Parliament’s tourism committee has approved a motion raised by the El Pi party for a study to be made into whether or not to apply a ceiling to the number of hire cars there are in the Balearics. The proposal, presented by Josep Meliá of El Pi, was accepted with the support of PSOE, Més and Podemos, with the Partido Popular and Ciudadanos opposing.

Under this motion, the government would be called on to look at the feasibility of establishing a maximum number of hire cars that can be marketed in the Balearics with criteria of the payment of taxes, such as registration, and of the car-hire agency being established in the Balearics. There would be a further study into the feasibility of a hire car having a tourist card similar to the transport card which ensures that a vehicle belongs to a company. The proposal was initially for these studies to be carried out within three months, but this stipulation was removed to enable for the general motion to be carried (with the exception of the PP and the C’s).

Meliá said that, although some might object to a ceiling, the fact is that “the hotel business, the essence of tourist activity in the Balearics” has a ceiling on the number of places. Alvaro Gijón for the PP responded by observing that the establishment of a ceiling would represent “a great risk (for) an activity that has been shown to be good for the Balearics". He suggested that instead “the ceiling would be put on the market”.

Of other issues considered by the committee, there was unanimous agreement for a PSOE motion in respect of compliance with conditions for inter-island flight public service obligations. This called on the national ministry for development to monitor “systematically and exhaustively” flight cancellations, frequencies, schedules and flight slots and to ensure that airlines honour their commitments.