At a Friday meeting with tourism industry representatives, President Armengol announced the government's intention to acquire one and two-star hotel establishments and hostels and convert them into residential accommodation.
This plan applies to resorts in Mallorca (plus Sant Antoni in Ibiza) that are considered to be "saturated" and "mature", with mature here referring to obsolescence. So they aren't just the resorts which typically seem to be the only ones of political interest, i.e. Magalluf and Playa de Palma; Cala Millor is included as is Calas de Mallorca.
The meeting was to discuss projects under the Spanish government's Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. European Next Generation funds will be allocated to this acquisition programme - 16 million euros.
Armengol said after the meeting that she has the support of the hoteliers and had emphasised to them that this was "not an announcement of expropriation". "It's quite the opposite. The government is willing to buy in these areas in order to create VPO protected housing and green spaces and reduce (tourist) saturation."
* The intention to acquire and convert low-star establishments was originally announced several months ago, the government having set ten million euros aside for the purpose. Hardly anything had been heard about it until now, except for a report in January which said that there hadn't been a single request to convert hotels.
However, this related to the 2022 tourism law, which included provision for conversion and stipulated that 50% of establishments would have to be social housing. The announcement of the ten million euros was something different in that it seemed to imply that the government would itself identify establishments.
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