Opposition calls for tighter controls for all-inclusive

THE Balearic Socialist Party (PSIB) and the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) yesterday accused the Balearic Government of “washing their hands” of the problems of the all-inclusive hotels and demanded that they take measures to deal with it, like increasing inspections of the hotels and modifying the General Tourist Law to guarantee the quality of the service. The PSIB's tourism spokesman, Celesti Alomar, denounced “the haste” with which the Balearic Government put before Parliament the findings of a committee of experts and the “partial use” they had made of the conclusions reached by this committee. Alomar, a former tourism minister, said it was a great shame that the Balearic government felt that the committee's only conclusion was that it was not necessary to regulate the all-inclusive, when it mentioned many more things, such as the fact that this would be a problem for Balearic businesses. Amongst other things, he censured the Government for presenting a text “which was incomplete” and omitting various questions, one of them being a reference to the possibility of changing the General Tourist Law of 1984 to protect the consumers of this new form of tourism. It is expected that this reference will be included in the document published by the committee so that it may be taken into account said Alomar.
The proposed modification would force hotels to adapt their dining rooms to specifications which guarantee the quality of service in the allinclusive sector. This means that, if this law is applied rigorously, a lot of hotels which offer all-inclusive at the moment would not be able to continue to do so. Alomar considered it a fact that tour operators have made all-inclusive deals more widespread in response to the tourism crisis and have marketed them in the Balearics in spite of the fact that the islands are not prepared for them. It is because of this he considered it necessary to push for the modification to the General Tourist Law as this will force the Government to make the necessary inspections to guarantee the quality of service in this sector. Finally he complained that there was a lack of reliable data about the demand for this service in the Balearics as the Partido Popular had always considered it unnecessary to make studies of this area.