer who will see the ITS rate, the ecotax, increased in the central months . of the season. We do not see how they will understand, for example, during the next tourist events, that we are welcoming them to the Islands by making them pay even more and without, for the moment, still perceiving the improvements and transparency in the use of the funds they pay religiously when staying in a legal establishment. We share, and this has been repeated several times, that the tax must be finalist and agree in a participatory and transparent manner on the purposes for which it is intended.
Finally, we consider as very regrettable the announced increase in the water charge for large consumers (in most cases much more efficient in their consumption and management) and the reduction for domestic consumers, while it We should encourage the co-responsibility of all. users, consumers must be respectful of a rare resource and advocate for a more rational use, a goal that is not achieved with discriminatory treatment and reduction that can discourage rational use of it.
