10/10/2013 00:00
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KING Juan Carlos presented Pere Antoni Serra, president of the Bulletin's publishing group, Grup Serra, with the Medal of Merit in Tourism, for his pioneering work in journalism aimed at tourism, which included the founding of the Majorca Daily Bulletin in 1962. Other winners included former Mayor of Calvia Margarita Nájera and Lorenzo Fluxá Figuerola of Viajes Iberia.
The presentation took place in Madrid, on the occasion of the centenary of the founding of the National Tourism Committee, which would eventually become the existing State tourism administration. It was the King's grandfather, Alfonso XIII, who signed the decree setting up a National Committee, to “promote in Spain artistic and recreational excursions” to encourage foreign visitors to come to Spain. Now, 100 years later, King Juan Carlos said, Spain is the second tourist power in the world, both for the number of visitors and for income.
In his speech, the King said that Spain and Spaniards owed a lot to the tourist sector, which he described as the “motor for the country's economic development and modernisation.” It had also, he added, converted Spain into a point of reference for the tourist sector on an international level.
Thanks to the benefits generated by tourism, “we have achieved substantial changes in our levels of income, health care, social welfare, education and culture,” the King said. He said that Spain owed a lot to tourism, because, among other things, “it has been one of the keys which opened the door to Europe.” For his part, José Montilla, the minister of industry, tourism and commerce, stressed the fact that collaboration between the public and private sectors had been “fundamental for the success of the Spanish tourist industry.”