Balearics welcomes new tourism chief

Bauza also praised the Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, for having appointed Borrego claiming that having a person from the Balearics as Secretary of State, will not only be good for the Balearic tourist industry but the national sector as a whole because of the importance the Balearics is as one of Spain's most popular destinations.

The Balearic President put Borrego forward for the post and thanked Rajoy and the Minister for Tourism, Industry and Energy, Jose Manuel Soria, for having accepted his suggestion.

Experience “She has a great deal of experience in the tourist industry and I know is eager to get down to work in her new role. “This new government has put reviving the tourist industry as one of its top priorities because of its economic importance and Borrego is determined to make the industry much more competitive,” Bauza said.

Borrego said yesterday that she and her team are already working on a new Integral Tourism Plan the government wants drawn up and put into practice as soon as possible.

The new Secretary of State said that one of the first tasks is going to be renovating and reviving existing popular destinations and resorts. “The tourist industry can and will drag Spain out of the financial crisis, so we've got to start work immediately and push ahead so that, at the end of the year, we can look back and say that 2012 was the year in which everything changed,” she said. “Tourism is the driving force behind the country's economy and employment sectors.” Recession
Borrego also revealed that she does want to attract even more tourists to Spain, she wants them to spend more money and that the Spanish tourist industry needs to open itself to new prosperous markets to compensate for those which have been crippled by recession.

With the Fitur travel trade fair in Madrid just two weeks away, Borrego intends to hold talks with all the key players in the tourist industry before the exhibition opens so that everybody has a clear picture of where the industry is going this year and what she is going to be expecting them to do.

The Balearic government will b e hoping that some extra funding will be made available by central government for the Playa de Palma reformation plan which has stalled because of financial problems and this was brought to Borrego's attention yesterday.

In the meantime, though, the Secretary of State has to try and resolve the dispute with striking Iberia pilots. “We need to be conscious of our actions and, while every body has the right to strike, people need to be thinking about the current economic climate and the best interests of the travelling public. No body should be actively making the situation any more complicated,” she added.