Modernisation has closed 896 hotels in 15 years

Joan Collins THE modernisation plan for tourist accommodation, in force on the islands since June 20 1990, has caused the Balearic Ministry of Tourism to close 68'813 obsolete hotel places (896 establishments) during the last 15 years. This has produced a progressive transformation in the quality of hotel services on the island by decreasing the amount of one and two star hotels and increasing considerably the amount of three, four and five star hotels. The towns where the most hotel places have been closed are Calvia, Palma, Alcudia, Manacor, Capdepera, Sant Llorenc, and Son Servera. The year during which most places were closed was 1993, when there was a big drop in tourism due to the Gulf War crisis which affected profits and plans for hotel modernisation. In total, tourist accommodation offered in this period on Majorca has gone from the 1'802 establishments which the island had at the end of 1990 to the 1'596 which it had at December 31 2005 (206 less). The number of beds offered on the island has grown in these 15 years by 18'724, going from 268'134 to 286'408. The amount of beds on offer in four and five star hotels has almost tripled, going from 60 hotels to 152. The Balearic Government, led by Jaume Matas, wants to apply the General Tourism Law rigorously and develop one of its main aspects, the modernisation, which from now “will be permanent and obligatory, as laid down in the General Tourism Law, because the most important thing is to improve the competitivity of the Balearics in all tourist sectors”, said the Balearic Minister for Tourism, Joan Flaquer. The hotels which have been closed during the past ten years, according to the Balearic Ministry of Tourism, have been adapted to whatever use the law allowed at the time. Most of them have become flats (110 establishments) and senior citizens residences (9).