Tourist policy slammed as “electoral fraud”

THE Balearic Socialist Deputy Celesti Alomar said yesterday that “the tourist policy of the Balearic Government is an electoral fraud” because it had failed with its “star project”, the Green Card (Tarjeta Verde) and presented the achievements financed by the tourist tax (which it abolished), as due to the income from this card. Alomar, who was Minister of Tourism in the previous government, yesterday called a press conference to explain the proposal which he will present today in Parliament asking the Government to publish records of the management, costs and income from the Green Card. He said that since the Balearic Government had started the Green Card and the Foundation for Sustainable Development (which manages the fee collection and the projects funded by it), “there is nothing new” in this initiative. It is a card which gives access and discounts in cultural and environmental tourist centres and which “was presented as a great alternative” to the ecotax, a tax which was condemned by the PP (Partido Popular) when they were in opposition. “We want the Government to periodically present accounts for a project which was to be their star project” he insisted, complaining about the lack of information about card sales. However, he also said that figures of sales to residents supported the suspicion that the card is “a failure”.