The Fitur international tourism fair in Madrid opens on Wednesday. Ahead of it, the Exceltur Forum, now an established prelude to the fair, examined the need to make the tourism industry compatible with the social well-being of residents and with the conservation of urban and natural environments. And most of the interventions had a common denominator: uncontrolled tourist rentals as one of the main threats, if not the main one, to the sustainability of tourism.
With tourism having recovered from the pandemic, Spain registered a record year for tourism in 2023, the increase in tourist arrivals for the whole country in fact almost having matched the increase for the Balearics. However, the revival and growth have merely accentuated concerns about 'saturation' and a consequent social rejection of tourism. An issue at national level, it is an especially acute one in Mallorca and the Balearics.
At the forum, the CEO of Mallorca-based Meliá Hotels International, Gabriel Escarrer, insisted that growth for growth's sake is no longer the objective. There has to be greater commitment to maintaining empathy with the social and environmental environment. In his opinion, the greatest blame for problems of gentrification and saturation lies with "the uncontrolled growth of tourist rental housing".
The CEO of Jet2Holidays, Steve Heapy, offered a solution: "If governments were knocking door to door at Airbnb properties demanding licences and payment of fees and fining those who don't comply, the problem would end immediately."
Jorge Marichal, president of the CEHAT national confederation of hotel associations, observed that hoteliers have become the target of citizen discontent, when this has its roots elsewhere. "I feel imprisoned for a murder that I have not committed. Problems have arisen that are blamed on us but that are the fault of holiday rentals."
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And meanwhile they are still building unwanted/un needed hotels all over Mallorca. Of course this won't contribute to overcrowding (as the right people will get all the money from them)
The Hotel Groups don't want any tourist rentals at all period so they will continue with all there power which I must say is considerable to blame all the overcrowding problem´s on the rental places .
Also, when they talk about "uncontrolled tourist rentals" are they aware that (if a licence is even available) a rental licence for a 4 bedroom house in Mallorca now costs the landlord in excess of 20,000 Euros!
It's also worth pointing out that many (if not most) tourist lets are similarly priced or more expensive than your average all-inclusive hotel room (on a per-person basis). And the type of tourist attracted to private lets are generally the type that seek quality over quantity, and generally aren't the type that drinks and shags themselves into oblivion and engages in aggressive behaviour. So, if they're serious about "quality over quantity", supporting holiday lets might be a good place to start.
Sometimes, most times, I don't understand their so called logic. If people who own the properties lives there all the time, it's not saturated, but it is of used by BnB. It's just a sour comment from a hotell owner.
It's easy for the CEO of Melía hotels to say stop growing for growths sake. Sounds like something the pigs would tell the other animals in animal farm.
It’s interesting that the millionaire CEO of a giant hotel based holiday company is blaming private rentals. Motive anyone??? Just for clarification - in Mallorca holiday rentals are strictly regulated by the ETV system. Numbers are recorded on the Airbnb site and others, so the can be checked in minutes by government enforcers. Perhaps more to blame for ‘over tourism’ is the ‘pack em and rack em’ giant hotel complexes, or vile giant cruise ships - both dumping millions of all inclusive wrist band wearing lemming holiday makers, who use valuable resources including the island’s ever striking water reserves, pack the beaches and crowd the streets of towns, villages and Palma in summer - all spending just pennies locally!!!!! Hummmm … I’d like to see some numbers please Andrew. I suspect Mr Moneybags CEO protests too much.
What a surprise, the problems of tourist overcrowding are all down to illegal holiday lets says 88 year old Gabriel Escarrer, the man who almost single handedly brought mass tourism to these islands. Nothing about hotels from one side of the bay ( almost any bay) to the other. Nothing about cruise ships. No its those pesky lets stealing our clients that is the problem - sorry he forgot to say - that is my problem. We have heard it all before year after year. The market has been moving away from the hoteliers for years and they cannot keep up because too many people do not want to stay in tower block complexes with shuffling food lines at meal times. Don't be surprised if next they want to ban rental cars and bring back coach tours with the nice lady on the mike at the front - if you look to your left ladies and gentlemen you will see where we have decided you are going to eat .
Wow, who would have thought that the head of the hotels association and head of Melis hotels would blame tourist rentals for overcrowding and not hotels 🤷♂️ What next, the head of cruise ship tourism saying they are goodfor the environment 🤷♂️