The President of the Government, Marga Prohensresponded to criticism from the Hotel Federation (FEHM) concerning the increase in the Sustainable Tourism Tax (ITS), the ecotax, and assured that the measure announced during the general policy debate “is not anti nothing and no one.” , but to add.
Asked about this question during the presentation of the train project from Palma to Llucmajor, the leader of the Regional Executive insisted on the fact that The proposal aims to try to alleviate the saturation felt in summer and that is why it would only be applied in high season and would aim to improve sustainability, where half of the tourist tax revenue goes.
Prohens stressed in any case that the proposal will not see the light of day in the next regional budgets but will be moved to the tables of the sustainability pact. “We are open to new proposals and to defining how to apply this increase in the ITS,” he added.
The President of the Government defined the ITS as a management measure and not as a collection measure, so, in her opinion, it does not make sense for it to be the same throughout the year.
Prohens also pointed out that The measure is aimed at residents, who could deduct it, as they are often forced to move and stay between islands for reasons unrelated to leisure or tourism.
The head of government contacted the FEHM to negotiate the landing of this proposal. “I am convinced that we share the objective,” she concluded, stressing that she agrees with employers on the need to tell tourists how they spend their money.
Hoteliers against the Prohens measures
This Wednesday, Majorca hoteliers expressed their direct rejection of all the measures announced by Prohens in Parliament against tourist congestion. They expressed in a press release their disappointment at 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.
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 what the tourism law says regarding the marketing of tourist stays in residence. “This regulation cannot ignore the various problems that the marketing of tourist stays in residences can cause, which is why Legal limits and formalities are established, essentially linked to safeguarding the right to housing free from interference, town planning, land use planning and an adequate environment.
The same law continues as follows, hoteliers recall: “Given the large number of new registrations of housing marketed for tourism that have occurred in recent years and, in anticipation of the incorporation of the marketing of housing subject to the horizontal property regime, “It is essential to control this activity from an urban, territorial, environmental and fiscal point of view.”
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 residences will be guaranteed on all the islands when the law cited above clearly states that residences which offer a long lifespan, fixed-term stays and tourist activities 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.
And more criticism from hoteliers: “To complete this situation of impunity for illegal supply, which will continue to be rife, we are seeing the emergence of a new sanction for Visitors who remain in the regulated offer 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.
Finally, say the hoteliers, “we consider as very erroneous 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 we should encourage co-responsibility of all consumers to be respectful of a scarce resource and to advocate for a more rational use, an objective that cannot be achieved with discriminatory treatment and with a reduction that can discourage its use rational.
