At Wednesday's gathering for the social and political pact for the sustainability of the Balearic Islands, President Prohens observed that congestion is compromising tourism competitiveness and stated that the pact was an initiative that aims to unite the entire Balearic society in reformulating the tourism model.
The first meeting was to lay the foundations for a new tourism model for the islands in the face of existing "social unrest" and congestion. "The time has come to make difficult decisions and transform the economic model," said the president, who pointed out that "we are not an exception, just look at Madrid, London, Rome ... .". "Tourists are and always will be welcome, but we mustn't fool ourselves."
There have to be measures to reduce overcrowding, therefore. The tourism model until now has been based mainly on "volume and quantity" and been shown to be "incapable" of growing in "value or quality".
The transformation that the government intends will be designed in a fundamental way to improve the quality of life of the citizens of the Balearics. "Tourism has negative externalities that must be managed and minimised," she said. The president insisted that tourism "cannot continue to grow in volume". Growth will be through greater value, she having made clear in parliament on Tuesday that she never speaks about "decrease" in tourism as such.
Prohens said that the tourism model cannot be rethought every four years when there are elections. "We must sit down, listen to each other and reach consensus on the guidelines for our economic model." One of the first things the government will be doing is to conduct a huge survey of residents to get their opinions.
6 comments
To be able to write a comment, you have to be registered and logged in
Money rules the game.
The plain fact is the island cannot physically get any bigger so realistically there is a limit to how many more roads, hotels houses and apartment blocks can be built. Therefore if we are not going to accommodate more and more tourists the only option is to restrict their numbers, something StantheMan has touched on in his comment below. Selling tourism is like selling a luxury product. People don't need it but they want it. When a luxury product is popular and people perceive it is close to selling out then the demand goes up and often so does the price through resellers. There has to be a way of controlling the yearly input, probably broken down into monthly figures. X number of visitors per month, higher in the summer and lower in the winter to maintain a quality of living for the residents . Properly controlled that will eliminate the low cost low offer market and mean the quality offer will produce a reasonable return for the sellers. It could be done through flights but I suspect controlling foreign owned and run businesses may be difficult. Probably easier to control the offer locally through room numbers and usage. Finally this topic, touched on for years, is coming front and center and decisions must be made.
The key people to get on- side are the young workers and the stalwarts of communities, ladies of a certain age that weave the ‘fabric’ of community living that holds societies together. Both groups have been dreadfully ignored by successive governments. The young have been left without hope of either decent careers or homes of their own and are perhaps to be forgiven for lashing out at the ‘Tourism is God’ model that has largely left them behind. The resident communities have endured disgusting behaviour and disturbances late into the night by Airbnb party houses. Seeking their opinions and input in shaping THEIR island and their future is the right, first and necessary step.
Well this will be basically in real terms a Referendum and as with Brexit or any other Referendum it will lead to more instability and Caos the solution is and allways has been to many hotels or tourist let’s not flights people only come when they have a Bed , it’s very simple really !
Perhaps rationing the number of Aircraft per month. e.g. 5 full A/C per. week from Ryanair. 5 full A/C per week from Easyjet. And continue a rationing of the number of full Aircraft from each Country that brings Tourists to Mallorca. A form of rationing could be applied to any other sources that bring Tourists. This is just an idea.
They have recognised the problem so now they need to work on the necessary solutions.