The hoteliers have met to consider the process for electing a new president.

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The Majorca Hoteliers Federation met on Friday to discuss the process for replacing its executive president, Inma Benito, who will take her new post with Iberostar on 1 October.

The meeting agreed that Gabriel Llobera, the federation's first vice-president, should become the temporary president. The federation's statutes state that in the event of the president resigning, the first vice-president should take over. Llobera, also the president of the Playa de Muro hoteliers association, has already said that he will only take temporary charge. He will be supported, again on a temporary basis, by Maria José Aguiló. The manager of the Alcudia-Can Picafort association, she will assume this same role with the federation.

The federation will hold an election for the new president during the first half of December. The most likely approach will be a return to how the federation was managed before Benito became president. In other words, the president will be a hotelier, which Benito wasn't. The preference, it is understood, would be for this president to come from the ranks of the smaller hotel chains. This was typically the case before Aurelio Vázquez of Iberostar became president (Benito succeeded him).

Among challenges facing a new president will be the wage negotiations, which are due to begin over the winter. A further challenge is the apparent division in the federation. Benito has been able to paper over these cracks, but they look certain to surface and widen. Smaller hotel chains are not as well disposed to a high wage settlement with the unions as the larger chains are.