Hoteliers deny Mallorca is a crowded destination

“We have, like any destination in the world, specific places where we do have a tourist influx due to the popularity of the place. But we have to send a message that it is not possible to generalise when we talk about overcrowding, because it is not the reality, it is categorically false,” he said. The tour operators, he said, have not expressed their concern about saturation, which, he insisted, is limited to “four, five or six areas that do have a large influx of tourists”.

A little earlier he had pointed out that this feeling of overcrowding is only perceived in “certain streets, not to say four streets in the city of Palma”, in the same way as when visiting the Eiffel Tower in Paris or Central Park in New York. “We cannot deny that,” he conceded, and proposed to solve these specific problems with “management” and the use of technologies, as is already being done in other tourist destinations.

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He admitted that there is a feeling of “fatigue” among hoteliers due to the fact that saturation has become part of the political debate. “It is important that with our main industry - which last year made 22.4 billion euros, he qualified - we are very cautious with messages that do not correspond to reality,” he insisted.

Vich was asked about the statements made on Tuesday by the Minister of Industry and Tourism, Jordi Hereu, in which he expressed his support for increasing the tourist tax (STT) during the high season and reducing it in the slower low season months.

“I was surprised because he said it modulates supply, it’s a concept I don’t understand. I suppose he was referring to demand, because increasing a tax does not modulate supply,” Vich said. He reiterated, as the FEHM has been doing in recent months, his rejection of a possible increase in the ITS. “It does not comply with what has been said, that it will have an impact on demand. It has been shown that this is not the case,” said Vich, who stressed that he has not discussed this matter with the tour operators.