Mallorca hoteliers fear new guest registration breaks EU law

This week's meeting in Palma. | Mallorca Hotel Federation

Humphrey CarterPalma18/09/2024 14:36Updated at 16:40
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The FEHM Mallorca hotel federation has requested that the central Government Delegation to the Balearics reviews and reformulates the entry into force of the Travellers’ Register before its entry into force scheduled for 1 October. The federation called for the review during a meeting held this week with the Government Delegate, Alfonso Rodríguez, which was also attended by the senior chief of the National Police, José Luís Santafé.

FEHM, in total alignment with CEHAT, the national hotel association of which it is a key member, “has been working to make the voice of the sector heard in the face of the regulation proposed by the Ministry of the Interior, which presents multiple problems both in its scope and in its application.
“The willingness of the hotel sector and its full collaboration is evident since we have been collecting traveller registration data for the state security forces for many years.

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“For us, security is one of the main attributes that we have as a tourist power and we want to continue to contribute to this strength. However, the Ministry of the Interior promoted a far-reaching change, without prior dialogue with the sectors affected, instead of working cooperatively and proactively.

“We are now faced with an imminent obligation that comes into force on 1 October and suffers from great difficulties of implementation because unofficial data is being demanded that is not available and the platform continues to fail. It is very worrying that repeated warnings of incompatibility with EU law are being ignored, that they persist in creating legal uncertainty, cause a huge administrative burden and the technological inadequacy of implementation is blatant.

“We demand the Ministry of Interior to review and reformulate the rule, in collaboration with the sectors involved and to suspend the entry into force until a consensual, viable and proportional solution is feasible,” the federation stated. According to a 2022 ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), collection of personal data of tourists must be restricted to what is strictly necessary.
CEHAT has claimed that the new Spanish regulations breached the court’s ruling.